Privacy & Cookies Notice
Last updated: 25 September 2026
Who is responsible?
Rich Baker operates www.rich-baker.com, the Given Time research project and the Given Time participant research application at research.rich-baker.com.
For the personal information described in this notice, Rich Baker is the independent data controller unless stated otherwise.
For privacy questions, information-rights requests or requests relating to participation in Given Time research, email:
What this notice covers
This notice explains how personal information may be processed when you:
visit www.rich-baker.com;
read articles, research pages or other public content;
use website contact, subscription or research-report registration forms;
manage cookie preferences;
take part in research conducted through Given Time;
use the Given Time participant application at research.rich-baker.com; or
contact me about the website, research or your information rights.
The public Rich Baker website and the Given Time research application have different purposes and data flows. Where relevant, this notice explains them separately.
Using rich-baker.com
The Rich Baker website is hosted by Squarespace.
When you visit the site, ordinary technical information may be processed to deliver, protect and understand use of the website. This can include:
IP address;
browser and device information;
network information;
pages requested and referring pages;
date and time of requests;
interaction information such as clicks and scrolling; and
limited security and diagnostic information.
Some of this information is necessary for the website to function securely. Other measurement and analytics processing depends on the cookie choices you make, as described below.
This website information is separate from the research interview record created if you choose to participate in Given Time.
Cookies and analytics on rich-baker.com
The website uses Squarespace’s cookie-preferences controls.
You can choose:
Accept all
Decline non-essential cookies
Manage cookies
You can change your preferences later through Cookie Preferences.
Squarespace uses necessary technologies to provide and secure the website and to remember cookie choices. These may include a session crumb cookie used for security and protection against cross-site request forgery.
Squarespace Analytics and Google Analytics 4 are configured on the public Rich Baker website.
Non-essential analytics and performance storage is restricted unless you accept the relevant cookie category.
Google Analytics operates using consent controls with analytics storage denied by default. When analytics consent is denied, Google Analytics does not set its normal Analytics cookies, although consent-state and cookieless measurement requests may still be sent as part of Google’s consent-mode operation.
If you consent to analytics, Squarespace may use analytics cookies such as:
ss_cid
ss_cpvisit
ss_cvisit
ss_cvr
ss_cvt
Google Analytics may use cookies including:
_ga; and
the related GA4 session-state cookie for this website.
These technologies are used to distinguish visits and sessions and understand how public pages are used.
The Given Time research interview at research.rich-baker.com does not currently contain Squarespace Analytics, Google Analytics or advertising trackers.
Neither Squarespace Analytics nor Google Analytics receives the Given Time research interview record through this website analytics path.
Contacting me
If you contact me by email or through a website contact form, I may process information such as:
your name;
email address;
information you include in your message; and
any related correspondence.
This information is used to read and respond to your enquiry, maintain appropriate records of the correspondence and, where relevant, deal with a privacy or research request.
Please avoid sending confidential, sensitive or unnecessary personal information through ordinary contact forms or email.
An email service provider processes messages sent to or from hello@rich-baker.com.
Article subscriptions and research-report registration
You may choose to provide contact information to:
receive occasional new-article updates;
register to receive research findings or reports; or
receive another update you have specifically requested.
The information collected will normally include your email address and any other information clearly requested by the relevant form.
Providing your email address for an article subscription or research-report registration is separate from participation in Given Time research.
A research-report registration is not designed to be automatically linked to your interview record.
Your contact information will be used for the purpose explained when you provide it. You can stop receiving optional email updates using the unsubscribe mechanism provided or by contacting hello@rich-baker.com.
The service used to process subscriptions and email communications may process information on my behalf. This notice will be updated if the provider or data flow changes materially.
Public research information
Pages such as the Professional Judgement research page, Participant Information, Given Time information and research-library material are public website pages hosted through Squarespace.
Simply reading those pages does not create a Given Time research interview record.
Ordinary website and analytics processing may still occur on those pages in accordance with your cookie preferences, as described above.
Given Time research
Given Time is an AI-assisted qualitative research platform operated by Rich Baker.
The current production application is Given Time Product v2.4.0-rc.3 and uses the Communications instrument 2.6 Candidate.
Given Time is designed to support structured qualitative research while keeping the participant, the approved instrument and human research judgement central to the process.
