Privacy Policy
Privacy Notice
This notice outlines how Northern Powergrid and Explain Market Research use your personal data when you sign up to, and participate in the online Northern Powergrid Citizens Panel community.
Northern Powergrid has commissioned Explain Market Research (an independent market research agency http://www.explainresearch.co.uk/) to build and manage this research community on their behalf, aligned to the ongoing workshop activities.
Explain only collect the minimum amount of personal information that is necessary to fulfill the purpose of your interaction with us. We do not sell it to third parties, and we only use it as this Privacy Notice describes.
When we do so, we are subject to the General Data Protection Regulation which applies across the European Union (including the United Kingdom) and we are responsible as “controller” of that personal information for the purposes of those laws.
If you register and create an account, we require some basic information at the time of account creation. You will create your own username and password, and we will ask you for a valid email address. We need this information to create your account, and to be able to identify you on the Northern Powergrid Citizens Panel community. We will also ask for further profiling information such as gender, age bracket, etc. The collection of such data is used for research purposes and to simply inform Northern Powergrid and Explain about the demographics of their members.
Only your username and self-selected photo will be shared with other users; please do not use your email address as your username and we strongly recommend that you choose a username which is not linked to your own name, and that you do not include any personal information in your postings.
We will use your email address to communicate with you, in terms of updating you when there is new content on the community, with opportunities to take part in market research or other topics related to the Northern Powergrid Citizens Panel community, such as if you are one of our prize draw winners if competitions are run.
We have a legitimate interest in processing such personal information for promotional and / or communication purposes. This means we do not usually need your consent to send you such information. However, where consent is required we will ask for this consent separately and clearly.
In running and maintaining this community we may collect and process the following data which is collected by Explain Market Research and shared with Northern Powergrid:
Information provided voluntarily by you. For example, when you complete your user profile or participate in community content
Information about your use of our site including details of your visits such as pages viewed and the resources that you access. Such information includes traffic data, location data and other communication data
Your email address and how you use your emails - for example whether you open them and which links you click on
Information that you provide when you communicate with us by any means
Use of your information
Data can be viewed by authorised persons within Explain Market Research and Northern Powergrid to:
- Improve the site by monitoring how you use it
- Gather feedback to improve our services
- Respond to any feedback you send us, if you’ve asked us to
- Send communication emails to users relating to the Northern Powergrid Citizens Panel community, including but not exclusive to; new content, prize draw information, changes to Community terms and conditions and privacy notice, and user account queries.
Any personal data collected by Explain when you join the Northern Powergrid Citizens Panel community, such as the first half of your post code and email address, cannot be accessed by Northern Powergrid. Northern Powergrid can view your interactions linked with your username and other profiling information, such as length of time as a Northern Poweergrid customer. Any contribution that you make to the community, such as commenting on posts or creating discussions can be seen with your username attached by other members of the community, including Northern Powergrid staff members. You can use the ‘anonymous’ option to contribute to the community without your username attached, in which case other members of the community and Northern Powergrid will not be able to view this linked to your username.
Please see Terms and conditions for more information on how we will use the information.
Unsubscribing
You can unsubscribe from the Northern Powergrid Citizens Panel community or delete your user account at any time by clicking here and selecting ‘leave the community’.
We will only hold your data for as long as you are a member of the Northern Powergrid Citizens Panel community. When you unsubscribe your data will be deleted and any interactions (comments on the community) will be anonymised.
OR
We will keep your personal information as long as you are a member of Northern Powergrid Citizens Panel community. Thereafter, we will keep your personal information for as long as is necessary:
- to respond to any questions, complaints or claims made by you or on your behalf;
- to show you that we acted fairly;
- to keep records required by law.
We will not retain your personal information for longer than necessary for the purposes set out in this policy.
When it is no longer to retain your personal information we will delete it or anonymise it.
Where your data is stored
All data is stored securely at our head office within the UK (details of which are set out below). Our information security policy can be provided on request.
If you have any queries or complaints about the way your data is handled please contact Explain using the details below. You can also request a copy of the data held on you using these details:
Data Protection Lead
Explain Market Research Ltd
The Core
Newcastle Helix
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE4 5FT
Email: info@explainresearch.co.uk
Telephone: 0191 261 5261