How we use your personal data
Our Promise
BARB takes its responsibilities to you very seriously, and for that reason we promise:
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Your personal data will only be used to measure how many people watch television programmes, commercials, channels and services. Your personal data will never be used for any other purpose.
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Your personal data will be kept confidential, and you cannot be identified from the viewing figures that we publish.
This means:
• you will only receive communications directly related to the BARB TV viewing panel
• nobody will ever try to sell you anything as a result of your participation -
Personal data such as usernames, passwords, contacts, photos or documents will not be captured from your online devices such as tablets, computers and mobiles. The apps we use are simply not capable of this.
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Your personal data will be kept in secure encrypted storage servers.
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You are under no obligation to take part in the BARB TV viewing panel, and you are free to leave at any time.
Who we are
About BARB
We are the Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board (BARB). We provide the TV industry with viewing figures, primarily
for television channels, programmes and commercials (this includes programmes and video delivered online).
We use three companies to perform different parts of the process for calculating the viewing figures. Although we are
responsible for your personal data, we share this responsibility with each of these companies.
About Ipsos
Ipsos UK Limited (Ipsos) is an independent research company. It identifies and recruits households to join the BARB TV Panel.
Ipsos works on behalf of BARB. In technical language, BARB and Ipsos are joint data controllers in respect of the personal data held by Ipsos about you; this means we are jointly responsible for how your personal data is used.
About Kantar
Kantar Media Audiences Ltd (Kantar) is an independent research company. It installs and maintains the equipment for the households which are on the BARB TV viewing panel, it collects and processes the viewing data from this equipment, and it administers the rewards scheme.
Kantar works on behalf of BARB. In technical language, BARB and Kantar are joint data controllers in respect of the personal data held by Kantar about you; this means we are jointly responsible for how your personal data is used.
About RSMB
RSMB Limited (RSMB) is an independent research company which designs the process for calculating the viewing figures and checks the quality of Ipsos’s work and Kantar's work.
RSMB works on behalf of BARB. In technical language, BARB and RSMB are joint data controllers in respect of the personal data held by RSMB about you; this means that we are jointly responsible for how your personal data is used.
What we collect and what we do with it
We at BARB collect the following data about you:
Ipsos
On our behalf, Ipsos collects important demographic information about you and other members of your
household. This information is used to ensure that the BARB TV viewing panel remains representative of the UK as a whole.
Ipsos will also use your contact details in order to keep in touch with you during the process of interviewing you for
the BARB TV panel.
Kantar
On our behalf, Kantar collects:
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information about the TV programmes, commercials, and channels watched by you and your household (including
when and how long you watch TV). This information is collected through the equipment and software which
Kantar Media installs on your TVs and online devices
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information about the type of television set and other devices used by you and your household to watch TV. This information is collected by Kantar when installing its equipment
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information about your usage of TV player services. This information is provided by the UK broadcasters and collected through the equipment and software which Kantar installs on your TVs and online devices
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additional lifestyle information about you and your household. This information is collected from you when you complete voluntary questionnaires
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changes to the demographic information about you and the other members of your household (these changes are shared
with RSMB). This information is collected by Kantar Media in the course of dealing with you or visiting your home
Kantar uses your data to create the viewing figures for television programmes and commercials. We then publish these
viewing figures to businesses in the television and advertising industries. The published viewing figures do not reveal any
information that identifies you or any member of your household. Kantar may also use your data to work out what type of TV package you have from your TV service provider. Knowing your TV package helps to ensure that the BARB TV viewing
panel remains representative of the UK as a whole. Finally, Kantar Media uses your contact details in order to keep in touch with you with regard to any questions or complaints you might have while on the BARB TV viewing panel, to keep track of your reward points, to provide you with your rewards, to install and maintain the equipment at your home, and to offer trials of new measurements or meters.
RSMB
On our behalf, RSMB checks that the information collected by Ipsos and Kantar is accurate and complete.
This is a quality control measure to ensure that the published TV viewing figures are reliable and that the BARB TV viewing panel remains representative of the UK as a whole. RSMB also routinely collects personal data of new panel household members and updates personal data for existing individuals/households through contact with panel homes.
RSMB also uses your contact details in order to get in touch with you to check your data, to manage any questions or complaints you might have while on the BARB TV viewing panel, and to offer trials of new measurements or meters. Each of the three companies which we use to calculate the viewing figures might share data with each other. This will happen where the other company requires the data in order to perform its part of the calculation process. But we remain responsible for your data at all times.
Our legal basis for processing your personal data
We, Ipsos, Kantar and RSMB are required by law to identify the legal basis on which we process your personal data. We, Ipsos, Kantar and RSMB process most of your personal data on the legal basis of ‘legitimate interests’.
BARB has a legitimate interest in wanting to produce viewing figures for television programmes and commercials.
Processing your personal data is the necessary means of producing viewing figures which are accurate and reliable.