Information processed through Given Time
Given Time may process:
your agreement to take part;
a randomly generated interview identifier;
the questions and response options shown to you;
typed answers;
transcripts of submitted spoken answers;
fixed-choice selections;
question exposure and structural routing information;
review status;
original answers;
corrections and additions;
timestamps;
limited technical and diagnostic information needed to operate and protect the service; and
a browser-stored interview reference used to support resume functionality.
You are not required to provide your name, employer, client or organisation as part of the interview.
Hosting and security systems may also process IP addresses, browser/device information and request metadata as part of operating and protecting the service.
Information you should not provide in the interview
Given Time is not designed to collect unnecessary sensitive, confidential or identifying material.
Participants are asked not to provide:
names of individuals;
client or organisation names where they are not necessary;
confidential or commercially sensitive information;
legally privileged material;
security-sensitive information;
health information;
employment-case information; or
identifying information about other people.
Use general descriptions or choose another example where appropriate.
If information of this kind is discovered unexpectedly, it may be restricted and deleted without being used for research. Only the minimum information needed to record the handling of the incident should be retained.
Why Given Time information is used
Research information may be used to:
administer the interview;
display the correct approved question route;
save and restore submitted answers;
create a transcript when you choose to answer by voice;
allow review and correction of the recorded account;
understand how communications professionals exercise professional judgement;
explore how generative AI may feature in that judgement;
evaluate and develop the Given Time research method;
investigate technical or usability problems;
identify themes, examples, differences and contradictions;
support human researcher review; and
produce research reports, articles, presentations or other research materials.
The research is not used to create participant scores, competency assessments, organisational ratings, commercial lead scores or automated decisions about participants.
Lawful basis for Given Time research
The UK GDPR Article 6 lawful basis currently relied upon for this processing is legitimate interests.
The legitimate interests are:
conducting bounded research into communications work, professional judgement and the role of generative AI;
developing and evaluating the Given Time research method; and
operating a secure and reliable research service.
A study-specific Legitimate Interests Assessment records the purpose, necessity, privacy impact and safeguards.
Your agreement to participate is ethical agreement to take part in the research. It is separate from the UK GDPR lawful basis used for processing personal information.
You have the right to object to processing based on legitimate interests. Any objection will be considered in light of the circumstances and applicable legal requirements.
Voice recording and transcription
If you choose Speak your answer, recording begins only after you initiate it.
Your browser records the audio under your control. When you submit the answer, the audio is sent to the Given Time server hosted by Render and then to OpenAI’s audio-transcription API.
Given Time does not write the raw audio to Airtable or another research record.
The returned transcript is stored as the submitted answer.
You may type instead.
OpenAI does not use API inputs and outputs to train its models by default under its published API data controls.
Provider terms, retention arrangements and processing locations can change. This notice does not claim special UK-only OpenAI processing or data residency unless separately verified.
AI during the interview
The interview uses a fixed and versioned research instrument.
During elicitation, typed answers and fixed choices do not trigger general semantic model calls.
AI does not have unrestricted authority to invent or rewrite the approved interview questions.
The questions shown are determined only by participant-selected response options. Given Time does not generate, skip or select questions from the content of typed or spoken answers.
Spoken answers use OpenAI for transcription as described above.
Post-review AI analysis
After participant review, the current release may place an interview record into a post-review analysis workflow.
AI may assist with tasks such as:
generating proposed summaries;
identifying possible themes;
suggesting research codes; or
supporting later researcher review.
Machine-generated analysis is kept conceptually separate from the participant’s original answers and corrected record.
It is treated as a proposal for human review, not as a research finding simply because an AI system produced it.
A human researcher reviews material before it is used in substantive findings or publications.
Review, corrections and provenance
At the end of a completed interview, participants can review the questions and recorded answers.
If you correct an answer, the correction is appended rather than silently replacing the historical record.
The original remains reconstructable and the corrected value becomes authoritative for later interpretation.
Correcting a structural answer does not automatically replay the interview. If that creates a branch that was never asked, the resulting absence remains missing evidence rather than being treated as a negative response.
Given Time service providers
The services currently relevant to the Given Time research path include:
Render
Hosts the Given Time application and handles server-side requests, including transient processing of submitted voice audio before transcription.
Airtable
Stores the research record, including answers, transcripts, fixed responses, question exposure, transition history, review status, corrections and limited operational metadata.
OpenAI
Processes submitted spoken-answer audio for transcription and may be used within the bounded post-review analysis workflow described above.
Squarespace
Hosts the public research information, Participant Information and Privacy & Cookies Notice pages and provides cookie-preference controls and public-site analytics.
