Our Privacy Policy

Our Privacy Philosophy

At MyTravelResearch.com, we recognise that the only way we can deliver truly predictive insights is on the basis of trust.  Without that trust, we cannot exist.  A key part of that trust is delivered by maintaining privacy.  As such, privacy is not just a legal requirement for us – it is something we passionately believe in.

We ensure we keep up to date with the best thinking in privacy principles from around the world. 

Our Principal, Carolyn Childs has been a full member of the UK Market Research Society for more than 20 years.  It is a requirement of membership that understanding and commitment to privacy and the research code of conduct are maintained at all times.  Carolyn also acts as our Privacy Officer. 

We base our privacy principles on the following documents:

• 2014 UK MRS code of conduct 
• ICC (International Chamber of Commerce) and ESOMAR (international research bodies) as set out in their 2007 Code of Conduct and updated with specific topics in 2011 
• AMSRS Code of Behaviour (http://www.mrsa.com.au/files/Code_of_Professional_Behaviour.pdf)
• For research in Australia, we comply with the law of the 2010 Privacy Act   and with the 2014 Australian Privacy Principles . This includes any updates or amendments to this.
• The EU General Data Protection Regulations which came into force on 25th May 2018.

In essence, we use any personal data we hold in the ways we tell you we will when you provide it.  You can only be in our systems if you have consented to be there either by agreeing to participate in research, by buying products and services from us, by signing up to receive communications from us or by attending an event or conference where you explicitly gave consent for your data to be used in this way.  You can opt out at any time.

We follow the practice of collecting the minimum amount of personal information necessary to fulfill the expectations you have of us.

How we use information, manage and protect data provided by clients, prospects, and participants

MyTravelResearch.com is a market intelligence services company.  Market Research is a critical part of our business.

For research participants

We use information collected solely for research purposes, to investigate the behaviour, needs, attitudes, opinions, motivations, or other characteristics of individuals, companies, or other organisations. We do this in order to provide information to our clients; government, commercial and not-for-profit organisations, which will assist them in making decisions about their products and services.

The information we gather is usually collected from individuals; for example, by a telephone, face-to-face, email, or on-line survey (including online bulletin boards), other form of interview, from a discussion group or from desk research. In some instances we undertake research on our clients’ customers, staff or other stakeholders and in these cases our client may provide us with a list of their customers, staff or other stakeholders to invite to participate in a research project. Participation is entirely voluntary.

Where MyTravelResearch.com retains information such as contact details, demographic information and other data that has been supplied by individuals, this data is not connected with any one individual as the data we keep is aggregated with information from other participants in our research project. Any information collected is de-identified as soon as the project is completed unless we need to keep it . We only use contact details to verify data, to send a summary report of our findings to participants in our research, provide incentives or prizes where these are part of the project, or to conduct further research.

Research participants have the right to request access to, and/or correction or deletion of any information about them held by MyTravelResearch.com.  We will do our best to comply with any requests to do so as promptly as possible and we do not charge for this.

For clients and prospective clients

When we hold your personal information, it will be used for the following primary purposes:

1. to ensure the proper functioning of the Website;
2. to ensure the proper functioning of the MyTravelResearch.com business;
3. to assist us with our auditing, marketing, planning, billing, product development and research requirements;
4. to comply with any legal or professional standards requirements.

First and foremost, we use your personal data to operate our website and provide you with any services you’ve requested/purchased, and to manage our relationship with you. We also use your personal data for other purposes, which may include the following:

To communicate with you.

This may include:

• providing you with information you’ve requested from us (or information we are required to send to you for operational communications, like changes to our website and services, security updates, or assistance with using our website and services)
• marketing communications in accordance with your marketing preferences
• asking you for feedback or to take part in any research we are conducting, which we may engage a third party to assist with.

To support you:

This may include assisting with the resolution of technical support issues or other issues relating to the website or services. 

To enhance our services and develop new ones:

For example, by tracking and monitoring your use of our website and services so we can keep improving, or by carrying out technical analysis of our website and services so that we can optimise your user experience and provide you with more efficient tools.

To protect:

So that we can detect and prevent any fraudulent or malicious activity, and make sure that everyone is using our websites and services fairly and in accordance with our terms of use.

In the event of any breach we will let you know promptly.

To market to you:

In addition to sending you marketing communications, we may also use your personal data to display targeted advertising to you online including through third party websites and their platforms.

To analyse, aggregate and report:

We may use the personal data we collect about you and other users of our website and services (whether obtained directly or from third parties) to produce aggregated and anonymised analytics and reports, which we may share publicly or with third parties.

