Last updated: 8 February 2026
This Privacy Policy applies to Shout and FreeOnlineSurveys (henceforth: "the Site") which are owned and operated by Problem Free Limited (registration number: 04602671) of Engineers House, 25 South Road, Portishead, BS20 7DU United Kingdom.
Are you a survey, form, or quiz respondent?
If you have responded to a survey, form, or quiz, or have communicated with someone via our shared inbox, please refer to our Respondent Privacy Policy instead.
This privacy policy describes the information we collect about Creators and Visitors.
Problem Free Limited acts as a data controller for all personal data that our Creators and Visitors input, except for any personal data that is input by Respondents or that we process on behalf of Creators.
For any personal data input by Respondents or that we process on behalf of Creators, Problem Free Limited acts as a data processor, and Creators act as the data controllers.
"Creators": These are account holders who use tools on the Site to create projects (surveys, quizzes, forms), collect data, manage contacts, or manage conversations via the shared inbox.
"Visitors" are anyone who visits the Site.
"Respondents" are those who fill out surveys, quizzes, or forms created through the Site, communicate with Creators via the shared inbox (including email), or have their data processed by Problem Free Limited by the Creator inputting their personal data into their account.
In acting as a data controller, we collect the following personal data about you:
Where we rely on legitimate interests as a lawful basis, we have assessed that our interests do not override your fundamental rights and freedoms. Our legitimate interests include maintaining the security of the Site, improving our services, and ensuring the Site operates efficiently.
In acting as data processor, we collect the following personal data from you:
The lawful basis for us collecting the above data as a processor is for the fulfilment of a contract with the Creator, who acts as the data controller.
We use cookies and similar technologies on the Site. For full details of the cookies we use, why we use them, and how you can control them, please see our Cookie Policy.
We use the information collected to provide our services to you, including:
We do not use the information you provide to make any automated decisions that might affect you.
All new Creators are sent an email confirmation message when creating an account with the Site for the purpose of verifying their registration.
New Creators of Shout.com will receive communications regarding their 14 Day Free Trial. These communications will be sent at intervals throughout the Free Trial, but will conclude upon the expiration of the Free Trial.
Occasionally, we may deem it necessary to send service-related emails to relevant Creators. For example, if the Site experiences an unexpected outage or unscheduled maintenance, it may be necessary to contact Creators to inform them of this. Generally, it's not possible to opt-out of these emails, as they are not deemed promotional.
If you contact us via our support email, we will send communications for as long as it is necessary to resolve an issue or answer a query submitted by you. You can, at any time, request that we no longer use this personal data to contact you. If you wish to do so, you can contact us at help@freeonlinesurveys.com (for FreeOnlineSurveys Creators) or help@shout.com (for Shout Creators).
When you participate in our community features (such as feature voting, suggestions, or public forums), your username and profile information will be publicly displayed alongside your contributions as a required part of these services.
If you subscribe to community content or vote on features, you will receive email notifications about updates and changes to that content. You can manage your notification preferences in your account settings at any time.
When you choose to register or log in using a third-party service (such as Google Sign-In), we collect your name, email address, and profile picture as permitted by your settings with that service. We use this information solely to verify your identity, create your account, and manage your user profile. This data is encrypted in transit and at rest.
Shout's use and transfer to any other app of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.
We use sub-processors to deliver some of our services and to ensure your data is stored safely and securely. All sub-processors we use have the appropriate security and organisational measure in place to keep your data secure. You can find a full list of the sub-processors we use to provide this service at the following link: Our sub processors.
We also use the following payment processors to manage card payments taken through the Site:
When a billing contact differs from the Creator, we may disclose account or billing information to them upon request.
We may disclose account details to your organisation, in cases where a Creator account belongs to the organisation itself.
We may disclose account details if there is a change of ownership, merger or other corporate change. In this case, you agree that the successor will process the above personal data instead of Problem Free Limited following a notice given to all Problem Free Customers 1 month prior to this change.
Personal data for which we are the data controller may be stored or transferred outside of the UK and EEA and may be processed by third-parties for the purpose of providing Problem Free Limited with their services. This primarily includes transfers to the United States for infrastructure and service delivery.
These services are essential to the continued operation of the Site and efficiently providing our services to you. All third-party processors are subject to a data processing agreement and, where required, are bound by the UK International Data Transfer Agreement (IDTA) or the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses to ensure compliant standards for international data transfers.
If you are a Creator or Visitor, you have the following rights:
If you are a Respondent, please refer to the privacy policy provided by the Creator whose survey, form, or inbox you interacted with. Creators act as the data controller for Respondent data, and you should contact them directly to exercise your rights. Creators may then contact us to action your request. For further information, please see our Respondent Privacy Policy.
We will retain your personal data for as long as it is necessary to provide our services to you. If you wish to close your account, you may do so via your account settings on the Site or by contacting us at help@shout.com.
You can find all information about the data retention period for account details, surveys, responses, questions, and inbox conversations by reading our Data Retention Policy.
We take incremental database backups every 15 minutes, which are pre-encrypted and shipped for storage. We automatically restore these backups to verify that they will work when needed.
If you have a complaint about our use of your information, we would prefer you to contact us directly in the first instance so that we can address your complaint. However, you can also contact the Information Commissioner's Office via their website at https://ico.org.uk.
We regularly review and, if appropriate, update this privacy policy from time to time, and as our services and use of personal data evolves. If we want to make use of your personal data in a way that we haven't previously identified, we will contact you to provide information about this and, if necessary, to ask for your consent.
The Site is not intended for use by anyone under the age of 16. As set out in our Terms and Conditions, you must be at least 16 years old to create an account or use our services. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 16. If we become aware that we have collected personal data from a child under 16, we will take steps to delete that data promptly.
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at help@shout.com.
