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Privacy Policy
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4ugust campaign managed by Autonomy Research Limited (“Autonomy”, “we”, “us”, or “our”) is committed to keeping your personal information safe and meeting our responsibilities under data protection law. Given that personal information can be used to identify you, we want you to be confident that we are using it responsibly.

This Privacy Notice outlines the processes Autonomy follows when collecting, storing and handling personal information, including when you use our websites and/or when we engage with you as part of our work, including if we work with your organisation. It also includes information about how we use your personal information, how we keep it secure, and how you can let us know if you would like us to change how we manage it.

A PDF version of this Privacy Notice can be downloaded here.

 

1. Who we are
2. What personal information we may hold about you
3. Where we obtain your personal information
4. How we use your personal information
5. Our lawful bases
6. Retaining your personal information
7. How we share your personal information
8. International data transfers
9. How we keep your personal information safe
10. Your rights
11. Other websites
12. Cookies
13. Updates
14. Contact us

 

1. Who we are
Autonomy is a company limited by guarantee (with registration number 10888198), incorporated in England and Wales. We operate as an independent think-tank and consultancy. We provide consultancy services to public, private and third sector clients on workplace innovations and data-intensive research. Our particular area of expertise is assisting organisations to make the case for transitioning to a shorter working week. If you have questions regarding your personal information or its use, please contact us using the details set out in the ‘Contact Us’ section below.

 

2. What personal information we may hold about you
Personal information is any information that relates to an individual. It does not include information where the identity of the individual has been fully and effectively removed (anonymous data). We collect the following personal information about you:
● Identification information, such as your name;
● Contact information, such as your email address;
● Financial information, such as your payment card details and billing address;
● Professional information, such as details of your organisation, role and working hours;
● Demographic information, such as age, gender, ethnicity, disability and information
about your caring responsibilities.
● Any other information that you provide as part of our surveys, including your attitudes
to work and a four-day working week.

If you contact us, for example to provide your feedback, we may keep a record of that feedback and correspondence, as well as your name and contact details.

When you access our websites, we also collect information about your computer, including, where available, your IP address, operating system, and browser type. We do this for system administration purposes, including to analyse trends and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use so that we can improve the site, and deliver customised,
personalised content.

Sensitive Personal information
Under data protection legislation, certain personal information is considered more ‘sensitive’ (e.g., information relating to race, religion, political affiliation and health). This is also known as ‘special category data’. We may collect some of this data as part of the surveys and interviews that we conduct, including information relating to race, religion, and disabilities in order to determine how the working world, as well as our work and research, affects individuals from different demographics.

 

3. Where we obtain your personal information
We collect and retain personal information about you that you have given us in different ways, for example where you:

  • Attend one of our workshops or events;

  • Participate in one of our surveys;

  • Donate to Autonomy;

  • Use our website;

  • Subscribe to our mailing lists;

  • Engage with us via social media platforms;

  • Contact us via email, phone, in person or by post;

  • Have told a third party you are happy to share your data.

We may collect personal information about you from third parties, including from publicly available sources, for example where we are carrying out research as part of our work.

 

4. How we use your personal information
We may use your personal information for the following purposes:

  • Contact you with important information relating to a workshop, interview or survey;

  • Enable you to make use of our services, or to find out more information from us;

  • Facilitate any transactions you wish to make with us, including donations;

  • Send you updates and information about Autonomy and our work;

  • Learn from your experiences and feedback to develop our work;

  • Undertake evaluation of your survey responses;

  • Keep our database accurate, relevant and up to date.

We will not sell your information to third parties.

 

5. Our Lawful Bases
We will only use personal information when the law allows us to (i.e., where we have a ‘lawful basis’). Most commonly, we will use your personal information in the following
circumstances:

  • Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests. For example, we have a legitimate interest in conducting research and carrying out our work;

  • Where it is necessary to comply with a legal obligation on us (for example, reporting to HM Revenue and Customs, Companies House or the Charity Commission).

In some circumstances, we may ask for your consent to use your personal information for a specific purpose. In particular, we may obtain your consent before we (i) collect and use your special category data (see above), or (ii) send you any email marketing, newsletters or other communications about topics and events which we think might interest you.

You may withdraw your consent and/or unsubscribe from our email communications by following the instructions in any email that we send you, or you can withdraw your consent and request us to remove your personal information at any time by emailing us at info@autonomy.work. We do not carry out any automated decision-making using personal information which produces legal effects or otherwise significantly affects individuals.

 

6. Retaining your personal information
We will not keep personal information for longer than necessary, and the appropriate retention period will vary according to the intended purpose for which we collected the personal information.

