Privacy Policy

Introduction

Research Solutions (ABN 16 083 581 766) is committed to protecting your privacy and upholding your personal information rights. We are bound by the Privacy (Market and Social Research) Code 2021 (https://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/privacy-registers/privacy-codes/privacy-market-and-social-research-code-2021), which is an enforceable APP code under Part IIIB of the Privacy Act 1988 (Privacy Act). This Privacy Policy has been updated to comply with the WA Privacy and Responsible Information Sharing Act 2024 (PRIS Act) which applies to Western Australian public sector entities, local governments and public universities.

The company also works under the Australian Data and Insights Association (ADIA) Trust Mark (https://dataandinsights.com.au/trust-mark/), is quality assured under the International Standard for Market, Opinion and Social Research qualifications (ISO 20252), and our employees comply with The Research Society Code of Professional Behaviour (https://www.researchsociety.com.au/stay-informed/the-code/).

This Privacy Policy for Research Solutions lets you know what personal information of yours we hold, what we do with it, who we will disclose it to and how you can access the personal information we hold about you. You can also find out here how to change inaccurate personal information and how to opt out of receiving communications from us.

Our main source of personal information is through receiving a customer or membership list from our client. Whilst we check the list for incorrectly formatted email addresses and telephone numbers, and customers appearing multiple times, we rely upon our client to ensure contact details are up-to-date and accurate.

What personal information about you does Research Solutions collect and hold?

We will only collect personal information where the collection is fair, reasonable and proportionate to the purpose for which it is required.

The information Research Solutions may collect includes name, company, position title, telephone number, email address, age, gender, occupation, opinions and feedback, etc. Depending on the nature of the research we conduct, we may also collect sensitive information from you as defined by the Privacy Act. Sensitive information will only be collected with your prior consent and only if it is directly related to, or reasonably necessary for, the research we conduct.

When providing personal information, you can remain anonymous or use a pseudonym to be identified. However, in certain circumstances, such as where we receive your contact details from a third-party or where the research data itself may allow for identification, this may not be practicable.

Research Solutions maintains documented records of the purposes for which personal information is collected, used and disclosed.

How does Research Solutions collect and hold your personal information?

Research Solutions will generally collect your personal information directly from you in the course of your participation in our research and/or surveys.

However, we may also, from time to time, be provided with personal information about you from third-parties, such as a list of employees and contact details from your employer or a database of client contact details provided by a company whose services you use, in order to survey you about your satisfaction with the products and services. If so, we will inform you as soon as practicable of this collection and the circumstances of this collection.

We may also receive personal information from promotional activities such as promotional events and competitions from other companies directly related to the project and from organisers of events that the organisation sponsors.

Unique Identifiers

Research Solutions generally does not require the use of government-issued or client-issued unique identifiers (e.g. customer reference numbers) for research purposes. A client-issued unique identifier may be used in customer satisfaction research to assist the survey participant identify the service request they are providing feedback on. When our client provides this information, it is deleted when the project is completed and the feedback is deidentified so individual survey responses cannot be traced back to the survey participant who provided them.

A unique identifier may be created and assigned by us where necessary for a specific project, administrative purpose or legal requirement. This identifier is unique to the specified project and has no purpose beyond the administration of that project.

Unique identifiers will not be used to profile participants across unrelated research projects and will not be disclosed to third parties except where authorised by the individual survey participant or required by law.

What are the purposes for which Research Solutions uses, handles and discloses your personal information?

We will only use and disclose your personal information for the purpose of conducting our research and in accordance with this Privacy Policy and the Privacy (Market and Social Research) Code 2021. We will not use or disclose your personally identifiable information for advertising, promotions or direct marketing activities. Should you decline to participate in our research we might use your personal information to re-contact you (for research purposes) if we have valid reasons to believe there is a genuine research concern that warrants such a re-contact. If you have participated in our research, we will only re-contact you if you were informed of our need to do so or if we have valid reasons to believe a genuine research concern warrants such re-contact.

Who will Research Solutions disclose your personal information to?

Research Solutions will not disclose any personally identifiable research information we collect from you unless we have your express prior consent. We will only report the information you provide, such as opinions and feedback, in an aggregate form that will not personally identify you. We will not disclose any personal or personally identifiable research information to a third-party for a purpose other than conducting our research unless we have your express prior consent or are required to do so by an Australian law or court/tribunal order.

Research Solutions stores any contact information supplied by clients or a third party for market research processes, including recruiting focus groups, in-depth interviews and surveys in Australia. Further, all online survey information, including any identifiable information, including contact information for the prize draws, is held in Australia through the Australian online survey platform - Web Survey Creator. Research Solutions does not disclose identifiable research information to overseas recipients.