We will not use or disclose (or permit the use or disclosure of) information that could be used to identify an individual member in any circumstances except:

• to ensure the proper functioning of our business and the Websites;
• to communicate offers and events to you;
• to allow our trusted third parties, including our advertising partners, to communicate offers to you;
• where the law requires us or authorises us, or a company holding data on our behalf, to do so; or
• where you have given express consent to us for a prescribed purpose.

We will not sell, distribute, rent, licence, disclose, share or pass your personal information onto any third parties, other than those who are contracted to us to keep the information confidential whether subject to a statute or a scheme regarding the handling of personal information.

Should a third party approach us with a demand to access your personal information, we will take reasonable steps to redirect the third party to request the information directly from you, wherever it is lawful and reasonable for us to do so.

If we are compelled to disclose your personal information to a third party, we will take reasonable steps to notify you of this in advance, wherever it is lawful and reasonable for us to do so.

Our trusted third party partners comply with Europe’s new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Our Third Party Partners, who may place cookies and tracking technology on your computer or device, include:

• Google Analytics– providing traffic analytics and demographics
• Infusionsoft – help us collect information for email subscribers so we can tailor our messaging to more personal preferences.
• Amazon– tracks products we promote via affiliate links on our site
• Facebook– user analytics and advertising tracking
• Twitter – user analytics
• YouTube – user analytics
• Instagram – user analytics
• Xero – to manage our clients and suppliers ensuring we can service the former and pay the latter, to comply with our legal requirements such as payment of taxes
• Chaser – to follow up unpaid invoices

Our responsibilities to research participants

• We will not, without their consent, reveal any participant’s identity to anyone not directly involved in the research project – or use that identity for any non-research purpose.
• No one to be adversely affected or harmed as a direct result of participation in research
• We will ensure at all times that the researcher’s identity and bona fides are easily available for clients. Additionally we also provide them with access to a contact email or phone number and information on the AMSRS (Australian Market and Social Research Society) Surveyline
• We ensure that they understand that their co-operation is entirely voluntary at all stages and that they are not misled when being asked for co-operation
• We do not interview children under 14 years of age without a responsible adult’s consent. When researching children we follow the principles of the Australian Research Associaton for Children and Young People (ARACY)

When our legal requirements to hold the data cease we delete all personal data.

How we store data and manage security

Most of our data is held electronically.  We hold our data in recognised platforms such as Dropbox or Infusionsoft and check their privacy and security practices to ensure they are compliant with the laws and principles above.  We use software such as Anti-virus and malware screeners to protect devices against data protection breaches and follow good practice principles to minimise the risk of breaches.  However, no data held electronically can be guaranteed to be 100% secure.

Our paper records include business cards or printed lists of our databases.  Such information is held securely in locked premises and when no longer needed is disposed of using best practice security measures (e.g. cross cut shredding, dividing the shredding particles and disposing them separately).

Should a breach of security take place that affects your personal data we will undertake to inform you in a timely manner.

Your rights and the data we hold

You may at any time

• request access to your data to understand what information we hold on you and to verify its accuracy. We will do our best to respond to all requests in a timely manner and do not charge for such access. We will only refuse to provide access where this is for legal reasons (e.g. it might compromise a criminal investigation or make us liable under law in some other way);
• opt out of being on our lists or receiving services. If you do so, we will clearly explain any implications (e.g. no longer being able to receive services)
• advise us that information you have provided or which we hold is not accurate or up to date.  Where this is the case, we will use best efforts to update or correct this as quickly as possible. We will also advise any 3rd party partners of any changes in a timely manner.

Our professional responsibilities to our clients

• We strive to design and carry out cost-efficient and adequate quality research as a minimum. As a company, our philosophy is to do more than this – to seek to provide deep and rich insights beyond clients’ original expectations
• We do not carry out non-research activities (e.g. telemarketing or list building) for other companies
• We recognise that we and our clients have mutual rights and responsibilities and we seek to enshrine these in our proposals and contractual materials
• Our research is always conducted to the principles of fair business practice
• We seek to inform our clients of the issues in relation to privacy and other codes and ethics and what we need to do to comply with legal and professional requirements. Information about our client’s organisations/businesses, their commissioned market research data and findings remain confidential to the client unless both clients and researchers (us) agree the details of any publication. (Note: This excludes any legal obligation to disclose data to the government or law enforcement agencies when required by law for purposes such as a criminal investigation including breaches of privacy law. This would include any requirement under international laws such as the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act where our clients operate in jurisdications mandated by the law.)
• We provide our clients with all relevant technical details of research projects carried out with their clients.
• We always report our findings accurately and never use them to mislead anyone in anyway. We also manage our relationships with clients to ensure that they properly use data in this way through our contracts and agreements.

We are always happy to discuss our policy . For further information, please contact Carolyn Childs, CEO and Co-Founder on Carolyn@mytravelresearch.com or on +61 2 9569 1139