We were started by a Multiple Sclerosis patient, so we understand how important your Personal Data is and that it’s our responsibility to protect it. You can learn more about how we protect your data in our Privacy Notice.

This Site is owned and operated by Liberating Research Ltd (“company”, “us”, “we”); a company registered in England and Wales with company number 09761045. The registered offices are located at 20-22 Wenlock Rd, London, N1 7GU, United Kingdom. Liberating Research Ltd is registered with the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) with registration number ZA142323 and are members of The British Healthcare Business Intelligence Association. Please note this website contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v2.0 (including data from the Organisation Data Service, Health and Social Care Information Centre, licenced under the Open Government Licence v2.0).

These Terms and Conditions were last updated on: 18th August 2021

1. Acceptance of Terms and Conditions
   1. By accessing and using the Website (“www.liberatingresearch.com” or “www.liberatingsurveys.com”) or by becoming a registered member, you agree to be bound by these terms and conditions and these terms shall take effect immediately upon your first use of the Website. If you do not agree with these Terms and Conditions you should not use or access the Website.
   2. We may update these Terms and Conditions in the future. If this occurs, you will be notified within your account the next time you login or via email. If you do not agree with any changes you should cease using or accessing the Website immediately.
2. Membership
   1. In order to join the Liberating Research community, you must be at least 18 years old and must fulfil at least one of the following criteria:
      
      -Patients / Carers: You are a patient (diagnosed by a medical professional) and/or care for someone else with a medical condition. We reserve the right to verify the information you provide using the documents you upload or by contacting you to complete a phone-based eligibility assessment with one of our trained moderators. Patients and Carers are able to complete Activities as well as being able to submit content to the Condition Q&A and refer other users.
      -Doctors / Nurses: You are a qualified and registered physician or healthcare professional. Physicians/Healthcare professionals are able to complete Activities as well as being able to submit content to the Condition Q&A and refer other users.
      -Charities / Support Groups: You are a charity or support group. All registered organisations and charities can register under this user type. This allows you to create a profile on this website, so you can refer users and so users can select your organisation to donate their earnings to. Users within this category may also be invited to take part in surveys and research activities on a less regular basis.
      -Others / Everyone Else: Users who do not match the criteria specified for the other user types can sign up under the ‘Everyone Else’ category. All users registered within the ‘Everyone Else’ category can refer other users, so the referred users can earn money for themselves and raise money for charity. Users within this category may also be invited to take part in surveys and research activities on a less regular basis.
      