The criteria we use to determine the retention period of personal information are: (i) the respective statutory retention period; (ii) our contractual and/or business relationships with you; (iii) (potential) disputes; and (iv) any guidelines issued by relevant regulators. After expiration of that period, the relevant information is routinely deleted, as long as it is no
longer necessary for the fulfillment of a contract, the initiation of a contract or to protect or defend our position or that of a third party. If you have any questions about our retention periods, please contact us at info@autonomy.work.

 

7. How we share your personal information
We may share your personal information with third parties, including the following:

  • with contractors, suppliers, or other third parties that provide services on our behalf
    (such as website host providers and payment processors);

  • as part of a sale, merger or acquisition, or other transfer of all or part of our assets
    including as part of a bankruptcy proceeding;

  • pursuant to a subpoena, court order, or other legal process or as otherwise required
    or requested by law, regulation, or government authority programs, or to protect our
    rights or the rights or safety of third parties;

  • with our professional advisors, lawyers, accountants and auditors; or

  • with your consent or as otherwise disclosed at the time of data collection or sharing.

 

8. International Data Transfers
We may transfer your personal data out of the UK in some circumstances, for example if we are using a service provider in another jurisdiction (for example, we use Mailchimp to manage our email lists and consent records – Mailchimp’s servers are in the US). When we transfer personal information out of the UK, we take steps to ensure that your personal information is protected in accordance with appropriate safeguards, especially where the recipient country is not considered to be adequate under UK law. In particular, we rely on appropriate safeguards under data protection legislation, such as the UK International Data Transfer Agreement to protect your personal information.

 

9. How we keep your personal information safe
To protect your privacy we will make sure your personal information is kept securely and disclosed only to relevant organisations or Autonomy representatives who need to access it to perform their roles. While we seek to use appropriate organisational, technical and administrative measures to protect personal information within our organisation,
unfortunately no data transmission or storage system can be guaranteed to be 100% secure.

If you have reason to believe that your interaction with us is no longer secure, please immediately notify us in accordance with the “Contact us” section below.

 

10. Your Rights
Under certain privacy laws, you have rights relating to your personal information. You may have a right to the following:

  • to request access to the personal information we hold about you;

  • to request that we rectify or erase your personal information;

  • to request that we restrict the processing of your personal information;

  • to object to our processing of your personal information in certain circumstances;

  • under certain circumstances, to ask us to port personal information about you that you have provided to us to you or to a third party; and

  • where we previously obtained your consent, to withdraw consent to processing your personal information.

To exercise these rights, contact us via the “Contact us” section below. Please be aware that Autonomy may be unable to provide these rights to you under certain circumstances, for example if we are legally prevented from doing so or can rely on exemptions. Additionally, you have the right to lodge a complaint against us, which you can do by contacting the supervisory authority in your country of residence. In the UK, this is the Information Commissioner’s Office at www.ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint.

 

11. Other websites
Our website and newsletters may contain a link to other websites. Please note that when you click on one of these links, you are entering another website for which Autonomy has no responsibility (even if you access the website via a link on our website). We encourage you to read the privacy notices on all such websites.

 

12. Cookies
Our website uses cookies to enhance your experience while using those sites. Cookies are pieces of information that some websites transfer to the computer or device that is browsing that website and are used for record-keeping purposes at many websites. Use of cookies makes web surfing easier by performing certain functions such as saving your passwords, your personal preferences regarding your use of the particular website and to make sure you don’t see the same ads repeatedly. Many consider the use of cookies to be an industry
standard.

In particular we use cookies:

  • for gathering anonymised statistics about page views, using Google Analytics. For more information about how Google Analytics collects and uses data when you use our
    website, visit https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/. You are able to opt out of Google Analytics for Display Advertising at any time at
    https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

  • to allow any payments you make to be confirmed by our payment processor, GoCardless, a single-use cookie will be set when making a payment for a subscription.
    Your browser may be set by default to accept cookies. However, if you would prefer not to receive cookies, you can alter the configuration of your browser to refuse cookies. If you
    choose to have your browser refuse cookies, it is possible that some areas of our website will not function properly when you view them.

 

13. Updates
This Notice may change from time to time – for example, to take into account changes at Autonomy or to reflect changes in regulation or legislation. It was last updated on 01/03/2023.

Updates to this Notice will be posted on this page – please check back from time to time. We will also use reasonable efforts to inform you of any significant changes by email where
appropriate.

 

14. Contact us
If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Notice or the way in which we handle your personal information, please email us at info@autonomy.work.

You can also contact us at the following address:
Cranbourne Pilcot Road,
Crookham Village,
Fleet,
Hampshire,
GU51 5RU

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