Privacy notice

Version 7, 22 October 2026. What changed from version 6: every study is now open to everyone, whole, with no sign-up; the site no longer sets a cookie (see "No cookies"); the study emails no longer carry a personal link.

Version 6, 21 October 2026. What changed from version 5: the site has a new design; you can now report an error in a study (see "What we collect", "Where it is stored" and "How long"); the sign-up box on the home page is for the study emails only; some studies have a "Your sector" tool, whose choices stay in your browser and are never sent; the survey is no longer offered on the site, and the answers already given are kept as stated below.

Version 5, 11 October 2026. What changed from version 4 (11 October 2026): the site now has a light/dark switch; "The one cookie" says that your choice is kept in your browser's local storage.

Version 4, 11 October 2026. What changed from version 3 (6 October 2026): "Where it is stored" now says that the notifications our site sends us when someone signs up arrive in a Gmail inbox, which Google runs without a data processing agreement with us.

Version 3, 6 October 2026. What changed from version 2 (27 September 2026): the studies are now published on this site; the study emails announce each week's study with early access instead of containing it; each study ends with an anonymous feedback box; and the site now uses one cookie, to open the full studies for people who signed up. See "The emails we send" and "The one cookie".

Who is responsible

Sami Andaloussi, Lausanne, Switzerland (First Thing is a project, not yet a registered company). Contact: hello@first-thing-research.com.

What we collect

• If you took the survey (it is no longer offered on the site): your answers, including anything you write in the free-text question. If you stop before the end, the answers you gave so far are kept too.
• If you choose to: your email address, whether you reserved the founding-member price, subscribed to the study emails or agreed to a call, which version of the wording you agreed to, and when.
• When you sign up, on which page you signed up and which link, post or campaign brought you there.
• If you report an error in a study: what you write, which study and where, the source you point to, and your email address only if you give one, so that we can reply.
• If you use "Your sector" on a study: nothing. Your choices stay in your browser, for the time the page is open; they are never sent to us or stored.
• If you use the feedback box at the end of a study: your answers, which study they are about and where you came from. No email is asked for, so they are not linked to you; please don't write personal details in them.
• If we have a call: short notes of what you told us.
• Our emails count opens and clicks anonymously: this is not linked to you or your address.
• Basic visit statistics, measured without cookies: how far down the page visitors scroll, which buttons they click, how long each survey question takes and where people stop, how far into a study readers get and which of its charts, calculators and panels they use, and which link, post or search engine brought them here. Page statistics do not identify you. If you take the survey, the time spent per question and where you came from are stored with your answers, and so are linked to your email if you leave one.
• Our web host, Cloudflare, processes IP addresses to deliver and protect the site. We do not store IP addresses: they are used only briefly, in memory, to limit abuse, and we have not switched on request logging. The survey does not record IP addresses.

All survey questions are optional except the first and the one about which format you would use.

Why, and on what basis

• The launch email, the study emails and the call: your consent. You can withdraw it at any time; this does not affect what was done before.
• Error reports: our legitimate interest in correcting what we publish; the email you give in a report is used only to reply to you.
• Survey answers (with or without an email), study feedback, visit statistics and where you came from: our legitimate interest in understanding what people need and which posts bring them here. You can object to this at any time.
• Survey results may be shared in aggregate. Nothing that could identify you is published; free-text answers are quoted only without names and with identifying details removed.

The emails we send

• A welcome email, once, when you sign up.
• If you reserved the founding-member price or joined the early-access list: one email when First Thing launches.
• If you subscribed to the study emails: one email a week, when the week's new First Thing study is published on this site. It tells you what the study is about and gives you a link to it, a few days before it is posted on LinkedIn. Each one is sent by hand, never automatically.
• If something changes in what these emails contain, we tell you first, with a way to unsubscribe.

To unsubscribe, use the link at the bottom of any email: it stops all our emails at once, including the launch email and your founding-member reservation. It takes effect at once, or within 24 hours if our email provider is briefly unavailable, and your address is then deleted from our email provider. To stop only the study emails and keep your founding-member reservation, reply to any email or write to hello@first-thing-research.com.

No cookies

The site sets no cookie. Until 22 October 2026, signing up on a study page set one cookie, named ft_access, which opened the full studies on that browser. Every study is now open to everyone, so it is no longer set or needed; if your browser still holds it, you can delete it.

One more thing is kept in your browser, and only if you use the light/dark switch at the top of the page: your choice, the word "light" or "dark", in your browser's local storage on first-thing-research.com, so that the next page opens the same way. It is not a cookie, it is never sent to us, and it says nothing about you. You can remove it by clearing this site's data in your browser.

Where it is stored

Survey: our own form, stored in a Cloudflare D1 database located in the European Union. Email list: Brevo (Sendinblue SAS), France, European Union; your address and consents are also recorded in the same EU database as the survey. Website hosting: Cloudflare, Inc. (United States). Visit statistics: our own cookieless measurement, stored in the same EU database. Bot protection: none from a third party; simple checks run on our own server. Calls: by phone or video call; if by video, the invitation names the service. Brevo and Cloudflare act only on our instructions, under a data processing agreement. Cloudflare is a United States company: where data goes to the United States, it does so under the Swiss–US and EU–US Data Privacy Frameworks. Emails you write to hello@first-thing-research.com pass through Cloudflare and are delivered to a Gmail inbox (Google Ireland Limited; Google may process it in the United States, under the Data Privacy Frameworks). Error reports are stored in the same EU database, and a copy of each, without your email address, is sent to the same Gmail inbox. The same inbox receives the short notification our site sends us when someone leaves their address: it holds that address, what they asked for and how they found us (the campaign or website that brought them), and, if they answered the survey, their answers, how long the survey took and whether our checks flagged it as possibly automated. Google provides this inbox under its own terms and privacy policy, as an independent controller, not under a data processing agreement with us.

How long

• Survey answers: up to 24 months, then deleted or made anonymous.
• Study feedback: 24 months.
• Error reports: 24 months; the email given in a report is deleted after 12 months. The copy of a report in our inbox: up to 12 months.
• Your email: until you unsubscribe from everything you signed up for, or ask us to delete it; it is then also removed from your survey answers, which are kept without it. If you use the "this wasn't me" link, the address is deleted at once, in the same way. If you only agreed to a call: your email is deleted 3 months after the call, or 3 months after you agreed if no call takes place.
• After you unsubscribe, we keep only a record of your consent and unsubscription, as proof, for 3 years. That record holds a one-way coded fingerprint of your address, not the address itself.
• Call notes: 12 months.
• Visit statistics: 24 months.
• Emails exchanged with us (for example to arrange a call), and the notification we receive when you leave your email: up to 12 months in our inbox.
• Sign-ups flagged as automated (bots): deleted after 30 days.

What we never do

Sell your data, or share it for advertising.

Your rights

You can ask to see, correct or delete your data, receive a copy, restrict or object to its use, and withdraw consent, by writing to hello@first-thing-research.com. You can also complain to the Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC) or, in the EU, to your national data protection authority.

Age

The survey and the list are for people aged 16 and over.