PRIVACY POLICY

Nicola Scott Consulting Pty Ltd Privacy Policy

Effective date: 20th October 2026.
This policy replaces the Nicola Scott Consulting Privacy Policy 2019.

1. Introduction

Nicola Scott Consulting Pty Ltd (ABN 68 653 778 708) ("NSC", "we", "us") conducts market and social research. We respect and uphold your rights under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) ("Privacy Act") and the Australian Privacy Principles ("APPs").

We also comply with the Privacy (Market and Social Research) Code 2021 ("Code") and the Research Society Code of Professional Behaviour. For more information about the Privacy Act and the APPs, visit www.oaic.gov.au.

This policy explains what personal information we collect, how we use and protect it, who we share it with, and how you can access or correct it.

2. What personal information we collect

The information we collect varies by project. It may include your name, occupation, workplace or work location, and your opinions and feedback about products, brands and services. For interviews, we may also make an audio recording of what you say.

Wherever practicable, you may take part anonymously or under a pseudonym. In most of our research, you are identified to us only by a unique code. This may not be practicable where, for example, the research data itself could identify you.

We only collect sensitive information, such as health information, with your consent and only where it is directly related to, or reasonably necessary for, the research.

3. How we collect personal information

We collect personal information directly from you when you are screened for, or take part in, our research, such as a survey or interview.

We usually work with specialist recruitment partners. They invite people to take part, screen them and give each participant a unique code. Your name and contact details stay with the recruitment partner. They pass only your code, and a survey or meeting link, to NSC.

Occasionally, a client sponsoring the research may provide a list of potential participants. In that case, we only use contact details where the person has been told their details will be passed to us, or where the details are publicly available.

4. How we use personal information

We use personal information only to conduct research and as described in this policy. We never use it for advertising, promotions or direct marketing.

We may re-contact you for a research purpose only if you were told this when you took part, or if a genuine research concern warrants it.

5. Who we disclose personal information to

We never give our clients information that identifies you, unless you have given your express consent. Clients receive aggregated, de-identified findings and anonymous quotes only.

To conduct our research, we share personal information only with:

Recruitment partners, who recruit and screen participants and pay incentives. They hold your contact details and match your code to you for payment only. They never see your responses.
Service providers who help us run the research, such as survey hosting, interview transcription and secure cloud storage. They handle information only for our research and are required to protect it.

We may also disclose personal information where an Australian law requires it.

6. Overseas disclosure

We keep personal information in Australia wherever practicable. The exception is interview transcription: our transcription provider is based in the United States, so interview audio recordings may be processed there.

Participants are identified in recordings by code, not by name. Recordings are deleted from the transcription service once the transcript has been downloaded. We take reasonable steps to make sure overseas providers protect personal information in line with the APPs.

If a particular project involves storing data with another provider outside Australia, we will tell you when you are invited to take part.

7. Security, retention and destruction

We take reasonable steps to protect personal information from misuse, interference, loss, and unauthorised access, change or disclosure. Research files are stored securely in the cloud, and access is restricted to NSC.

We keep personal information only as long as we need it for the research, then destroy or de-identify it:

Information Kept

Interview audio recordings = Deleted within 6 months of the interview, or earlier at the client's request
Audio in the transcription service = Deleted once the transcript is downloaded
Interview transcripts = Personal details removed before saving; deleted within 3 years
Survey data files = Contain no names or contact details; deleted within 3 years

We may keep information longer if an Australian law requires it. It stays protected under this policy for as long as we hold it.

Please keep in mind that email is not always secure, so take care with what you send us by email.

8. Data breaches

If a data breach is likely to cause serious harm to anyone whose information we hold, we will notify the people affected and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC). We do this under the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme in the Privacy Act.

9. Automated decisions

We do not use personal information to make automated decisions that significantly affect individuals. We use software to transcribe interviews, but all analysis and decisions are made by people.

10. Access and correction

You can ask to see the personal information we hold about you by contacting our Privacy Officer (details below). We will respond within a reasonable time and offer a suitable way to give you access, such as by email. We will not charge you for making a request, but we may charge a reasonable fee to cover the cost of retrieving the information.

If you believe information we hold about you is incorrect, incomplete or out of date, you can ask us to correct it. We will either correct it or record your comment with it.

11. Questions and complaints

If you have a question about this policy, or believe we have not handled your personal information as required by the Privacy Act, the APPs or the Code, please contact:

Privacy Officer: Nicola Scott

Nicola Scott Consulting Pty Ltd, Cammeray NSW 2062

Phone: +61 420 614 265

Email: nicola@nicolascottconsulting.com

We will respond and let you know whether we agree with your complaint. If we don't, we will explain why. If we do, we will tell you what action we will take.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you can contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner: