Your Privacy

Thank you for agreeing to take part in our research project. This survey, forum or video project is being run by Reach Plc.

By taking part in this research study (online surveys, polls, video projects, diary studies and discussion groups) we will record your responses. This is for research purposes ONLY meaning all your answers will remain confidential at all times unless you expressly request or permit the disclosure of your information to a third party for other purposes.

You are free to choose whether or not you wish to participate in any survey and free to choose not to answer any specific questions.

If you have any questions or wish to stop receiving communications from us, you can do so very easily and at any moment in time by emailing us at nwinsight@reachplc.com.

The below policy outlines how we use the information you provide as well as the steps we take to keep it secure.

Who we are

We are the publishing group Reach plc.

In this Privacy Notice, when we refer to any of our Sites we mean any website or app, including e-editions, published by our various subsidiary companies and brands, listed at the end of this document (“Reach Group” or “we”), regardless of how you access it.

About this privacy notice

This is the main privacy notice for research activities carried out by the Reach Group and applies to all research activities run through our websites (“The Website”) or via third party providers.

In summary, depending on your relationship with us, we’ll use your personal information:

• To help analyse responses to surveys to better understand the contributing factors behind your opinions.
• To provide the interactive features of our Sites, such as commenting, discussion forums and competitions.
• To manage our business and to comply with the law.

This Privacy Notice, which covers all of your personal information whether collected online or offline, including by telephone or where you write to us, together with our Cookie Notice and any Site-specific notice, provides more detail on those activities and explains your rights and how to exercise them.

For all of our Sites, and brands, either Reach plc or one of its subsidiary companies is the data controller of the personal information that we gather about you. Regardless of which Reach Group company is the controller, you can always contact us with questions or concerns about your privacy by emailing us at dataprotection@reachplc.com. By agreeing to take part in this online survey, poll, video project, diary study or discussion group you consent to us using your information as set out in this Privacy Policy.

1. Type of information we process and where it comes from

Information that we collect and process about you includes:

• Personal and contact details you have provided to us, such as your name, email address or postal address
• Demographic information such as date of birth, gender, work occupation, ethnicity and readership habits.
• Attitudinal, behavioural or purchase information shared within our surveys or forums.
• Information about your use of third party products or services or from third parties who we may use to operate certain aspects of our business;
• We also collect information from cookies on your devices and this includes information about your IP address, MAC address and other identifying information, information about your devices, including your location, from third party advertising networks and how you use our products and services.

For more information about cookies, please see our Cookie Notice.

2. Use of your information

Throughout all our newspapers, magazines, websites, apps and social media channels run or published by the Reach group of companies we want to offer you a service which you want to use. We may use and permit others to use your personal data as set out below.

By taking part in our surveys and research projects, your answers will help us better understand the underlying motivations behind the trends we are seeing, response to new content ideas and formats we are developing and how we can improve the service we currently offer.

We may use information about you to provide and manage the research projects you are invited to and to improve the usefulness of our Sites, products and services.

We also use your personal data to contact you, including to notify you about research projects we are keen to hear your views on, following up on a comment you have submitted, to evaluate the performance of our products and services, or to notify you if you are selected as one of our prize winners.

We may use your information for the management of our business and improving the operation of our business and that of our business partners, to assess our internal processes.

We may monitor, record and store records of calls, email, text messages, social media messages, in person meetings and other communications where permitted by law and we’ll do this where the law requires it, or to comply with regulatory rules, to prevent or detect crime, for evidential purposes, in the interests of protecting the security of our communications systems and procedures and for quality control and staff training purposes.

We may use your data to comply with legal and regulatory obligations. Where we’re relying upon your consent to process personal data, you can withdraw this at any time by contacting us at nwinsight@reachplc.com.

We may analyse your data, including whether or not you open a newsletter or click on links, and analyse data, gathered through our websites and advertising partners, including by analysing your data in aggregated form into categories (known as segments), to help target survey to you that we think are of interest or relevance to you. You can find more information on this in our Cookie Notice.

