Your privacy is incredibly important to us at Exploring Happiness. This page is certainly not the most riveting one on our website but we have tried to make it as short and simple as it can be, so that you know you can trust us to look after any personal data you choose to share with us.
This privacy policy sets out how Exploring Happiness (“we”, “our”, “us”), use the personal information that we collect and process about you (the “user” or “member”).
It applies to our members, anyone who signs up to receive marketing communications from us, anyone who visits www.exploringhappiness.co.uk (the “Site”) and indeed anyone who interacts with anything else that we produce.
Please read the following carefully if you’d like to understand how we will use your personal data. If you want to, please check back regularly – we will update our policy if we need to reflect any changes to our operations and services.
If you have any questions about all this privacy stuff, write to us at info@exploringhappiness.co.uk.
The sections of this privacy policy are as follows:
What data do we collect?
How do we collect your data?
How will we use your data?
How do we store your data?
Marketing
What are your data protection rights?
Cookies
Privacy policies of other websites
Changes to our privacy policy
How to contact us
How to contact the appropriate authorities
What data do we collect?
When you create an account with us we ask for the following personal information on our sign up page:
Email address
Date of birth
Gender
Country of origin
We then ask you to select which of the individual types (see methodology paper for more detail) is most applicable to you and after this we ask you to select how important each of the variables in the index are you to, using the following options (“N/A”, “Low”, “Medium”, “High”). You are then asked to submit scores on a scale of 1-10 for each of the components of the index. We collect these data so that the user can track their performance through time using the personalised characteristics of the index. Lastly, users are able to write notes on the site and it is a free space to write anything that the user would like to. Although, the expectation is that this space is used by the user to reflect on their performance in the index and make plans for how to improve in the future. These notes are stored so that they remain available each time the user returns to use our site.
This website also collects personal data to power our site analytics, including:
Information about your browser, network, and device
Web pages you visited prior to coming to this website
Your IP address
This information may also include details about your use of this website, including:
Clicks
Internal links
Pages visited
Scrolling
Searches
Timestamps
We share this information with Squarespace, our website analytics provider, to learn about site traffic and activity
How do we collect your data?
You directly provide us with most of the data we collect. We collect data and process data when you:
Create an account with us and through continued usage of this account.
Voluntarily provide feedback on any of our message boards or via email.
Use or view our website via your browser’s cookies.
How will we use your data?
Firstly, we want to be clear that none of the individual user data will be shared with other users or shared publicly in a non-aggregated form. We will use the data that we receive from individual users for three main purposes:
Research: The data that we receive from the responses to the index will be hugely valuable to answer a number of research questions, specifically within the field of happiness economics research.
Improving the index: The data that we receive on the choices regarding the personalised weights of the index and the individual component scores will allow us to refine the calibration of the index.
Improving the user experience: The data that we receive will also be used, where possible, to understand how people use our site so that we can make it more intuitive.
How do we store your data?
We store your data in our secure database. We will keep your data for as long as your account is in use. You can delete your account at any time using the account settings page. All of your data will be automatically deleted from our database immediately after you delete your account.
Marketing
We would like to send you information about services of ours that we think you might like. If you agree to receive marketing, you may always opt out at a later date. You have the right at any time to stop us from contacting you for marketing purposes.
What are your data protection rights?
We would like to make sure you are fully aware of all of your data protection rights. Every user is entitled to the following:
The right to access – You have the right to request for copies of your personal data. We may charge you a small fee for this service.
The right to rectification – You have the right to request that we correct any information you believe is inaccurate. You also have the right to request that we to complete the information you believe is incomplete.
The right to erasure – You have the right to request that we erase your personal data, under certain conditions.
The right to restrict processing – You have the right to request that we restrict the processing of your personal data, under certain conditions.
The right to object to processing – You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data, under certain conditions.
The right to data portability – You have the right to request that we transfer the data that we have collected to another organisation, or directly to you, under certain conditions.
If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you. If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact us at our email: info@exploringhappiness.co.uk
Cookies
This website uses cookies and similar technologies, which are small files or pieces of text that download to a device when a visitor accesses a website or app. For information about viewing the cookies dropped on your device, visit The cookies Squarespace uses.
These functional and required cookies are always used, which allow Squarespace, our hosting platform, to securely serve this website to you.
These analytics and performance cookies are used on this site, as described below, only when you acknowledge our cookie banner. We use analytics cookies to view site traffic, activity, and other data.
Privacy policies of other websites
The Exploring Happiness website contains links to other websites. Our privacy policy applies only to our website, so if you click on a link to another website, you should read their privacy policy.
Changes to our privacy policy
Exploring Happiness keeps its privacy policy under regular review and places any updates on this web page. This privacy policy was last updated on 28 December 2020.
How to contact us
If you have any questions about our privacy policy, the data we hold on you, or you would like to exercise one of your data protection rights, please do not hesitate to contact us. The best way to contact us is via email: info@exploringhappiness.co.uk
How to contact the appropriate authorities
Should you wish to report a complaint or if you feel that Our Company has not addressed your concern in a satisfactory manner, you may contact the Information Commissioner’s Office.
Click here to go to their website. Or, alternatively, try calling their helpline on 0303 123 1113.