Privacy Policy

Maru/Blue UK Limited (“we”, “our”, and “us”) is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. We are part of the MARU Group and are a UK based research agency. 

This policy (“Policy”) sets out the basis on which any personal information we collect from you by visiting this webpage (“our site”), or that you provide to us, or that we have received from a third party source will be processed by us. 

“Personal information” is any information that relates to you and either directly identifies you ie. name, address and contact details, or if were to analyse information that does relate to you and we can subsequently identify you.

The term “process” means any activity relating to personal information, including, by way of example, collection, storage, use, consultation and transmission.

Please read the following Policy carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your personal information and how we will treat it.

Our site may, from time to time, contain links to and from partners’, advertisers’, affiliates’ and social network sites. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these sites have their own privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for those policies. Please check their privacy policies before you submit any personal information to those websites as they may not be on the same terms as ours.

In accordance with the Market Research Society Code of Conduct for Internet Surveys, in order to take part in any survey or questionnaire from our website, you must be over 18 years of age.

References in this policy to “data protection law” mean (as applicable) the Data Protection Act 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679) and all related data protection legislation having effect in the United Kingdom from time to time.

We have appointed a Data Protection Officer who is responsible for monitoring and enforcing compliance with this Policy. Should you have any questions regarding this Policy, you can contact our Data Protection Officer by email at dataprotection@marublue.com, or by mail at:

36 Southwark Bridge Road, 
London, SE1 9EU, United Kingdom
Attention: Data Protection Officer

You may also call us at any of our numbers listed at http://www.marublue.net/contact/


1. Our details

1.1 For the purposes of our business, Maru/Blue UK Limited is the data controller of your personal information. This means that we make decisions about how and why we process your personal information and, because of this, we are responsible for making sure it is used in accordance with data protection laws.

1.2 In respect of processing of your personal information that we undertake on behalf of our clients, there may be instances where we are a data controller with our client. 

 

2. How we use your personal information

2.1 The following sections set out why we are processing your information, what information we collect, the legal basis for and duration of our processing of your information and (if applicable) who your information will be shared with and where those recipients are based.

Which personal information do we process and for what purpose?

2.2 We process the following personal information from you:

2.2.1 Information you give us. This is information about you that you give us by filling in forms on our site. It includes information you provide when you register to use our site, request marketing information, use our online chat feature, enter a competition, promotion or survey and when you report a problem with our site. The information you give us may include your name, address, email address, phone number, date of birth and gender.

2.2.2 Surveys and Panels. Where information is volunteered and subsequently collected by you that can identify you which is used to provide insights and information that allow our clients to create more efficient and effective products and services for their customers. This information may also include your personal information such as that listed above at 2.2.1 and may also include sensitive information (described in more detail below). You will not be contacted by us unless you have specifically consented to us doing so.

2.2.3 Competitions and Draws. Where your personal information is required to identify whether you are the winner of a competition or draw this may be revealed to the appropriate client. Please refer to the individual competition rules which will refer to the requirements for publicity of winners’ names.

2.2.4 Website Information/Browsing and Device Usage Information. Like most other website operators, we collect non-personally identifying information of the sort that web browsers and servers typically make available. This includes technical information and information about your visit, such as records of how you navigate the pages on our site and how you interact with the pages. This also includes personal information such as your IP address.

2.2.5 Maru Voice UK Community (“Community”). We obtain information from you where you have registered as a member of the Community and agreed to take part in surveys and/or other market research. This information may include your name, address, email address, phone number, date of birth, gender, as well as sensitive information as described in 2.2.6 below.

2.2.6 Sensitive Information. You may be asked to provide what is known as “sensitive information” as part of filling out our surveys and panels as a member of the Community, or a survey or panel of one of our clients. Sensitive information may include racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs or health data.

2.2.7 Marketing Communications. We may collect your personal information such as your name and email address in order to send you marketing communications.