We may disclose details about the use of the Sites to other businesses e.g. to demonstrate patterns of use to advertisers and others. The information we pass on will be anonymised. We compile anonymous records of user trends which we may make use of ourselves or pass to our associated companies, including advertising networks. You can read more about this in our Cookie Notice.

3. Who we share your personal information with

We may share information as needed with our third party service providers and partners, to other members of the Reach Group, as part of providing and administering this Site, including Vision Critical Research Solutions (UK) Limited company number 6452616 whose registered address and address for service is 17 Hatfields, London, SE1 8DJ, United Kingdom, who host / develope this Site on behalf of the Reach Group.

In these cases they will only have access to the personal data that they absolutely need to provide the specific service to us. In some cases, these organisations may (for example our payment processors) need to process your personal data for their own specific purposes, for example to ensure they are compliant with regulations or laws governing their own sectors.

We may share information described in this policy to facilitate the sale of one or more parts of our business, including if we are approached by a potential buyer or the restructuring of one or more parts of our business and with auditing organisations such as the Audit Bureau of Circulation, or if the Site is transferred to another service provider (which replaces Vision Critical Research Solutions (UK) Limited or works alongside them) who then becomes a data processor and / or controller of your Personal Information.

Outside of the purposes outlined above, we will not share any personal information linked to your survey responses without your explicit consent unless required to by law, a court order, a regulatory authority, or otherwise, to bodies including the police, trading standards, regulatory authorities or other relevant authorities.

Once we’ve gathered your survey responses, we will combine them with the answers from other respondents and turn them into valuable insights which may be shared with third parties. Unless specifically stated at the start of the research activity and with your explicit permission, this information will only be disclosed to third parties in anonymised or aggregate form, stripped of any identifiable data (example forms of anonymised / aggregate data include: “X% of males from Birmingham agree that…” or “a 35 year male from Birmingham said …”)

Please be aware that if you disclose information on forums it may be possible for other research participants to use this information. We are not responsible for the disclosure of any information you post in this way.

4. Cookies

We and Vision Critical Research Solutions (UK) Limited (which hosts / develops this Website on our behalf) may also collect information about you automatically when you visit our Sites by using cookies (small text files) and other tracking technology. For more information about cookies, and other tracking technology including how to turn them off, please see our Cookie Notice.

5. Transfers outside of Europe

We’re based in the UK and the Republic of Ireland but sometimes your personal information may be transferred outside the European Economic Area. If we do so we’ll make sure that suitable safeguards are in place, for example by using approved contractual agreements, unless certain exceptions apply. We can provide more information about this on request.

6. What are the legal grounds for our processing of your personal information (including when we share it with others)?

We rely on the following legal bases to use your personal data:

A. Where it is in our legitimate interests to do so, such as:

• For market research and analysis and developing statistics
• To perform and/or test the performance of, our products, services and internal processes
• To provide insight and analysis of our customers to business partners either as part of providing products or services, helping us improve products or services, or to assess or to improve the operating of our businesses
• To follow guidance and recommended best practice of government and regulatory bodies
• For management and audit of our business operations including accounting
• To carry out monitoring and to keep records of our communications with you and us
• To administer our good governance requirements and those of other members of our Group, such as internal reporting and compliance obligations or administration required for AGM processes
• Where we need to share your personal information with people or organisations in order to run our business or comply with any legal and/or regulatory obligations
• To comply with our legal obligations or where we reasonably believe we are under a legal or regulatory obligation

B. With your consent or explicit consent

• For our processing of special data categories of personal data such as about your health, ethnicity, political views, income, work occupation

7. How long do we keep your data for?

We will hold onto your personal information collected in this survey for a period of up to one year after completing this project.

This is to ensure we are able to contact you regarding follow up questions that arise from the research or to notify you regarding prize draw wins. We may also use this information for the purposes of insight, tracking responses over time. We have established a full data retention policy, and can provide further information on request.

8. What are your rights under data protection law?

The law gives you certain rights in respect of the information that we hold about you. Below is a short overview of those rights. The website of the Information Commissioner’s Office (http://www.ico.org.uk) has a wealth of useful information in respect of your rights over your personal data.

If you wish to exercise your rights, you can write to us by email at dataprotection@reachplc.com or by post to Legal Department, Reach plc, One Canada Square, London E14 5AP.

