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Privacy policy

We want to introduce you to our Privacy Policy, which explains how we look after the information that you share with us, and what rights you have as a member of the Thames Water Customer Voices community. This information is for the website hosted at thameswatercustomervoices.co.uk ("Our Site") and is designed to ensure you are protected and your privacy respected. Whilst this might seem formal, it is here to enable your security and enjoyment of being part of the Community.

Introduction

The Site is operated on behalf of Thames Water, For the purposes of The UK General Data Protection Regulations 2016 & the Data Protection Act 2018 ("Data Protection Law"), Thames Water are the data controller. For our contact details please see below.

The Site is powered and hosted by Verve Partners Limited ("Verve") who provides Thames Water with a Community for the purposes of conducting market research among Thames Water customers. Verve acts as a data processor, processing your personal data on behalf of Thames Water for the purposes of providing you with access to the community Site.

Acknowledgment

This policy and the Terms of Use set out the basis on which any personal data we collect from you, or that you provide to us, will be processed by us.

Please read the following carefully to understand our approach and handling regarding your personal data and how we will treat it.

By registering as a member of Thames Water Customer Voices, you acknowledge you have read and understood this Privacy Policy.

What is Thames Water Customer Voices?

Thames Water Customer Voices is Thames Water’s online market research community made up of people like you that want to get involved in helping Thames Water improve their services.

Who is Verve?

Verve Partners Limited ("Verve") is an independent market research company that specialises in building and managing online communities. Thames Water has commissioned Verve to manage Thames Water Customer Voices. Verve is responsible for the maintenance of the community panel website, setting up and managing research activities such as surveys and discussions, and community administration and data security. Information you have shared with us will be passed to Thames Water at an aggregated level unless we have gained your expressed consent to disclose who you are.

Information we collect about you

We will collect and process the following personal data from you:

Information you give us: This is information about you that you give us directly when you interact with us by filling in forms on the Site or by corresponding with us by phone, e-mail or otherwise. It includes information you provide when you register to use the Site, participate in discussions, surveys, answer mini polls, suggest ideas on or via the Site, enter a competition, promotion or survey, submit a query, and when you report a problem with the Site.

The information you give us may include your name, address, e-mail and phone number, personal description, photograph, login and password details, responses to surveys, media capture (including video and voice recordings) and other discussions which take place on the Site.

Information we collect about you from using the Site: We will automatically collect information from you each time you visit the Site. This includes:

  • Technical information. This may include the Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the Internet, your login information, browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform.
  • Information about your visit. This may include the full Uniform Resource Locators (URL), clickstream to, through and from Our Site (including date and time), products you viewed or searched for, page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks, and mouse-overs) and methods used to browse away from the page.
  • Location data. We collect information through the Site as to your real-time location to provide location services where requested or agreed to by you in order to deliver content, activities or other services that are dependent on knowing where you are. This information is also collected in combination with an identifier associated with your device to enable us to recognise your mobile browser or device when you return to the Site.

Information we receive from other sources. This is information we receive about you:

  • With regards to services supplied by Thames Water which you have given permission for them to share;
  • from third parties Thames Water and Verve work closely with.

Verve are working closely with third parties (including, for example, business partners, sub-contractors in technical analytics, and search information providers). We will notify you when we receive information about you from them, and if we intend to share your data with them, and the purposes for which we intend to use it for. We will also tell you if we combine the data collected from third parties with data collected about you, and for what purpose.

Cookies and other technologies

As described in our Cookie Policy, we use cookies and similar technologies (e.g., web beacons and device identifiers) to recognise you and/or your device(s). You can control cookies through your browser settings and other tools. You can also opt out from our use of cookies and similar technologies that track your behaviour. Details of the cookies we use can be found in our Cookie Policy.

Our use of your information

Information we collect from you may be used for the following purposes:

  • to contact you by email to invite you to take part in specific market, social and satisfaction research activities;
  • to obtain your views on services and the activities of the Community;
  • for entry into free prize draws and to contact you should you win and to send you any prizes;
  • for informing you of the benefit/s to you, as a result of your registering to use the Community and participating in surveys;
  • to process your answers to surveys and analyse the results:
    • this may be in aggregated form which does not identify you, or
    • at a level which will only be associated with your screen name and will not contain any personally identifiable information or be in a manner which enables us to identify you personally;
  • to provide you with information and services that you directly request from Verve and Thames Water – for Personal Identifiable information shared with Thames Water, we will gain your consent prior to doing so;
  • to help improve services, for example enabling Thames Water to act upon information you provide or to deal with any complaints or concerns you raise;
  • to ensure that content from the Community is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer and/or device(s);
  • to notify you about changes to the Community or this Privacy Policy.