2.2.8 Information obtained from or provided by third parties. We obtain or are provided with information, such as your name, address, email address, phone number, date of birth and gender which we have been supplied by third parties from whom you have recently purchased or used goods or services (“our clients”). We will also receive information about you if you use any of the other websites we operate, which include www.marumatchbox.com; www.marugroup.net; www.maruedr.com; www.marublue.net;  and www.maruvoice.net.

2.3 We use your personal information for a number of different purposes in connection with your use of our site, the provision of services or goods from us to you, or from you to us, your communication or other engagement with us and the management and administration of our business.

2.4 We must always have a “lawful basis” (ie a legal reason, prescribed by law) for processing your personal information. We are processing your personal information on the following ground(s):

2.4.1 you have provided your consent to the processing of your personal information. Examples of this may include:

2.4.1.1 where we obtain your personal information from our client, we will rely on the consent you provided to our client for such processing. This may be where you have agreed to fill out a survey for our client and consented to their sharing of that information in the survey to third parties; and

2.4.1.2 you have provided your consent to us sending you direct marketing communications.

2.4.2 the processing is necessary for our legitimate interest. Examples of circumstances where this may be relevant include:

2.4.2.1 processing the information you provided to our clients or third parties in the participation of surveys or panels. We process this information in order to fulfil the contractual obligation between us and our clients, the purpose of which is to understand and improve the services provided by our clients;

2.4.2.2 processing your browser information and log-in details in connection with the functionality of our site; and

2.4.2.3 sharing your personal information in the event of a proposed sale, restructuring, transfer or merging of any or all parts of our business, including to respond to queries from the prospective buyer or merging organisation.

2.4.3 the processing is necessary to perform a contract with you. An example of when this may be relevant is where we process your contact details, including your name, telephone number and email address and the information you provide to us when participating in our surveys as a member of our Community or panels in order to manage our business relationship with you.

2.4.4 the processing is necessary to comply with a legal obligation. Examples of circumstances where this may be relevant include:

2.4.4.1 disclosing your contact details, including your name, telephone number and email address in order to comply with instructions, orders and requests from law enforcement agencies, any court or otherwise as required by law; and

2.4.4.2 maintain your contact details in records that are required by law or to evidence our compliance with laws, including consumer protection laws and data protection laws. 

Duration and further processing

2.5 We will regularly review the personal information which we are holding about you, and will delete it as appropriate. We will store your personal information for no longer than is necessary for us to fulfil the purpose for which it was obtained, provided that we have a reasonable commercial case for doing so, and in any event for no longer than 2 years after the project has completed. If we need to keep your information for a longer period then we will notify you of the reason and grounds for doing so.

2.6 To determine the appropriate retention period for personal information, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal information, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal information, the purposes for which we process your personal information and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

Who is your information shared with?

2.7 In order to achieve the purpose(s) set out in section 2.2 above, we may need to disclose your personal information to other people.

2.8 Outside Maru Group 

2.8.1 From time to time, we may ask third parties to carry out certain business functions for us, such as for IT support, sample partner, and data hosting services. These third parties will process your personal information on our behalf. We may disclose your personal information to these parties so that they can perform those functions. Before we disclose your personal information to these third parties, we will seek to ensure that they have appropriate security standards in place to protect your personal information. A list of the third parties used most frequently can be found here: MARU/ Third Parties. Specific details of any third party engagements and how they may use your information can be requested from privacy@marugroup.net.

2.8.2.In certain circumstances, we may disclose your personal information to our clients,only where you have provided appropriate consent.

2.9 Subject to paragraph 2.8.1 and 2.8.2 above, we will never sell, share, or rent your personal information without your prior consent. It should be noted that, because we do not control the privacy practices of our clients, we advise that you read and fully understand their privacy policies in addition to this privacy policy.

Where in the world is your personal information transferred to?

2.10 We may transfer your personal information to
A member of the Maru Group, which means our affiliated companies, including our parent holding company and its subsidiaries, located in Canada, USA, the UK and/or Latin America.
Selected third parties including: business partners and customers (as described in 2.8.1 above);

Automated decision making

2.11 We do not make automated decisions about you based on your information.

How do we keep your personal information secure?