Your right to withdraw your consent

If we are processing your personal data on the basis of your consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time.

Your right to access the information we hold about you

With some exceptions designed to protect the rights of others, you have the right to a copy of the personal data that we hold about you, as well as information about what we do with it, who we share it with and how long we will hold it for. We may make a reasonable charge for additional copies of that data beyond the first copy, based on our administrative costs.

Your right to have inaccurate information about you rectified

You have the right to have the information we hold about you corrected if it is factually inaccurate at the point in time you provided it (e.g. this would not cover situations where your opinions or situation changes over time). Your right to object to what we do with your data, and to have restrictions placed upon it Where we process your personal data on the basis of our legitimate interest, you have the right to object to that processing and to have restrictions placed upon it while we consider your objection.

Your right to have your information erased in some circumstances

You have the right to require us to delete the information that we hold about you if it is no longer necessary for the purpose we collected it for, and there is no other legal basis on which we must, or are allowed to, retain it.

Your right to stop receiving direct marketing from us

You have the right to require us to stop sending you direct marketing material (for example, survey invitations). It can sometimes take a few days to action these requests.

Your right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)

You have the right to lodge a complaint about our handling of your personal data with the supervisory authority, which in the UK is the Information Commissioner’s Office. But before you do so, please do contact us first to give us a chance to put matters right, at dataprotection@reachplc.com

You can contact the ICO on 0303 123 1113.

9. Changes to this privacy notice

It’s likely that we’ll need to update this Privacy Notice from time to time. Any changes to this Privacy Notice will be posted here and such changes will become effective as soon as they are posted. Your continued use of the relevant Site constitutes notice to you of all these changes.

10. Contact us

If you have any questions about this privacy notice, or if you wish to exercise your rights you can contact us email at nwinsight@reachplc.com

Alternatively, you can write to the Legal Department, Reach plc, One Canada Square, London E14 5AP

List of Reach Plc subsidiaries, affiliates and brands represented on the community

