Ricardo Research Limited respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data. In this privacy policy we explain how we collect and use your personal information when you visit our website, or buy or use our services.

“We” are Ricardo Research Limited (company number 11363604) and our registered office is c/o Brabners LLP, Horton House, Exchange Flags, Liverpool L2 3YL. We are the data controller for the purposes of the Data Protection Act 2018, the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and any other data protection legislation applicable in the UK from time to time.

If you have any questions about your privacy on our website, or our use of your personal data, please contact us.

Please note that links from our website may take you to external websites which are not covered by this policy. We recommend that you check their privacy policies before submitting any personal information to such sites. We will not be responsible for the content, function or information collection policies of these external websites.

What information do we collect about you and how do we collect it?

You are not required (by law or by any contract with us) to provide personal information to us via our website. We will only require you to provide personal information to us where it is necessary for us to provide you with a service at your request.

Information you provide to us

We may receive personal information about you whenever you contact us. For example, by doing the following:

  • Enquiring about any of our services or requesting information on any of our services.
  • Purchasing our services and providing us with instructions.
  • Supplying us with your products or services.
  • Using and browsing our website.
  • Telephoning, texting, writing by post or emailing us.
  • Supplying us with a testimonial e.g. for use on our website.
  • Subscribing to our mailing list or newsletters.
  • Enquiring about, or applying for, job vacancies.

This information may include the following:

  • Normal identification information, such as your full name, date of birth, age, sex, gender identity, marital status, employer, job title and place of work.
  • Contact information, such as your postal address, email address and telephone number.
  • Additional information relevant to your use of our services and our website, such as your marketing preferences, survey responses and feedback.
  • Payment information.
  • In respect of job applications, your CV including details of your education and employment history (and any other information which you may choose to provide to us in addition to your CV).

Information we collect about you on our website

We collect information using cookies and other similar technologies to help distinguish you from other users of our website. These can streamline your online experience by saving you from re-inputting some information and also allow us to make improvements to our website. Further information on our use of cookies is set out later in this document.

When you visit our website we may collect the following information:

  • Browser details, such as which pages you view and which links you follow.
  • Your IP address and general location.
  • Details of the hardware and software that you are using to access the website.
  • Where you are using a mobile phone to access our website, data that identifies the mobile device being used, device location and any specific settings applied.
  • A device identifier (cookie or IP address) for fraud prevention.
  • Details of your visits to our website and the resources that you access, including, but not limited to, traffic data, location data, weblogs and other communication data.

Our website is not intended for children and we do not knowingly collect data relating to children.

Information we collect about you from other sources

We may collect information about you from other sources. This may include the following:

  • Publicly available information, from sources such as Companies House and the Electoral Roll.
  • Information you have shared publicly, including on social media.
  • If you apply for a job, we may collect information about your criminal record by obtaining a DBS check through an approved agency (where required or permitted by law).
  • Information from third parties, such as credit reference agencies.

This list is not exhaustive and, in specific instances, we may need to collect additional data for the purposes set out in this policy.

How and why do we use your personal information?

We take data protection law seriously, so below we have set out exactly how and why we use your information, and what our legal basis is to be able to use your information in each way.

Providing our services

It is necessary for us to use personal information about you to enter into and perform the contracts that we make with you, such as when you become a customer. To process your personal data in this way, we will rely on legal bases of performing our contract with you and pursuing our legitimate interests. Using your information in this context is necessary so that we can:

  • Provide you with information about your contract with us.
  • Provide you with information about our services.
  • Verify your identity.
  • Make a decision to supply our services.
  • Deal with any complaints you may have.
  • Contact you about any changes that we make to our services.
  • Administer our website, including troubleshooting problems, analysing statistics, conducting research and tests and keeping the website secure.
  • Taking any payments from you.

If you enquire about, or apply for, a job vacancy, it is necessary for us to use your personal information as part of the recruitment process, in order to assess your suitability for a particular role.

