Acxiom UK Products Privacy Policy

Our company is Acxiom Limited. Our registered office is 16 Old Bailey, London, ECRM 7EG and company registered number is 1182318.

Acxiom holds data such as addresses, lifestyle and demographic data. This information is kept in an aggregated form so that individuals cannot be identified, for the purposes listed below.

We obtain product data from partner companies who in turn obtain information from people who volunteer information when they complete lifestyle surveys or when they buy goods or subscribe to clubs or services. In the past, we also collected information directly from our own lifestyle questionnaire program which we no longer run. We obtain data through various channels such as online, by telephone or in paper format. In common with many marketing companies, we also use information that we obtain from public sources, such as the open electoral register and register of company directors along with data made available under the open government licence such as the census, HM Land Registry data and DWP area level statistics. Click here for examples of the kinds of companies and sources we mean. Before we obtain any data it is aggregated so that it does not identify anyone.

We use this data to create solutions to be used for insight, recognition and contact purposes.

Insight: we use this data to create a marketing picture of individuals throughout the country. This includes demographics such as age and income, hobbies and interests that relate to people’s lifestyle choices and market specific predictors such as technology and financial product ownership. We use a combination of actual data held (about a property or groups of people) and derived information (through statistical modelling or by applying a logical rule set) which indicates likelihood of having a particular attribute, e.g. likelihood to have pets or to fall within a particular marketing segment such as “technology early adopters”. The resulting dataset is then used by others to make marketing more relevant as further explained in the next section. We do not use data that our suppliers created from special category data. This is a type of data the law considers particularly sensitive.

Recognition: we use the data for matching and linking to other databases. For example, an advertiser sends us a list of addresses, then we match those addresses to our product. Where there is a match, we add the lifestyle information we hold on those matched individuals to the advertiser file; or instead of adding lifestyle information we append a persistent key to the advertiser file which can then be used to recognise records that have the same key appended to them.

Contact: we use contact information from this data to create a direct marketing file. For example, we create a file of addresses which is used for marketing.

We do not carry out any marketing ourselves with these solutions, and businesses using them to contact people need separately to ensure they may do so in accordance with applicable law.

We share information with our commercial partners – such as brands, agencies, public authorities and marketing companies – in all industry sectors to help them deliver better marketing and service/communication experiences to people. They may use this product data for the following purposes:

• to send you relevant marketing or other communications
• to improve the relevance of marketing or other communications through the use of lifestyle and demographic insight data
• to clean, validate and enhance marketing or other databases
• to undertake research and analysis
• for product development and testing
• to support client relationship
• to connect and link product data to other marketing and advertising databases and platforms
• for work planning, management and strategic decision making and
• for the fulfilment of statutory functions, for example reminding people about TV licences.

Some examples of the industry types you can expect product data to be used in are: automotive, charity, education, gaming, retail, leisure, financial services (including retail banking, investments, loans, credit cards, insurance, wills and funeral plans), politics, health/mobility, home improvements, mail order, market research, publishing, media, FMCG (toiletries/cosmetics/food and drink), travel, telecoms and utilities.

We share product data directly with brands and via agencies. We also share data (usually in a form where individuals cannot be directly identified) with other marketing companies such as social media and programmatic platforms. We make sure the recipients of our data are reputable entities by conducting appropriate checks on them. Before we share our data we enter into written agreements with recipients which contain terms that safeguard the data.

Data used in Acxiom’s data products and services may also be passed to and used by members of the Acxiom group of companies worldwide. We may also pass data to other companies that process product data on our behalf to help us conduct our business. When we do so, we ensure that appropriate contractual safeguards are put in place.

Acxiom may also disclose data as required by law and to comply with legal process.

Acxiom takes security seriously. We make considerable investments and use an industry-recognised security objective control framework to keep our sites and systems secure and to prevent product data from being made available to any unauthorised persons or businesses. Examples of measures we take to ensure data security are as follows:

Physical Data Security: Product data is only loaded and accessed by authorised Acxiom staff in a locked and secure environment. All media containing product data are stored in a locked and secure environment and all product data and media are returned to the supplying company or destroyed at the expiration or termination of the relevant agreement or applicable retention period.

Data and System Security: Logical security of the product data contained within our data centre is protected by multiple layers and techniques that conform to security industry standards and guidelines such as the combination of unique terminal identifiers and passwords.

Document Security and Confidentiality: Acxiom associates are instructed to ensure that their working areas are left clear with all working information locked away at the end of each business day and when away from their normal place of work for any significant period during the working day.

Data Back-up: Acxiom backs up all disk system files to the appropriate tape media on daily, weekly, or monthly cycles, according to available processing schedules and periods. One or more generations of a back-up cycle are retained and either stored in an alternate building or moved and stored at a secure offsite location.

Building and Personnel Security: All Acxiom buildings have a security guard on duty 24 hours a day and access is only granted to personnel displaying a valid security badge. Visitors must identify themselves and sign in before being escorted into an Acxiom facility.

Security Officer: Acxiom has a designated member of staff responsible for all aspects of security. Their function is to ensure that all Acxiom staff are aware of security responsibilities, that procedures are being followed and to carry out periodic audits and compliance spot checks on adherence to security procedures.

Business Partner Security: We expect recipients of our data to have in place similar security measures, and we carry out checks to assess their suitability and put in place adequate contractual safeguards before any data is shared with them.

We take great care to handle all data in accordance with applicable law and to ensure that it is never used in ways that unduly prejudice individuals’ interests. Users of our data are prohibited by contractual restrictions from using our data in a way which discriminates unfairly against individuals or produces legal or similar effects.

Individuals wishing to contact us may do so by writing to us at Consumer Services Department, Acxiom Limited, 16 Old Bailey, London, ECRM 7EG or by emailing us at ukconsumerservices@acxiom.com.

Transfer of Assets

As Acxiom develops its business, there may be a change of control of Acxiom or divisions, subsidiaries, affiliates or portions of Acxiom. In this situation, data is typically considered a transferable asset. Also, in the event that Acxiom or a part of its divisions, affiliates or subsidiaries are purchased, product data will be one of the transferred assets.

Changes to Our Privacy Policy

Acxiom reserves the right to update and revise this Privacy Policy from time to time to take into account legislative and other developments. Any changes we may make to our Privacy Policy will be posted on this page and contain an “effective date” reflecting when the last changes occurred.