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Leesman Privacy Policy

The Privacy Policy of Leesman, an HqO Company, is for everyone who visits the Leesman website, gets Leesman messages, uses Leesman services, or takes part in Leesman surveys. This policy also covers offline locations where it’s displayed.

 

If you use Leesman products on other websites or services, the rules there are set by the owner’s privacy policy. We encourage you to familiarise yourself with the privacy policies of such third parties to determine how they handle any information they separately collect from you. If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, you should email us at [email protected]

 

At Leesman, we respect the privacy rights and data protection rights of our users and recognise the importance of protecting the personal information we collect about you. Our Privacy Policy is designed to help you understand what information we collect and how we use and share that information.

 

This policy was last updated on the 18th November 2024. We may update this section as our use of AI evolves. If we make significant changes to this policy, we will notify you by email or through notice on the Leesman Services.

1. The Survey

1.1. Anonymisation

Maintaining the confidentiality and anonymity of your response data is fundamental to our working practices and, unless otherwise stated, you should assume that we treat all information provided to us as highly confidential.

 

The data we collect from the survey is normally aggregated and added to our global benchmark. As we survey more organisations, the benchmark depth and diversity grows.

 

All data is anonymised, and any confidential data (i.e. email addresses) is promptly removed upon the survey’s closure. This approach ensures that the data structure remains unchanged, and it is impossible to establish connections between the data and individual users or access any confidential information.

 

This anonymised data makes up the Leesman Benchmark data.

 

All individual survey responses will be retained as anonymous data and aggregated to form part of the full Leesman database, to enable future project comparisons and prepare industry sector, regional and global benchmarking. At no point will this aggregated survey data link a single response or survey results to an individual within a client organisation, except if agreed by your organisation. If this would be happening, your organisation will communicate in the right manner to you and you will receive the relevant statement.

 

Also, for more information about our retention policy, please check our Data Retention policy on the Legal Hub.

 

 

 

1.2. Open-text comments

The Leesman survey sometimes contains features that enable you to write self-initiated feedback in open-text boxes, and they can be read by Leesman staff and Administrators of your employer. You should be aware that any personal information you submit as part of those posts can be read, collected, or used by Administrators of your employer. They could be used to send you feedback messages.

 

We are not responsible for the personal information you choose to publicly post on these open-text comments.

 

Examples:

  • “Working from home in Seattle is wearing me down. I miss the casual conversations during our Friday breakfast meetings in the café. The energy is just not there anymore, and it feels like my boss, Sarah, has completely disengaged from our team.”
  • “My boss, Lisa, never acknowledges our hard work anymore, and it’s demotivating. I’ve started to dread our virtual meetings; they feel so impersonal. At least I have my toddler to keep me company, even if he makes it hard to concentrate!”

 

 

 

1.3. Security

We limit access to personal information about you to employees who we believe reasonably need to come into contact with that information to provide products or services to you or in order to do their jobs. Further, we have implemented reasonable physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards designed to protect personal information about you. When you enter sensitive information (such as your password), we encrypt that information in transit using industry-standard Transport Layer Security (TLS) encryption technology.

 

We implement robust security measures to protect data used in AI websites from unauthorised access and breaches.

 

We have a list of organisational and technical measures, respecting Article 32 GDPR.

 

 

2. Information Collection

All information is anonymised to integrate into the Leesman database.

 

 

2.1. Types of data (survey)

Please refer to 1.1 for the anonymisation process.

  • Special Category data: in certain surveys, agreed with your organisation, we will ask you optional questions about disabilities or ethnicities.
  • Sensitive data: gender question and additional questions such as open-text comments.
  • Personal data: this information you provide may include your username, first and last name in your email address, and the email address. When you complete a survey, this will usually be your login.

 

 

 

2.2. Other information (corporate website)

Technical, Usage, and Location Information: Automatically collected data on interactions with Leesman corporate website, such as browser information and location data. We use cookies and similar technologies to collect some of this information.
Within the survey itself, we don’t collect any of the above.

 

Third Party Platform Information. We may collect information when you interact with our advertisements and other content on third-party sites or platforms, such as social networking sites. This may include information such as “Likes”, profile information gathered from social networking sites or the fact that you viewed or interacted with our content.

 

Legal Basis: Leesman’s corporate website is based on the Legitimate Interest. Surveys have a Legal Basis chosen by the Data Controller. As we are the Data Processor, we process Customer Data to fulfil the Customer Agreement, ensuring data protection rights are respected.

 

Blocking Cookies: you have the option to remove or block specific cookies using your browser settings. However, please note that disabling cookies may affect the proper functioning of the Leesman platform.

 

 

 

2.3. Children

The Site is intended for general audiences and not for children under the age of 16. We do not knowingly collect personal information from individuals under 16 and take steps to delete such information if identified.

 

 

 

2.4 Use

We use your information in the following ways:

  • To provide, maintain and improve the Leesman and our other products and services, including to operate certain features and functionality of the Leesman (for example, by remembering your information so that you will not have to re-enter it during this or subsequent visits);
  • To process your inquiries and otherwise deliver customer service such as surveys;
  • To control unauthorised use or abuse of the Leesman and our other products and services, or otherwise detect, investigate or prevent activities that may violate our policies or be illegal;
  • To analyse trends, administer or optimise the Leesman Services;
  • In the manner described to you at the time of collection or as otherwise described in this Privacy Policy.

