Privacy Policy

Last updated: August 26, 2026

This Privacy Policy explains how The Research Company ("The Research Company," "we," "us," or "our") collects, uses, discloses, and retains personal information through www.theresearchcompany.org and our research, recruiting, referral, scheduling, opportunity-matching, and introduction services (collectively, the "Services").

The Research Company controls the personal information described in this policy unless we state otherwise. Questions and privacy requests may be sent to support@theresearchcompany.org.

Information we collect

Information you provide

Depending on how you interact with us, you may provide:

• Name, email address, telephone number, location, and other contact information
• Employer, job title, professional profile, work history, and business information
• Applications, screening responses, survey responses, messages, and feedback
• Scheduling preferences, availability, booking details, and meeting participation
• Referral information, referral activity, reward eligibility, and payout information
• Any other information you choose to provide to us

Research interviews and participation

When you participate in research, we may collect your answers, opinions, experiences, business challenges, goals, requirements, preferences, budgets, and estimates of business or financial impact. We may also create interview notes, summaries, and inferences from the information you provide.

If a call is recorded or transcribed, we will provide notice and obtain any permission required by applicable law. The resulting audio, video, transcript, and meeting metadata are personal information covered by this policy. A privacy authorization does not replace any separate recording notice or consent that applicable law requires.

Referrals and information about other people

Our referral programs may collect information about a referrer and a person they refer, including names, professional-profile links, contact details, referral messages, tracking information, qualification status, booking status, and reward status. If you give us information about another person, you must be authorized to provide it and should not give us sensitive or confidential information about them.

Connected accounts, public sources, and other sources

If you choose to connect or authenticate with a third-party account, such as LinkedIn, we may receive information allowed by the permissions you approve, which may include your name, member identifier, email address, profile URL, profile image, job title, and company. You can revoke a connected account through that provider's settings.

We may supplement information you provide with relevant professional or business information from public sources, referrals, research sponsors, business partners, and data or research providers. This may include company websites, professional profiles, role and employment information, and other information used to assess research eligibility or a potential match.

Information collected automatically

When you use our website, we and our providers may automatically collect IP address, browser and device information, approximate location, referring page, pages visited, timestamps, interactions, advertising and campaign identifiers, cookies, and diagnostic information. We may also collect application, qualification, booking, email, and conversion events.

We use privacy-masked product analytics and session replay. We configure these tools to mask form inputs and selected areas containing referral messages, payout details, private access tokens, and similar submitted content. No masking technique is guaranteed to be perfect, so we also limit access to these tools.

How we use information

We use personal information to:

• Operate, secure, troubleshoot, and improve the Services
• Review applications and determine eligibility for research opportunities
• Conduct research, create summaries and insights, and compensate participants
• Manage referrals, introductions, bookings, communications, and reward payments
• Provide opportunity matching when a participant has separately authorized it
• Communicate about the Services and respond to questions and requests
• Measure website and campaign performance and market our Services
• Detect fraud, misuse, security incidents, and violations of our terms
• Maintain business records and comply with legal obligations

We may use automated and AI-assisted tools to help with research, screening, classification, summarization, and matching. Where applicable law provides rights relating to automated processing, you may contact us to exercise those rights.

Opportunity matching and introductions

We use information from a research call to create and facilitate opportunities only when the participant gives us separate permission to do so. Those opportunities may include identifying and vetting vendors, specialists, potential customers, partners, candidates, investors, or other people who may address a stated need or help move the participant's business forward.

We use the participant's information internally to evaluate potential matches. We disclose only the information we reasonably believe is necessary to evaluate or facilitate a proposed opportunity. We do not disclose a full call recording or transcript to a potential match without separate permission. A participant may decline or cancel an introduction and is not required to meet, purchase, hire, invest, or enter into any transaction.

A potential counterparty may pay The Research Company a sourcing, referral, facilitation, or success fee. No third party may pay us to influence whom we select, how we rank a match, or what we recommend. We select proposed matches independently and in good faith based on anticipated mutual fit. Any fee is for the work of finding, vetting, and facilitating the opportunity, not for access to a participant's personal information.

We do not sell or rent participant profiles, research recordings, transcripts, or interview content as a standalone data product. We disclose information to a potential match for the limited purpose of evaluating or carrying out the proposed opportunity, and we do not authorize that recipient to resell it or use it for unrelated marketing.