Ipsos, Kantar and RSMB each process your personal data in order to further BARB’s legitimate interests, and their own legitimate interests in providing services in relation to the BARB TV panel.
On our behalf, Ipsos, Kantar and RSMB also collect personal data which includes details of ethnic background, health and disabilities. These are ‘special categories’ of personal data for which we are required to have an additional legal basis for processing. Our additional legal basis for these special categories is ‘statistical purposes’.
Processing these categories of personal data is necessary to produce statistics that broadcasters can use to work out how well their programming caters for different groups of the population.
How long do we keep your personal data
Ipsos is only involved in the recruitment of households onto the BARB TV panel. After the conclusion of your recruitment
process, Ipsos will retain your personal data for 6 months before permanently deleting it. This applies whether you joined or refused to join the BARB TV panel.
Your personal data is regularly updated as part of you being on the BARB TV panel, and Kantar and RSMB will retain your personal data for as long as you remain on the BARB TV panel. If you choose to leave the BARB TV panel, then RSMB will retain your personal data for a further 2 years before being permanently deleted.
If you choose to leave the BARB TV panel, then Kantar will retain your personal data for 3 months so that you can redeem your reward points. Your personal data will be retained for a further period, during which it will be used only for research purposes (for example, in order to verify existing viewing figures). The length of the period will be determined by a number of criteria, including the amount and sensitivity of the data and the potential risk from any unauthorised use or disclosure of the data. Kantar will implement appropriate safeguards to protect your personal data for as long as it is held.
BARB does not access your personal data as Ipsos, Kantar and RSMB process your personal data on behalf of BARB. If BARB does access your personal data, BARB will retain your personal data for as long as you remain on the BARB TV panel and will retain your personal data for a further 2 years before being permanently deleted.
Who we share your personal data with
Neither we nor Ipsos, Kantar , or RSMB share your personal data with anyone else. But there are some limited
exceptions to this:
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in order to provide your rewards and to install and maintain the equipment, Kantar might need to share your name and address with third parties such as the providers of the rewards, delivery companies, and equipment engineers. These service providers are required to keep your personal data confidential and secure, and they are not permitted to use your data for any other purpose
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we, Ipsos, Kantar, and RSMB each use the data storage and data transmission facilities of various IT and telecommunication companies, as is usual for any modern business. These service providers are required to keep your personal data confidential and secure, and they are not permitted to use your data for any other purpose
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we, Ipsos, Kantar and RSMB might be required to disclose your personal data in compliance with a court order, or to the police in connection with an investigation
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we, Ipsos, Kantar and RSMB may disclose your personal data to other contractors in connection with the BARB service
Your rights in relation to your personal data
You have a number of legal rights in relation to your personal data. You can exercise these by contacting us or any of Ipsos, Kantar, or RSMB using the contact details below.
Under your rights, you can:
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ask for a copy of your personal data
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ask for any of your personal data which is inaccurate or out-of-date to be corrected
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ask for your personal data to be erased (but please see the section below on ‘leaving the BARB TV viewing panel’)
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object to the processing of your personal data due to your particular circumstances (but please see the section below on ‘leaving the BARB TV viewing panel’)
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ask for the processing of your personal data to be restricted (but please see the section below on ‘leaving the BARB TV viewing panel’)
Leaving the BARB TV viewing panel
Your household is free to leave the BARB TV viewing panel at any time. All you need to do is tell someone at Kantar or RSMB.
There are some data protection rights which are not compatible with being on the BARB TV viewing panel. If anyone in your household exercises these rights, we will assume that your household no longer wishes to be on the panel and we will remove your household. This would happen where: someone in your household asks us to erase their personal data, someone in your household asks us to restrict our processing of their personal data, or someone in your household objects to us processing their personal data.
When your household leaves the panel, we will stop collecting any new information about you or your viewing. We will not erase or stop using the viewing information we hold or the demographic information we hold in relation to that viewing data. This is because erasing or stopping use of this information would prevent the existing viewing figures from being verifiable.
Although we, Ipsos, Kantar and RSMB will not immediately erase nor stop using the information we already hold about you, your information will be erased or anonymised after a period of time (please see the section above on ‘how long do we keep your personal data’). Up until then, your information will continue to be kept confidential and secure as always.
How to contact us
If you have any questions about how we handle your personal data, you can contact our Data Protection Officer, Nigel McLachlan at BARB:
If you wish to contact the companies we work with about their handling of personal data, you can do so as follows:
Ipsos: shapingtv@ipsos.com
Kantar: Dataprotection@kantar.com
RSMB: dpo@rsmb.co.uk
If you’re not happy with how we, Ipsos, Kantar and RSMB have handled your personal data, we’d like you to contact us first and give us a chance to put it right. But you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner if you would like to do so. You can find details about how to contact the Information Commissioner’s Office at
https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/ or by sending an email to casework@ico.org.uk
