Commitment
Opinion Seekers is an online data collection company focused on providing high quality data to the full-service marketing research industry, advertising agencies and consultancies. We build and maintain large online consumer panels. You can be assured your privacy and the confidentiality of your information is our number one priority. All of the data that Opinion Seekers collects in our research studies report as aggregate information, that is, information about groups – not individuals. Individual information is never reviewed or published without your consent, as it is irrelevant to the research conducted by our clients. All individual information provided is held confidential in accordance with the terms of this Privacy Policy.
The information we gather
Opinion Seekers gathers personal information when an individual registers to become a member of our panels. Your participation in any of our panels and surveys is voluntary. After registration we ask panel members to provide us with more personal information so that we may invite them to appropriate surveys. To become a panel member, we ask that you fill out a registration survey that gathers some personal and general consumer information. We ask for your email address so that we can send you email invitations to participate in our upcoming surveys. The other information we gather, such as your name, address, gender, birthday and employment status is for matching you with the appropriate marketing research projects. Your birthday is used to automatically update your age for us to target age-related marketing groups. We ask you for this information as a means to see if you might qualify for particular projects. All email contact from Opinion Seekers will be sent to your primary email address that you gave to us upon registration. If you become a panel member, your information (name, address, city, state, and zip) is also used for the purposes of incentive fulfillment. From time to time, a third party may be used for issuing checks or processing the delivery of rewards; your personal information will not be used for any other reason, but to mail you your reward.
In some circumstances, Opinion Seekers may ask you to inform us of your sensitive personal data, unless we are permitted to process such sensitive personal data by law, we will ask for your consent. In general sensitive data that may be collected by Opinion Seekers may cover: your racial or ethnic origin; your political opinions; your physical or mental health or condition; and your sexual life. This information is not shared with any third party, except as required by law and as part of a transfer of Opinion Seekers’s business.
If you take a survey or provide us with personal information without being a member of our panel, the only personal information we will preserve is your email address, gender, age, ethnicity and zip code, machine ID and IP address. We do this so we may contact you if you are entitled to an incentive, to match you to appropriate surveys and improve the user experience. Unless you elect to become a member of the Opinion Seekers panel, we will not contact you for any reason other than to notify you that you are eligible for an incentive. If you are entitled to an incentive, we will collect and maintain such personal information, as we are required to maintain or report by virtue of any law or regulation.
You should be aware that any personal information you choose to make public on the site, in the Community area (under a public message, as an opinion, topic, or any other public area or forum) can be read, collected, or used by other users and could be used to send you unsolicited messages. We are not responsible for the personal information you choose to submit or make public. In addition, we are not responsible for the content you publicly post on the site that can be found via web-based search engines. Our website offers publicly accessible blogs or community forums. You should be aware that any information you provide in these areas may be read, collected, and used by others who access them. To request removal of your personal information from our blog or community forum, contact us at privacy@alcresearch.com. In some cases, we may not be able to remove your personal information, in which case we will let you know if we are unable to do so and why.
We display personal testimonials of satisfied customers on our site in addition to other endorsements. With your consent we may post your testimonial along with your name. If you wish to update or delete your testimonial, you can contact us at privacy@alcresearch.com.
Use of this information
Opinion Seekers does not sell or transfer the personal information collected about the members of its panels or the individuals that take surveys for us. Information which is personally identifiable will only be transferred with your prior permission on a case by case basis, except for the narrow exceptions specified below. If you are a member of the Opinion Seekers panel, your information is stored in our proprietary database so we may call upon it to determine which people match up with specific research studies. If we think your profile makes you a potential candidate for a study, we will Email or call you to make you aware of this opportunity. From time to time Opinion Seekers may use third-party software for Email list management and Email distribution, or may use third party list management providers to match the members of our Panel to members of other lists or panels, or to validate accuracy of personal information you provide. We may use third parties to provide us with data they have collected about you, and append this data to your demographic profile. In such cases only a minimum amount of information is transferred to these third parties so as to enable them to perform specific functions on our behalf. We also may share your information with our service providers, such as to provide incentives for your participation in our panels.
Your information may be transferred to other countries, including the United States. All such transfers shall solely be made in accordance with applicable law.
Sharing
Though we make every effort to preserve your privacy, we may need to disclose your personal information when we have a good-faith belief that such action is necessary (i) to comply with a subpoena, bankruptcy proceedings, judicial proceeding, court orders or similar legal process, (ii) if we believe it is necessary in order to protect our rights, investigate, prevent or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to your safety or the safety of others or violations of the Opinion Seekers site terms, (iii) to respond to a government request or (iv) as otherwise required by law. Opinion Seekers may also disclose your personal information to third parties where it has your express permission to do so, or where it can reasonably be inferred from the circumstances that you consent to the disclosure to the third parties.
The Use of Cookies
One or more “cookies” will be placed on the hard disk of the computer(s) used by site visitors, panelists and survey takers in order to allow Opinion Seekers to recognize the participant when they connect to the Opinion Seekers website, in order to facilitate the management of Opinion Seekers , for statistical purposes (pages consulted, date and time of consultations etc.), to track the different types of advertisement you are being exposed to, the kinds of websites you visit, and to enable us to provide the participant with surveys specifically tailored to his / her interests. This will not affect the performance of your computer but simply provide you with additional opportunities to receive more surveys relevant to your interests.
Only information collected by cookies as specified in this section of our privacy policy is automatically collected from users of the site. In the event that we do collect any personal data about visitors to the site it is available only to Opinion Seekers .
Opinion Seekers may supplement information collected from surveys with additional data received from third-party sources, such as data append services. We use additional supplemental data to improve our products, services, and content.
By the use of the site all site users authorize cookies to be put in place and their use by Opinion Seekers and Opinion Seekers ‘s clients, service providers and business partners. The cookies will expire after one year.
Site users may disable the installation of “cookies” or to delete cookies installed by Opinion Seekers or its clients. To do so you should modify your browser settings click on the help section of your Internet browser and follow the instructions.
Analytical Cookies
Opinion Seekers uses analytical cookies to aggregate the number of people visiting the site and analyze which parts of the website are most popular. We gather feedback and improve the website to better serve our users and members. To find out more about the Google Analytics security and privacy policy please click here.
Other Tracking Technologies
Technologies such as cookies, web beacons/web bugs, scripts and tags are used by Opinion Seekers and its clients, partners, affiliates, or analytics and service providers. These technologies are used in analyzing trends, administering the site, tracking users’ movements around the site and the Internet, and to gather demographic information about our user base as a whole. Our clients may combine your survey responses, demographic information, and web surfing behavior with those of others to produce “aggregated” reports. They may also create scientific reports based upon modeled information. “Modeled information” is data developed based upon demographic and behavioural characteristics (like your gender, age, and websites visited) to predict what people with similar or matching characteristics would watch or buy. We may receive reports based on the use of these technologies by these companies on an individual as well as aggregated basis.
We use Local Shared Objects, such as HTML5, to store content information and preferences. Third parties with whom we partner to provide certain features on our website or to display advertising based upon your web browsing activity also use HTML5 to collect and store information. Various browsers may offer their own management tools for removing HTML5.
Log Files
As is true of most websites, we gather certain information automatically and store it in log files. This information may include Internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, operating system, date/time stamp, and/or clickstream data.
We may combine this automatically collected log information with other information we collect about you. We do this to improve services we offer you, to improve analytics, marketing and site functionality.
Advertising
We may partner with a third party to either display advertising on our website or to manage our advertising on other sites. Our third party partner may use technologies such as cookies to gather information about your activities on this site and other sites in order to provide you advertising based upon your browsing activities and interests. If you wish to not have this information used for the purpose of serving you interest-based ads, you may opt-out. Please note this does not opt you out of being served ads. You will continue to receive generic ads.
