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The Wise Society Privacy Notice

About this privacy notice.

This privacy notice explains how and why we collect and use the personal information provided through The Wise Society website and community.

Who we are

The Wisdom Council is a trading name of Wisdom Global Limited, a company registered in England under company number 08589400, whose registered office is Cannon Green, 27 Bush Lane, London EC4R 0AA. The Wisdom Council are an insight and consultancy company, specialising in the financial services industry.

We run the website www.thewisesociety.co.uk (the “Site”) and The Wise Society (“Community”).

For the purposes of data protection, Wisdom Global Limited are the data controller.

References to “we, us, or our” refer to Wisdom Global Limited.

Your information is very important to us and we look after your information carefully in line with the latest data protection and privacy laws.

Please do read this privacy notice and our Cookies Notice, so you know what we are doing with your information. By accessing and using the Site and by participating in the Community, you are agreeing to the terms of this privacy notice and to our Cookies Notice. We may update this privacy notice and our Cookies Notice from time to time and we’ll post any changes on our Site.

This privacy notice was last updated on 01/02/2023.

What information do we collect?

The information we collect about you depends on how you’re using the Site and participating in the Community, but we will only collect your personal information where necessary. Personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).

The following is a list of the types of personal information we may collect, use, store and transfer:
  • Registration data: To become a member of the Community, you need to register with us. When you register, we ask you to provide some basic information about yourself, such as your name, email address, postcode, your date of birth, employment status and other personal data which is relevant to your membership of the community- which we call “Registration Data”. If you decide not to complete the registration process, any personal data that we have collected will be held for a limited period of time before being deleted.
  • Profile data: includes your username and password, the Communities you are a member of and any other settings chosen by you in your profile.
  • Promotion data: includes details of any promotions you have entered with us and any prizes won.
  • Marketing and communications data includes your preferences in receiving marketing from us and your communication preferences.
  • Usage data: information about your use of our Site and the Community, including details of your internet protocol (IP) address, operating system, browser version, cookie details, how long you stayed and on which pages, and your navigation around the Site and the Community.
  • Research data: We also collect the information you submit when completing any of the research tasks (e.g. surveys, polls or forum discussions) that we invite you to participate in, when you feedback, comment or provide other information through the Site or otherwise, including any information, photos and/or videos which you may upload.

Additionally:

We collect, use and share “Aggregated Data” such as statistical or demographic data for any purpose. Aggregated Data could be derived from your personal information but is not considered personal information in law as this data will not directly or indirectly reveal your identity. For example, we may aggregate your Usage Data to calculate the percentage of users accessing a specific website feature. However, if we combine or connect Aggregated Data with your personal data so that it can directly or indirectly identify you, we treat the combined data as personal data which will be used in accordance with this privacy policy.

Special categories of data

We may collect sensitive personal information such as your race, ethnicity and sexual orientation which helps us to ensure that our Community is representative of the UK population and to conduct research more effectively. Providing sensitive personal information is always voluntary and we will always ask your consent to process this data when we collect it, and you may withdraw your consent at any time by emailing us at support@thewisesociety.co.uk.

Information on the Site may be publicly available

Please always think carefully before disclosing information to other members of the Community or making your information publicly available on the Site. We recommend that you do not reveal any personal information about yourself or anyone else (such as your telephone number or home address). We have no responsibility or control over the contents of communications made between community members on our Site, but we will proactively monitor the site regularly.

How do we collect personal information

We collect information through direct interactions with you on our Site (e.g. when you register or when you engage with a research task in the Community). We also use cookies and/or other tools which gather information automatically to store and sometimes track information about you. For more details about what cookies are, the cookies we use and how to disable them, please see our Cookies Notice.

We use technical data from analytics providers such as Google based outside the UK.

If you were introduced to the Site by a third party, that third party will have provided your personal information to us.

How long do we keep your information for?

We will keep your personal information for only as long as reasonably necessary. The length of this retention period depends on the purpose for which the information was obtained and its nature. For example:

  • We may need to keep some personal information about you so that we can deal with any complaints you might make about the Site or the Community or our services.
  • If you ask us to stop sending you emails in connection with research tasks, the Site and the Community, we need to retain enough information about you to enable us to ensure we stop including you in any communications.
  • We may need to keep personal information so that we can defend possible future legal claims.

In some circumstances we will anonymise your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes, in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.

How do we use your information?

We will only process your personal information where we have legal grounds to do so. For most processing this will be on the basis of your consent. We may also process data where we have a legitimate business interest such as to improve our services or to comply with legislation.

We may use your registration data to notify you of other research communities which you may be interested in joining. Where we do this, it will be on the basis of our legitimate interests to grow our communities.

