Who are we?
Consumer Friends is the Brand Name MERGEN MEDIA LIMITED Registered Company Number 12495547 Registered Company Address : 71-75, Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2H 9JQ, ENGLAND and Mergen Technology Solutions Pvt Ltd, Registered company number U74999MH2017PTC301988. Registered company address: 202, Magnum Court Chs Ltd, Thane, Maharashtra, India 401101
Consumer Friends is a data controller. We run marketing surveys on behalf of some leading UK brands to help them target their products and services better. We conduct marketing surveys by telephone. Consumer Friends provide such organizations with the key information they need in order to better target their products and services. When we call you, we will always display a valid telephone number to identify us. You are always able to call this number back and leave a message to stop any future calls if you ever wish so. Consumer Friends, is committed to maintaining the privacy and security of personal information. This Privacy Policy Statement contains information about our policy regarding the collection and use of data through market research surveys.
What does this notice cover?
This Privacy Information explains how we use your personal data: how it is collected, how it is held and how it is processed. It also explains your rights under the law relating to your personal data.
UK Data Protection Law:
Throughout this Privacy Notice we will talk about UK Data Protection Law, this predominantly means the Data Protection Act 2018 and the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 as well as the EU GDPR regulations that came into force on the 25th May 2018.
Personal Data:
Personal data is defined by the General Data Protection Regulation (EU Regulation 2016/679) (the “GDPR”) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (collectively, “the Data Protection Legislation”) as ‘any information relating to an identifiable person who can be directly or indirectly identified in particular by reference to an identifier’.
Personal data is, in simpler terms, any information about you that enables you to be identified. Personal data covers obvious information such as your name and contact details, but it also covers less obvious information such as identification numbers, electronic location data, and other online identifiers.
The personal data that we may use is set out below
Information we may collect from you?
When you receive a service from our website or other communication from us, we may ask you for personal data and other information to allow us to provide you with the services that you require. This could include the following:
Full name
Email address
Address / Postcode
Telephone number
Details of your enquiry
Name of your Organization
Position Held
Profiled Information such as your preferences, interests, likes and dislikes.
We will NEVER collect any financial details from you or would we collect any sensitive information.
Information we don’t hold about you
Credit & Debit card details
Medical history
Political & Religious beliefs.
Bank Balance
Other sensitive information.
What do we use your data for?
All of the data we collect from you is for marketing purposes. This means we share your details with reputable companies who may want to contact you by telephone to offer you goods and services that may be of benefit to you. You can ask us to stop sharing your details at any time now or in the future. Our brand Consumer Friends may also contact you by email, SMS or Telephone to ask you questions for marketing purposes. These questions will be on behalf of companies who we will name at the time of the call and who will only contact you if you consent. Again, you can ask us to stop contacting you now at any time in the future. Be assured that any such parties will only be allowed to use your data in accordance with The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR 2018) and other applicable law relating to privacy. If you don’t want to share your details, you can ask us to stop at any time now or in the future.
What types of personal data do we collect and share?
The information we collect includes your name and contact information that you volunteer such as your telephone number, email address, mobile number and postal address. We may also ask you for your date of birth and during the course of our surveys details about your preferences likes and dislikes. We never collect credit card details, bank account number and any other sensitive information life medical history, political or religious beliefs. We may monitor or record your Calls, emails, SMS or other communications but we will do so in accordance with data protection legislation and other applicable law. Monitoring or Recording will always be for business purposes, such as for quality control and training (e.g. where you call our compliance or customer service department), to prevent unauthorized use of our telecommunication systems and sites, to ensure effective systems operation, to meet any legal obligation and/or to prevent or detect crime. We will periodically review your personal information to ensure that we do not keep it for longer than is permitted by law.
Where is your personal information held?
The Personal information we collect is stored securely in our in house secured servers. We use different network security technologies to help protect the information from any unauthorized access, use, or disclosure. The information will be accessible by only a limited people who have been authorized to do so inside our organization, and also, we have established procedures to cope with the events that happen and those are beyond our control.
How do we collect your personal information?