Digital Finger printing
In general, digital Fingerprinting technologies assign a unique identifier or “Machine-ID” to a user’s computer to identify and track the computer. Opinion Seekers will not use digital fingerprinting technology (the “Technology”) to collect personal information, or track the online activities, of the user of a computer; and will not disrupt or interfere with the use or control of a computer or alter, modify or change the settings or functionality of a computer. Opinion Seekers will use the technology to assist Opinion Seekers ‘s clients in ensuring the integrity of survey results. The technology will analyze publicly available information and data obtained from the computer’s web browser and from other publicly available data points, including without limitation the technical settings of the computer, the characteristics of the computer, and the computer’s IP Address, to create a unique identifier assigned to the computer. The unique identifier will be an alpha-numeric ID. After creating the unique identifier, Opinion Seekers does not retain the information ID by the Technology to create the unique identifier. In furtherance of Opinion Seekers ‘s efforts to assist its clients in protecting and ensuring the integrity of survey results, Opinion Seekers (a) may link or associate your unique identifier to you and any of your Personal Information; (b) may share your unique identifier with Opinion Seekers ‘s clients and with other sample or panel providers; and (c) may receive or obtain a unique identifier linked to you from a third party, including without limitation a sample or panel provider or a client of Opinion Seekers . Any unique identifier(s) received or obtained by Opinion Seekers and linked to a specific individual will be protected in accordance with this privacy policy.
Opinion Seekers shall use commercially reasonable efforts to ensure that the technology is safe, secure and does not cause undue privacy or data security risks.
Opinion Seekers shall use and distribute the technology in a professional and ethical manner and in accordance with (a) Opinion Seekers ‘s privacy policy, (b) any statements and/or disclosures made by Opinion Seekers to respondents, and (c) applicable Laws and Codes.
In the event that Opinion Seekers discovers or learns of any unethical conduct in connection with the use of the technology, or that the technology is being used in a manner that is inconsistent with the statements and/or disclosures made by Opinion Seekers to respondents or in violation of applicable Laws and Codes, Opinion Seekers will take immediate action to prohibit such unethical conduct and to ensure the proper administration of the technology.
Access to Your Information; Member Services Area/Update, Correct, Delete Information
You have the right to gain access to your data and correct it. In order to access this data you may either write to the address below or Contact Us at privacy@alcresearch.com.
We provide you with a Members Area on our site; here you may correct or update your membership information or delete your membership. If you are a panel member and delete your membership, your profile information will be permanently removed, but may be stored in our disaster recovery databases, and in such circumstances will not be used for commercial purposes. Please note that in most cases, it will take two or three business days for your information to be completely removed from our records; but please allow up to fifteen days.
Opt-Out Policy
By becoming a Opinion Seekers panel member, you agree to receive Calls and Emails inviting you to participate in surveys that we feel may match your experiences and background. You also agree to the automatic establishment of your personal prize account. From time to time, we will also email newsletters to you to make you aware of new features or contests running on our site. You may update your registration information at any time. Please see Correct/Update Policy below.
Correct/Update policy
If you need to correct any of your profile information or if you would like to update any of your information, you may automatically do so by going to “Account”. By following the appropriate directions, your information should be automatically updated in our database.
Delete/Deactivate policy
If you choose to end your membership with Opinion Seekers or to require us to cease processing your personal data, you may automatically discontinue your membership by going to “Account” and selecting “Unsubscribe Options” on the bottom left hand corner, then “Cancel your account”. By following the appropriate directions, your record will be marked as “do not contact”, and you will no longer receive communications from Opinion Seekers . In addition, you will forfeit any incentive balance that has not been requested as of the time you opt out. In most cases it will take 2 to 3 days to process this change, but please allow up to two full weeks for your status to be finalized. In the meantime, you may receive emails from us. As an alternative, you may send an email directly to contact@alcresearch.com requesting to be removed. Email links are provided on the site so that you may contact us directly with any questions or concerns you may have. Each email we receive is read and responded to individually; please allow two to three business days for us to get back to you.
We will retain your information for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide you services. We will retain and use your information as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements.
Winners policy and privacy guarantee
Panel members and others who take our surveys are randomly selected to win prizes for participation in surveys, polls, and other promotions. All winners are notified by email of their winnings. For more information, please visit our Terms and Conditions page. Cash and other prizes awarded to non-panel members will be awarded directly. Opinion Seekers shall post the usernames of winners in the following locations: alcresearch.com sites, Opinion Seekers owned blogs and Opinion Seekers newsletters.
Notification of changes
If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes to this privacy statement, the home page, or other places we deem appropriate so that you are aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it.
We reserve the right to modify this privacy statement at any time, so please review it frequently. If we make material changes to this policy, we will notify you here, by email, or by means of a notice on our home page prior to the change becoming effective.