Telling you about other services that we think may be of interest to you

We may use your information to identify and tell you about our services that we think may be of interest to you. We will only do this where you have informed us that you would like to receive marketing communications and you may update your preferences at any time by contacting us.

We may also use your information to invite you to participate in market research. If we do contact you about market research, you do not have to participate. If you tell us that you do not want to receive market research communications, we will respect this.

Whether you choose to receive marketing communications, or market research communications is entirely up to you. You can choose to receive both, none, or just one or the other. Your choice will not affect any services that you have purchased from us, nor will it affect any quotes for services you buy in future.

Telling you about services that are similar to ones that you have already bought

If you have already bought a service from us, or you have already obtained a quote from us, we may contact you with some information about services that are similar. We will rely on the lawful basis of legitimate interests in doing so.

We will only contact you by email and you can choose not to receive these messages at any time. Simply follow the instructions in the email, or contact us.

Making our business better

We always want to offer the best services and experience that we can. Sometimes this means we may use your information to find ways that we can improve what we do, or how we do it.

In this context, we will rely on the lawful basis of legitimate interests and will only use your information where it is necessary so that we can:

  • Review and improve our existing services and develop new ones.
  • Review and improve the performance of our systems, processes and staff (including training).
  • Improve our website to ensure that content is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer.

Contacting you

We want to stay in touch with you. Sometimes we may need to use the information that we have about you in order to respond to your questions or let you know about important changes. We will rely on the lawful basis of performing our contract with you and pursing our legitimate interests when we contact you.

We will only use your information in this respect where it is necessary so that we can:

  • Interact and respond to any communications you send us, including where you use the Contact Us section, and any social media posts that you tag us in.
  • Let you know about any important changes to our business or policies.

Verifying your identity

We may use your information where it is necessary for us to do so in order to meet our legal obligations or to detect and prevent fraud, money laundering and other crimes. Any personal data received to comply with our obligations in respect of the Money Laundering Regulations 2017 will be processed only for the purposes of preventing money laundering and terrorist financing.

Protecting you and others from harm

We may use your information where it is necessary to protect your interests, or the interests of others, in accordance with our legal and regulatory obligations and the pursuit of legitimate interests.

Change of purpose

We will only use your personal information for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If we need to use your personal information for an unrelated purpose we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.

Please note that we may process your personal information without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.

Who do we share your personal information with?

Sharing your information within our company

We share the information that you provide to us with our staff so that we can provide our services to you.

Sharing your information with third parties

We may share your data with selected third parties. For example, we may share your information with:

  • Internet hosting providers to host the website, related infrastructure, services and applications.
  • Contact management systems to send emails on our behalf.
  • Technology providers and developers to fix website issues or develop new website features to improve the experience of our website.
  • Other third party service providers who provide services on our behalf or supports our business functions which includes support with business administration, accounting and payment processing, marketing, customer feedback support, analytical, legal compliance, quality assurance or technical development.
  • The Financial Conduct Authority as necessary to meet our regulatory obligations.
  • Payment providers and other financial third parties in order to provide you with our services and process payments.

There are certain exceptional circumstances in which we may disclose your information to third parties. This would be where we believe that the disclosure is:

  • Required by the law, or in order to comply with judicial proceedings, court orders or legal or regulatory proceedings.
  • Necessary to protect the safety of our employees, our property or the public.
  • Necessary for the prevention or detection of crime, including exchanging information with other companies or organisations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction.
  • Proportionate as part of a merger, business or asset sale, in the event that this happens we will share your information with the prospective seller or buyer involved.
How long do we keep your personal information?

We will only store your personal information for as long as we need it for the purposes for which it was collected. Where we provide you with any service, we will retain any information you provide to us at least for as long as we continue to provide that service to you.

If you apply for a job vacancy (or otherwise send us your CV) we will retain your CV (and any publicly available information, for example from social media) for a period of 3 years. If we are considering you for a particular role, we may retain this information for longer than that period.