Access to the personal information we hold about you

You have the right to request access to any personal information we hold about you. You can request this information by contacting the Privacy Officer at the details below. Where we have the information you are entitled to access, we will respond to your request in a reasonable time and endeavour to provide you with a suitable range of choices regarding access (e.g. emailing or mailing it to you). A fee may be charged to cover the cost of retrieval. However, this fee will be reasonable and only apply to your request's facilitation.

If at any time you believe that personal information we hold about you is incorrect, incomplete or inaccurate, then you may request an amendment of it. We will either amend the information or make a record of your comment as appropriate. You may request at any time to have your personal information deleted or the information you have given us deleted or de-identified.

Website www.researchsolutions.com.au

When visiting Research Solutions’ website, the site server makes a record of the visit and logs the following information for statistical and administrative purposes:

The user’s server address – to consider the users who use the site regularly and tailor the site to their interests and requirements;
The date and time of the visit to the site – this is important for identifying the website’s busy times and ensuring maintenance on the site is conducted outside these periods;
Pages accessed and documents downloaded – this indicates to Research Solutions which pages or documents are most important to users and also helps identify important information that may be difficult to find;
Duration of the visit – this indicates to us how interesting and informative Research Solutions’ site is to candidates; the type of browser used – this is important for browser-specific coding;
The visiting domain name or IP address, Computer Operating System, Browser Type and Screen Resolution to optimise the Research Solutions’ website and better understand its usage.

A cookie is a piece of information that an Internet website sends to your browser when you access information at that site. Cookies are stored in memory (session cookies) or on your hard disk (persistent cookies). The Research Solutions website does not use persistent cookies. Upon closing your browser, the session cookie set by this website is destroyed, and no Personal Information is maintained which might identify you should you visit our website at a later date.

Retention and destruction of Personal Information

At the conclusion of each research project, Research Solutions undertakes a deidentification and deletion process for all personal information provided to us by our client or collected from participants in the process of the research project. We securely destroy all personal customer or member information provided to us by our client. We de-identify research responses, so no personal information is attached to them and so the participant cannot be identified from their responses. We securely destroy personal information collected from research participants (e.g., entry to a prize draw or request to be placed on a mailing list) once that collection purpose has been fulfilled (e.g., prize drawn and winners notified or requests to join mailing list passed on to our client). We undertake this deidentification and deletion process as soon as practicable, once it is no longer needed for the purpose for our research purposes. We take reasonable measures to prevent re-identification and protect the security of de-identified data.

However, we may, in certain circumstances, be required by law to retain your personal information after our research has been completed. In this case, your personal information will continue to be protected in accordance with this policy. If we destroy personal information, we will do so by taking reasonable steps to remove it and by using up-to-date techniques and processes.

Security of Information

Research Solutions will take reasonable steps to protect your personally identifiable information as you transmit your information from your computer to our website and to protect such information from loss, misuse, and unauthorised access, use, modification, disclosure, alteration, or destruction.

However, you should keep in mind that the transmission of information over the Internet is not completely secure or error-free. In particular, emails sent to or from this website may not be secure, and you should take special care in deciding what information you send to us via email.

Data breach notification

Research Solutions has a robust data security system and maintains procedures for identifying, responding to and notifying affected individuals and regulators of eligible data breaches where required by law. If the data breach occurs after the data had been de-identified, then any personal information cannot be traced back to an individual.

Automated decision-making

Research Solutions does not undertake analysis of identified personalised information. The data collected is deidentified prior to analysis. Where AI and automation is used as part of the analysis process, this is undertaken on deidentified data only and the analysis is subject to appropriate human oversight.

Questions and complaints

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or believe that we have at any time failed to keep one of our commitments to you to handle your personal information in the manner required by the Privacy Act, the APPs or the Code, then we ask that you contact Nicky Munro, our Managing Director immediately using the following contact details: nicky@researchsolutions.com.au

We will respond and advise whether we agree with your complaint or not. If we disagree, we will provide reasons. If we agree, we will advise what (if any) action we consider appropriate to take in response. If you are still not satisfied after contacting us and giving us a reasonable time to respond, we suggest contacting the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner: telephone: 1300 363 992 (the cost of a local call but calls from mobile and pay phones may incur higher charges). If calling from overseas (including Norfolk Island): the number is +61 2 9942 4099.

TTY: 1800 620 241 (this number is dedicated to the hearing impaired only, no voice calls)

TIS: Translating and Interpreting Service: 131 450 (If you don’t speak English or English is your second language and you need assistance and ask for the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner)

Post: GPO Box 2999 Canberra ACT 2601

Fax: +61 2 9284 9666

Email (privacy enquires and complaints): oaicintake@oaic.gov.au

Miscellaneous

In this policy, "personal information" has the same meaning as under the Privacy Act.

This policy is effective from 1 July 2026. We may change this policy from time to time.

Research Solutions will take reasonable steps to comply with this Privacy Policy and applicable privacy laws.