Privacy Notice

Introduction

Welcome to the proSapient Limited privacy notice (“Policy”).

proSapient Limited respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data. This notice will inform you as to how we look after your personal data, including when you visit our website (regardless of where you visit it from), and tells you about your data protection rights and how the law protects you.

1. This Notice

Purpose of this privacy notice

This notice aims to give you information on how proSapient Limited collects and processes your personal data, including any data we collect when you interact with us through our various channels online (such as our website at www.prosapient.com, our Industry Network of Experts (PINE), or via any other products and services we offer) and offline (such as over the telephone, in meetings or at events).

Our website(s), products and services are not intended for children and we do not knowingly collect data relating to children.

It is important that you read this notice together with any other privacy policy or fair processing policy we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal data about you so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your data. This notice supplements other notices and privacy policies and is not intended to override them.

proSapient is a data Controller

Prosapient Limited is the controller and responsible for all personal data we process from and about you through our various online and offline channels (collectively referred to as the “Company”, "we", "us" or "our" in this Notice).

Changes to the privacy notice and your duty to inform us of changes

We keep our notice under regular review. This version was last updated on the 18th of May 2023.

We may update our notice from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new notice on this page. You are advised to review this notice periodically for any changes. Changes to this notice are effective when they are posted on this page. On some occasions, we may also actively advise you of specific data handling activities or significant changes to this notice, as required by applicable law.

It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us or update this information directly where this is available to you. From time to time, we will ask you to confirm the accuracy of the personal data we process about you.

Contact details

If you have any questions about this notice or our data protection practices, please contact us in the following ways:

Full name of legal entity: proSapient Limited
Email address: privacy@prosapient.com
Postal address: 5th Floor, 33 Holborn, London EC1N 2HT.

You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk). We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO so please contact us in the first instance.

2. What personal data do we collect?

Personal data means any information which relates to an identified or identifiable living individual.

There are three main types of individuals in respect of whom we collect personal data:

  1. Industry Experts –you have agreed to our Expert Terms and Conditions and we have presented your background to at least one of our Clients; and
  2. Clients – you have a contract in place with us to speak to Industry Experts through our platform, use our platform to find experts, and/or conduct surveys for you.
  3. Prospects – you have been contacted by a proSapient employee to offer consulting services.

We collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you:

Industry Experts

This means you have freely agreed to our Terms & Conditions. 

We process the following personal information (“Expert Information”), as it is necessary for our lawful purpose:

  • Full Name
  • Work History (companies, job titles, job descriptions, dates served)
  • Contact details
  • Employment and biographical information
  • Banking information
  • Technical Data (IP address, your login data, browser type and version)
  • Profile photo
  • Marketing and Communications Data
  • Interaction data (recordings, transcripts, written work

Who has access to your personal information?

  • proSapient staff.
  • Third party contractors working with proSapient.
  • Third party service providers working with proSapient for the performance of the contract or for other purposes subject to your consent.

What we do with your personal information?

  • In order for us to give you consultations relevant to your experience and to present your information to our clients effectively, it is necessary to store the Expert Information.
  • Our system analyses your interactions with proSapient (consulting calls, written work and other paid consulting work) for keywords. It will also crawl other public sources of information about you to further learn about your background.
  • We use your Name and work history to present Clients or prospective Clients with your biography so they can understand why you have been recommended to take part in a consultation.
  • Your contact details are used by our account managers and our system. This allows us to notify you when we receive a project relevant to your background. 

Clients

This means you or your Company has signed a Client Agreement with us.

We process the following personal information (“Client Information”) as it is necessary for our lawful purpose and/or to perform a contract with you:-

  • Name
  • Contact details
  • Technical Data (IP address, your login data, browser type and version)
  • Marketing and Communications data
  • Interaction data (recordings, transcripts, written work.

Who has access to your personal information?

  • proSapient staff
  • Third party contractors working with proSapient
  • Third party service provider working with proSapient for the performance of the contract or for other purposes subject to your consent.

What we do with your personal information 

We use your personal information to be able to manage and operate your engagements within the proSapient platform.

Prospects

This means you have been contacted by a proSapient employee to offer consulting services.

We may process the following personal information (“Prospect Information”), as it is necessary for our lawful purpose:

  • Full Name
  • Work History (companies, job titles, job descriptions, dates served)
  • Contact details

Who has access to your personal information?

  • proSapient staff.
  • Third-party contractors working with proSapient.
  • Third party service providers working with proSapient for the performance of the contract or for other purposes subject to your consent.

What we do with your personal information?

  • In order for us to give you consultations relevant to your experience.
  • Your contact details are used by our account managers and our system. This allows us to notify you when we receive a project relevant to your background. 

