Privacy Policy

Introduction

Vibrant Insights Pty Ltd (ABN 83 658 406 225) (“Vibrant Insights”, “we”, “us” or “our”) respects and upholds your rights under the Australian Privacy Principles (“APPs”) contained in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (“Privacy Act”). Vibrant Insights also adheres to the Privacy (Market and Social Research) Code 2014 (“Code”). For more information about the Privacy Act, the APPs and the Code, visit oaic.gov.au/privacy/australian-privacy-principles.

This Privacy Policy explains what personal information of yours we may hold, what we do with it, who we disclose it to, and how you can access or correct the personal information we hold about you. It also explains how to opt out of receiving communications from us, and how we use automated tools – including artificial intelligence – in our research process.

What personal information do we collect and hold?

Vibrant Insights is a market research company undertaking research on behalf of our clients. We may collect information through online, mobile or telephone surveys, face-to-face interviews, focus groups, or other research methods. This may include personal information such as your name, gender, age, date of birth, occupation and contact details.

We may also collect sensitive information, such as salary, health information or political opinions, and your opinions, feedback and experiences relating to brands, products and services. We may also collect your IP address or device information (device type, OS version, browser version, session times and durations, etc.).

Sensitive information will only be collected with your prior consent, and only where directly related to, or reasonably necessary for, the research we conduct.

When providing personal information, you may remain anonymous or adopt a pseudonym, or choose to withhold certain information – except where this isn’t practicable, such as where we receive your contact details from a third party, or where the nature of the research data itself may allow for identification.

How do we collect and hold your personal information?

We generally collect your personal information using third-party service providers, and you will always be informed about the circumstances of this collection.

We may receive personal information about you from clients, marketing list providers, panels, or social/market research recruiters. Where we receive personal information from a third party, we take reasonable steps to confirm that it was collected and disclosed lawfully and, where required by the APPs, notify you of the circumstances of collection.

We may also collect personal information in the form of video or audio recordings you provide, directly or via passive listening technologies – always with your express permission.

We take appropriate steps to ensure any information provided to us is handled in accordance with the APPs.

How do we use AI and automated tools in our research?

As part of delivering research services, Vibrant Insights may use artificial intelligence (AI) and other automated data-processing tools to assist with tasks such as developing code-frames, survey design, coding, categorising or thematically analysing open-ended survey responses, summarising qualitative data, or supporting analysis and reporting.

Where survey or research data is processed using AI tools, this may involve data being transmitted to and processed by third-party AI service providers, which may be located overseas (see “Overseas disclosure” below for the relevant safeguards). Before research data is processed by an AI tool, we take reasonable steps to remove direct identifiers and minimise the personal information disclosed, unless identifiable processing is necessary for the research and is authorised by the participant or otherwise permitted by law.

AI and automated tools are used to support our analysis – not to make decisions about individuals that would significantly affect their rights or interests. We do not use automated tools to make eligibility, employment, credit, insurance or similar decisions about individuals. If this changes, we will update this policy and provide the additional information required under the Privacy Act regarding automated decision-making.

Where we use third-party AI-assisted analysis, we select and configure the service having regard to its security, privacy, data-location and data-retention settings, and disclose only the minimum information reasonably necessary for the research. Where available, we use service settings or contractual terms that prohibit providers from using submitted data to train their general-purpose models. We do not disclose participants’ identifiable information to an AI provider unless that disclosure is necessary for the research, has been authorised by the participant or is otherwise permitted by law, and appropriate privacy and security safeguards apply.

Purposes for which we use, handle and disclose your personal information

We will only use and disclose your personal information for the purpose of conducting our research and in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
We will not use or disclose your personally identifiable information for advertising, promotions or direct marketing.
If you have participated in our research, we will only re-contact you if you were informed this may occur, or we have valid reasons to believe a genuine research concern warrants re-contact, or we wish to clarify your responses or collect further information (including as part of a longitudinal study).
If you have declined to participate, we may still use your personal information to re-contact you for another research purpose where we have valid reasons to believe a genuine research concern warrants this.

Data breaches

Vibrant Insights takes reasonable steps under the Privacy Act to secure personal information. Should a data breach involving personal information occur, we will:

• in compliance with the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme under the Privacy Act, notify the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (“OAIC”) and affected individuals at likely risk of serious harm, as soon as practicable, if we become aware of reasonable grounds to believe an eligible data breach has occurred.
• take positive steps to address the breach in a timely manner and take remedial action so that the breach does not result in serious harm;
• undertake a reasonable and expeditious assessment to determine whether it is an ‘eligible data breach’ – that is, a breach likely to result in serious harm to any individual affected; and

Who do we disclose your personal information to?

You have the right to request access to any personal information we hold about you. You can request this information by contacting the Privacy Officer at the details listed below. Where we hold information that you are entitled to access, we will respond to your request in a reasonable time and endeavour to provide you with a suitable range of choices as to how access is provided (e.g., emailing or mailing it to you). A fee may be charged to cover the cost of retrieval. However this fee will not be excessive and will only apply to the facilitation of your request.

If at any time you believe that personal information we hold about you is incorrect, incomplete or inaccurate, then you may request amendment of it and we will either amend the information or make a record of your comment, as we think appropriate.

Overseas disclosure

In the course of conducting our research, we may use third-party service providers located overseas to collect, host, store or process personal information – for example, cloud storage, survey hosting platforms, or AI-assisted analysis tools. Where possible, we prefer providers who host and store information within Australia.

Vibrant Insights currently uses service providers with infrastructure located in Australia, Canada, and the United States of America for the following purposes: cloud storage, survey software, AI-assisted data analysis.

Before disclosing personal information to an overseas recipient, we take reasonable steps to ensure that the recipient does not breach the APPs in relation to that information, including by reviewing the recipient’s privacy and security commitments and, where appropriate, entering into contractual arrangements requiring equivalent protections. In most cases, survey data, discussions and research information handled in this way will not be personally identifiable.

We take reasonable steps before disclosing personal information overseas to ensure that each overseas recipient will handle it consistently with the APPs, including through appropriate due diligence and contractual protections where warranted; however, privacy protections and remedies in an overseas jurisdiction may differ from those available in Australia.

Openness, access and correction

You have the right to request access to any personal information we hold about you by contacting our Privacy Officer using the details below. We will respond within a reasonable time and provide you with a suitable range of options for how access is given (for example, by email or post). A fee may apply to cover retrieval costs, but this will not be excessive and will only reflect the cost of facilitating your request.

If you believe personal information we hold about you is incorrect, incomplete or inaccurate, you may request that we amend it. We will take reasonable steps to correct information that is inaccurate, out-of-date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading and, if we refuse a correction request, will give you written reasons and information about available complaint mechanisms; at your request, we will also take reasonable steps to notify relevant third parties of a correction.

Questions and complaints

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, or believe we have failed to meet our commitments under the Privacy Act, the APPs or the Code, please contact our Privacy Officer at info@vibrantinsights.com.au.

We will respond and advise whether we agree with your complaint. If we do not agree, we will provide reasons; if we do agree, we will advise of any action we consider appropriate. If you remain unsatisfied after we’ve had a reasonable opportunity to respond, you may contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner:

• Phone: 1300 363 992 (local call cost; mobile/pay phone charges may be higher). From overseas (including Norfolk Island): +61 2 9284 9749.
• TTY (hearing impaired only): 1800 620 241.
• TIS National (Translating and Interpreting Service): 131 450 – ask for the OAIC.
• Post: GPO Box 2999, Canberra ACT 2601.
• Email: enquiries@oaic.gov.au.

Our website

When you visit our website, our server records the visit and logs information for statistical and administrative purposes, including your server address, the date and time of your visit, pages accessed and documents downloaded, the duration of your visit, and the type of browser used. This helps us understand how the site is used and where maintenance or improvements may be needed.

We may also collect information about visiting domain name or IP address, operating system, browser type and screen resolution, for the purpose of optimising our website.

A cookie is a small piece of information a website sends to your browser when you visit. Cookies may be session cookies (stored in memory and deleted when you close your browser) or persistent cookies (stored on your device between visits). Vibrant Insights’ website currently uses only session cookies, and no personal information is retained that would identify you on a later visit.

Retention and destruction of personal information

We will take reasonable steps to destroy or de-identify personal information when it is no longer needed for any purpose permitted under the APPs, unless its retention is required by Australian law or a court or tribunal order.

Where practicable, we retain personally identifiable project research data for no longer than the length of the engagement (i.e. email addresses, phone numbers, contact information is removed from our local project files on delivery of the final report) unless a longer period is required by law or agreed with the client.

Where we are required by law to retain personal information after our research is complete, that information continues to be protected in accordance with this Policy. When we destroy personal information, we do so using reasonable and up-to-date techniques and processes.

Security of your information

We take reasonable steps to protect your personally identifiable information as it is transmitted to us and to protect it from loss, misuse, and unauthorised access, use, modification, disclosure, alteration or destruction.

However, transmission of information over the internet is not completely secure or error-free. Email sent to or from our website may not be secure, so please take care in deciding what information you send to us by email.

Automated decision-making

Vibrant Insights does not currently use computer programs to make decisions, based on personal information, that could reasonably be expected to significantly affect the rights or interests of an individual. If this changes, we will update this Privacy Policy to include the information required under the Privacy Act regarding the kinds of personal information used and the kinds of decisions made.

Miscellaneous

In this policy, “personal information” has the same meaning as under the Privacy Act.

This policy is effective from 1 July 2026. We may change this policy from time to time; the current version will always be available on our website. We will handle personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy and our obligations under applicable privacy laws. If our information-handling practices materially change, we will update this Privacy Policy and, where required by law, provide notice or obtain consent before applying the change. Any change will remain subject to applicable contractual and statutory rights and will not reduce rights that have already accrued.