Privacy Notice

Effective Date: June 2026

Community Research Ltd. is a market research and consultation agency registered in England and Wales (Company Number 6655192). Our registered office is:

c/o Berry Accountants
Bowden House
36 Northampton Road
Market Harborough
Leicestershire
LE16 9HE

We are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). Our registration number is Z1683197.

This Privacy Notice explains how we collect, use, store and protect personal information when you take part in our research activities, use our website or otherwise interact with us.

Our data protection lead

If you have any queries concerning this Privacy Notice, or would like to make a find out what, if any data we hold about you, please contact our Director who advises on Data Protection issues, Kate Waller:

Email: kate@communityresearch.co.uk

Our promise to you

We know how important it is to protect your privacy and keep any data you share with us securely. We take our responsibilities seriously and promise:

  • We will only collect data about you that is relevant and necessary

  • Your data will only be held on systems that meet compliance standards

  • Your data will only be accessed by those who need it, and we will minimise the amount of data that is processed, wherever possible

  • We won’t share or sell your data to any third party for marketing purposes

  • We respect your rights and will respond to all requests regarding your data promptly

  • We do not carry out automated decision-making or profiling

  • We maintain appropriate measures to protect personal information against unauthorised access, loss, misuse or disclosure. We hold Cyber Essentials Plus certification

How we collect your data and what we use it for

Depending on your journey with us we will collect and use your data in the following ways:

If you sign up for research…

Community Research Ltd. acts as a data controller for personal information collected directly from research participants. In some projects, we may act as a data processor on behalf of our clients. Where this is the case, personal data will be processed in accordance with our clients' instructions and applicable data protection laws.

Depending on the nature of the research project, we may collect the following information from you:

  • Name

  • Age and date of birth

  • Gender

  • Postal address

  • Email address

  • Telephone number

  • Occupation

  • Photographs, audio recordings and video recordings

  • Company name, job title and department (where relevant)

  • Opinions and responses provided during research activities

    • This many involve audio and video recording

  • Bank details for making payments

Some research projects may also involve the collection of special category data, such as information relating to health, ethnicity, religion or political opinions. Where this is necessary, we will only process such information with your explicit consent.

For online surveys and website use, we may also collect technical information such as:

  • IP address

  • Browser type

  • Device information

  • Screen size

  • Website usage information

If conducting research with children, we will always obtain a parent/guardian’s consent before speaking with a young person under 16 and collecting any of their personal information.

Community Research adheres to the Market Research Society Code of Conduct. Research findings are generally reported in anonymised or aggregated form and will not be attributed to research participants, unless you have given explicit consent. Remember your decision to provide and whether or not to share personal information is entirely voluntary.

All data collected for research purposes in securely stored on servers withing the United Kingdom and European Economic Area.

If you sign up to our newsletter…

We use Mailchimp for our newsletter. If you subscribe to this, we will use your contact details to send out an occasional newsletter. You may unsubscribe at any time using the link provided in our emails or by contacting us directly.

Mailchimp may process your information outside the United Kingdom or European Economic Area. Appropriate safeguards are in place to protect your personal data.

If you use our website – Cookies…

Cookies are text files placed on your computer to collect standard internet log information and visitor behaviour information. This information is used to track visitors’ use of the website and to compile statistical reports on website activity. These are the only cookies in use on our website. You can manage or ‘decline all’ cookies by clicking the button that pops up at the bottom of our website.

For further information on cookies generally, visit www.aboutcookies.org.  You can set your browser not to accept cookies and the ‘aboutcookies.org’ website tells you how to remove cookies from your browser.

Legal Basis for Processing your Data

For whichever reason we hold your data, it is only processed based on a defined legal basis:

  • Consent – to participate in a research project we require your explicit consent to collect and hold your personal data. We take consent very seriously and you will be asked to consent to the sharing of information at every stage of the research process.

  • Legitimate Interest – we may process personal data where it is necessary for the operation and improvement of our business, maintaining research panels, preventing fraud, provided that these interests do not override your rights and freedoms.

  • Legal Obligation – we may need to process some of your data for legal obligations.

Who we share your personal data with

We do not sell personal information or share it with third parties for their own marketing purposes. We may share information with trusted service providers who help us deliver our services, including:

  • Survey and community platforms

  • Cloud storage and IT services

  • Email distribution services

  • Video conferencing services

  • Data processing and transcription services

These organisations are required to process personal information only in accordance with our instructions and applicable data protection laws. Data is held on servers based in the United Kingdom or European Economic Area. Where personal information is transferred outside the United Kingdom or European Economic Area (i.e. Mailchimp), we ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place.

We may also disclose information where required to do so by law or where necessary to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

How long we will keep your personal data

We will only hold your personal information on our systems for the period necessary to fulfil the purposes outlined in this Privacy Notice or until you request it is deleted.

For research participants this means that we only retain your data in a way that can identify you for as long as is necessary to support the project and findings. In practice, this means that once we have satisfactorily reported the anonymous findings, we will securely remove your personal, identifying data from our systems. Typically, all personal data pertaining to research projects is removed from our systems within 12 months of collecting it. However, the retention period may be longer if you are taking part in an ongoing research panel. Our retention periods will be outlined in the consent process for individual research projects.

If you are signed up to one of our panels the accuracy of your information is important to us. If you change email address, or you are aware that any of the other information we hold is inaccurate or out of date, please email us at: info@communityresearch.co.uk.  You have the right to ask for a copy of the information Community Research holds about you.

Your choices and rights

Remember under UK data protection law, you have the right to:

  • Request access to your personal information.

  • Request correction of inaccurate information.

  • Request erasure of your information in certain circumstances.

  • Request restriction of processing.

  • Object to processing carried out on the basis of legitimate interests.

  • Request the transfer of information you have provided to us.

  • Withdraw consent where processing is based on consent.

  • Lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).

More information

You can find out more about all of your rights under The General Data Protection Regulation here: A guide to individual rights | ICO.

Queries and complaints

If you have any queries concerning this Privacy Notice, or would like to make a subject access request, please contact our Director who advises on Data Protection issues, Kate Waller (Kate@communityresearch.co.uk).

In the event that you wish to make a complaint about how your personal data is being processed by Community Research Ltd. (or third parties as described above), or how your complaint has been handled, you have the right to lodge a complaint directly with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).

Website: https://ico.org.uk/concerns

Telephone helpline: 0303 123 1113

Changes to our Privacy Notice

We may change this Privacy Notice from time to time. If we change the Privacy Notice, we will post the revised version here and change the “Effective Date” listed at the top of this page. We encourage you to check here periodically for the most up-to-date version of our Privacy Notice.