      For more information about how we use your data and how it’s protected please see our Privacy Notice.
   2. By joining the Liberating Research community, you agree to provide accurate and true information about yourself and your related condition/s (or the conditions of the people you care for or that you or your organisation treats or supports). This includes all information you provide as part of the registration process, Condition Q&A, research activities, surveys and any other information that you submit to Liberating Research in any medium. You also agree to keep all of your personal details up to date within the members’ area. In the event any of the information you have provided is incorrect, inaccurate or incomplete we reserve the right to suspend or terminate your account. In the event you are found to have submitted inaccurate information as part of a paid survey or research activity then, in addition to suspending or terminating your account, we reserve the right to cancel any or all incentives that are outstanding to you.
   3. Each member must have a maximum of one account and they must not permit any third party to access this account without the express written permission of Liberating Research Ltd. It is the user’s responsibility to ensure their login details and password are kept strictly private and are not shared with any third parties at any point. Duplicate accounts will be permanently closed and we reserve the right to cancel any outstanding incentives within these duplicate accounts. In the event of a dispute we may require proof of identity.
   4. You agree to notify us as soon as possible if you suspect there has been any unauthorised access to your account, or your account details have been compromised. In the event of a suspected breach we reserve the right to suspend your account until we are satisfied there is no further risk of unauthorised access.
   5. Members can opt out of Liberating Research notifications at any time or close their account from within the members’ area. You can read more about what happens if you decide to opt-out of notification or close your account within the ‘Your Notification Preferences’ and ‘Questions or Complaints?’ sections in our Privacy Notice.
3. Referrals
   1. All user types can refer other users so the referred users can earn money and raise money for charity. You will find your personal referral link within the ‘Refer a Friend’ section in your account (or within the ‘Fundraising Page’ section for Charities/Support Groups). You can share this with anyone you think might be interested in taking part so they can register their interest with us.
   2. For certain Activities Liberating Research may also get in touch with you directly to see if you are interested in referring specific patients in return for a referral fee (the referral fee amount will be set for that Activities at the sole discretion of Liberating Research and will only be paid for new, eligible users who register via your referral link or specify they were referred by you, after they successfully complete the related Activities ).
   3. We will only accept referral contact details directly from you (instead of the referred user submitting their details to us directly) in exceptional circumstances. This will only be permitted if we have previously agreed a method that ensures you pass their information to us with their consent and in a way that is compliant with our Privacy Notice, or if we are satisfied they have specifically agreed for you to pass their information onto us and for us to contact them about participation in Our Activities. Please note that your referrals may contact us at privacy@liberatingresearch.com to request that we remove their information from our database like any other person.
4. Payments and Donations
   1. The amount of incentive (or “incentive payments” / “incentives”) offered for participation in a Liberating Research Activity will be notified to Members via official Liberating Research communications and will always be made clear before the start of a study. The method of payment and percentage of their incentive payments that the member would like to donate to charity (and the related charity) can be changed each time you take part in a study.
   2. If you fail to correctly follow any required instructions during a paid survey/research activity or you provide incorrect, inaccurate or incomplete information then we reserve the right to withhold your incentive payment (and you will have no recourse against Liberating Research Ltd in this instance).
   3. On successful completion of a survey a confirmation screen will be shown to you at which point the survey will be deemed complete.
   4. If a Member is terminated from a survey or research activity during the initial screening stage (i.e. they do not meet the eligibility requirements for participation that are checked at the beginning) they will be informed of this and will not be allowed to proceed with the survey or research activity. No incentive payment will be paid when this occurs.
   5. If a Member doesn’t fully complete the survey or research activity before it closes, then no incentive payment will be made. All surveys and research activities are open on a first come, first served basis, so as soon as the required quotas are reached the survey will close automatically. As a result, we recommend users complete surveys in one sitting to reduce the likelihood of this occurring.
   6. By registering with Liberating Research, you agree to donate at least 10% of your incentive payments to any of the Charities or Support Organisations that are registered with Liberating Research. You can update your nominated charity in the members’ area at any time and you will always be prompted to confirm how much of your incentive payment you would like to donate (and how you would like to be paid) before receiving payment for completing a study.
   7. We transfer your donations to the Charities and Support Organisations once a quarter on your behalf, once the related project is closed and once the charity/organisation has reached the minimum earnings threshold (100 GBP / 100 USD / 100 EUR or an equivalent to the GBP amount in other currencies). Your donation will only be made provided you have completed all requirements for that study and the study has been closed for at least 4 weeks prior to the payment date (otherwise the donation will be made the following quarter). In certain instances, we may pay donations to charities earlier than specified or before the organisation has met the minimum threshold at our sole discretion. If you have provided incorrect, incomplete or inaccurate data as part of the related survey/research activity, we reserve the right to withhold your payment and associated donation as specified in 4.2.
   8. All incentive payments and referral fees are paid to you as described in the ‘Your Payment Information’ section of our Privacy Notice (you can specify which payment method you prefer within the members area at any time and will be prompted to confirm this after you take part in a study, prior to payment). You will receive all related payments between 1 – 3 weeks after the payment was claimed (or occasionally earlier than this at our sole discretion). A study incentive is ‘claimed’ when you complete the related study and you confirm how you would like to be paid and the correct payment details, as well as your preferred charity and donation percentage if applicable. A referral incentive is ‘claimed’ when the referred user successfully completes the related study, the related study has closed and you have confirmed how you would like to be paid and the correct payment details, as well as your preferred charity and donation percentage if applicable.
   9. It is your responsibility to ensure your payment details are correct and up to date. In the event an incentive payment is sent to the wrong place (for example it’s sent to the wrong bank account or an Amazon voucher is emailed to the wrong address) we will endeavour to have this returned (and if we are successful this will be transferred to you minus any fees). However, this is not guaranteed and we offer no compensation if this occurs due to you providing incorrect payment information and accept no liability if the payment cannot be recovered.
   10. Any surveys, research activities, competitions or prizes, that include the transfer of additional Personal Data that is not covered by our Privacy Notice (either as part of a survey or research activity, or in any other capacity) will have their own terms and conditions or consent agreement which will need to be agreed to separately in advance of participation.
   11. We reserve the right to change the available surveys, research activities and referrals that users can earn incentives from and vary the incentive levels and referral fees at any time with no prior warning (excluding surveys or research activities that have already been started, which will always pay the incentive or referral fee that was presented to the user prior to their commencement).
   12. Incentive payments can’t be transferred to other member accounts and cannot be paid to members via any method other than those specified within the ‘Your Payment Information’ section of our Privacy Notice (or as specified for the survey in question).
   13. Your Activity incentive will be held on account until it is claimed or for a maximum of six (6) months following the completion of your participation in an Activity. Referral incentives will be held on account until claimed or for a maximum of six (6) months following the Activity closing. We will contact you to request your payment information once you complete a study. If you have not received an incentive payment within the timeframe noted in Section 4.8 of this document, it is your responsibility to contact us at the contact points noted in Section 15 of this document in order to resolve the missing payment issue. A reminder will be sent to you before the end of the six (6)-month period if you have not responded to the initial request for your payment information. At the end of the six (6) months, if you have not claimed your incentive, we will donate 10% of the study incentive to a registered charity of our choice and will retain the balance as an administration fee.
   14. We reserve the right to terminate any membership account that has not been accessed or used in any significant way for a period of at least 120 days. This includes accounts that have not completed a survey or research activity or asked or answered questions in the Condition Q&A during this period. In this event we will attempt to contact you using the email address or phone number associated with your account. If we are unable to contact you and your account remains inactive then your account may be terminated.
5. Intellectual Property
   1. Except as may be explicitly stated, all intellectual property on the Website or any of its content including but not limited to all copyright, trademarks and names, service marks, text, graphics, branding, themes and website design are the property of or licensed to the owners of the Website or are otherwise used lawfully and with authority.
   2. You agree and acknowledge that in accessing the Website you do so only for your own personal use and benefit and that, except where expressly permitted, none of the content contained on the Website may be downloaded, copied, reverse engineered, sold, broadcast, distributed or used for any commercial purpose. You may however download and copy content from the Website for your own personal and non-commercial use (where this use is not otherwise specifically excluded).
6. Confidential Information
   1. You undertake to treat as strictly private and confidential all information you access or receive from us whether from our website or otherwise relating to any Activity in which we are involved and not to disclose such information to any other person or use it yourself except as authorised or permitted by us in writing.
      