We collect Personal Information about you in several ways including the following: When you enter one of our competitions or prize draws; When you complete one of our lifestyle questionnaires or Surveys; When you complete our unsubscribe form; When we purchase or license your information from other suppliers; When you are entering Personal Information onto our website it is not until you click the submit button that Your Personal Information is transferred to us. Unfortunately, the internet is not a 100% secure medium and we cannot guarantee or accept any liability for any loss or damages in relation to information that you submit that is lost in transit. We also purchase and/or license Personal Information from other third parties. We call these third parties Data Contributors. Your Personal Information may be collected by Data Contributors if you have submitted information to a website, (for example when entering a prize draw), completed a telephone survey or lifestyle questionnaire or when buying goods and services from third parties. Regardless of the way your personal information is collected our data contributors warrant to us that you have consented to your personal information being passed to us and that the consent is current. We call this permission Opt-In (Legitimate Consumer Interest). We only ever work with data contributors that operate within UK Data Protection Law and are registered with the ICO at the time of purchase. You have the right under UK Data Protection Law to Opt-Out of receiving marketing communication at any time and more information is shown about this in privacy notice.
Legitimate Interest
Data may be processed in pursuance of legitimate interests. This includes using your data for postal and telephone marketing for ourselves or others but in either case communications will be in relation to products or services which we believe may be of interest to you based upon information which you have provided us. It also includes processing your data for ID protection and tracing purposes such as Credit Reference and Fraud Prevention. This is in relation to appropriate agencies which we have listed below which could help protect your identity and prevent fraud. As with all of your data you can also object to us processing your data in this way.
Who may we share your data with?
Marketing Service Providers are companies who collect data from Data Controllers, such as ourselves, and help their clients tailor products and services which best suit your needs. They may also use your data for fraud prevention. The Marketing Services Providers we work with are strictly limited to only those organizations who we have completed checks on and who will process your data in strict compliance with all laws, regulations and guidance with regard to Data Protection. We will share your data under strict license terms with the Marketing Services Providers listed below, who like us, will use it to create products and services to help organizations better understand the likely characteristics of their customers; communicate with them more effectively; and find others like them across a range of marketing channels:
This may mean that you receive advertising from organizations within the industry sectors listed below, that is more relevant to you via direct mail or when you visit a website, mobile app or watch TV. The Marketing Services Providers will not however advertise their own products or services to you.
Recipients within specific industry sectors listed below:-
Axowa : https://axowa.com
Matters Family: https://mhcimatters-ph.com/privacy-policy/
Lead 365 Ltd : https://www.lead365.co.uk/privacy-policy/
Consumer Choices : Privacy Policy: https://consumer-choices.co.uk/privacy-policy
Switch Experts : Privacy Policy: https://www.switchexperts.co.uk/privacy-policy/
Vodafone
Company Number: 1471587
Vodafone House, The Connection, Newbury, Berkshire, RG14 2FN
Privacy Policy: https://www.vodafone.co.uk/privacy?ltpn=UK:UCMS:MVA10Homepage<sn=footerCome-in<s1=8<s2=3<at=Privacy_policy<ad=4154
Marketing Channel: Telephone & SMS
Verticals: Telecoms
Homeshield Direct
Company Number: 10175420
168 Church Road, Hove, BN3 2DL
Privacy Policy: https://homeshielddirect.co.uk/privacy-policy/
Marketing Channel: Telephone
Verticals: Warranty, White Goods, Insurance
Brand Name: Supreme Consumers
Company Name: Nsd Technologies Pvt Ltd
ICO regn: ZA443079
Hutchison 3G Limited
Company Number: 03885486
Great Brighams Mead, 1 Vastern Road, Reading, Berkshire, RG1 8DJ
Privacy Policy: http://www.three.co.uk/privacy_safety
Marketing Channel: Telephone
Verticals: Warranty, White Goods, Insurance
O2
Company Number: 1743099
260 Bath Road, Slough, Berkshire, SL1 4DX
