Privacy Policy

This ‘privacy policy’ explains how we use any personal information we hold about you – and your rights about this.

Defined terms are in bold. They are defined where they are introduced in ‘quotes’.

If any of this doesn’t make sense – or you think something is wrong – or you have any other query, please do contact us at [email protected]

We’ (‘us’, ‘our’ etc) means The Audience Agency Services Limited:

As background on us, in case you don’t already know, we provide services – such as advice, support, consultancy and events – and help develop and deliver projects about innovation in its broadest sense. We work for and with a wide range of organisations – many of them public bodies, charities or social enterprises or creative or innovative businesses.

About you

A – You use our website (currently at golantmediaventures.com) 

B – You interact with us another way, for example:

  • You email us or contact us using the contact form on our website 
  • You give us a business card (physical, or supply the equivalent to us electronically)
  • You engage with us on social media (eg following us on Twitter, tweeting at us, connecting to or communicating with one of our team on LinkedIn)

C – You apply to work with us, for example:

  • Replying to a job advert or invitation to provide services
  • Sending us CV unsolicited

D – You attend or register for an event we are running, including:

  • Directly with us or via a third party booking service (eg Eventbrite)
  • We are running the event for someone else and you gave them permission to pass on your details to us

E – We are contracted to work for or with you, including:

  • You have contracted us to provide products or services
  • You have funded us to undertake a project
  • Someone else has contracted or funded us to work with you, with your agreement
  • We and you have a contract between us to together deliver services or a project

F – We have been asked to contact you in the course of our work, for example:

  • We are working with an organisation that you work with or for, and they directed us to contact you in order for us to undertake our work
  • You were identified as a stakeholder who may be impacted by a project we are involved in – or as an expert – with whom we should consult

G – We have found out about you in another lawful way, including:

• Information about you is in the public domain, for example on a website, in social media or in published materials
Your details are shared with the other participants in an event (which we are not involved in running) that we have attended alongside you

Data protection and privacy laws – your rights and our obligations

We are bound by ‘data protection and privacy laws’ by which we mean the Data Protection Act 1998, General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) and any later legislation enacting, re-enacting, amending or consolidating this these regulations. 

We are the ‘data controller’ of information about you (as this term is defined in data protection and privacy laws). This means we are responsible for deciding how that information is processed and for what purposes. 

Under data protection and privacy laws, we are responsible for information about you being processed lawfully, fairly and responsibly – to keep records of how we are doing that. 

What’s covered in the rest of this privacy policy is the other things we have to make sure you are aware of under these laws:

  • What information we are processing about you, for what purpose and under what legal basis
  • How long we keep it
  • How you can control what marketing communications, if any, you receive from us
  • The situations under which we disclose information about you
  • Where information about you is processed and by whom
  • Information about cookies your devices may receive when they use our website
  • Your rights under data protection and privacy laws

Processing information about you – purpose and legal basis

In A – you use our website:

The purpose of us holding data about you is

  • To manage, maintain and improve our website for you and others to use
  • To personalise and otherwise improve your experience of our website

What data we may collect and process about you

  • Details of your visits to our site including, but not limited to, traffic data, location data, weblogs and other communication data and the resources that you access
  • Information about your computer, including but not limited to where available your IP address, operating system and browser type

We process this data under the legitimate interests of:

  • Ourselves to promote our business and areas of interest
  • Others to receive better information and support through our website

In B – you interact with us another way:

The purpose of us holding data about you is:

  • To respond to your interaction with us
  • To keep a proper record of communications we receive and make as a business

What data we may collect and process about you:

  • Any contact details you provide to us including your email address and social media identities
  • Any other information you have provided to us
  • Any information about you which is available publicly

Where you are enquiring about us providing services to you, we process information about you on the legal basis of us responding to you prior to us entering into a contract with you.

Where it is more general communication or interaction, we process information about you to fulfil our legitimate interests to promote our services and areas of interest and be knowledgeable about professionals working in our areas of interest.

Also, see the marketing communications section below.

In C – you apply to work with us:

The purpose of us holding data about you is:

  • To give you the chance to be considered for current and future opportunities
  • To comply with relevant employment, equal opportunities and visa regulations

What data we may collect and process about you:

  • Anything you provide us , including your CV, covering letter 
  • References we take up, notes from interviews, email correspondence
  • Any information about you which is available publicly

We process and keep what information we need to in order to comply with employment, equal opportunities and visa regulations.