      This obligation shall continue without limit of time but shall not apply to any information which you are required to disclose by law or any regulatory authority or which otherwise than by reason of any breach of this provision shall be available to the public generally without significant cost or effort.
7. Content and Contributions
   1. We may from time to time change or remove any part of the Website or its content or any part thereof without prior notice and no liability is accepted for any such changes.
   2. None of the content of the Website is advice or a recommendation, medical or otherwise, and may not be relied upon by you in making or reaching any judgment, decision or conclusion.
   3. Where the Website or other methods provided by Liberating Research Ltd permits you or any other user to contribute content in any form (“User Generated Content”), including but not limited information you submit via our website, questions and answers in the Condition Q&A. recommendations, condition and medication history and any other information you have submitted, the following shall apply:
      
      - User Generated Content may be displayed publicly on the website (such as user recommendations and Condition questions and answers) or elsewhere, however this is shown in aggregated form and we shall not create any material for display containing identifiable Personal Data of yours without your express written consent.
      - We reserve the right to control User Generated Content which appears publicly on the Website and may remove without prior notice any User Generated Content which, at our sole discretion, appears to us to be unfit or inappropriate for any reason.
      - While we will use reasonable and proportionate endeavours to monitor User Generated Content we accept no responsibility whatsoever for such material and for any distress, injury or damage which it may cause.
      - You grant Liberating Research Ltd a non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual and irrevocable right to use, distribute, reproduce, publish, translate, sell and create works from and display anonymised User Generated Content in any form and / or to incorporate it in other works in any form, media or technology. Please see our Privacy Notice for more information on how we protect your data.
8. Links to Third Party Websites and Resources
   1. The Website may contain links or references to external websites or resources which are owned, controlled or hosted by third parties. Any such linking or reference does not constitute an endorsement of, claim to ownership over or assumption of responsibility for any of the content of these external websites or resources by the Website or the owners of the Website. We accept no liability over the use of any external website or resource linked to from our website. Each such website will have its own privacy policy for which we are not responsible and which you should check yourself.
9. Disclaimers and Liability
   1. Whilst we operate the highest level of security for all data (and most survey results are stored independently of any Personal Data), we make no guarantee or warranty of any kind, whether express or implied as regard to any of the following:
      -The uninterrupted or stable availability, accessibility of the Website or any of its content.
      -The suitability or compatibility of the Website or any of its content with any computer system, software or information storage or retrieval system.
      -The security of the Website or its content, or of any information which you submit to the website.
      -The absence of virus or malicious software or machine readable code anywhere on the Website or in its content.
   2. We disclaim absolutely and to the fullest extent permitted by law any and all liability for all loss or damage of any kind which may be caused by using or accessing the Website, its content or by taking part in surveys or research activities or making use of our services, howsoever caused.
   3. Nothing in these terms or conditions shall be construed or interpreted as to exclude or limit liability for our breach of Data Protection legislation or regulations or for death or personal injury which results from the negligence of the owners of the Website or any of their agents or employees.
10. Indemnification
    1. You hereby agree to indemnify and keep indemnified Liberating Research Ltd (including any assignees or successors and any of their directors, shareholders, employees or representatives) to the fullest extent permitted by law, against any loss, damage or liability (including legal fees) which results in any way from your use of the Website  or as a result of a breach by you of this agreement or failure to abide by any of its terms including any use or breach by anyone accessing your membership account, whether with your authority or not.
11. Healthcare Payment Disclosure requirements
    1. You acknowledge and agree that Liberating Research may be required by applicable law and regulation to disclose the existence of rewards redeemed, the terms of this redemption including financial terms, and the subject matter associated with each payment.
    2. In some instances, we may be required to share your Personal Data (e.g. your name, address, specialty/role (if a Healthcare Professional)), we may share this information in aggregate (if a Patient or Carer), or we may need to share limited identifiable information such as your organisation name if you are a Patient Support Organisation. By participating in Our Activities, you are consenting to the sharing of this information as required per applicable law and regulation.
    3. Our reward program is administered in accordance all applicable law and practices. Under these regulations, certain payments may be subject to reporting to the respective bodies, who will make the details available for public viewing on its website. To learn more, please contact us at:
        