Privacy Policy: https://www.o2.co.uk/termsandconditions/privacy-policy
Marketing Channel: Telephone & SMS
Verticals: Telecoms
Worivo Infotech Pvt Ltd
Trading name- Leading Views
ICO Number: ZB133474
If you do not wish to receive any marketing calls from leading views please visit
privacy policy: http://www.leadingviews.co.uk/privacy-policy.html
Marketing Channel: Telephone
OVO Energy
Company Number: 06890795
1 Rivergate, Temple Quat, Bristol, BS1 6ED
Privacy Policy: https://www.ovoenergy.com/privacy-policy
Marketing Channel: Telephone
Verticals: Utility, Energy switching
Sure Cover Group
Company Number: 11275281
Tower Point, 44 North Road, Brighton, BN1 1YR
Privacy Policy: https://surecovergroup.co.uk/privacy-policy
Marketing Channel: Telephone
Verticals: Warranty, White Goods, Insurance
Infinics Technologies Private Limited : Privacy Policy: https://www.infinics.co/privacy-policy
UK Consumer Opinion : Privacy Policy: https://www.ukconsumeropinion.co.uk/privacy-policy
One Life
Utilita Energy
Hutwood Court, Bournemouth Road
Chandler's Frod, Eastleigh, SO53 3QB
Privacy Policy: https://www.utilita.co.uk/terms#privacy
British Gas
Millstream, Maidenhead Road,
Windsor, Berkshire,
SL4 5GD
Privacy Policy: https://www.britishgas.co.uk/privacy-policy.html
EDF Energy Limited
90 Whitfield Street, London,
W1T 4EZ
company number: 02366852
Shell Energy Limited
Shell Energy House, Westwood Business Park,
Westwood Way Coventry,
CV4 8HS
company number: 05070887
Utility Warehouse Limited
Network Hq 508 Edgware Road,
The Hyde, London,
NW9 5AB
company number: 04594421
Scottish Power Energy Limited
320 St Vincent Street, Glasgow
G2 5AD
company number: SC193794
This may mean that you receive advertising from organisations within the industry sectors listed below, that is more relevant to you via direct mail or when you visit a website, mobile app or watch TV. The Marketing Services Providers will not however advertise their own products or services to you.
| Sectors | Description and examples |
|---|---|
| Retail |
|
| Finance |
|
| Insurance |
|
| Travel |
|
| Lifestyle |
|
| Claims Management |
|
Other Agencies
We collect your data and will share it with third parties. These organizations will have a relationship with you or it may used where they have a lawful reason, which may include these organization’s own legitimate interests. Use includes tracing of individuals, verification and/or validation of the identity of individuals for the purposes of, but not limited to, anti-money laundering regulations, national security, crime prevention and Detection, anti-fraud processes, asset recovery and asset reunification. You have the right to object to this processing at any time by contacting us at info@consumerfriendsmarketinsurvey.co.uk or compliance@consumerfriendsmarketinsurvey.co.uk where permitted by data protection and privacy law, we may disclose information about you (including electronic such as IP addresses) and/or access your information: 1.If required or permitted to do so by law 2.If required to do so by any court, the Ministry of Justice, the Competition and Markets Authority 3.or any other applicable regulatory, compliance, Governmental or law enforcement agency, 4.If necessary in connection with legal proceedings or potential legal proceedings, and/or 5.In connection with the sale or potential sale of all or part of our business. If we reasonably believe false or inaccurate information has been provided and fraud is suspected, details may be passed to fraud prevention agencies to prevent fraud and money laundering.
What is Profiling?
We use some of the information you provide to identify lookalikes so our clients can target you with offers of goods and services tailored to you. We will never profile you on the basis of ethnicity, religion, politics or health as these are not valid reasons for which you should be targeted for marketing purposes and nor do we collect this information. We also do not make automated decisions about you which may have a negative impact on your rights. Marketing Services Providers we share your data with may also use profiling to target you for marketing purposes. Once again you can ask us to stop using your data in this way at any time.
Do we transfer your data to other countries?
We work with suppliers such as our call centres in the India, who may call you on our behalf to conduct our surveys under the name of Consumer Friends. These call centres act as our processors under strict instructions from ourselves. We monitor the calls they make to ensure quality is controlled and we regularly inspect their premises and check that security and data protection standards are of the highest quality
How long will we keep your data for ?