Other information about you we will keep under our legitimate interest to ensure that we are up to date and knowledgeable about professionals and private individuals working in our areas of interest.

In D – you attend or register for an event:

The purpose of us holding data about you is:

  • To give you information about the event before and afterwards
  • To improve our events for you and others

What data we may collect and process about you:

  • Any contact details you provide to us 
  • Any other information you have provided to us (eg dietary requirements, purpose of attending)
  • Which events (our events, or events where we are a partner) you have been invited to, registered for or attended
  • Any information about you which is available publicly

We process information about you in order to fulfil our obligations to you under our contract to provide the event to you – or where this isn’t the case under the legitimate interests of ourselves, any other event organisers and of the other attendees to provide a quality event.

We may use your feedback, comments and questions in other events or marketing but never in such a way that you or your organisation could be identified unless we have your permission first.

Also, see the marketing communications section below.

In E – We are contracted to work for or with you

This sections E applies to information and situations which are not already covered by a contract between us and you. Where there is such a contract, the provisions relating to data protection and privacy in that contract take precedence.

The purpose of us holding data about you is:

  • To do the work we are contracted to do
  • To report on the work we are contracted to do to the organisation funding the work

What data we may collect and process about you:

  • Any contact details you provide to us 
  • Any other information you have provided to us
  • Any information produced while working with you (project meeting notes, survey responses, emails or similar)
  • Any information that is available about you publicly

We process information about you – and about others whose data you have shared with us – in order to fulfil our contractual obligations to you.

Financial information – including invoices and correspondence about finance – we keep in order to comply with our legal obligation to maintain proper accounting and tax records.

Also, see the marketing communications section below.

In F – We have been asked to contact you in the course of our work:

The purpose of us holding data about you is:

  • To contact you at the request of our partners or clients to enable us to complete the work we have been asked to do
  • To ensure you have been given the chance to express your opinion on a project if you are likely to be impacted – or likely to have an opinion you would like to be considered

This does not include sending you marketing communications, but may include one of us contacting you to see if you would be willing to respond.

What data we may collect and process about you:

  • Any contact details or other information our partners or clients, or you, provide to us about you
  • Information you provide to us in the course of interacting with us 
  • Any information about you which is available publicly

We process information about you in this case under the legitimate interests of ourselves to behave in a through and professional way and of our clients or partners to ensure that they take into consideration stakeholder and expert views.

Also, see the marketing communications section below.

In G – we have found out about you in another lawful way:

The purpose of us holding data about you is to identify people and organisations who 

  • Are leaders in their field, undertaking interesting work
  • May be useful for our clients or partners to be in touch with as professional peers
  • Could potentially be a partner on a project we are developing or delivering
  • Have responsibility in areas of expertise that overlap with our interests
  • Could potentially be interested in our products, services or events

What data we may collect and process about you:

  • Any information about you which is available publicly
  • Notes of opinions you express, information you present or questions that you ask in meetings or events

We process information about you under our legitimate interest to ensure that we are up to date and knowledgeable about professionals and private individuals working in our areas of interest.

Also, see the marketing communications section below.

Marketing

We would like to be able to contact you with marketing communications by email – or occasionally phone. These could be:

  • information about products, services and events that we are involved in providing – like advice on using digital or data smartly, or workshops on innovation
  • our newsletter which contains information intended to be useful to professionals working in our sectors – like sources of funding we spot, or case studies we hope you find interesting

In the cases where: 

  • EITHER we have provided services to you – including events – or you have enquired about us doing this
  • OR you are a professional who has (A/B) interacted with us or (F) whose details we have obtained lawfully

we will normally sign you up to such marketing communications. You will be able to opt out from the start – and at any point thereafter.

(By ‘professional’, we mean someone who has a role in an incorporated organisation, like a limited company, charity, local authority, other public body or government department.)

While you are opted in to receive marketing communications, we will store records of what emails we have sent you and phone calls we have made and how you have engaged with them. If you opt out, we will store only enough to ensure that we do not contact you against your wishes.

If you are a professional, we will send you marketing communications by email under our legitimate interests to promote our services and in the wider public and economic benefit of supporting innovation. If the email address we’re using is clearly associated with you as an individual, you have the right to object to us using it for direct marketing.

We may – on occasion – as a professional, phone you to promote the service, our legitimate interests to promote our services and in the wider public and economic benefit of supporting innovation. You have the right to object to such calls. We will not contact you again for that purpose if you have objected.