       Liberating Research Privacy Team
       Unit 208 Warwick Works
       Downs Road
       London E5 8QJ UK
       privacy@liberatingresearch.com
       +44 (0) 207 249 4461

12. Adverse Event Reporting Requirements:
    1. You acknowledge and agree that Liberating Research may be required by applicable laws and regulations to follow-up with you if you mention an Adverse Event in the course of your participation in a specific Activity. We are committed to supporting our clients and the pharmaceutical manufacturers and medical device companies who sponsor such research engagements in responding to requests for follow-up on Adverse Events within the timeframe required the regulations which govern such matters.
    2. By participating in our community, you are agreeing to be contacted via phone and/or email outreach by members of our team in order to follow-up for additional details in regard to the Adverse Events referred to by you within a survey or research activity.
    3. You do have the right to refuse to provide additional details in regard to the Adverse Event including any Personal Data; however, a refusal does not override the requirement for us to report on the Adverse Event mention to our clients and the pharmaceutical manufacturers who have sponsored the research engagement. In case of a refusal, your Personal Data will not be released as part of the reporting process.
14. Communications from the Site:
    1. Study Notifications: By registering you are agreeing to be notified about Activities that are relevant to you, based on the information you have provided. The frequency of these is dependent on the information you have entered, your location and the Activities that are currently available.
    2. Service Notifications: We will send you service-related announcements, which are not promotional in nature, on occasions when it is necessary to do  so.
    3. Customer Service: Based upon the information you provide us, we will communicate with you in response to your enquiries, to provide the services  you request, to fulfil payment requests, and to manage your account.
    4. Newsletters and Informational Emails: We will send you newsletters and informational emails approximately once per month or less frequently, if you have opted-in to this communication method.
14. Jurisdiction and Severability
    1. All clauses, sub clauses and parts thereof shall be severable and shall be read and construed independently. Should any part of these terms and conditions be found invalid this will not affect the validity or enforceability of any other provision or of these terms and conditions as a whole.
    2. These Terms and Conditions shall be construed and interpreted in accordance with English law and shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.
15. Contacting Us
    1. If you have comments or questions about these Terms and Conditions, please contact:
        

       Liberating Research Privacy Team
       Unit 208 Warwick Works
       Downs Road
       London E5 8QJ UK
       privacy@liberatingresearch.com
       +44 (0) 207 249 4461

We conduct market research and research related activities, including recruiting participants on behalf of clients to take part in their projects (Our Activities) with Patients, Carers, Healthcare Professionals (HCPs) and Others across the world to allow them to get their opinions heard, earn money and raise money for charity. Patients, Carers, HCPs and Others can register with us, so we can notify you about Our Activities to see if you’d like to take part and to allow you to refer other users or support organisations. Charities and support organisations can also register with us to receive donations from our users and to refer other users to the community.

This Privacy Notice describes how Liberating Research Ltd (“company”, “us”, “we”) protects and makes use of the information you provide when you use liberatingresearch.com or liberatingsurveys.com or interact with us, how you can control the Personal Data we hold about you and information about third parties with whom your Personal Data may be shared.

If you have any questions about this policy, please get in touch, we’d be happy to answer any questions you may have.

You can also read more about what you agree to when using this Site within our Terms and Conditions.

This Notice may be updated from time to time. The latest version is published on this page and we recommend that you check back regularly to keep updated on any changes. If you are registered user of this site, you will receive notifications of updates to this Privacy Notice when you log into your account or via email.

This Privacy Notice was last updated on: 18th August 2021

What Data We Collect

From Registered Users

We gather information from you during registration and through changes you make in your online account, in order to contact you about Our Activities that may be relevant to you. You choose which Activities you want to take part in and when. You are under no obligation to take part in any studies we offer and can opt out or close your account at any time.

We collect the following information:

• Contact information, such as name, email address, location and phone number
• Demographic information, such as date of birth, preferences, race, gender, and interests
• Information about your condition/s and related medication/s, or the condition/s you care for or treat/support
• Payment information, such as bank details to send your payments or donations to, or the email address where we send your payment voucher
• Organisational Information (for charities, support groups and other organisations)
• Details about your specialty and the Practice or Hospital that you work in (for Doctors, Nurses and HCPs)
• Other information relevant to client enquiries
• Other information pertaining to special offers and Our Activities
• Questions, answers, recommendations and suggestions relating to conditions, medications or other associated content
• Technical information about where you are connecting from (such as your IP address, browser fingerprint and device/machine fingerprint). This information is not always collected but when it is, it is only collected and used for the purposes of fraud and duplicate account detection.