Google Analytics
Measures use of public Rich Baker website pages subject to the cookie and consent controls described above. Google Analytics is not currently embedded in the Given Time participant interview application and does not receive the research interview record through this path.
Email provider
Processes messages and correspondence sent in connection with research, withdrawal and privacy requests.
These suppliers may use subprocessors or process information outside the UK.
OpenAI’s published API Data Processing Addendum incorporates international-transfer provisions including Standard Contractual Clauses and the UK Addendum.
Render publishes a Data Processing Addendum incorporating UK transfer provisions.
Airtable’s Data Processing Addendum has been executed for the controller relationship and includes the UK transfer provisions recorded in the governance evidence.
Access and disclosure
Access to Given Time research records is restricted through administrative credentials and Airtable workspace permissions.
Rich Baker controls who is authorised to access the research.
Personal research information is not sold or used for:
advertising;
employment decisions;
participant scoring;
commercial lead scoring; or
automated decisions about participants.
Complete interview transcripts will not be published.
Findings will normally be presented in aggregated or anonymised form.
Short anonymous quotations may be used after human review where appropriate steps have been taken to reduce the risk that a participant, organisation or third party could be identified.
Retention
For Given Time interview records, the operational date for withdrawal and retention is the last participant activity successfully recorded in the interview record.
If answer review is completed, this is the recorded review-completion time.
Otherwise, it is the latest persisted start, answer, correction or addition time.
Closing the browser does not create a separate recorded event.
No later than 90 days after that recorded activity, the identifiable interview record is actively reviewed.
It is then:
deleted;
irreversibly anonymised; or
retained for a further documented period only where a specific continuing research need justifies that decision.
The application does not currently enforce this automatically.
Ninety days is therefore an active review point, not an automatic entitlement to retain every record for that period.
An identifiable record will not be irreversibly anonymised during the participant’s 14-day withdrawal window.
Provider backups, technical logs and security records may follow the relevant provider’s documented retention arrangements.
Contact and withdrawal correspondence is retained only for as long as reasonably needed to manage the request and document the outcome.
Withdrawal and deletion of Given Time interview information
You can ask for your identifiable Given Time interview record to be deleted within 14 days of the last participant activity successfully recorded in the interview record.
Email:
hello@rich-baker.com
Include your interview reference if available.
If you do not have it, provide the approximate date and time and only the minimum non-confidential information reasonably needed to locate the record.
A record will not be disclosed or deleted where the match is uncertain and could relate to another participant.
Once information has been irreversibly anonymised so that it can no longer be linked to a participant, deletion may no longer be possible.
Deletion from provider-held operational, backup or security systems may also remain subject to the provider’s applicable retention arrangements.
Security and data minimisation
Reasonable technical and organisational measures are used to protect the website and research service.
These include, where relevant:
HTTPS;
server-side service credentials;
restricted administrative and research-record access;
data minimisation;
limited diagnostic logging; and
controls intended to separate public website activity from the research interview record.
Password protection and an essential signed access cookie remain available as conditional Given Time controls but are not enabled for the current public participant site.
No internet service can guarantee absolute security.
Participants should therefore avoid supplying unnecessary confidential, sensitive or identifying information.
Given Time cookies and browser storage
When password protection is enabled, Given Time can use an essential signed site-access cookie.
That cookie is not issued to ordinary anonymous visitors while the participant site is publicly accessible.
When enabled, it is configured as Secure, HttpOnly and SameSite Strict and expires after approximately eight hours. Its purpose is to confirm access to a protected site. It is separate from the interview record.
The Given Time participant application also uses browser storage for functional purposes.
This includes a random interview reference used to support resume functionality, together with limited interface preferences such as sound settings and Cath-related interface state.
The interview reference may be stored in browser session storage and local storage.
It is not an authentication credential, but possession of an interview reference may permit the application to locate the associated interview. It should therefore not be deliberately shared.
These technologies are functional and are not used for cross-site advertising.
The current Given Time interview application does not contain advertising trackers or its own optional analytics implementation.
Your information rights
Depending on the circumstances, UK data-protection law may give you rights to:
request access to personal information;
request correction;
request deletion;
request restriction of processing;
object to processing; and
complain about how your information is used.
These rights are not absolute and their application depends on the circumstances.
Contact:
hello@rich-baker.com
so that your request can be assessed and the relevant information located safely.
You may also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office:
Telephone: 0303 123 1113
Changes to this notice
This notice will be updated where the website, research, service providers, retention arrangements or material data flows change.
The current version and update date will appear on this page.