Privacy Policy

1. Who We Are

TrialConnect is a trading name of Clinical Vendor Compare Limited (company number 17135935), registered in England. Our registered office is 17 Central Avenue, Herne Bay, Kent, CT6 8RX.

We are the data controller for the personal data you provide through the TrialConnect platform. Our ICO registration number is ZC155240 (registered in the name of Clinical Vendor Compare Limited, which also trades as Clinical Vendor Compare and TrialConnect).

For any privacy queries, contact us at admin@trialconnect.co.uk.

2. What Data We Collect

We may collect or process the following data depending on how you use TrialConnect:

• Email address — required to create an account and receive trial alerts.
• Name — optional, used to personalise communications.
• Health condition(s) — the conditions you select so we can match relevant clinical trials.
• Matching questionnaire answers — if you use the matching wizard, you may choose to answer questions about your condition, demographics, location, travel preferences or other eligibility-related factors. For no-account users, these answers are processed only to return matching results and are not stored after the matching request is complete.
• Usage and analytics data — such as pages visited, searches performed, trial pages viewed, match journeys started/completed and source campaign links. We do not include names, email addresses or raw questionnaire answers in analytics events.

We do not collect NHS medical records, NHS numbers or dates of birth. However, condition names and matching answers may relate to your health and are treated as special category data under UK GDPR.

3. How We Use Your Data

We use your data to:

• provide access to your account and dashboard;
• send trial alerts based on your selected condition(s);
• run the matching wizard and return potentially relevant trial results;
• allow you to manage tracked conditions, unsubscribe or withdraw consent;
• understand how the platform is used and improve TrialConnect;
• produce aggregated, privacy-preserving insights about trial search behaviour and engagement.

We do not sell identifiable patient data. Any sponsor or partner reporting is aggregated and designed so that individuals cannot be identified.

If you separately opt in, we may send information about sponsored or featured trials. This is optional, separate from core trial alerts, and you can opt out at any time.

AI-powered matching

TrialConnect uses software and AI-assisted matching to help identify potentially relevant public clinical trials based on information you provide and publicly available trial criteria. TrialConnect does not confirm eligibility, make clinical decisions, provide medical advice, or determine whether you can join a trial. Formal eligibility and participation are always confirmed by the relevant trial team.

4. Legal Basis for Processing (UK GDPR)

We process your data under the following legal bases:

• Explicit consent (Article 6(1)(a) UK GDPR) — you actively tick the consent checkbox before we store your email and send alerts.
• Explicit consent for health data (Article 9(2)(a) UK GDPR) — health condition names are special category data. We only process these with your explicit, informed consent.

You can withdraw consent at any time by unsubscribing or contacting us.

5. Data Sharing

Anonymised statistics. We may share aggregated, anonymised statistics that cannot identify you (for example, how many people searched for trials in a condition area) with research partners, sponsors, and healthcare organisations. All anonymised data is processed in line with current ICO anonymisation guidance so that you cannot be re-identified.

Your personal data. We will never share information that identifies you — including your health information — with any third party without your explicit consent, asked for at the time, for a specific stated purpose. We will never sell your personal data.

Service providers — we use email delivery and hosting services to operate the platform, bound by data processing agreements that prevent them from using your data for any other purpose.

6. Data Retention

We store your data only for as long as your consent is active. Specifically:

• Your data is retained until you unsubscribe from a condition.
• If you delete your account, all your data is permanently removed. Account data (email + condition selections) is automatically deleted after 24 months of inactivity.
• If you withdraw consent via email, we will delete your data within 30 days.
• Unsubscribed records are marked inactive and permanently deleted within 90 days.

6.1. Data We Do Not Keep (No-Account Users)

If you use the trial matching wizard without creating an account, your questionnaire answers are sent to our servers only to run the matching calculation and return results to you. We do not store these answers after the matching request is complete. We cannot retrieve, delete, or port answers from a past matching request because we do not keep them.

Your questionnaire answers are stored locally in your browser until you clear them. Use the Clear All Answers button in the matching wizard to remove them from your device.

7. Your Rights

Under UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, you have the right to:

• Access — request a copy of all personal data we hold about you.
• Rectification — correct any inaccurate data.
• Erasure — request deletion of all your data ("right to be forgotten").
• Data portability — receive your data in a structured, machine-readable format.
• Withdraw consent — unsubscribe at any time via email, the unsubscribe link in alerts, or your dashboard.
• Object to processing — request we stop processing your data.
• Restrict processing — request we limit how we use your data.

To exercise any of these rights, email admin@trialconnect.co.uk. We will respond within 30 days.

8. Cookies

We use essential cookies for security and session management, and optional analytics cookies to help us understand how the platform is used so we can improve it.

• Essential cookies — necessary for the platform to function (session, security). Cannot be disabled.
• Analytics cookies — help us understand usage patterns (pages visited, features used). These are opt-in only and activated with your consent via the cookie banner. Analytics data is fully anonymised — no user accounts, cookies, or session identifiers are linked to health-related actions.
• No advertising cookies — we do not use advertising or tracking cookies that identify you across third-party sites.

On-device storage: Your questionnaire answers and basic demographics (age, sex) are stored locally in your browser's session and local storage while you use the matching wizard. This data never leaves your device unless you actively submit answers for matching. Use the Clear All Answers button in the wizard, or the Cookie settings link in the site footer, to remove this data at any time.

You can change your cookie preferences at any time using the Cookie settings link in the site footer, which will re-display the consent banner.

9. International Data Transfers

Our hosting provider (Vercel Inc.) and email delivery service (Resend) are based in the United States. Personal data you provide may be processed in the US under the protection of the UK-US Data Bridge (the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework).

Both providers hold active certifications under the UK-US Data Bridge, which means they are bound by UK-equivalent data protection standards. We diarise annual re-certification checks to ensure these protections remain in force.

If either provider's certification were to lapse, we would implement alternative transfer safeguards (such as the UK International Data Transfer Agreement) before transferring any further data.

10. Security

We implement industry-standard security measures including HTTPS encryption in transit and secure data storage. However, no system is completely secure and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

11. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy periodically. Material changes will be communicated via email or a prominent notice on the platform.

12. Complaints

If you are unhappy with how we handle your data, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk.

13. Contact

Data protection enquiries: admin@trialconnect.co.uk

General support: admin@trialconnect.co.uk

Related documents: Terms of Service · Data Protection