If you are a ‘private individual’ (that is, not a professional by our definition above), we will send marketing communications to you by email where we have your consent. You have the right to withdraw this consent at any time. If we are mistakenly treating you as a professional, but in fact you don’t have a role in a relevant organisation or that organisation is not incorporated – for example, it’s just a name you use as a sole trader, you trade through a partnership or you are involved in an unincorporated association – let us know and we will ensure we have your consent for any marketing communications.

If you wish to not receive marketing communications by email at any point, please use the unsubscribe feature in any marketing email you receive from us. If your details change or if you no longer wish to receive marketing communications – or if you want to change how we may contact you – please contact us at [email protected]

Disclosure of your information 

We will only disclose any of your personal information to any third party where we are under a duty to do so in order to comply with any legal obligation, or in order to enforce or protect any of our rights, property or safety (or those of our customers). We may also disclose your personal information to third parties who provide services to us. When we do so they are required to act in accordance with our instructions and this privacy policy and to keep your personal information secure.

We will never sell your data to third parties.

If we need to transfer your personal information to countries which do not provide the same level of data protection as the UK we will put a contract in place to ensure that your information is adequately protected.

When you give us information about another individual for business purposes, you do so on the basis that the other individual has agreed and has consented to the processing of his or her personal data and to the transfer of his or her information abroad and to your receiving on his or her behalf any data protection notices.

Where our business or assets are acquired by, merged with or otherwise transferred to a new organisation (for example, because of corporate restructuring), you agree that we may share your personal data with that organisation. In this situation, they would have to inform you of this – they would have the same rights and obligations as we had under this privacy policy, and you would have the same rights as well (for example, to object or withdraw your consent).

Cookies

Cookies are text files placed on your computer by a website when you use it to collect standard Internet log information and information about the behaviour of visitors to that website. They are also often used by many websites when you are logged into them to remember as you move between pages what you are in the middle of doing (eg shopping baskets, or what you were looking at).

We will use the information we collect as a result of you accepting a cookie from our site to track your use of the site and to compile reports on the use of the site overall by all visitors.

You can set up your browser not to accept cookies – and the websites above tell you how to remove cookies from your browser.

How long we keep your information

We will keep financial information – including invoices, payment details and email correspondence relating to finance – for as long as we are obliged to by law, which is currently for 6 years after the end of the financial period in which they fall.

We will keep project documentation – including meeting notes, identifiable opinions, photos and email correspondence relating to project – for 10 years after the completion of the project.

We will keep contact details – including name, email, phone number, address, social media handles – for 3 years after we last had active contact with you.

We will keep recruitment information – such as your CV and email correspondence around recruitment – for up to 1 year after an unsuccessful application, except as required by our visa sponsor license where we will keep this information for as long as we are obliged to by law, which is currently one year from the date we end our sponsorship of a sponsored migrant or until a Home Office compliance officer has examined and approved them, whichever is the shorter.

We will keep research information – such as your survey responses, interview notes and email correspondence around research – in an identifiable form for 3 years after the end of the project and in an anonymous or aggregated form from that point on.

We will keep technical information – such as IP address, usage of the website partners, device and country – for up to 1 year in an identifiable form and anonymously or aggregated from that point on. 

Your rights

In addition to your rights about marketing communications above, under data protection and privacy laws you have various rights.

You have the right to request a copy of the information that we hold about you. In that case, please send a copy of your ID (passport or driving licence) to us at [email protected], with ‘subject access request’ in the subject line of the email.

We want to make sure that the information we hold about you is accurate and up to date. You have the right to ask us to correct, complete or remove information you think is inaccurate or incomplete. In that case please send a copy of your ID (if we haven’t got it already) to us at [email protected], with details of what amends you propose and evidence that these are accurate – and ‘personal data rectification’ in the subject line of the email.

In certain circumstances you may have the right to ask us to delete information we hold about you, or suspend or restrict its processing or object to its processing. In these cases, please contact us at [email protected] explaining what you want us to do – and why.

You may have the right to request information about you in a portable format. This applies to only to data you have provided us which we process in automated systems either with your consent or in able to fulfil our responsibilities under a contract with you.

We will do everything we reasonably can to ensure that you are satisfied with the way we have responded to you about your personal data and privacy. So, please do tell us if you are not so we can rectify the any outstanding issue.

Changes to this privacy policy 

We keep this privacy policy under regular review and will put any updates to it on this site. This privacy policy was last updated on 2023-07-03.

We will notify you of any changes to this privacy policy. You can check this privacy policy at this page at any time – and we recommend that you review it regularly.