Special Categories of Personal Data 

We do not collect any Special Categories of Personal Data about you (this includes details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health, and genetic and biometric data). 

3. Why do we collect your data?

Experts - We collect expert data for the performance of the Expert Terms and Conditions you have consented to.

Prospects - We collect prospect data to contact you regarding the possibility of providing you with consulting opportunities.

Clients - We collect client data for the necessary performance of our contract with you.

You can withdraw your consent at any time by sending us an email at privacy@prosapient.com.

If you fail to provide personal data

Where we need to collect personal data by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you, and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you (for example, to provide you with goods or services). In this case, we may have to cancel a product or service you have with us but we will notify you if this is the case at the time.

4. How is your personal data collected?

We use different methods to collect data from and about you including through:

  • Direct interactions. You may give us your Identity, Contact and Financial Data by filling in forms, contracts or by corresponding with us by post, phone, email, surveys or otherwise. 
  • Automated technologies or interactions. As you interact with our website(s) and other online channels, we will automatically collect Technical Data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns. We collect this personal data by using cookies, server logs and other similar technologies. Please see Cookies below for further details.
  • Third parties or publicly available sources. We may receive personal data about you from various third parties and public sources as set out below: 
    • Technical Data from analytics providers such as Google based outside the UK and EU; and
    • Identity, Contact, Profile and Due Diligence Data from publicly available sources such as business networks (e.g. LinkedIn).
    • Interactions Data from Clients.

Your personal data may be combined from these different sources for the purposes outlined below.

5. How we use your personal data

We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we rely on the following legal grounds to process your personal data for the following purposes:

  • 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.  This includes:
    • to administer our sites, conduct identity verification and other fraud prevention or detection activities;
    • to research, filter and verify Prospective Experts and Industry Experts, and to screen for potential conflicts of interest in order to assess and recommend their appropriateness for a particular Client Project and to meet applicable legal, regulatory and compliance requirements;
    • to monitor, support, maintain, develop and improve the performance of our sites, products and services and customer relationships, analyse trends, usage and activities in connection with our products and services, and optimize our marketing efforts, promote and develop our business and measure the effectiveness of our advertising campaigns and to grow and inform our marketing strategy;
    • for our own internal functions such as keeping our sites secure, (including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, system maintenance, support, reporting and hosting of data), management and corporate reporting, internal research and analytics and to improve business efficacies;
    • to enforce compliance with our terms and other policies or otherwise in connection with legal claims, compliance, regulatory, auditing, investigatory and disciplinary purposes as necessary (including disclosure of such information in connection with legal process or litigation);
    • to create aggregate and statistical data (which cannot be used to identify you). For example, aggregate data may include data that describes the general demographics, usage or other characteristics of a site's users. We reserve the right to transfer and/or sell aggregate or group data about our users for lawful purposes.
  • Where we need to perform a contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you (for Industry Experts and Clients). This includes:
    • verifying your identity;
    • taking and making payments;
    • facilitating your participation in Projects and provision of our products and services and sending you service related communications;
    • manage and operate your engagement within the proSapient platform;
    • provision of support including responding to your queries and investigating any complaints about the site and our products and services.
  • Where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation. This includes:
    • in response to requests by government or law enforcement authorities conducting an investigation.
  • When you have expressly consented to us processing your personal data.  This includes:
    • where you give us consent to place cookies or similar technologies;
    • on other occasions where we ask for your consent, for the purpose we explain at the time;
    • Where consent is relied on, you have the right to withdraw it at any time by contacting us at privacy@prosapient.com.
  • Where you have manifestly made the personal data public.
  • Where the processing is necessary for the reasons of substantial public interest as defined in the UK Data Protection Act 2018.

Relying on our legitimate interest means the interest of our business in conducting and managing our business to enable us to give you the best service/product and the best and most secure experience. We make sure we consider and balance any potential impact on you (both positive and negative) and your rights before we process your personal data for our legitimate interests. We do not use your personal data for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you (unless we have your consent or are otherwise required or permitted to by law). You can obtain further information about how we assess our legitimate interests against any potential impact on you in respect of specific activities by contacting us.

Change of purpose 

If we need to use your personal data 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 data without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.

Marketing

We strive to provide you with choices regarding certain personal data uses, particularly around marketing and advertising.

Third-party marketing 

We will get your express opt-in consent before we share your personal data with any third party for marketing purposes. 

Opting out

You can ask us or third parties to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by following the instructions in the communication or contacting us at any time by emailing us at privacy@prosapient.com. 