• Aberdeenshire Top100 Business Breakfast
• Accrington Observer
• Airdrie and Coatbridge Adv
• Aldershot News & Mail
• Ashbourne News Telegraph
• Ayrshire and Arran Visitor
• Ayrshire Post and Carrick
• Bath Chronicle
• Bath Live
• Bedfordshire Midweek
• Belfast Live
• Birmingham Live
• Birmingham Mail
• Birmingham Mail Brummie Mummies
• Birmingham Post
• Black Country Bugle
• Blackmore Vale Magazine
• Blairgowrie Advertiser
• Boston Target
• Brentwood Gazette
• Bride Magazine
• Bristol Live
• Bristol Post
• Buckinghamshire Advertiser
• Burton Mail
• Bury Times Insert
• Business Broadcast
• Business in Wales
• Business Post
• Buy Sell
• Caernarfon Herald
• Cambridge Homes Now
• Cambridge MidWeek
• Cambridge News
• Carmarthen Journal
• Celtic Programme
• Celtic View Magazine
• Central and Tayside Visitor
• Chester Chronicle
• Chronicle & Informer
• Chronicle & Journal Business
• Chronicle Live
• Cornish Guardian
• Cornishman The
• Cornwall Live
• Coventry Telegraph
• Crewe Chronicle
• Croydon Advertiser
• Culture
• Cynon Valley Leader
• Daily Mirror
• Daily Post
• Daily Record
• Deals and Dealmakers
• Deals and Dealmakers
• Derby Telegraph
• Devon Live
• Dorking Advertiser
• Dover Express Edition
• Dover Express Insert
• Dublin Live
• Dumfries and Galloway Std.
• Dumfries Visitor
• Ealing Gazette
• Early Years Career Morning
• East Kilbride News
• Education Awards
• Elite Spring 2018
• Essex Chronicle
• Essex Live
• Exclusive
• Exeter Express & Echo Insert
• Family Announcements
• Farm Trader
• Fish4Jobs
• Folkestone Herald Edition
• Football London
• Galloway News
• Gazette Live
• Get West London
• GetSurrey
• Glamorgan Gazette
• Glasgow Live
• Gloucester Citizen
• Gloucestershire Echo
• Gloucestershire Live
• Grimsby Telegraph
• Guardian & Standard Somerset
• Gwent Gazette
• Hamilton Advertiser
• Harlow Star Series
• Hertfordshire Mercury
• Herts & Essex Observer Group
• Heywood Advertiser
• Hinckley Times
• Homemaker
• HOMES & LIFESTYLE
• Huddersfield Examiner
• Hull Daily Mail
• Humber Business
• I Announce
• I500 Business Breakfast
• In Your Area
• Insider Deals and Deal makers
• Insider Events
• Insider Magazine
• Inspire
• Irish Mirror
• Irvine Herald
• Isle Of Thanet Gazette
• Jobs North West
• JobsWales
• Journal
• Kent & Sussex Courier
• Kent Live
• Kilmarnock Standard
• Lanarkshire and Clyde Valley Visitor
• Leeds Live
• Leek Post & Times
• Leicester Mercury
• Lennox Herald
• Lichfield Mercury
• Lincolnshire Echo
• Lincolnshire Live
• Liverpool Echo
• Llanelli Star
• Loughborough Echo
• m.mirror.co.uk
• Macclesfield Express
• Made in Scotland
• Manchester Evening News
• Manchester Weekly News
• Media Scotland Events
• MEN
• Merthyr Express
• Metro
• Mid Devon Gazette
• Mid Somerset Series
• Middleton Guardian
• Midweek Visiter
• Mirror Football
• Movebee
• NA Animal Hero Awards
• NA Pride of Britain Award
• NA Sports Awards
• NE Business Awards
• NE Business Breakfast
• NE Chronicle Community Champs
• NE Culture
• NE Exporter Awards
• NE Festival Guide
• NE Rural Awards
• NE Sports Awards
• NE Top 200
• NE Transport Links Breakfast
• Nearly There Yet
• North Devon Journal
• North Wales Weekly News
• Nottingham Post
• Nuneaton News
• Ormskirk and Skelmersdale Advertiser
• Our Heroes Awards
• Paisley Daily Express
• Perthshire Advertiser
• Plymouth Herald
• Pontypridd Observer
• Post Property
• Property & Living
• Property and Living
• Remember When
• Retford Times
• Rhondda Leader Insert
• Road Record
• Rochdale Observer
• Rossendale Free Press
• RSVP
• RSVP Live
• Runcorn and Widnes Weekly News
• Rutherglen Reformer
• Saturday Extra
• Saturday Magazine
• Scotland Now
• Scotlands Best Employers
• Scottish Accountancy Awards
• Scottish Daily Record
• Scottish Gaelic Awards
• Scottish Health Awards
• Scunthorpe Telegraph
• Sentinel – Stoke
• Seven Days
• Seven Nights
• Sevenoaks Chronicle
• Six Nations
• SME Conference
• SME300 Awards
• Solihull News
• Somerset Live
• South Wales Echo
• South Wales Evening Post
• Southport Visiter
• Staffordshire Life
• Staffordshire Newsletter
• Star Awards