From All Site Users

We collect and store on an anonymous basis Site usage data in order to better understand how visitors use this Site and to present timely, relevant information to them. This includes the pages visited and for how long and other similar information. Please see the Cookies and How We Use Them section below for more information.

From Users Taking Part in Our Activities:

General Information

When we notify you about a relevant Activity, we will provide details of the Activity and what is involved, the amount you will be paid, the purpose of the Activity and, where possible, who it is being conducted by. You can then decide if you would like to participate if you are eligible to do so.

In many cases the research will be anonymous (such as most online surveys); however if additional Personal Data is being provided as part of the study (such as a telephone or face to face interview) and it is being shared with third parties not specified in this Privacy Notice then we will ask you to separately consent via a consent form or verbal consent agreement (“Consent Agreements”) to that specific use before taking part in the study. This ensures you are in control of your data at all times and you decide what information to share and what to retain. You are under no obligation to take part in any studies at any time.

Consent Agreements

The Consent Agreements you are presented with may be developed directly by us or independently by third parties involved in Our Activities. Any of our Consent Agreements you agree to may be shared with our Client or Clients who are conducting the research and may be stored by Liberating Research for up to 15 years for audit purposes.

Depending on the study, the research sponsor may or may not be identified before your participation in the interview. Where required, the Consent Agreements will explain why and if identification will be delayed until the end of the interview or withheld entirely.

If you ever have a question or concern about any Consent Agreements you are presented with by our team, please contact the Liberating Research team member who you are working with on the specific project for assistance. 

Sharing Your Data With Our Clients / Moderators / View Facilities / Other Interview Locations:

Depending on the type of Our Activities in which you agree to participate, we may be required to transfer some of your Personal Data, including your name, phone number(s), home address and email address (“Contact Details”), to our Clients and their representatives (e.g. moderators, videographers, photographers) and to our moderators (including freelancers, independent contractors, sole traders/proprietors and third party research organisations/consultancies who are conducting or assisting with Our Activities) for the purpose of contacting you for your interview or activity, attending a research project which will be held at your home or to provide you with access to a third party platform (e.g. bulletin boards, web conferencing, mobile app) that will be used during Our Activities.  

Depending on the type of Our Activities in which you agree to participate, we may be required to transfer your Contact Details, to the Viewing Facility/Interview Location where the activity is taking place for the purpose of tracking your attendance on the day of the research and validating your identity once you arrive at the Viewing Facility/Interview Location.

We may also share with our Clients and their representatives (e.g. moderators, study sponsors) and  our moderators (including freelancers, independent contractors, sole traders/proprietors and third party research organisations/consultancies who are conducting or assisting with Our Activities) the anonymised pre-interview (screening) responses you provide to us for a specific activity.  The purpose of this sharing is to allow our Clients and their representatives to review your eligibility to participate in the associated activity. 

Your Contact Details will be kept secure at all times and our Clients and their representatives, our moderators and the Viewing Facilities / Interview Locations will be obliged to apply the same levels of protection as we apply to the Contact Details you provide to us.  

Please note that some of our Clients and their representatives and our moderators may be based or have offices located outside of the UK and the EEA. Although our Clients and their representatives and our moderators have put measures in place to protect the information shared with them, there are possible risks related to the transfer of data outside of the UK and the EEA in the absence of an adequacy decision by the Information Commissioners Office and/or the European Commission. If you would like more information about where the client and their representatives or our moderators are based for any of Our Activities that you are participating in, please contact the Liberating Research team member who you are working with on the specific project for assistance.

Our Clients and their representatives, our moderators and the Viewing Facilities / Interview Locations are instructed to delete the Contact Details shared with them immediately following completion of the project or as specified in the Consent Agreements for the related project.

If it is necessary, and permittable per the applicable industry guidelines and Codes of Conduct,  for the research sponsor, who may or may not be based in the United Kingdom or EEA, to have access to any of your Contact Details, it will be for the same purposes as noted above which apply to our Clients. The research sponsor will be required to adhere to the same guidelines regarding the security, processing, and retention of your data as our Clients.

By agreeing to participate in Our Activities, you are consenting to the sharing of your Contact Details with our Clients, our Clients’ representatives, our moderators, Viewing Facilities/Interview Locations and the research sponsor for the purposes as outlined in this Privacy Notice. If you do not wish for your Contact Details to be shared for these purposes or have any questions regarding this use of your Contact Details, please contact our Privacy Team at privacy@liberatingresearch.com for further assistance.