Thereafter, and in all other circumstances, we will keep your information for a period of 3 years.

How do we protect your personal information?

We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this policy.

We try to ensure that all information you provide to us is transferred securely via the website. 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 website; 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.

All information you provide to us is stored on third party secure servers in the UK.

What rights do you have in respect of your personal information?

If you require any further information about your rights as explained below, or if you would like to exercise any of your rights, please contact us.

You have the right to be informed

We have a legal obligation to provide you with concise, transparent, intelligible and easily accessible information about your personal information and our use of it. We have written this policy to comply with this right.

You have the right to access your personal data

You have the right to ask us to confirm whether or not we hold any of your personal information. If we do, you have the right to have a copy of your information and to be informed of the following:

  • Why we have been using your information.
  • What categories of information we were using.
  • Who we have shared the information with.
  • How long we envisage holding your information.

In order to maintain the security of your information, we will have to verify your identity before we provide you with a copy of the information we hold. The first copy of your information that you request from us will be provided free of charge, if you require further copies we may charge an administrative fee to cover our costs.

You have the right to correct any inaccurate or incomplete personal data

Where you have requested a copy of the information we hold about you, you may notice that there are inaccuracies in the records, or that certain parts are incomplete. If this is the case you can contact us so that we can correct our records.

You have the right to be forgotten

There may be times where it is no longer necessary for us to hold personal information about you. This could be if:

  • The information is no longer needed for the original purpose that we collected it for.
  • You withdraw your consent for us to use the information (and we have no other legal reason to keep using it).
  • You object to us using your information and we have no overriding reason to keep using it.
  • We have used your information unlawfully.
  • We are subject to a legal requirement to delete your information.

In those situations you have the right to have your personal data deleted. If you believe one of these situations applies to you, please contact us.

You have the right to have your data transferred to you or a third party in a common format

Also known as data portability, you have the right to obtain a copy of your personal data for your own purposes. This right allows you to move, copy or transfer your personal data more easily from one IT system to another, in a safe and secure way.

If you would like us to transfer a copy of your data to you or another organisation in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format, please contact us. There is no charge for you exercising this right.

You have the right to object to direct marketing

You can tell us at any time that you would prefer that we do not use your information for direct marketing purposes. If you would not like to receive any direct marketing from us, please contact us or use the links provided in any of our marketing communications.

You have the right to object to us using your information for our own legitimate interests

Sometimes, we use your personal information to achieve goals that will help us as well as you. This includes when we tell you about services that are similar to ones you have already bought; when we use your information to help us make our business better; and when we contact you to interact, communicate or to let you know about changes we are making.

We aim to always ensure that your rights and information are properly protected. If you believe that the way we are using your data is not justified due to its impact on you or your rights, you have the right to object. Unless we have a compelling reason to continue, we must stop using your personal data for these purposes.

You have the right to restrict how we use your personal data

You have the right to ask us to stop using your personal data in any way other than simply keeping a copy of it. This right is available where:

  • You have informed us that the information we hold about you is inaccurate, and we have not yet been able to verify this.
  • You have objected to us using your information for our own legitimate interests and we are in the process of considering your objection.
  • We have used your information in an unlawful way, but you do not want us to delete your data.
  • We no longer need to use the information, but you need it for a legal claim.
Cookies policy

What is a cookie?

A cookie is a small text file that is sent by a website server to your browser and stored on your computer. Cookies allow website operators to accumulate useful information, such as whether the computer (or its user) has visited the site before. Cookies are needed for a number of functions which make websites work, or work more efficiently, and they can provide information to website owners about how you use their website.

How do we use cookies?

We use cookies to monitor how people use our website, including estimating audience size and patterns of use, to help us provide you with a better service. Cookies also make it easier for you to use the website on future visits, and allow us to personalise the content of the website to you by recording information about your preferences.