We may combine information we receive from other sources with information you give to us and will use the combined information for the purposes set out above.

Also, if you contact us, Verve may keep a record of that correspondence.

Who we give your information to

We may give your information to:

  • Any member of the Thames Water group, which means subsidiaries, who support processing of personal data under this policy.
  • Selected third parties. We may disclose your personal information to third parties:
    • In the event of winning in our prize draws or to reward you for your participation in the research activities, your name and email address will be shared and hosted onto the Vex Rewards platform, in order for Verve to process your reward. For Vex Rewards Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy, please access: https://verve.vexrewards.com/SignIn/ViewTerms.aspx. If you do not wish for Verve to share your details in order to process a reward, please email the helpdesk to inform us.
    • In the event that Verve sell or buy any business or assets, in which case we will disclose your personal data to the prospective seller or buyer of such business or assets subject to the terms of this Privacy Policy.
    • If our or substantially all of our assets are acquired by a third party, in which case personal data held by it about its customers will be one of the transferred assets.
    • If Verve or Thames Water are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation, or in order to enforce or apply our terms of supply terms and other agreements with you; or to protect the rights, property, or safety of Verve and or Thames Water, our users, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction and to prevent cybercrime.

Legal basis for processing personal information

Our legal basis for collecting and using the personal information described above will depend on the personal information concerned and the specific context in which we collect it.

However, we will normally collect personal information from you only (i) where we need the personal information to perform a contract with you, (ii) where the processing is in Thames Water’s legitimate interests and not overridden by your data protection interests or fundamental rights and freedoms, or (iii) where we have your consent to do so. In some cases, we may also have a legal obligation to collect personal information from you or may otherwise need the personal information to protect your vital interests or those of another person.

If we ask you to provide personal information to comply with a legal requirement or to perform a contract with you, we will make this clear at the relevant time and advise you whether the provision of your personal information is mandatory or not (as well as of the possible consequences if you do not provide your personal information).

Similarly, if we collect and use your personal information in reliance on our legitimate interests (or those of any third party), we will make clear to you at the relevant time what those legitimate interests are.

If you have questions about or need further information concerning the legal basis on which we collect and use your personal information, please contact us.

Where we store your information

The data that collected from you will be transferred to, and stored at, a destination inside the UK or European Economic Area ("EEA").

Public forums

The Site may make chat rooms, message boards, news groups and/or other public forums available to its users. Any information that is disclosed in these areas becomes public information and you should exercise caution when using these and avoid posting any personal information.

How we protect your information

Thames Water have engaged Verve as their trusted partner, and we use appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect the personal information that is collected and processed about you. The measures used are designed to provide a level of security appropriate to the risk of processing your personal information. All information you provide is stored on secure servers. These use a number of controls to ensure your data is kept secure at all times. As an ISO 27001 certified company, Verve has the administrative, technical and physical controls in place to keep your data secure at all times. Where you have been given (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of Our Site, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share a password with anyone.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to Our Site; any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.

Our Site may, from time to time, contain links to external sites. We are not responsible for the privacy policies or the content of such sites.

How long we keep your information

Data is retained for the life cycle of the Community and in accordance with the contract between Thames Water and Verve, which may require the data to be stored for a further six months after the closure of the Community. This is in line with data protection legislation and Market Research Society guidelines on retention of data. This may include retention necessary to meet our contractual obligations to you, to identify issues or to resolve legal proceedings. We may also retain aggregate information beyond this time for research purposes and to help us develop and improve our services. You cannot be identified from aggregate information retained or used for these purposes.

Your rights

  • You have the right under certain circumstances:
    • to be provided with a copy of your personal data held by us;
    • to request the rectification or erasure of your personal data held by us;
    • to request that we restrict the processing of your personal data (while we verify or investigate your concerns with this information, for example);
    • to object to the further processing of your personal data;
    • to request that your provided personal data be moved to a third party.
  • Your right to withdraw consent: where the processing of your personal information by us is based on consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent without detriment at any time by contacting us.

You can also exercise the rights listed above at any time by contacting us at (helpdesk).

If your request or concern is not satisfactorily resolved by us, you may approach the data protection regulator, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at: www.ico.org.uk/concerns (opens in a new window; please note we cannot be responsible for the content of external websites).

Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time in response to changing legal, technical or business developments. When we update our Privacy Policy, we will take appropriate measures to inform you, consistent with the significance of the changes we make. This policy was last updated in August 2021.

Contact us

Questions, comments and requests regarding this Privacy Policy are welcomed and should be addressed to Verve helpdesk.