Standard Procedures

When you participate in one of Our Activities, we recommend that you do not mention any identifiable information (such as your full name or contact details) during Our Activities or in any documents associated with Our Activities (e.g. online diaries, pre-interview homework, video/audio recordings, etc.) to ensure your anonymity.

If you are required to share photos, audio recordings or videos as part of the Our Activities, we recommend that you do not upload any identifiable images, audio or videos of other people when submitting these files. If you do include images or voices of other people in your submissions, we assume that you have collected the proper permissions from these individuals to share this Personal Data with us, our Clients and their representatives for the purposes as outlined in the Consent Agreements for the specific project.

If you are taking part in a phone, video or online interview/session/group or a similar Activity, you may be asked to connect to an online platform (including but not limited to Civicom, FocusVision, Adobe Connect, WebEx, Mikogo, Microsoft Teams, join.me, GoToMeeting, Zoom) in order to view some project materials during the interview, to perform the required Activities and/or to connect to the audio or video where applicable. We recommend that you only enter your first name and that you only enter the minimum amount of personal information and/or Contact Details that are required in order to access the platform; however, these platforms will ensure that any information you provide to them will be held securely. For more information about how they protect your rights please refer to the Privacy Notice for the relevant platform (this can usually be found at the bottom of the home page on their website, if you would like us to send you a link to it at any point or have any questions then please let your project manager know).

How We Use This Data

Collecting this data allows us to offer you Our Activities that are relevant to you and to pay you for taking part or, in the case of charities and support organisations, to allow our users to select you for their donation and to send the associated donations to your organisation.

Specifically, we may use this data:

• To contact you about Our Activities that may be suited to you (or other users you could refer), based on the data you have entered
• To telephone you in order to conduct a phone-based eligibility assessment with one of our trained moderators
• To contact you in response to a specific enquiry or about a specific study that you are involved in
• To customise the Site for you (including development updates managed by third party consultants who may be located outside of the EEA. Your Personal Data will be kept secure at all times and our consultants will be held to the same levels of protection as we apply to the Personal Data you provide to us).
• To send you payments or donations following the successful completion of a study and to notify you about these payments or donations
• To improve the products and services we provide
• To send you newsletters or other emails about products, services, offers and other things we think might be relevant to you, if you have opted-in to this type of communication
• In the case of Health Care Professionals; to contact you at the practice or hospital you have specified in order to verify your status
• In the case of Activities that you have agreed to participate in that involve our clients or moderators contacting you directly (such as telephone or face to face interviews), to provide our client or moderator with your contact details, exclusively for the purposes of contacting you for the related study.
• We may share with clients, vendors, suppliers, charities or other business contacts, in anonymised and aggregated form, information supplied by members of the Liberating Research community.

We shall not process your Personal Data in a way that is incompatible with the purposes for which it has been collected or subsequently authorised by you.

Our lawful bases for the processing of your Personal Data are:  1) your consent and/or 2) any other applicable legal bases, such as our legitimate interest in offering Our Activities and referral capabilities to Patients, Carers and others.

Your Notification Preferences

By registering for an account with the Liberating Research community, you agree to be notified by email, phone or SMS about Our Activities that may be relevant to you or the users you know, support or treat, based on the information you have provided.

You can change your notification preferences at any time on your Notifications page. You can access your Notifications page by logging into your online account or you can delete your account at any time using the ‘Delete Your Account’ option within your account.

Your Payment Information

By completing Our Activities (or by registering as a charity or support organisation), you will earn incentives or donations as noted in the ‘Payments and Donations’ section of our Terms and Conditions.

You can choose to be paid via Amazon voucher, bank transfer or to donate your entire incentive to one of our registered charities (the available payment options may vary depending on your location or if dictated by our client for a specific project).  In the case of charities and support organisations you will be paid by bank transfer (or in occasional circumstances via direct card payment on your website).

Depending on the payment method/reward chosen by you, your contact and, if relevant, bank details or other payment information may be transferred to one or more of the following reward fulfilment partners (or their subsidiaries) to enable them to perform the payment on behalf of Liberating Research. Your data is protected by these companies in line with their Privacy Notices (which are linked to below). Please note these third parties may be based outside of your home country.

Reward Fulfilment Companies
Amazon Inc (www.amazon.com/privacy)
PayPal (Europe) S.à r.l. et Cie, S.C.A.(www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/ua/privacy-full)
Metro Bank PLC (www.metrobankonline.co.uk/privacy)
TransferWise Ltd (www.transferwise.com/privacy-policy)
Carrefour France (www.carrefour.fr/articles/politique-generale-protection-donnees-personnelles)
Carrefour Spain (www.carrefour.es/politica-de-privacidad/mas-info/)
Carrefour Italy (www.carrefour.it/privacy.html)
Rewe (www.rewe.de/service/datenschutz/)

We may update this list in the future in order to offer alternative or additional payment methods or to replace existing providers with more effective ones. If this occurs, it will be updated in this Privacy Notice and you will be notified within your account the next time you login. Occasionally other reward fulfilment partners that are not listed in this privacy notice may be used for specific projects where required for a specific project (in which case this will be confirmed to you in advance of your participation).