 

Interest-based ads. We and our third-party advertising partners may use cookies and similar technologies to collect information about you (including the Technical, Usage and Location Information described above) over time across our Service and other sites and services and your interaction with our emails, and use that information to serve ads that they think will interest you.

 

 

 

2.5 Newsletter

Through our newsletters, we may keep you informed on upcoming events, latest research publications and articles, and other Leesman news. To be sure of your consent to receive newsletters, we use a double opt-in system: after you have given permission to receive a newsletter, you will receive an e-mail in which we will ask you to confirm your consent. You can stop receiving our newsletter by following the unsubscribe instructions included at the end of every newsletter.

 

In certain communications or events, you might also have agreed to receive communications from our parent company, HqO Inc. For further information on how they process data, please refer to their privacy policy.

 

When you register for an event, you will be able to provide consent for us to retain your email address. In the event that we communicate with you regarding new services, business updates or other news, we will utilise that same email address.

 

 

3. Third-parties

3.1. Reasons

  • Legal Compliance and Protection: We may share your personal information in situations where it is necessary to comply with the law, regulations, legal processes, or governmental requests, enforce Customer Agreements, investigate violations, or protect against imminent harm to rights, property, safety, or public welfare.
  • Corporate Events: In cases of mergers, acquisitions, bankruptcies, or asset sales, your information may be shared or transferred as part of such corporate activities.
  • AI Data Usage: We do not share personal data for AI training or analysis without your consent, except as required by law. If advanced AI technologies are used on anonymised and aggregated data, we will be transparent about it in our communications.
  • Aggregated Information: Aggregated or anonymised information that does not identify individuals may be shared with third parties for various purposes.
  • Sub-Processors: We share certain information with a list of sub-processors. While not all organisations on the list may access your data, completing a survey does not automatically grant access to all entities on the list.

 

 

 

3.2.1 Affiliates

 

THIRD-PARTY PURPOSE LOCATION PRIVACY POLICY
HqO Inc. Acquisitor UK and US Privacy Policy

 

 

3.2.2. Third-parties

 

THIRD-PARTY PURPOSE LOCATION PRIVACY POLICY
AWS Hosting Ireland Privacy Policy
Snowflake Data Warehousing Platform Germany Privacy Policy

 

 

3.2.3. Who has access to non-personal data or certain specific set of data

 

THIRD-PARTY PURPOSE LOCATION
AWS Hosting our servers Ireland
HqO Inc. Acquisitor UK and US
DSUYP BV Sales Belgium
Tableau Platform reporting Germany
Researcher (4th party) via Remote Technology S.r.l. Agency provides 1 full-time employee contractor Sweden
Client Services (4th party) via Remote Technology S.r.l. Agency provides 1 full-time employee contractor Europe
AETO Business Management Consultant Business Management Consultant UK
Snowflake Data storage Germany

 

We work internally with other third-parties such as Microsoft Outlook, Adobe, Xero, PeopleCheck, etc. Those include internal projects, recruitment, and payroll. Therefore, there is no need to list them within a public privacy policy.

 

 [1] non-personal data = aggregated and anonymised survey data, usually used for reporting, presenting reports or researching about trends.

 

 

4. Your data protection rights

  • The right to access: You have the right to request corrections to any information you believe is accurate.
  • The right to rectify: You can ask for corrections to any information you believe is inaccurate or incomplete.
  • The right to erase: You have the right to request the deletion of your personal data under certain conditions.
  • The right to restrict processing: You may opt-out of having your personal information used for specific purposes, though this may limit certain features.
  • The right to object processing: You can object to the processing of your personal data under certain conditions.
  • The right to data portability: You have the right to request the transfer of your data to another organisation or directly to you under certain conditions.

 

If you wish to exercise any of these rights, please contact us at [email protected].

 

We may decline to process requests that are unreasonably repetitive or systematic, require disproportionate technical effort (for instance, requests concerning information residing on backup tapes), jeopardise the privacy of others, would be extremely impractical, or for which access is not otherwise required.

 

You can also opt-out of data collection for AI purposes before the survey closes. Please also note that if you discontinue using the Service or if your access is terminated in line with your Customer Agreement, you may lose the ability to access or modify your information. This is primarily due to the anonymisation process, which prevents the deletion of data that cannot be identified due to anonymisation.

 

 

5. Contact with us

When you contact us, we will ask you to verify your identity. Your email will remain visible to all staff tasked with dealing with the query.

 

Data Protection Officer:

 

Postal Address:
Leesman at FORA Chancery House
53-64 Chancery Ln
London, WC2A 1QS
United Kingdom

 

Registered Office:
Leesman Ltd
1 Bickenhall Mansions
Bickenhall Street
London, W1U 6BP
United Kingdom

 

If you are a resident of the European Economic Area, please note that we have appointed an EU data protection representative. If you have any questions, please contact HqO’s Compliance Team at [email protected].

 

 

6. Complaints

If you are dissatisfied with how we handle your personal information, you can reach out to us at [email protected]. Additionally, you have the right to file a complaint with the UK Information Commissioner’s Office through the following methods:

 

  • Telephone: 0303 123 11113
  • Website: https://ico.org.uk/concerns/
  • Post: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF

 

For concerns outside the UK or related to activities beyond the UK, you may choose to lodge a complaint with a different supervisory authority. A list of relevant authorities in the EEA and the European Free Trade Area can be accessed here.