Privacy & Data Protection Policy

Story Studio Ltd is the legal entity responsible for Pulsed.Market.

Where Story Studio Ltd determines why and how personal data is processed, Story Studio Ltd acts as the data controller.

For research commissioned or conducted with another organisation, our legal role may vary depending on the arrangement. Story Studio Ltd may act as a controller, joint controller or processor. Where this materially affects research participants, additional information may be provided with the relevant study.

Privacy enquiries or requests may be submitted using the contact details published on pulsed.market.

Our primary data protection framework is the Cayman Islands Data Protection Act (2021 Revision).

Depending on where a particular research activity takes place or whom it is directed toward, other data protection laws may also apply. These may include the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the UK GDPR and relevant local privacy legislation in other jurisdictions. We also take account of applicable transparency requirements relating to artificial intelligence, including the EU Artificial Intelligence Act where it applies.

The information we process depends on how someone interacts with Pulsed.Market.

Website and business information

We may process information provided when someone contacts us, works with us, commissions research, requests information or otherwise communicates with Pulsed.Market or Story Studio Ltd.

This may include:

• name;
• organisation and role;
• email address or other contact information;
• correspondence;
• project or research information; and
• information voluntarily submitted to us.

Our website, hosting and security providers may also process technical information necessary to deliver and protect the service, such as browser or device information, request logs and network information.

Research participant information

Depending on the study, we may process:

• survey responses;
• demographic or classification information requested in the study;
• open-text responses;
• research eligibility or screener responses;
• randomly generated survey session identifiers;
• start, completion and response-duration information;
• recruitment channel or source information;
• quality-control indicators;
• quota or sampling information;
• an invitation or participant reference where managed recruitment is used; and
• other information specifically explained in the study.

We do not require respondents to create a Pulsed.Market account to complete ordinary public surveys.

Voice research

Where a survey offers voice participation, we may process:

• voice recordings or audio responses;
• speech transcripts;
• an external voice-conversation identifier;
• the answers derived from the conversation;
• response-mapping information; and
• quality or confidence indicators used to assess whether spoken responses have been mapped correctly.

Voice features may use third-party speech and artificial-intelligence services.

Sensitive information

Some research may concern subjects such as health, wellbeing, ethnicity, political opinions, beliefs, sexuality or other categories of sensitive personal data.

We only seek such information where it is relevant to a legitimate research purpose and apply the additional protections required by applicable law.

Study-specific information may be provided where the nature of the research requires additional explanation or consent.

Most Pulsed.Market public surveys are designed to collect responses without asking participants to directly identify themselves.

For these surveys, the research system normally uses a randomly generated session identifier rather than a respondent's name or email address.

Pulsed.Market does not store respondents' raw IP addresses as part of survey response records and does not use raw IP addresses to identify or profile survey respondents.

Limited network information may nevertheless be processed by hosting, infrastructure or security systems in the normal operation and protection of our services. Certain security features may also use one-way technical identifiers or hashes.

Not every study can properly be described as fully anonymous. For example, a response may be considered pseudonymous or potentially identifiable where:

• managed or individual invitations are used;
• participation is linked to an external participant reference;
• voice recordings or transcripts are collected;
• a participant voluntarily includes identifying information in an open response; or
• the design of a particular study requires identifiable information.

Where this is relevant, the study explains it to participants.

Once information has been genuinely anonymised so that an individual can no longer reasonably be identified, it is no longer treated as identifiable personal data.

Research information may be used to:

• conduct surveys, interviews and other research;
• determine research eligibility;
• manage quotas and sample composition;
• assess response quality;
• identify duplicate, incomplete or unreliable responses;
• analyse patterns and findings;
• calculate research statistics;
• compare results between groups or research waves;
• prepare research reports and briefings;
• produce aggregated charts, statistics and insights;
• support editorial, educational and public-interest content;
• maintain an auditable research methodology;
• improve our research methods and services; and
• meet contractual, legal, security and governance obligations.

We do not sell individual survey responses as personal data.

We do not use research responses for direct marketing to an identifiable participant unless there is a separate, appropriate basis for doing so.

Published Pulsed.Market research will normally use aggregated findings rather than identifying individual participants.

Quotes or open-ended responses may be used where appropriate, but we aim to remove or avoid publishing information that would unnecessarily identify a participant.

Artificial intelligence is used as an assistive tool within parts of the Pulsed.Market research process.

Depending on the study and feature being used, AI may assist with:

• research and questionnaire design;
• reviewing question wording;
• voice-based interviewing;
• speech-to-text transcription;
• mapping spoken responses to survey questions;
• categorising or reviewing open-ended responses;
• research quality checks;
• identifying themes;
• drafting summaries and explanations; and
• assisting with research-report narratives.

Our research architecture separates AI-assisted interpretation from authoritative statistical calculation.

Where Pulsed.Market reports quantitative statistics, calculations are produced from structured research data using defined computational methods. AI may help explain or narrate those results but is not relied upon to independently create official research statistics.

Public-facing research and editorial outputs remain subject to human review and editorial responsibility.

Where a participant interacts directly with an AI-powered interviewer, the interaction is identified as AI-powered.