Other Uses of your Data

We may disclose your Personal Data for other purposes or to other third parties when you have consented to or requested such disclosure or under the following circumstances:

• We respond to witness summons, court orders, or legal process, or to establish or exercise our legal rights or defend against legal claims;
• We believe it is necessary to share information in order to investigate or prevent fraud, or to take action regarding illegal activities, situations involving potential threats to the physical safety of any person, or as otherwise required by law.
• We transfer information about you if Liberating Research Ltd is acquired by or merged with another company. In this event, we will notify you before information about you is transferred and becomes subject to a different privacy notice.
• Where we are required to do so in relation to the Healthcare Payment Disclosure requirements (please see this section in our Terms and Conditions for more information)

Where We Store Your Data

Your data may be stored / processed on servers in the EU, UK, and occasionally in the United States or other countries, that are operated or managed by third party companies in the course of doing business. At all times, the data will be encrypted or otherwise suitably protected whether in transit or at rest.

These companies / servers are exclusively used by us for data storage / email hosting / accountancy and other internal business processes and your Personal Data is never shared with these companies for the purposes of promotion or advertising. For example, we use Microsoft Corporation to host and run our Email system (using European servers) and we use Egnyte Inc’s servers in Europe to host most of our files. Your data is protected by these companies in line with their Privacy Notices. Please note these third parties may be based outside of your home country.

Where your data is stored outside the United Kingdom or the EEA we only transfer it to countries that have been identified as providing adequate protection for UK or EEA data or to third parties who have approved transfer mechanisms in place to protect your personal data (e.g. by entering into Standard Contractual Clauses) in order to ensure they comply with the UK GDPR/2018 Data Protection Act, the EU GDPR and other relevant data protection regulations.

How Long We Store Your Data

We retain the Personal Data of registered users within our system for as long as you are registered with us. To see the data retention policies for any Personal Data you have submitted as part of one of Our Activities please check the consent form you agreed to for the specific study or get in touch with us for more information.

Your Rights

You are entitled to view, amend, or delete the Personal Data that we hold. If you are a registered member then you can login to your online account at any time and access or update your information, remove your account, or change your notification preferences. If you have taken part in any of Our Activities, then any Personal Data you submitted as part of those activities will be retained in accordance with the associated Consent Agreement to which you agreed.

You can opt-out of Liberating Research non-essential notifications at any time or close your account from within the Members’ area. If you choose to close your account then all of your Personal Data will be permanently deleted from our system except where we have a legal obligation to retain it or if it has been submitted under a separate consent agreement for a particular study. If there are any outstanding payments associated with the account then your banking or other relevant payment details will be retained until the outstanding payments have been made. Please note that you may continue to receive some previously prepared survey invitations/notifications for a few days following the termination of your account.

If you close your account, the answers to any of Our Activities, Condition Q&A questions/answers or any other information you have submitted to Liberating Research Ltd in any form may be retained in anonymous form with no associated Personal Data attached to these records or for the timeframes defined by the Consent Agreements for that study. If you would like to withdraw consent, restrict processing, or request deletion of this information as part of the closure of your account, please alert us to this fact when submit your request to close your account. Please note that if you delete your account then we will no longer be able to identify all of the Activities that you have taken part in centrally, as you will no longer have an account associated with all of your Activities. In the event you wish to withdraw your consent or enact any of your rights with regard to specific Activities you have participated in, after you delete your account, you will need to use the contact details listed in the related consent agreement to enact any associated rights (or else please contact our Privacy Team with details of the specific Consent Agreement/s and the rights you would like to enact).

Any Personal Data that you have provided as part of Our Activities will be protected and stored under the terms of the Consent Agreements for that activity. Please refer to the related Consent Agreements or get in touch if you would like further information about Personal Data you have submitted as part of any specific activity or would like to withdraw your consent for the processing of your Personal Data for a specific activity.

If we have sent payments to you for taking part Our Activities, or for any other reason, then your name, address and payment details will be retained for 7 years for tax and legal purposes, following the deletion of your data.

You can email any related requests to our Privacy Team at privacy@liberatingresearch.com and we will get back to you upon receipt of your outreach.

Access, Rectification and Erasure.

You have the right to obtain confirmation about whether and what Personal Data is included about you in our databases. Upon request, we will provide you with access to all your Personal Data held by us within the time frame dictated by the applicable data protection regulations.

We will permit you to know what Personal Data about you is included in our databases and to ensure that such Personal Data is accurate and relevant for the purposes for which we collected the Personal Data.