2.12 We will take specific steps (as required by applicable data protection laws) to ensure we take appropriate security measures to protect your personal information from unlawful or unauthorised processing and accidental loss, destruction or damage.

 

3. Your rights

3.1. Under data protection law you have the following rights:

3.1.1 the right to be informed as to what we do with your information. This includes but is not limited to the right to know what information we gather, process and store, what we do with it, who we share it with and how long we keep it for;

3.1.2 if we are processing your personal information on the basis of your consent then you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. Consent can be withdrawn by and notifying us using the details set out in section 8 below. The lawfulness of our historic processing based on your consent will not be retrospectively affected by your withdrawal of consent. If you do decide to withdraw your consent we will stop processing your personal information for that purpose unless there is another lawful basis we can rely on – in which case, we will let you know;

3.1.3 the right to access a copy of your information which we hold. This is called a ‘subject access request’. Additional details on how to exercise this right are set out in section 5, below;

3.1.4 the right to object to processing of your information if our processing is based on legitimate interests. You can notify us of your objection to us processing your personal information using the contact details set out in section 8.

3.1.5 the right to prevent us processing your information for direct marketing purposes. We will usually inform you (before collecting your personal information) if we intend to use your personal information for such purposes or if we intend to disclose your information to any third party for such purposes. You can exercise your right to prevent such processing by checking certain boxes on the forms we use to collect your personal information. You can also exercise the right at any time by contacting us using the details set out in section 8, below;

3.1.6 the right to object to decisions being made about you by automated means. We will inform you if your information is subject to automated processing;

3.1.7 the right, in certain circumstances, to have your information rectified, blocked, erased or destroyed if it is inaccurate;

3.1.8 enhanced rights to request that we erase, rectify, cease processing and/or delete your information; and

3.1.9 in certain circumstances, the right to request the information we hold on you in a machine-readable format so that you can transfer it to other services. This right is called ‘data portability’. Additional details on how to exercise this right are set out in section 5, below.

3.2 For further information on your rights under data protection law and how to exercise them, you can contact Citizens Advice Bureau or the Information Commissioner’s Office.

 

4. Cookies

4.1 Our site uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our site. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and also allows us to improve our site.

4.2 We use “cookies” to gather statistical information that helps us understand what users find interesting and useful on both our own and our clients’ websites. Users can decline the cookies by adjusting the “accept cookies” setting on their browser, however, this may affect the functionality of our surveys on client web sites. We may also embed a piece of code into pages of certain client sites. This gives us statistical site usage information about how the site is used. We aggregate this information to provide our clients with a closer understanding of how visitors use their site. We do not use this code to collect any personally identifiable information.

4.3 For detailed information on the cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them see our Cookie Policy https://www.marublue.net/cookie-policy

 

5. Access to Information

5.1 You have the right to access information held about you by making a written request to us. You must send us proof of your identity, or proof of authority if making the request on behalf of someone else, before we can supply the information to you. Requests should be sent to dataprotection@marublue.com. In certain circumstances, you will be entitled to receive the information in a structured, commonly used and machine readable form.

5.2 We will be allowed to charge you for our reasonable administrative costs in collating and providing you with details of the requested information which we hold about you, if your request is clearly unfounded or excessive.

 

6. Access to Information Changes to our privacy policy

6.1 Any changes we make to our privacy policy in the future will be posted on this page. Please check back frequently to see any updates or changes to our privacy policy.

 

7. Complaints

7.1 You have the general right to complain to us (in the first instance) and to the Information Commissioner’s Office (if you are not satisfied by our response) if you have any concerns about how we hold and process your information. Our contact details are set out in section 8, below. The Information Commissioner’s Office website is www.ico.org.uk.

 

8. Contact

8.1 Questions, comments and requests, including any complaints, regarding us or this privacy policy are welcomed and should be addressed to dataprotection@marublue.com

 

9. Changes To This Policy

MARU encourages you to periodically review this Policy to stay informed of how we manage your personal information. If any changes are made to this Policy, MARU will revise the “Last Updated” date that is indicated on the Policy.

 

Last Updated: May 15, 2021

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