Ifac Farmer Advisory Panel – Privacy Policy
Ifac Farmer Advisory Panel – Privacy Policy
Who we are and what this policy covers
Ifac runs the Farmer Advisory Panel (the Panel) and is the data controller for the personal data you give us as a Panel member. Ifac is the brand name of Irish Farm Accounts Co-operative Society Limited (Industrial and Provident Society no. 3528R), Danville Business Park, Ring Road, Danville, Kilkenny.
The Panel is an opt-in group of farmers aged 18 or over who take part in online surveys, interviews and focus groups. We run research for ifac and for organisations in and around farming, such as food businesses, agribusinesses, farm organisations and State bodies.
The Panel is kept separate from ifac's accountancy and advisory services. Your Panel answers are never added to your client file, and neither your local ifac office nor your adviser can see them. Joining, not joining or leaving the Panel has no effect on any service you get from ifac.
Where a research client determines the purpose of the research and receives only anonymised results, they will not receive your personal data. If a particular research project requires a different arrangement, we will explain this to you before you take part.
This policy covers the Panel only. Ifac's main privacy policy covers our other services and our website.
What we collect
We collect only what we need to run the Panel and the research, and you can skip any question you don't want to answer.
| What | Examples | When |
|---|---|---|
| Contact details | Name, email address, mobile number | When you join |
| Your farm and personal profile | County, age band, gender, farm enterprise (e.g. dairy, beef, tillage), farm size, full- or part-time farming, quality assurance schemes you belong to | When you join, and whenever you update your profile |
| Your answers | Survey answers and comments; interview or focus group notes, and recordings only if you agree at the time | Each time you take part |
| Technical data | IP address, device and browser type, time taken to answer, cookies needed for the survey to work. For further information about cookies used on the Panel platform, please see our Cookie Notice. | Each time you open a survey |
| Rewards | Points earned and redeemed | When you earn or redeem a reward |
We collect these details from you directly. If you are an ifac client, we may have used the contact details we hold to invite you to join. Once you join, we note on our client system that you are a Panel member, so we don't invite you again; nothing else moves between your client file and the Panel.
Sensitive information. We don't normally ask about health, religion, ethnicity, political opinions or trade union membership. If a survey needs to, we will explain why, ask for your explicit consent first, and the questions will always be optional.
How we use your data and why we're allowed to
We use your data to run the Panel and its research.
| What we do | Legal basis (GDPR) |
|---|---|
| Register you, keep your profile up to date and administer membership | Consent |
| Sending Panel updates and optional communications | Consent |
| Invite you to surveys that fit your profile | Consent |
| Run surveys, interviews and focus groups, and analyse results by group (e.g. by enterprise or region) | Consent |
| Link your answers across repeat surveys with a Panel ID, never by your name, contact details to track how views change over time. Your Panel ID is used internally by the Panel team and never shared with research clients. | Consent |
| Check answers are genuine (e.g. duplicate accounts, rushed answers) and occasionally contact you to confirm one | Legitimate interests: accurate research and fair rewards |
| Issue rewards | Our agreement with you under the Panel Terms of Use |
| Invite ifac clients to join the Panel | Legitimate interests: building a representative farmer panel |
| Any sensitive information (see ‘What we collect’) | Explicit consent |
| Meet legal duties and defend legal claims. We may retain information longer where reasonably necessary to establish, exercise or defend legal claims. | Legal obligation; legitimate interests |
You can withdraw consent at any time by leaving the Panel or skipping a survey. Where we rely on legitimate interests, we have considered the impact on your privacy and we are satisfied that our interests do not override your rights or freedoms.
Who sees your data
We share your answers with the organisations that commission our research, but never who you are. Clients never receive your name or contact details. Before sharing answer level-data sheets, we remove direct identifiers and minimise or generalise demographic information where necessary to reduce the risk of identifying a participant. We never sell or pass on your personal details to anyone.
Research clients receive results for groups of farmers, such as charts and tables.
Answer-by-answer data files. Some clients also receive a file of individual answers for their own analysis. In it you appear only as a random code used for that project, never by your name, contact details or Panel ID. We group details such as age, county and farm size, and remove anything in your comments that could point to you.
Recordings of interviews or focus groups are shared with a client only if you agree at the time.
Service providers who work for us under contract: our survey platform, Voxco, our rewards provider, and our IT and hosting providers. They can use your data only on our instructions.
Authorities, if the law requires it, such as a court order.
Storage, security and how long we keep it
Your Panel data is stored in the EU. If any provider handles it outside the European Economic Area, we use appropriate safeguards in accordance with GDPR, including the European Commission's Standard Contraction Clauses and any supplementary measures required by law.
Only the Panel team can see your profile and survey answers. Your local ifac office, your adviser and other ifac staff cannot. We protect your data with encryption, two-step login and role-based access, and we log every data export. If a breach puts your data at risk, we will tell you and report it to the Data Protection Commission where the law requires.
| Data | How long we keep it |
|---|---|
| Contact details and profile | While you are a member. We delete them within 3 months of you leaving, keeping only your email on a do-not-contact list. |
| Inactive accounts | If you haven't taken part for 24 months, we will ask whether you want to stay. If you don't reply within 30 days, we close your account and delete your details. |
| Rewards and payment records | 6 years |
| Technical data | 13 months |
Once data is anonymised it can no longer identify you, so we may keep it for research.
Your rights and how to contact us
You can leave the Panel at any time, free of charge, using the link in any Panel email, through your account settings, or by emailing us. Leaving has no effect on any ifac service you receive.
Under GDPR you also have the right to:
see the data we hold about you and get a copy
correct anything that is wrong
have your data deleted
restrict or object to how we use it
object to processing carried out on the basis of a legitimate interests
get your data in a format you can take elsewhere
withdraw your consent
We will reply within one month. If you are unhappy with our reply, you can complain to the Data Protection Commission.
Contact us: farmerpanel@ifac.ie for Panel questions, or our Data Protection Officer at privacy@ifac.ie, Data Privacy, ifac, Danville Business Park, Ring Road, Danville, Kilkenny, phone 056 772 5345.
Changes to this policy. We will post any update here with a new date, and email members before any significant change takes effect.
Last updated: 14 October 2026