Our Clients may elect to record and/or transcribe their consultations, calls and other interactions with Industry Experts. Where this is the case the recordings and transcriptions will be used by the Client for [legal and regulatory purposes, record keeping, quality control, or staff training purposes] or for other purposes. proSapient will also use these recordings and transcripts to develop and improve its Expert Network, for internal research and analytics and to improve business efficacies. Consent will be obtained to the extent this is required by applicable laws. As part of their compliance protocols, some Clients may have a professional (in addition to the Client user(s) chaperoning phone consultations and their presence may be announced or unannounced (i.e., the Industry Expert will not be notified) and may be active participants or silent on the phone consultations.

6. Disclosures of your personal data

We may share your personal data with the parties set out below for the purposes that are described in this Privacy Notice or otherwise with your consent.

Independent Contractors: proSapient is a global business, headquartered in the UK. The personal data collected by us in accordance with this Privacy Policy may be used and shared amongst our and third party contractors working in the Ukraine, North Carolina, and Toronto (acting on behalf of proSapient) for the purposes outlined above. 
 
Service Providers: When we employ a third-party to perform a function on our behalf, we provide it with the personal data that it needs to perform its specific function. These companies are authorized to use your personal data only as necessary to provide these services to us. We use service providers for the purposes of delivering our products and services, [managing payments, hosting, IT, security, support, billing, surveys, facilitating and recording conference calls, providing transcripts, business development, marketing, and communications]. We also share personal data with our accountants, auditors, insurers, lawyers and other external professional advisors to proSapient, subject to binding contractual obligations of confidentiality.
 
Clients: We share Identity Data, Contact Data, Due Diligence Data, Profile Data & Transaction Data relating to Industry Experts with our Clients in connection with a particular Project as further described in our Expert Terms and Client Master Services Agreement (“MSA”). We may also share this information with your current and former employers and companies you have provided services to or contracted with for the purposes of verifying Industry Expert information and/or confirming any consents or approvals Industry Experts may need to participate in our networks, platforms or Client Projects or other products and services.
 
Industry Experts: We share Identity Data relating to our Clients with our Industry Experts (if Client has previously agreed to it in connection with a particular Project as further described in our Client MSA.
 
Legal Requirements: We disclose personal data to government authorities, regulators or other third-parties if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to (a) comply with a subpoena, court order or similar legal obligation, (b) protect and defend our rights or property, (c) act in urgent circumstances to protect the personal safety of users of any website or the public, (d) protect against legal liability, (e) to investigate fraud or other unlawful activity or (f) or as otherwise required or permitted by law. 
 
Third-Party Partners:  We may share your personal data with selected third-party partners, including for their direct marketing purposes. We will obtain your prior consent for such a transfer where required by applicable law.
 
We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers, acting as data processors to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.
 
International transfers: Your personal data may also be held and accessed by our staff in all our international offices and third parties working for us, or our inside and outside the United Kingdom and the EEA including in the US, Canada, and Ukraine and for the purposes outlined above. When we transfer your personal data outside of the UK or the EEA to a country that is not subject to an adequacy decision by the EU Commission or considered adequate as determined by applicable data protection laws, we will take steps to ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place in accordance with data protection laws. A copy of the relevant mechanisms can be requested by using the contact details above.
 

7. Data security

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality. 
We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.
 

8. Data retention

How long will you use my personal data for?

We will only retain your personal data for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or reporting requirements. We may retain your personal data for a longer period in the event of a complaint or if we reasonably believe there is a prospect of litigation in respect to our relationship with you. Further details are set out below.

To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or other requirements.

In some circumstances you can ask us to delete your data: see Your Legal Rights below for further information.

In some circumstances, we will anonymise your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes, in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.

9. Your Legal Rights

Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data. Please see Section 9 to find out more about these rights. All these rights may be limited. Relevant exemptions are included in GDPR, UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. We will inform you of any relevant exemptions we rely upon when responding to any requests you make.

If you wish to exercise any of these rights, please contact us at privacy@prosapient.com.

No fee is usually required.

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we could refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.

What we may need from you

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). For instance, the same principle applies to data deletion requests, for which we decide on a case-by-case basis what is needed to verify one’s identity depending on the type of information we have to delete – documents that are accepted as proof of ID can be i.e., ID, passport, driving license, etc. This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.

Time limit to respond

We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it could take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated. In any case, we will confirm receipt of any email correspondence we receive from you as soon as possible.

You have the right to:

Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a "data subject access request"). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.

Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.

Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us to continue to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal data to comply with local law. Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request. 

Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms.

Request restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the following scenarios: 

  • If you want us to establish the data's accuracy.
  • Where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it.
  • Where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims. 
  • You have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it. 

Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party. We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you. 

Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.

10. Contact us

If you have any questions about this Notice or our data protection practices, including any requests to exercise your legal rights, please contact us at privacy@prosapient.com.