We may use your information in a variety of ways in order to provide the Community services to you, including to:

  • verify your identity (e.g. when you register as a member of the Community or return to the Site);
  • administer and manage the Site and the Community;
  • invite you to participate in and communicate with you about research tasks (such as surveys, polls and forum discussions) on the Site and other research activities that we feel may be relevant to you based on the information you provided to us;
  • create anonymous, statistical profiles of Community membership based on the information provided by you and other members of the Community;
  • collate and aggregate responses to research tasks by you and other members of the Community to present the anonymised results in research reports - these will not be used to identify any individual Community member;
  • send you communications about the Site and the Community;
  • to reward members for completing research tasks (e.g. surveys, polls and forum discussions);
  • administer rewards (such vouchers or prize draws);
  • monitor and develop the Site and the Community to improve your experience;
  • conduct market research, which may include statistical, technical and logistical analysis;
  • verify that the Community is representative of the UK population;
  • process and deal with any complaints or enquiries made by or about you;
  • monitor compliance with and investigating any suspected breach of the Terms and Conditions of Use.

Emails from The Wise Society

All Community members will receive emails in connection with the Site and the Community which include emails about new features or changes on the Site.

You can decide to stop receiving these emails from us at any time. The easiest way to do this is to click on the ‘unsubscribe’ link at the bottom of any of the emails. Alternatively, you can email us at support@thewisesociety.co.uk from your registered email address and ask to unsubscribe from the emails. As these emails are critical to us being able to run our services, if you do unsubscribe, we will keep your account active for a short period in case you change your mind but will then delete your account (please see the “Closing your account” section below).

Do we share your information?

We share your personal information with:

  • STRAT7 Researchbods, a division of STRAT7 Limited (Researchbods), a company registered in England under company number 07642707 whose registered office is at 11 Soho Street, London, W1D 3AD. Researchbods provides the software and some supporting services to us.
  • Third parties to whom we may choose to sell, transfer or merge parts of our business or our assets. Alternatively, we may seek to acquire other businesses or merge with them. If a change happens to our business, then the new owners may use your personal data in the same way as set out in this privacy policy.

We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

What are your rights?

Any personal information you supply will be treated in accordance with applicable data protection laws including the Data Protection Act 2019, General Data Protection Regulation as it applies to the UK and any other applicable or superseding legislation. We are committed to delivering the rights that individuals are entitled to under data protection laws in the UK. These include:

  • The right to request a copy of the personal information we hold about you. To do this, please contact us at support@thewisesociety.co.uk making clear that you are requesting a copy of your personal information and including full details of what you require. You may also be required to submit proof of your identity. We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it could take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.
  • The right to object to your personal information being processed as described above (see “How will we use your information?” section above). We will comply with such a request unless there is a lawful reason for not doing so.
  • The right to rectification. You may request that we correct any inaccurate and/or complete any incomplete personal information.
  • The right to withdraw consent. Where we are processing your personal information on the basis that you have given us your consent to do so, you may withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us at support@thewisesociety.co.uk. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent.
  • The right of erasure. You may request that we erase your personal information, and we will comply, unless there is a lawful reason for not doing so.
  • The right to data portability. In certain circumstances, you may request that we provide your personal information to you in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and have it transferred to another provider of the same or similar services to us. Where this right is applicable, we will comply with such transfer as far as it is technically feasible.
  • The right to restrict processing of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your data if you want us to establish the data’s accuracy; where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it; or you have objected to our use of the data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.
  • The right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. We suggest that you contact us about any questions or if you have a complaint in relation to how we process your personal information. However, the Information Commissioner’s Office in the United Kingdom (“ICO”) regulates our processing of your personal data and you do have the right to lodge a complaint with the ICO. Details of how to contact the ICO can be found on the ICO website at ico.org.uk.

Also see ‘Access, correction and updates to your information’ section below.

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal information (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we could refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.

What this privacy notice does not cover

This privacy notice doesn’t cover companies, services or applications that we don’t own or control, or people that we don’t employ or manage. This includes third party websites or applications/widgets (e.g. from social media platforms such as Facebook or Twitter) that we may link to or offer via our Site.

Also, it doesn’t cover certain pages and services provided via our Site that are hosted, managed and operated by other parties. These third parties, applications and services are independent of us and are responsible for all aspects of their relationship with you and any use you may make of them. They have their own privacy notices and/or terms and conditions of use, which we recommend you read before using.

Service providers based outside Europe

In general, we will only process your data in the UK and/or the European Economic Area. The European Economic Area has been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for personal data.

If we do engage a new supplier located, or with servers that are located, outside the UK and/or the European Economic Area in the future then we will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure your information is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy notice.

Access, correction and updates to your information

You have the right to access your personal information and to correct it. Please make sure that you update your details as soon as possible with all relevant changes.

When you register as a member of the Community and open a user account on the Site, you can access your membership information on your ‘Profile’ page by logging into the Site. If you need to update or correct any of your membership information, you can do this within the ‘Profile’ page.

Closing your account

You may close your Community member account at any time. This can be done by going directly to your ‘Profile’ page. Alternatively, you can email us at support@thewisesociety.co.uk. If you close your Community member account, your profile information will be removed, you will be unable to access the Site and you will no longer receive emails from us.

We will delete your account as soon as reasonably practicable following receipt of the deletion request, and in any event within 5 business days.

We also reserve the right to suspend or terminate your Community membership, or your ability to access the Site immediately and without notice at any time. This may be because, for example, we consider that you have breached the Terms and Conditions of Use or if you have been inactive for a period of time.

Contact us

You can email us with any questions, concerns or complaints at support@thewisesociety.co.uk.