We will only keep your personal details for as long as is necessary or as long as you want. The law does not put a time limit on the amount of time we should hold your personal details for but as long as you are happy to hear from us we will continue to contact you. As we explain in the section marked what are my rights? You can withdraw your consent to us at any time. If you require further information on our data retention policies, please email: info@consumerfriendsmarketinsurvey.co.uk or compliance@consumerfriendsmarketinsurvey.co.uk
Where We Store Your Personal Data?
The data that we collect from you is stored at a secure destination in the India and is processed by our staff or staff working for one of our partner suppliers. All information you provide to us is stored on secure servers. By submitting your personal data, you agree to the storing, processing and transfer of the data in accordance with this privacy policy. We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy policy.
What are your rights?
We respect your rights to your personal data. The GDPR provides the following rights for individuals:
- Right to be informed – When we collect your data we have to tell you what we are going to do with it primarily through this Privacy Policy and consent statement.
- Right of access – You have the right to contact us in writing to request details of the information we hold about you.
- Right of rectification – You have the right to ask us to rectify information that we hold about you if it is inaccurate or incomplete.
- Right to erasure – This is also known as the right to be forgotten and gives you the right to request your information be removed if there is no compelling reason for its continued processing. A word of warning though we keep a list of people who have asked not to be contacted which we use to ensure that you receive no further marketing from our group or clients as a result of our activity.Without this list your data could enter our system again from another source and we would have no record of the fact that you asked us not to contact you.
- Right to restrict processing – this is the alternative to erasure and gives you the right to tell us to stop processing your data but allowing us to keep enough information about you to ensure that your wishes are respected in the future.
- Right to data portability – this gives you the right to ask a holder of your information to transfer that information to another business. This right would most commonly used if you were switching banks, insurance companies, utilities companies and mobile phone providers.
- Right to object – you have the right to object to the processing of your data for marketing purposes and profiling for marketing purposes. You also have the right to ask us to cease processing.based on our legitimate interests, where there is no overriding justification for the processing of your data. Your rights and freedoms override our interests.
Under data protection laws you have rights in relation to your personal data that include the right to request access, correction, erasure, restriction, transfer, to object to processing, to portability of data and (where the lawful ground of processing is consent) to withdraw consent.You can see more about these rights at:
If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please email us at dpo@consumerfriendsmarketinsurvey.co.uk
You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive or refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances. We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response. We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may 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. If you are not happy with any aspect of how we collect and use your data, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO),the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues their contact details are:
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Telephone: 0303 123 1113
www.ico.org.uk www.ico.org.uk"We should be grateful if you would contact us first if you do have a complaint so that we can try to resolve it for you"
- Right to withdraw consent at any time where relevant – you have the right to withdraw your consent to the processing of your information at any time and we must provide you with the information to need to do so, at the time we collect your data and each time we contact you. You can withdraw consent in the following ways:-
By email to: compliance@consumerfriendsmarketinsurvey.co.uk
By telephone on: (+44) 3334439729
Cookies Policy
When visiting consumerfriendsmarketinsurvey.co.uk, some information may be collected automatically using cookies. Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer or device by websites that you visit. They are widely used to allow sites to do things like provide personalized content and remember specific log-in details and settings. Cookies are used to make websites work, or work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the site and so they can analyze how the website is being used. Cookies can be temporary or permanent. Most cookies are deleted as soon as you close your browser or mobile application – these are known as session cookies. Others, known as persistent cookies, are stored on your computer or device either until you delete them, or they expire.
How you can obtain data we hold about you ?
You have the right to know what information we hold on our system about you at any given time. To obtain details of the information we hold as it relates specifically to you, you may contact Consumer Friends at compliance@consumerfriendsmarketinsurvey.co.uk or info@consumerfriendsmarketinsurvey.co.uk or by calling us directly at +441204208198. When contacting us to ascertain the information we hold about you, it would be helpful if you could provide us with details of your full name, address and contact details.
Contact Us
If you have any questions or comments about this Privacy Policy, wish to exercise your information rights in connection with the personal data you have shared with us or wish to complain, please contact us at:
Telephone : (+44) 3334439729
Email : compliance@consumerfriendsmarketinsurvey.co.uk
Updating this Privacy Policy
We keep this Privacy Policy under regular review. This policy was last reviewed in July 2021.