Your interview and your data

1.1This Notice applies to people who take part in an interview run with Underheard Research ("respondents"). Account holders and visitors of our websites are covered by our Privacy Policy.

1.2"Organization" means the company or institution that runs the study and invited you, directly or through a panel. "Interview" means the conversation with the AI interviewer and anything you share during it. "Personal data" means any information relating to an identified or identifiable person, including your voice and what you say.

1.3Where this Notice differs from a written agreement between Underheard and an Organization, that agreement prevails as to the Organization's data.

1.4Summaries of this Notice produced by AI assistants are not part of it. This Notice is what applies.

2.1The Organization is the controller of your interview data. It decides what is asked, who is invited and what happens with the results.

2.2Underheard processes your data on behalf of the Organization and on its documented instructions, as a processor under a data processing agreement.

2.3Some studies do not name the Organization during the interview, so that knowing it does not influence your answers. You can ask us at any time which Organization runs a study, and we will tell you.

2.4Requests about a study can be sent to the Organization or to us at support@underheard.ai. We pass on requests that are for the Organization.

3.1The interview is conducted by an AI voice interviewer, not a person. It asks the questions the Organization prepared and follows up on your answers.

3.2The AI interviewer makes no decisions about you. No decision that has legal effects for you or affects you in a similar way is made by automated means.

4.1Interview content. A recording of your voice during the interview, the written transcript of it, and photos or short videos you upload when a question asks for them.

4.2Details you provide. Your first name, if the invitation included it, and your email address, if you choose to leave it.

4.3Technical details. Your IP address and the approximate location it implies (country, region and city), your browser and device type, screen size, language and timezone, and the reference a panel uses for you if a panel sent you.

4.4Page recordings. A record of how the interview page is used, such as clicks, scrolling and errors. Page recordings do not contain your voice, and everything you type is masked. It carries a code instead of your name, so we can match it to your interview when something went wrong.

4.5Partial interviews. If you stop before the end, what you said until then is kept and can be used in the results.

4.6Sensitive information. An interview can lead you to talk about your health, your beliefs or other people. Anything you say becomes part of the transcript. Only share what you want to share.

5.1Interview content is used to produce the results of the study for the Organization, such as transcripts, summaries, themes, quotes and reports. The analysis works on the transcript.

5.2Your voice itself is not analysed. There is no emotion detection and no voice identification.

5.3Technical details are used to run the interview, to check that each respondent is a real, single person in the area the study covers, and to prevent misuse of interview links.

5.4Page recordings are used to find and fix problems with the interview page.

5.5Your data is not used for advertising and is not sold.

5.6The Organization determines the legal basis for processing your interview data. Where the legal basis is your consent, you can withdraw it at any time. Withdrawal does not affect processing that took place before it.

5.7Where Underheard processes technical details and page recordings to keep the service secure and working, it relies on its legitimate interest in doing so.

6.1The Organization. The research team at the Organization receives the transcript, the recording, any photos or videos you shared and the results. It does not receive your technical details.

6.2Shared results. When reports are shared, downloaded or presented, for example through a share link, a report file or a presentation, your name, the names of people you mention and company names are replaced with [name] and [company]. Inside Underheard Research, and in the spreadsheet of answers the research team can download, the transcript appears as it was recorded.

6.3Service providers. Providers that run the voice conversation, analyse transcripts, host the interview page, store data and help us fix problems on the page process personal data on our behalf. They act only on our instructions, under contracts that limit them to that work.

6.4Authorities. We disclose personal data to authorities where the law requires it.

7.1Data is stored in the European Union.

7.2Some service providers are located in the United States. Transfers to them are covered by the standard contractual clauses adopted by the European Commission.

7.3You can ask for a copy of these safeguards at support@underheard.ai.

8.1The recording and the transcript are kept as part of the study's results until the Organization deletes the study or its account, or until you ask us to delete your interview.

8.2Photos and videos you upload are deleted automatically after the period the study sets, between 1 and 30 days. The period is shown when you upload, and you can withdraw an upload before then.

8.3The provider that runs the voice conversation deletes its copy of the audio after 90 days. It keeps its copy of the transcript until you ask us to delete your interview.

8.4Technical details are deleted automatically after 180 days, or sooner if you ask us to delete your interview.

8.5Page recordings are deleted automatically after a limited period. You can ask us to delete yours with the rest of your interview.

8.6Reports produced before your interview is deleted, in which names are replaced as described in 6.2, may remain with the Organization.

9.1Under data protection law you have the right to:

9.2To use these rights, write to support@underheard.ai with the study and roughly when you took part, so that we can find your interview. We may ask for information to confirm that the request is yours.

9.3Where the request concerns data the Organization controls, we pass it to the Organization and help it respond.

9.4We respond within one month. For complex requests this period can be extended by two further months, in which case we tell you why.

10.1Data is encrypted in transit and at rest.

10.2Recordings are kept in private storage. Authorized members of the research team open them through links that expire after a short time.

11.1The interview page sets no cookies for analytics, advertising or cross-site tracking, and keeps no analytics data in your browser.

11.2Open study links store a study code in your browser for 30 days after each visit, so that a return visit opens the same interview.

11.3Page recordings are described in 4.4.

12.1You can lodge a complaint with a data protection authority, in particular in the country where you live or work.

13.1We may update this Notice. The date at the top shows the current version.

14.1SFF S26 AG, c/o Swiss Founders Fund AG, Schützengasse 7, 9000 St. Gallen, Switzerland. support@underheard.ai