Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

The Collective is operated by Participation Studio, a trading name of Dual Perspective Limited, company number 16863492, registered address The Glass Box, 6 Friendly Street, Huddersfield, HD1 1RD.

We are the data controller for the personal information you provide when joining The Collective. You can contact us at [email protected].

2. What information we collect

When you register for The Collective, we collect and store the following categories of information:

Account information

• First and last name
• Email address
• Password (stored as a one-way encrypted hash, never in plain text)
• Voucher preference (Amazon or Love2Shop, used to send incentive payments)

Demographic information

• Year of birth
• Gender
• Ethnic background (using ONS categories)
• Full postcode (e.g. LS1 4DY). We use this to derive an approximate geographic coordinate via a third-party postcode lookup service (postcodes.io) in order to match you to nearby in-person studies. The coordinate is stored alongside your postcode and is used only for distance-based matching.
• Employment status

Household and socioeconomic information

The following fields are optional and help us match you to studies that are looking for specific household or socioeconomic profiles:

• Occupation type (based on Standard Occupational Classification categories)
• Annual household income (broad band, e.g. £25,000–£34,999)
• Highest education level
• Children under 16 in your household
• Household size

These fields can be left blank or updated at any time through your dashboard.

Health and disability information

This is special category data under UK GDPR and is treated with additional care. We collect:

• Whether you consider yourself to have a disability, long-term health condition, or temporary injury or illness
• Broad category of condition or disability, chosen from a list including: mobility or physical disability; chronic condition (e.g. diabetes, heart condition); mental health condition; sensory impairment (vision or hearing); neurological condition (e.g. MS, epilepsy); recovering from injury or surgery; learning difference (e.g. dyslexia, ADHD); living with obesity; fertility or reproductive health; other

You are never required to disclose specific diagnoses, medications, or detailed medical history to join The Collective. If a specific research study requires more detailed health information, this will be collected through a separate, clearly labelled screener process with its own consent.

Research preferences

• Types of research you are willing to take part in (e.g. remote video, surveys, in-person sessions)
• Topics you are interested in (e.g. health, banking, technology)
• Whether you are willing to be contacted for health and medical technology research
• Availability preferences

Screener responses

When you apply for a specific research opportunity, we may ask additional screening questions. Your responses are stored linked to that opportunity and used only to assess your suitability.

Availability data

If you submit availability for a specific research window, we store your selected dates and time slots. This is used only to schedule research sessions.

Participation history

• Research opportunities you have opted in to
• Opt-in status (pending, confirmed, declined, completed)
• Number of sessions completed
• Total value of vouchers received

Communication preferences

• Whether opportunity notification emails are active or paused for your account
• Record of emails sent (subject line and date), retained for up to three years

Referrals

• Your personal invite code, created when you first open your invite link
• If you joined through another member's invite link, a record of which member that was

We use this only to show a member how many people have joined through their link, and to help us spot duplicate accounts. We never tell a member who joined through their link, and we never tell you who invited someone.

3. How we use your information

We use your information for the following purposes:

Matching you to research opportunities

We use your demographic, health, and preference information to identify which research studies you may be suitable for and eligible to take part in. Legal basis: legitimate interests (operating our participant matching service). Where health data is involved, we rely on your explicit consent provided at sign-up.

Sending you opportunity notifications

When you join The Collective, your membership includes receiving emails about research opportunities matched to your profile. This is the core service you signed up for and not commercial marketing. We do not promote unrelated products or services. Legal basis: legitimate interests (operating our participant matching service, which members join specifically to receive). You can pause or stop these emails at any time by unsubscribing via the link in any email, or by updating your preference in your dashboard. Pausing notifications does not affect other service-related emails (such as study confirmations or reminders).

Managing your participation

We use your information to manage your applications, confirm your place in studies, and record your participation history. Legal basis: contract (your membership of The Collective).

Processing voucher payments

We use your email address to send Amazon gift vouchers following completed sessions. Legal basis: contract.

Improving our service

We use anonymised, aggregated data about our participant community to improve the quality and relevance of our research matching. No identifiable information is used for this purpose.

4. Special category data

Health and disability information is special category data under Article 9 of UK GDPR. We collect and process this information only with your explicit consent, which you provide when completing your profile. You can withdraw this consent at any time by removing health information from your profile or closing your account. Withdrawal of consent does not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal.

A separate in-profile preference allows you to indicate whether you are willing to be considered for health and medical technology research specifically. This preference can be updated or withdrawn at any time from your dashboard without affecting your general membership.

5. Who we share your information with

We do not sell your personal data. We do not share identifiable information about you with research clients. Where a client is running a study through Participation Studio, they receive only anonymised or aggregated participant information unless you have given specific consent for identifiable sharing as part of a particular study (which would be covered by a separate consent process).

We may share your information with:

• Our hosting provider, for the purposes of storing data securely on UK or EEA servers
• Email service providers, for the purposes of sending you opportunity emails and vouchers
• Legal and regulatory authorities, where required by law

6. How long we keep your information

We keep your profile information for as long as your account is active. If you close your account, we anonymise all identifiable personal data within 30 days. Anonymised data (with no link back to you) may be retained for statistical purposes.

Email logs and participation records are retained for up to three years for the purposes of managing ongoing relationships and resolving disputes.

7. Your rights

Under UK GDPR you have the following rights:

• Right of access: you can request a copy of the personal data we hold about you
• Right to rectification: you can correct inaccurate or incomplete data via your dashboard or by contacting us
• Right to erasure: you can close your account and request deletion of your personal data
• Right to restriction: you can ask us to restrict processing of your data in certain circumstances
• Right to data portability: you can download your profile and application history as a JSON file from the Account tab of your dashboard, or request it from us
• Right to object: you can object to processing based on legitimate interests, including pausing opportunity notification emails via your dashboard or unsubscribe link
• Right to withdraw consent: where processing is based on consent (including health and disability data), you can withdraw it at any time

Some of these you can act on yourself in the Account tab of your dashboard: download your data, pause opportunity emails, or close your account. For anything else — including a full copy of everything we hold on you — email [email protected]. We will respond within one month.

8. Cookies and tracking

The Collective uses session storage (not cookies) to maintain your signed-in state within a browser session. This data is not transmitted to third parties and is cleared when you close your browser. We do not use tracking pixels, third-party analytics, or advertising cookies on The Collective pages.

9. Security

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data, including encrypted password storage, HTTPS, and access controls on our database. No method of transmission over the internet is completely secure, but we take reasonable steps to protect your information.

10. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. If we make significant changes, we will notify you by email if you have opted in to communications, or via a notice on The Collective pages. The date at the top of this page shows when it was last updated.

11. Complaints

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your personal data, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk or by calling 0303 123 1113.

12. Contact

For any data-related queries, contact:
Participation Studio (Dual Perspective Limited)
The Glass Box, 6 Friendly Street, Huddersfield, HD1 1RD
[email protected]