Ethics.

80/20 Thinking is a unique organization. It was created by skilled professionals with a long and celebrated history of advocacy on issues of privacy, transparency and fairness. Many of them have spent much of their lives standing up to large and powerful interests to defend human rights and democratic values.

Our trainers and advisers have one quality in common: they are ruthlessly honest. They are respected, constructive, motivated, and understand the complexities and challenges of the modern organization. Few teams are so well equipped to provide clients with honest and incisive advice. Our staff are not merely advisers, they are advocates, and are committed to doing everything they can to help clients meaningfully engage the challenges they face.

Bringing 80/20 Thinking to the table brings enormous benefits and insights, but clients need to be aware that we do not “report to specification”. Our role is not to tick boxes, but to create new boxes to tick. We do not believe in “management by PR”. We believe in helping change hearts and minds and so help improve the quality of an organization’s governance.

Our community commitment

80/20 Thinking was founded by human rights advocates with many years’ experience defending civil liberties, privacy and democratic freedoms around the world. Our intention for this company is that it will embody this commitment throughout its life.

From its very first year of operation, fifty percent of 80/20’s declared profits will be donated every year to non-government organizations which strive for democracy and rights in developing countries. 80/20’s Advisory Group will determine the priorities each year. Our colleagues at the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) have agreed to manage and distribute the fund

Our principles of engagement

80/20 Thinking has created possibly the most rigorous code of ethical client engagement of any company in the world.

We believe honesty, integrity and transparency are key elements for a successful client relationship. For this reason, 80/20 Thinking has created a rigorous code of ethical client engagement.

From April 2008, we will do our best to ensure that all our client contracts will contain the following provisions:

• Any instance of deception or dishonesty by an 80/20 client during the course of our work will result in the termination of that relationship.
• Any misrepresentation of the 80/20 engagement or viewpoint will result in us placing a correction on our website and, if the misrepresentation is serious enough, the correction will be voiced in the media. This applies equally to misrepresentation of the view of organizations to which 80/20 employees are affiliated.
• We will disengage from any relationship where the client appears to be manipulating our involvement or our advice for ulterior motives.
• 80/20 will not engage with a client until an initial scoping exercise is undertaken. This is so we can be certain that the organization is willing to genuinely work with us and that it will, if necessary, consider changes to its processes.
• We adhere strictly to the law, whether we believe that law to be just or not. If in our view, or in the judgement of the courts, a client is found to be intentionally acting unlawfully within the spectrum of our involvement, we will terminate the relationship. This applies equally if the client has received senior legal advice that an action or service is likely to be unlawful.

Privacy Policy

80/20 Thinking Ltd believes that individuals have the right to control the use of their personal information, and that your privacy must be respected. We strictly limit the processing of your personal information, and work only with other organizations who do the same.

Personal information that you provide to 80/20 Thinking Ltd will be used only for the service you have requested.

80/20 Thinking Ltd does not sell, rent or lease personal data. We do not purchase such data from other sources.

Any subpoena or attempts by government agencies or private sector organizations to gain access to any information that you give us will be vigorously challenged.

Organizational Privacy Policy

We collect as little personal information as possible.

Communications

Emails received through 8020thinking.com are reviewed by one staff member and sent onwards when necessary to other staff members. Similarly, emails sent to our other general addresses, e.g. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , are reviewed and deleted as quickly as possible.

We do not disclose the names of senders to others outside of 80/20 Thinking, i.e. third parties, without your permission.

Information we receive by post is collected by one staff member, reviewed, and sent onwards when necessary to other staff members. These items are destroyed as soon as possible. We do not disclose the names of senders to third parties, and we endeavour to keep files secure. When the content of messages is shared with others outside of 80/20 Thinking, e.g. with our advisory board, we de-identify the messages as much as possible.

We may run a limited number of mailing lists, and apart from our advisory board mailing list, the membership of the mailing lists are kept confidential, though this information is shared with our mail service providers for the purpose of list-management.

We do not have a back-up policy for our communications. Each employee, as he or she sees fit, may retain the content of specific communications the he or she receives and sends, but we endeavour to keep this information stored securely through the use of cryptography.

We do not solicit information on political and religious beliefs or medical information. When such sensitive personal information is received through our email or postal address we delete or anonymize this information as soon as possible.

Telephone calls received on our number are serviced by Skype and are beyond our control. As a result, the traffic data for these calls may be retained in accordance with various laws and a voluntary code of practice for the retention of communications data. Voice-mail messages left on that number may be stored by the telephone service provider, in accordance with their privacy policy, available on Skype's website. Our practice is to delete these messages as soon as possible.

Employee Information

We collect employee information for accounting and administration purposes. This information includes national insurance numbers, tax codes, and bank account information. We share some of this information with our Accountants, Hayes Accounting Ltd., who we selected because of their ethical practices. Payment information is shared with our bank, and with Government agencies in accordance with UK law.

Occasionally we receive employment information from prospective interns and employees. This information is shared internally until that individual becomes a candidate for employment. At that point we may share the CV with our advisers. We file unsuccessful applications for two years.

Limited personal information about our advisers are collected for accounting and administration purposes. Some of this information is shared with Companies House, our bank, and others in accordance with law.

We keep all accounting and administration information for auditing purposes, in accordance with standard practice and UK law.

Website Privacy Policy

The processing of web usage data is kept to a minimum. Our website management software only presents us with aggregate numbers of downloads of each document and does not provide us with access to IP logs.

We use this information to provide an indication of faults and to identify peak usage times so that we can decide when to make major site modifications.

We also use this information to ascertain what material is of use to the general public. At no point do we deduce 'who' is downloading material. We only ascertain 'whether' and 'how many' downloads there are.

Corrections

80/20 Thinking Ltd will endeavour to keep your personal information accurate. If you require access to personal information we hold on you, wish to amend an inaccuracy, or have your information deleted from our files then please contact the Data Controller at the address below.

Changes to this policy

In the event that this policy is changed at any time, the date and nature of the change will be clearly indicated in this document. In the event that the change has a material impact on the handling of your personal information, we will contact you to seek your consent.

Questions

If you have any questions regarding our privacy policy or require any clarifications, please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

About us

80/20 Thinking Ltd is registered with Companies House in the United Kingdom, and our registered address is 80/20 Thinking Ltd, 4th floor, 18 Pall Mall, London, SW1Y 5LU United Kingdom.