We use both persistent cookies (which expire on a specified date) and session cookies (which expire when you close your browser).

The cookies used on this site have been categorised based on definitions given in the ICC UK Cookie Guide. We use the following cookies:

  • Strictly necessary cookies. These are cookies that are required for the operation of our website.
  • Analytical/performance cookies. These allow us to recognise and count our website’s visitors and to see how visitors move around our website when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way our website works, for example, by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily. We use Google Analytics performance cookies to provide anonymous statistics on how our site is used. Some of our performance cookies may be managed by third parties.
  • Functionality cookies. These are used to recognise you when you return to our website. This enables us to personalise our content for you, greet you by name and remember your preferences (for example, your choice of language or region – or your cookies and marketing preferences).
  • Targeting cookies. These cookies record your visit to our website, the pages you have visited and the links you have followed.

Please note that third parties (including, for example providers of external services like web traffic analysis services such as Google Analytics), may also use cookies, over which we have no control. These cookies are likely to be analytical/performance cookies or targeting cookies.

You decide which cookies we use

We understand that not everyone wants to contribute to statistics on website use, so you can configure your cookie settings in your web browser. However, please bear in mind that if you don’t allow us to use certain cookies it may prevent you from accessing parts of our website or result in a loss of functionality which degrades your experience of the website.

What cookies do we use?

We use the following cookies on the website.

  • _ga (Google Analytics) – Used to distinguish users. Expiration: 2 years
  • _gid (Google Analytics) – Used to distinguish users. Expiration: 24 hours
  • _gat (Google Analytics) – Used to ensure server requests are conducted in an orderly sequence. Expiration: 1 minute
  • AMP_TOKEN (Google Analytics) – Contains a token that can be used to retrieve a Client ID from AMP Client ID service. Other possible values indicate opt-out, inflight request or an error retrieving a Client ID from AMP Client ID service. Expiration: 30 seconds to 1 year
  • __utma (Google Analytics) – Used to distinguish users and sessions. The cookie is created when the javascript library executes and no existing __utma cookies exists. The cookie is updated every time data is sent to Google Analytics. Expiration: 2 years from set/update
  • __utmt (Google Analytics) – Used to ensure server requests are conducted in an orderly sequence. Expiration: 10 minutes
  • __utmb (Google Analytics) – Used to determine new sessions/visits. The cookie is created when the javascript library executes and no existing __utmb cookies exists. The cookie is updated every time data is sent to Google Analytics. Expiration: 30 mins from set/update
  • __utmc (Google Analytics) – Used to determine whether the user is in a new session/visit Expiration: End of browser session
  • __utmz (Google Analytics) – Stores the traffic source or campaign that explains how the user reached the site. The cookie is created when the javascript library executes and is updated every time data is sent to Google Analytics. Expiration: 6 months from set/update
  • __utmv (Google Analytics) – Used to store visitor-level custom variable data. The cookie is updated every time data is sent to Google Analytics. Expiration: 2 years from set/update

Further information about cookies

There’s a lot of useful information about cookies available online. For more information about cookies generally, visit allaboutcookies.org.
Contact us if you have any questions about how we use cookies.

Changes to our Privacy Policy

Any changes we make to our privacy policy in the future will be posted on this page and, where appropriate, notified to you by email. Please check back frequently to see any updates or changes to our privacy policy.

This version was last updated on 9 September 2021.

Complaints

If you wish to make a complaint about our collection or use of your personal data, please contact us in the first instance so that we may seek to resolve your complaint.
You have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the statutory body which oversees data protection law in the UK. Please visit the ICO website if you wish to lodge a complaint with the ICO.

Contact Us

Our contact details are as follows:
Post: Ricardo Research Limited, c/o Brabners LLP, Horton House, Exchange Flags, Liverpool L2 3YL
Email: info[at]ricardoresearch.com
Website: www.ricardoresearch.com