Privacy Notice - Residential Household Survey

We ask that you read this privacy notice carefully as it contains important information on who we are, how and why we collect, store, use or share personal information, your rights in relation to your personal information and how to contact us and the supervisory authority in the event that you have a complaint.

Who we are

Arc4 are a specialist housing research organisation.
We are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (Z992934X).

How we get and use your information

Your address has been selected to be sent information about the survey. Address lists can be provided by councils or are commercially available. When we contact you, we include a reference number and postcode which is used to identify the area where you live. We never ask for anyone’s name in our surveys.

When you submit your answers to the survey arc4 will also receive your reference number or postcode. Where necessary, this is used to link your response to a particular geographical area such as a census output area, ward or parish. Your name, email address, house number and street name will not be included in the survey results.

Arc4 will only share the anonymous results of the survey with relevant Data Controllers (such as a council or housing association)

The Data Controllers rely on the lawful basis of Public Task carried out in the Public Interest for the above processing.

Arc4 have a Legitimate Interest to indefinitely retain and process the survey information (which will not include your name, house number or street name) for statistical and future research purposes.

Types of personal information we collect

  • Your name
  • Contact details
  • Reference number
  • Information about your home and all members of your household
  • Information about your housing history
  • Information about your household’s future housing needs

Special Category Data

We collect health and disability information, as it relates to your current and future housing needs, about all members of your household. For this we rely on the lawful basis under the Data Protection Act 2018 Schedule 1 Part 1(1) Social Protection and (2) Health and Social Care purposes.

The Data Protection Act 2018 requires us to have an Appropriate Policy Document (‘APD’) for the above processing of special category data. The APD sets out and explains our procedures for securing compliance with data protection principles and policies regarding the retention and erasure personal data.  
We collect the ethnicity of all members of your household and rely on the lawful basis under the Data Protection Act 2018 Schedule 1 Part 2(8) Equality of opportunity or treatment.

Sharing your information and how long we retain it.

Arc4 contacts people in various ways although we have mainly moved to online collection of data. We use data processors to mail letters to households inviting them to take part in surveys. We can also use email to invite household to take part in surveys

Where we use traditional postal surveys, we use data processors to send paper surveys to households and for data entry.

We use cloud providers for storing your information.

Arc4 retain the survey results, including ID and postcode (but not your name), indefinitely for statistical purposes. In doing this Arc4 will ensure that results of the research, or any resulting statistics are not made available in a form which identifies you (the data subject).

Transferring your personal information out of the UK

To deliver services to you, it may be necessary for us to share your personal information outside the UK, for example if we were to use a cloud service provider based outside the UK. These transfers are subject to special rules under UK data protection law. In such a situation, we will make sure that we have adequate safeguards and security measures in place as required by the GDPR.

Your Data Protection rights, including your right to complain

Right of access
Should you wish to make a subject access request please contact arc4 at businessteam@arc4.co.uk or call 0800 612 9133
Right to rectification
If you wish to correct any information, we hold about you please contact us using the above details. We will consider your request and give you our decision one month. Please remember the research captures your views and opinions at the time it was conducted.
Right to erasure, right to object or restrict processing
Where arc4 are processing under a Legitimate Interest for statistical purposes a legitimate interest assessment has been conducted to ensure your rights are not unduly outweighed.
Your name, house number and street name are not included in the information.
Our work requires us to maintain the integrity of datasets.
Right to complain
If you wish to complain about how we have processed your information please contact us using the above details. If you are still unhappy you can complain to the Information Commissioner

May 2022