You may review your Personal Data stored in our databases and correct, update, modify, or delete any data that is incorrect or incomplete.

Your right to access your Personal Data may be restricted in exceptional circumstances, including, but not limited to, when the burden or expense of providing this access would be disproportionate to the risks to your privacy in the case in question, or where the rights of persons other than you would be violated by the provision of such access. If we determine that your access should be restricted in a particular instance, we will provide you with an explanation of our determination and respond to any enquiries you may have.

You may access your Personal Data by contacting us by phone, post or email at the contact information below. In making modifications to your Personal Data, you must provide only truthful, complete, and accurate information. 

Liberating Research Privacy Team
Unit 208 Warwick Works
Downs Road
London E5 8QJ UK
privacy@liberatingresearch.com
+44 (0) 207 249 4461

Restriction of Processing

You may restrict processing of your Personal Data for certain reasons or object to it being used for a specific purpose, such as, for example if you consider your Personal Data collected by us to be inaccurate or you have objected to the processing and the existence of legitimate grounds for processing is still under consideration.

Data Portability

You may request the Personal Data you provided to us in a commonly used and machine-readable form.

Right to Withdraw Consent

Subject to the provisions of this privacy notice you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of our processing based on such consent before it was withdrawn, including processing related to existing contracts for our Services.

Requests for Personal Data

We will track each of the following and will provide notice to the appropriate parties under law and contract when either of the following circumstances arise: (a) legally binding request for disclosure of the Personal Data by a law enforcement authority unless prohibited by law or regulation; or (b) requests received from the Data Subject.

Cookies and How We Use Them

What is a cookie?

A cookie is a small file placed on your computer's hard drive. It enables our website to identify your computer as you view different pages on our website.

Cookies allow websites and applications to store your preferences in order to present content, options or functions that are specific to you. They also enable us to see information like how many people use the website and what pages they tend to visit.

How we use cookies

We may use cookies to:

• Analyse our web traffic anonymously using Google Analytics. Anonymised usage data helps us improve the website structure, design, content and functions.
• Identify whether you are signed in to our website. A cookie allows us to check whether you are signed into the site.
• Test content on our website. For example, 50% of our users might see one piece of content, the other 50% a different piece of content.
• To recognise when you register, apply for a study or perform another action on our website as a result of an advert on Facebook, Google, Twitter or another advertising platform We may use Facebook, Google, Twitter or another advertising partner’s tracking cookies on our survey information pages. We do not supply any Personal Data to these companies about you and this is only for the purposes of tracking the conversions.

Cookies do not provide us with access to your computer or any information about you, other than that which you choose to share with us.

Controlling cookies

You can use your web browser’s cookie settings to determine how our website uses cookies. If you do not want our website to store cookies on your computer or device, you should set your web browser to refuse cookies.

However, please note that doing this may affect how our website functions. Some pages and services may become unavailable to you.

Unless you have changed your browser to refuse cookies, our website will issue cookies when you visit it.

To learn more about cookies and how they are used, visit All About Cookies.

Security

We have implemented physical and technical safeguards to protect your Personal Data from loss, misuse, and unauthorised access, disclosure, alternation, or destruction. For example, electronically stored Personal Data is stored on a secure network with firewall protection, and access to our electronic information systems requires user authentication via password or similar means.

We also employ access restrictions, limiting the scope of employees who have access to Personal Data.  Our personnel may access and use Personal Data only if they are authorised to do so and only for the purpose for which they are authorised.

Further, we use secure encryption technology to protect certain categories of Personal Data.

Despite these precautions, no data security safeguards guarantee 100% security all of the time.

Questions or Complaints?

You may contact us with questions, concerns, or complaints concerning our privacy practices or this Privacy Notice at the following contact points:

Liberating Research Privacy Team
Unit 208 Warwick Works
Downs Road
London E5 8QJ UK
privacy@liberatingresearch.com
+44 (0) 207 249 4461

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) - European Representative
Pursuant to Article 27 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Liberating Research Ltd. has appointed European Data Protection Office (EDPO) as its GDPR representative in the EU. You can contact EDPO regarding matters pertaining to the GDPR:

• by using EDPO’s online request form: https://edpo.com/gdpr-data-request/
• by writing to EDPO at Avenue Huart Hamoir 71, 1030 Brussels, Belgium

Company Information

This website is owned and operated by Liberating Research Ltd (“company”, “us”, “we”) which is the Data Controller in relation to information supplied via the website; a company registered in England and Wales with company number 09761045. The registered offices are located at 20-22 Wenlock Rd, London, N1 7GU, United Kingdom. Liberating Research Ltd is registered with the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) with registration number ZA142323 and are members of The British Healthcare Business Intelligence Association. Please note this website contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v2.0 (including data from the Organisation Data Service, Health and Social Care Information Centre, licenced under the Open Government Licence v2.0).