We do not operate a programme that trains our own general purpose AI models on Pulsed.Market survey responses.

Information required to provide AI-assisted functionality may, however, be transmitted to specialist technology providers acting as service providers to Story Studio Ltd.

We use specialist technology providers to operate our research and digital infrastructure. Depending on the service being used, these may include providers of:

• cloud databases and storage;
• hosting and infrastructure;
• artificial intelligence services;
• speech recognition and voice technology;
• security and authentication;
• communications; and
• other technical services required to operate Pulsed.Market.

Current research technology may make use of services provided by organisations including Supabase, OpenAI, Google, Anthropic and ElevenLabs, depending on the feature being used.

These companies may process information on our behalf or as otherwise governed by their applicable contractual and legal terms.

We limit access to information to what is reasonably required for the relevant service.

Pulsed.Market is operated from the Cayman Islands, but some of the technology services we use process or store information in other countries, including the United States.

As a result, personal data may be transferred outside the Cayman Islands.

We assess the role of service providers and the protections applicable to international processing and seek to use appropriate contractual, organisational or other safeguards where required.

The legal basis used depends on the activity and the information involved. These may include:

• consent, where appropriate;
• the performance of a contract or steps connected to a contract;
• legitimate interests in conducting, operating and securing responsible research and business activities;
• compliance with legal obligations; and
• other grounds permitted by applicable data protection law.

Where sensitive personal data is processed, an additional lawful condition may be required.

Participation in Pulsed.Market research is normally voluntary.

Research responses may be subject to quality controls intended to protect the integrity of research findings.

These may include checks for:

• duplicate participation;
• unusually rapid completion;
• inconsistent response patterns;
• failed attention checks;
• incomplete or low-quality responses;
• survey eligibility;
• quota availability; and
• confidence in the mapping of voice responses.

A response may therefore be excluded from statistical analysis while remaining part of the research audit record.

These controls are intended to protect research quality and are not used to make legal, employment, credit, healthcare or similarly significant decisions about participants.

We do not keep personal data for longer than reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected.

The appropriate period depends on the type of information, the research design, whether the data remains identifiable, contractual or legal requirements, research quality requirements and the need to maintain a defensible record of published research.

Where information no longer needs to identify an individual, we aim to delete, anonymise or otherwise reduce the identifying information.

Aggregated or genuinely anonymised research findings may be retained for longer periods, including for historical comparison, longitudinal research, methodology, published research and future analysis.

Some information may also need to be retained to maintain the integrity, provenance and audit history of published research.

We are continuing to formalise retention standards across different categories of research data.

We use technical and organisational measures intended to protect information against unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure, loss or misuse.

These measures include access controls, restricted storage areas, workspace-based access controls and security controls within our research infrastructure.

Access to research data is limited to authorised people and service providers who require it for legitimate purposes.

No digital system can guarantee absolute security, but we work to reduce risk and respond appropriately where a security incident occurs.

Information may be accessed or disclosed to:

• authorised Story Studio Ltd personnel;
• technology and infrastructure providers supporting Pulsed.Market;
• authorised researchers, analysts or professional advisers;
• a commissioning organisation or research partner where appropriate to the study and disclosed or reasonably expected as part of the research arrangement; and
• regulators, law-enforcement bodies, courts or other parties where disclosure is legally required.

Public research outputs are normally presented in aggregated form.

We do not sell respondent personal data to data brokers or advertisers.

Under the Cayman Islands Data Protection Act, individuals have rights in relation to personal data about them. Depending on the circumstances, these include rights to:

• be informed about how personal data is used;
• request access to personal data;
• request correction of inaccurate information;
• ask that certain processing stop or be restricted;
• object to direct marketing;
• exercise rights relating to certain automated decisions;
• seek compensation where provided by law; and
• make a complaint to the Cayman Islands Ombudsman.

Additional rights may apply where the EU GDPR, UK GDPR or another data protection law applies to a particular processing activity.

These rights are not absolute and may depend on the circumstances and applicable law.

If a survey was genuinely anonymous and we have no reasonable way of identifying which response belongs to a particular person, we may be unable to locate, provide or delete that person's individual response.

Participants may leave a voluntary survey before completing it.

Where identifiable or pseudonymous personal data can reasonably be linked to a participant, the participant may contact us to exercise applicable data protection rights.

Where a submitted response is anonymous and cannot reasonably be linked back to an individual, it may not be possible to identify and remove that specific response.

Withdrawal from future processing does not necessarily require the removal of information that has already been irreversibly anonymised or incorporated into genuinely anonymous aggregate statistics.

Pulsed.Market research is generally intended for adults unless a study expressly states otherwise.

Where research intentionally involves children or young people, additional consent, safeguarding, privacy and research-design requirements may apply.

If you have questions or concerns about how Story Studio Ltd or Pulsed.Market handles personal data, please contact us at hello@story.ky.

Research methods, technology and data protection requirements continue to evolve.

We may update this policy when our services, technologies, research methods or legal obligations change.

The current version and effective date will be published on pulsed.market.

Pulsed.Market is an initiative of Story Studio Ltd, PO BOX 1711, KY1-1109