• Stirling Observer
• Stockport Express
• Stoke Live
• Stoke Sentinel
• Strathearn Herald
• Sunday Mail
• Sunday Mail Great Scot Awards
• Sunday Mail Sports Awards
• Sunday Mercury
• Sunday Mirror
• Sunday Sun
• Surrey Advertiser
• Surrey Homes and Property
• Surrey Mirror Inc.Dork & LHd
• Sutton Coldfield Observer
• Swansea Bay Business Life A4
• Swansea Community Awards
• Swansea Life A4 Mag
• Tamworth Herald
• Target Series
• The National
• The NHS Heroes Awards
• The People
• The People Magazine
• The Scottish Apprenticeship Show
• The Wharf
• The Wharf Property Awards
• TMS Pride of Reading
• Trinity Mirror Solutions
• Uttoxeter Advertiser
• Uxbridge Gazette
• Wales on Sunday
• Wales Online
• Way We Were (Stoke)
• We Love TV
• Wedding
• Weekend Bristol Post
• Weekend Magazine Gloucester
• Welsh Farmer
• West Briton The
• West Lothian Courier
• Western Daily Press
• Western Gazette
• Western Mail
• Western Mail Magazine
• Western Morning News-Plymouth
• Whats On
• Wishaw Press
• WM Magazine
• Women in Biz Awards
• www.accringtonobserver.co.uk
• www.bathchronicle.co.uk
• www.belfastlive.co.uk
• www.birminghammail.co.uk
• www.birminghampost.co.uk
• www.bristolpost.co.uk
• www.burtonmail.co.uk
• www.business7.co.uk
• www.cambridge-news.co.uk
• www.chesterchronicle.co.uk
• www.ChronicleLive.co.uk
• www.cookscotland.co.uk
• www.cornwalllive.com
• www.coventry-live.co.uk
• www.coventrytelegraph.net
• www.crewechronicle.co.uk
• www.croydonadvertiser.co.uk
• www.dailypost.co.uk
• www.dailypost.co.uk/all-about/bangor
• www.dailypost.co.uk/all-about/flintshire
• www.dailyrecord.co.uk
• www.derbytelegraph.co.uk
• www.devonlive.com
• www.dgstandard.co.uk
• www.dublinlive.ie
• www.ellesmereportpioneer.co.uk
• www.essexlive.news
• www.examiner.co.uk
• www.football.london
• www.getbucks.co.uk
• www.gethampshire.co.uk
• www.getreading.co.uk
• www.getsurrey.co.uk
• www.getwestlondon.co.uk
• www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk
• www.grimsbytelegraph.co.uk
• www.harrowobserver.co.uk
• www.hertfordshiremercury.co.uk
• www.hinckleytimes.net
• www.hulldailymail.co.uk
• www.iccheshireonline.co.uk
• www.insider.co.uk
• www.irishmirror.ie
• www.JournalLive.co.uk
• www.kentlive.news
• www.ldpbusiness.co.uk
• www.leeds-live.co.uk
• www.leicestermercury.co.uk
• www.lincolnshirelive.co.uk
• www.liverpoolecho.co.uk
• www.loughboroughecho.net
• www.macclesfield-exp.co.uk
• www.macclesfield-express.co.uk
• www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk
• www.mirror.co.uk
• www.mouthpiecepanel.co.uk
• www.northwales.co.uk
• www.nottinghampost.co.uk
• www.nottinghampost.com
• www.osadvertiser.co.uk
• www.plymouthherald.co.uk
• www.rossendalefree.co.uk
• www.runcornandwidnesweeklynews.co.uk
• www.scunthorpetelegraph.co.uk
• www.solihullnews.net
• www.somersetlive.co.uk
• www.southportvisiter.co.uk
• www.stainesinformer.co.uk
• www.stokeontrentlive.co.uk
• www.thehomesmine.co.uk
• www.thesentinel.co.uk
• www.uxbridgegazette.co.uk
• www.visiter.co.uk
• www.walesonline.co.uk
• www.wharf.co.uk
• www.wirralnews.co.uk
• Young Scot Awards

LIST OF TRADING COMPANIES

• Reach plc
• MGN Limited
• Reach Printing Services Limited
• Reach Printing Services (Oldham) Limited
• Reach Printing Services (Watford) Limited
• Reach Printing Services (Teesside) Limited
• Reach Printing Services (Saltire) Limited
• Reach Printing Services (Midlands) Limited
• Reach Regionals Limited
• Reach Midlands Media Limited
• Reach Southern Media Limited
• MGL2 Limited
• Brand Events TM Limited
• Timewith Limited
• Scottish and Universal Newspapers Limited
• TM Mobile Solutions Limited
• Scottish Daily Record and Sunday Mail Limited
• Local World Holdings Limited
• Local World Limited
• MEN Media Limited
• NCJ Media Limited
• Gazette Media Company Limited
• AMRA Limited
• Media Wales Limited
• The Communicator Corporation Limited
• Trinity Mirror North West & North Wales Limited
• Reach Shared Services Limited
• Reach Publishing Services Limited
• Trinity Mirror Digital Recruitment Limited

 

This notice was updated on 23/03/2023.