Privacy notice

This notice is effective from 12 May 2026 and applies to the website at internationalresearchinstitute.org (the “site”). The International Research Institute (“IRI”, “we”, “us”) is the data controller for the personal data described below. We are an independent, non-partisan research organisation, and we handle personal data with the same methodological transparency we apply to our published work.

Reading this alongside our terms of use and accessibility statement will give you a full picture of how the site operates.

At a glance

• We collect only the data we need to answer enquiries, deliver publications, run events and improve the site.
• We do not sell personal data, and we do not use it for advertising or automated decision-making.
• We rely on measured, standard legal bases: your consent, our legitimate interests, the performance of a contract, and legal obligations.
• You can ask to access, correct or delete your data, or object to its use, at any time.

Who we are and how to contact us

IRI is responsible for deciding how your personal data is processed. If you have any question about this notice or wish to exercise a right, contact our data-protection team at privacy@internationalresearchinstitute.org or write to us via our contact page. General enquiries can be sent to enquiries@internationalresearchinstitute.org.

The data controller is International Research Institute, a company limited by guarantee and a registered charity in England and Wales. Our registered office is 2nd Floor, 40 Bermondsey Street, London SE1 3UD, United Kingdom, and our switchboard is +44 (0)20 7946 0321.

The information we collect

Information you provide to us

You share information with us when you choose to interact with the site. This may include your name, organisation, role, email address and the content of your message when you:

• send an enquiry or commission a market-research brief;
• subscribe to our newsletter or a research alert;
• register for an event, briefing or seminar;
• contact our media, partnerships or governance teams, or apply to work with us.

Information we collect automatically

When you visit the site, our servers record limited technical information for security and reliability, including your IP address, browser type, the pages you view and the date and time of your request. We use a small number of strictly necessary cookies and, if you consent, privacy-respecting analytics to understand which research is most used. We do not build advertising profiles.

How and why we use your data

We use personal data only for defined, limited purposes, and we record a lawful basis for each one:

• Responding to enquiries and delivering services — to answer your questions and to scope and deliver commissioned research. Legal basis: performance of a contract, or our legitimate interest in responding to you.
• Newsletters and research alerts — to send material you have asked to receive. Legal basis: your consent, which you may withdraw at any time.
• Events — to manage registration and provide related information. Legal basis: performance of a contract and our legitimate interest in running events.
• Site security, analytics and improvement — to keep the site available, safe and useful. Legal basis: our legitimate interest, and your consent for non-essential analytics.
• Legal and governance obligations — to keep records and meet obligations that apply to us. Legal basis: compliance with a legal obligation.

Cookies and analytics

Strictly necessary cookies keep the site functioning and cannot be switched off. Any analytics cookies are set only with your consent, are used in aggregate, and can be declined without affecting your access to our research. You can also manage cookies through your browser settings.

Sharing and disclosure

We share personal data only where necessary and never sell it. We may share it with service providers who process data on our behalf under written instructions — for example, email delivery, event registration and hosting — and only where they offer appropriate safeguards. We may also disclose data where the law requires it, or to protect the rights and safety of the Institute and others.

International transfers

As an international research organisation, we may process data in countries outside the one in which you are located. Where we do, we put appropriate safeguards in place, such as standard contractual clauses or an equivalent lawful transfer mechanism, so that your data continues to be protected.

How long we keep your data

We keep personal data only for as long as needed for the purpose for which it was collected, and to meet our legal and governance obligations. Enquiry correspondence is typically retained for up to three years; newsletter records are kept until you unsubscribe. After that, data is securely deleted or anonymised.

Your rights

Depending on your location, you have rights over your personal data. These generally include the right to:

• access the personal data we hold about you;
• ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete data;
• ask us to erase data where there is no reason to keep it;
• restrict or object to certain processing;
• request portability of data you provided to us;
• withdraw consent at any time, without affecting prior use.

To exercise any right, email privacy@internationalresearchinstitute.org. We will respond within the period required by applicable law. If you are not satisfied with our response, you may complain to your local data-protection authority.

How we protect your data

We apply technical and organisational measures appropriate to the data we hold, including access controls, encryption in transit, and staff confidentiality obligations. No system can be guaranteed entirely secure, but we review our safeguards regularly and act promptly if an issue arises.

Children

The site is intended for a professional and academic audience and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect data from children.

Other sites we link to

Our research sometimes links to external sources and partner sites. This notice does not cover those sites, and we encourage you to read their own privacy notices.

Changes to this notice

We may update this notice to reflect changes to the site or the law. When we do, we will revise the effective date above and, where the change is significant, provide a clearer notice. The current version always governs our processing.