Legal bases for processing

Where applicable law requires a legal basis, we rely on one or more of the following:

• Consent, including for call recording, opportunity matching, optional marketing, or non-essential tracking where required
• Contract or steps requested by you, including administering research, referrals, bookings, payments, and requested introductions
• Legitimate interests, including operating and securing the Services, evaluating eligibility, improving our work, preventing fraud, and conducting proportionate business-to-business marketing
• Legal obligations, including accounting, tax, regulatory, and lawful disclosure requirements

When we rely on consent, you may withdraw it at any time. Withdrawal does not affect processing that occurred before it was withdrawn.

How we disclose information

We may disclose personal information to the following recipients:

• Service providers. Providers supporting hosting, databases, CRM, analytics, session replay, research, AI processing, email, scheduling, video meetings, payments, security, and customer support. Depending on the Service, these may include Vercel, PostHog, RB2B, Google, Cal.com, Zoom, Resend, Anthropic, and Exa.
• Platforms and advertising providers. LinkedIn, Meta, Google, and similar providers for authentication, attribution, advertising, and conversion measurement.
• Research sponsors and business clients. We generally provide research findings in aggregated, de-identified, or summarized form. We disclose an identifiable response or recording only when we have told the participant and have an appropriate legal basis or permission.
• Potential opportunity counterparties. The limited information necessary to evaluate or facilitate an authorized introduction, as described above.
• Referral participants. Limited status information needed to administer a referral and reward, without disclosing the substance of a referred person's interview.
• Professional advisers and authorities. Lawyers, accountants, auditors, regulators, courts, and law enforcement when reasonably necessary or legally required.
• Transaction parties. Potential or actual parties to a merger, acquisition, financing, reorganization, bankruptcy, or sale of all or part of our business, subject to appropriate confidentiality protections.

Cookies, analytics, and advertising technologies

We use cookies, pixels, local storage, server-side conversion APIs, and similar technologies to operate the website, remember preferences, understand usage, identify business website visitors, measure conversions, and advertise our Services. Providers may receive online identifiers, IP address, browser and device information, page and campaign activity, and, for some conversion events, hashed contact identifiers or professional information.

Some disclosures to advertising or analytics providers may be considered a "sale," "sharing," or use for targeted advertising under certain privacy laws, even when no money is exchanged for the information. Where those laws apply, you may request to opt out by emailing support@theresearchcompany.org. You can also use browser controls and the opt-out tools offered by the relevant providers. Blocking some technologies may affect website functionality.

Retention

We retain personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this policy. We consider the nature and sensitivity of the information, the duration of our relationship, the purpose for which it was collected, operational needs, consent and dispute records, and applicable legal, accounting, and tax requirements.

If a participant withdraws an opportunity-matching authorization, we will stop new matching, outreach, disclosures, and bookings after a reasonable processing period. We will delete or de-identify the information maintained specifically for future matching within 30 days, except where retention is reasonably necessary to document consent or withdrawal, complete an already authorized transaction, resolve a dispute, prevent fraud, or comply with law. De-identified and aggregated information may be retained where it cannot reasonably be linked back to an individual.

Security

We use reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards designed to protect personal information. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

International transfers

We and our service providers may process information in the United States and other countries that may have different data-protection laws from your country. Where required, we use an approved transfer mechanism or other appropriate safeguards, such as an adequacy decision or the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses. You may contact us for more information about safeguards applicable to your information.

Your choices and privacy rights

Depending on your location and applicable law, you may have the right to:

• Know whether we process your personal information and access a copy of it
• Correct inaccurate personal information
• Delete personal information, subject to legal exceptions
• Receive portable information where applicable
• Withdraw consent and stop future opportunity matching
• Object to or restrict certain processing
• Opt out of marketing, targeted advertising, or qualifying sale or sharing
• Limit certain uses of sensitive personal information
• Appeal a decision concerning a privacy request where applicable
• Exercise your rights without unlawful discrimination
• Complain to the privacy or data-protection authority where you live

To exercise a right, withdraw matching permission, or unsubscribe from marketing, email support@theresearchcompany.org. You may also use the unsubscribe link in a marketing email. We may need to verify your identity and authority before completing a request. An authorized agent may submit a request where applicable law permits.

Sensitive information and information about others

Unless we specifically request it for a disclosed purpose, please do not give us passwords, authentication credentials, government identifiers, health information, trade secrets, customer records, or other sensitive or confidential information. Do not disclose personal information about another person unless you have authority to do so.

Children

The Services are intended for adults and business professionals. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 18. If you believe a child has provided information to us, contact us so we can investigate and take appropriate action.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as our practices or legal obligations change. We will post the updated policy here and change the "Last updated" date. If a change materially affects how we use information already collected, we will provide additional notice or obtain consent where required.

Contact us

The Research Company
www.theresearchcompany.org
support@theresearchcompany.org