Freelance Marketing Ltd is a market research & marketing consultancy, based in the UK. Company registered in England and Wales: 4878166

What this privacy notice covers

This privacy notice tells you what to expect when you provide your details to Freelance Marketing Ltd. This may include, for example, completing  a contact form on this website, if you call us or email us to enquire about our business services, or if you provide your business cards or details at a networking event. You may enquire as a client, or prospective client, as an associate, as a supplier, or as a potential job applicant.  

We may also consult freely available information from publicly-available sources, such as the internet, Linked In, social media or directories, to identify companies and job roles that may have a legitimate interest in our services, or to invite them to take part in our research programmes, as outlined below.

Participants in research activities

Research is conducted on behalf of our clients in order to help them to improve their products and services, or for development purposes. The type of research may include telephone, face-to-face or online interviews, focus groups, online discussion groups, or online surveys, for example. If you have agreed to take part in one of our market research projects, we will contact you to liaise over the timings, arrangements and (if relevant) incentives for the research, as well as to conduct the actual interview or group, which you have agreed to take part in.

We will ask permission to collect some personal information for the purpose of these market research activities. The legal basis for collecting this data is consent. This may include your name, title, email address, telephone number, postal address, product/brand/service usage, and any demographic information which may be relevant to that specific piece of research. All research data collected by Freelance Marketing Ltd is treated confidentially and anonymously and we would not attribute specific market research feedback to individuals or companies, unless you have given your consent to be identified.

We may also gain your consent to audio/video market research specific interviews or focus groups, to help with note taking. Depending upon the project, we may also ask permission for a client to view/hear a recording in order to better understand the insights, although you do not have to consent to this. We retain information and recordings only as along as is necessary to fulfil the purpose of the market research project, which would be outlined at the time (typically no more than 3 months).

We occasionally work with identified third parties to deliver our research programmes, which includes specialist market research interviewers (associates) and we may need to share some contact details with selected parties (who will also sign confidentiality agreements with us). However, we do not share personal information with any third parties for any purpose other than those covered by this Privacy Notice, unless this has been agreed with contacts in advance for a specific purpose. 

How we use your personal information

If you provide us with personal information (your name, organisation name, postal address, telephone/mobile, fax, or email address), or have done so in the past, we will use that information to send you the type of information that you have requested, such as details of relevant products/services or for market research projects, as outlined above. We would always abide by relevant codes of conduct for data protection and market research regulations, when contacting you.

Contact may also include updates on relevant services, or simply to contact you so that we may learn more about your requirements and how we may be able to help. You can still choose to “opt out” of any communications, even where you have previously provided consent . You can do this verbally, or by emailing or writing to us at the address below. If you have previously subscribed to a Freelance Marketing enewsletter, you can also click the ‘unsubscribe’ link at the foot of any newsletter emails.

Other aspects of our consultancy work may involve lead generation for clients for direct marketing activities (non-research). In these instances our clients may determine the purpose and means of processing some personal data (as data controller), for example if you are an existing customer of theirs and therefore already in a business to business relationship, or if you are a prospective customer. In some cases, we may act as a joint controller, or data processor, on behalf of a client. In these cases however, we would adhere to our privacy guidelines and outline to our clients what aspects we are responsible for and what we exclude.  

Controlling your personal information

We take your privacy very seriously and adhere to any data protection policies. We strongly believe in both reducing the amount of data we collect and limiting the use and purpose of that data to only that required to deliver the services you expressed an interest in, or consented to. We may also be required to keep some records for legal compliance or other lawful purposes. If you have previously agreed to us holding, or using, your personal information for direct marketing purposes (outside of research projects), you may change your mind at any time by writing to us, or emailing us at the address below. (Or in the case of subscribers to our enewsletter, by clicking the ‘unsubscribe’ link at the foot of the email in question).

How we transfer, secure, store, and retain your data

We follow generally accepted standards to store and protect the personal data provided by you, once received, such as physical, electronic and administrative procedures. This includes, for example, utilisation of encryption where appropriate, or password protection. We have restricted and controlled access to our computer systems and also consider in which geographical region/country group your data is stored. Our office systems, such as Microsoft, use EU based certified data centres. Before sending any personal information outside of the UK (if relevant), we would also review if a country affords adequate protection as defined by UK GDPR.

We retain personal data only for as long as necessary to provide the services you have requested, or consented to, and thereafter for a variety of legitimate legal or business purposes. This may vary according to the nature and length of the contract or relationship and would be highlighted at the time. We review the data that we hold on a regular basis, and delete data as soon as it is no longer required. If you have any questions about the security or retention of your personal data, you can contact us at the address below.

Visitors to our websites and cookies

Cookies are widely used both to improve visitor experience on websites, as well as to provide information on website interaction. When someone visits www.freelance-marketing.com we may use Google Analytics to collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns. We do this to find out the number of visitors to the various parts of the site and to assess the user experience, for example, and we do not attempt to identify anyone. Data is aggregated and anonymous and can help to improve the website. For further information on cookies please visit  https://policies.google.com/technologies/cookies.

Some of our website pages may link to third party sites such as online videos, social media sites or maps and some of these services may independently set cookies on your device. It is recommended that you check the respective cookie policies of these sites. [A cookie is defined as a small text file, downloaded on to a computer, mobile phone or tablet, when using a website. This allows the website to recognise a device and to store some information about preferences or past actions]. 

​If you have any concerns about use of any cookies on our site, please contact us at the address below. 

E-newsletter

We may, from time to time, use a third party provider, such as Mailchimp, or other third party providers, to deliver our e-newsletters to existing subscribers. We may gather statistics around email opening and clicks using industry standard technologies to improve our e-newsletter. For more information, please refer to the relevant privacy policy. 

Links to other websites

This privacy notice does not cover the links within this site linking to other websites (as indicated above under cookies). We encourage you to read the privacy statements on the other websites you visit. We accept no responsibility or liability for such other websites.It is recommended that you exercise caution when entering personal information online and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question.

Your rights and how to contact us

You are under no obligation to provide your personal data. You have a right to know what data we hold about you and also a right to be forgotten and to request that your data is deleted/erased or rectified, where appropriate, and you can also withdraw consent at any time to the processing of any personal information held by Freelance Marketing, or restrict this processing, where required. If necessary, you also have the right to complain to the relevant data protection body, should you not be able to resolve an issue, but we would please urge you to contact us first. Please note that in some cases, we may be obliged to keep an audit trail, for example for payment of market research incentives, for a number of years in order to meet legal requirements. 

If you require further information about our privacy policy you can write to:

Freelance Marketing Ltd, 2 Lawrence Crescent, Richmond, North Yorkshire, DL10 5QE. Or alternatively email us at focus@freelance-marketing.com or phone us at 00 44 (0)1748 822063

Changes to this privacy notice

We keep our privacy notice under regular review. This privacy notice was last updated on 9 January 2024.

The “focus on marketing” and sites logo shown above is a trade mark of Freelance Marketing Ltd.

Trade marks of Freelance Marketing Ltd include The WasteVyne, a flexible sales and marketing resource for the waste sector.