Security
Opinion Seekers takes strict measures to ensure every aspect of your information is kept secure. Access to all personal information is restricted and limited to few key personnel. Our website security is reviewed periodically and can only be accessed via a strict password policy. Opinion Seekers will never ask you for private information such as your credit card or social security numbers as a part of our research. We may be required by law to ask for your social security number or other government-issued identifier to comply with reporting laws and regulations if you are the recipient of survey incentives. We use SSL encryption when collecting or transmitting sensitive information. Your profile information is highly confidential and will be used only by Opinion Seekers to Email you concerning our studies, newsletters, winner notifications, and incentive redemptions, or as otherwise provided for in this privacy policy.
Business transfers
As we continue to develop our business, we might sell or buy additional assets. In such transactions, Opinion Seekers ‘s right to contact its panel members and the information you have voluntarily provided in your user profile would generally be one of the transferred business assets. Any sale or transfer of Opinion Seekers or substantially all of its business assets, which included our panel, would be to an entity that agreed to comply with all of the material terms of our privacy policy. You will be notified via email and/or a prominent notice on our Web site of any change in ownership.
Links
From time to time we may offer visitors the ability to voluntarily link to other sites. Opinion Seekers does not review, and is not responsible for, the content or effect of the privacy policies of these sites.
Social Media Widgets
Our Web site includes Social Media Features, such as the Facebook Like button (and Widgets, such as the Share this button or interactive mini-programs that run on our site). These Features may collect your IP address, which page you are visiting on our site, and may set a cookie to enable the Feature to function properly. Social Media Features and Widgets are either hosted by a third party or hosted directly on our Site. Your interactions with these Features are governed by the privacy policy of the company providing it.
Single Sign-On
You can log in to our site using sign-in services such as Facebook Connect or an Open ID provider. These services will authenticate your identity and provide you the option to share certain personally identifiable information with us such as your name and email address to pre-populate our sign up form. Services like Facebook Connect give you the option to post information about your activities on this Web site to your profile page to share with others within your network.
Referral
If you choose to use our referral service to tell a friend about our site, we will ask you for your friend’s name and email address. We will automatically send your friend a one-time email inviting him or her to visit the site. Opinion Seekers stores this information for the sole purpose of sending this one-time email and tracking the success of our referral program. Your friend may contact us at privacy@alcresearch.com to request that we remove this information from our database.
Add/Import Contacts
You can import contacts from your Outlook or other email account address book to invite them to become members of our site. We collect the username and password for the email account you wish to import your contacts from and will only use it for that purpose.
Mobile Applications
When you download and use our mobile application, we automatically collect system and performance information on the type of device you use, operating system version and hardware usage statistics such as CPU, RAM, storage and app version.
Mobile Analytics
We use mobile analytics software to allow us to better understand the functionality of our mobile application on your phone. This software may record information such as how often you use the application, the events that occur within the application, aggregated usage, performance data, and where the application was downloaded from. We do not link the information we store within the analytics software to any personally identifiable information you submit within the mobile application.
Geo Location
We collect your location based information for the purpose of calculating user country so we can route a visitor to the correct country site. We will only share this information with our mapping provider for the sole purpose of providing you this service.
You may opt-out of location based services at any time by editing the setting at the device level or by emailing us at privacy@alcresearch.com.
SMS
We may make available a service either directly or through third parties by which you can receive messages on your wireless device via short message service (“SMS Service”). Your provider’s standard data and messaging rates apply to all SMS correspondence. All charges are billed by and payable to your mobile service provider. You represent that you are the owner or authorized user of the wireless device on which messages will be received, and that you are authorized to approve the applicable charges. Data obtained from you in connection with this SMS Service may include your name, address, cell phone number, your provider’s name, and the date, time, and content of your messages. The use of this information will be in accordance with this Policy. If fees are charged to your wireless account invoice, we may provide your carrier with your applicable information in connection therewith. Your wireless carrier and other service providers may also collect data about your wireless device usage, and their practices are governed by their own policies. You acknowledge and agree that the SMS Service is provided via wireless systems which use radios (and other means) to transmit communications over complex networks. We will not be liable for any delays in the receipt of any SMS messages, as delivery is subject to effective transmission from your network operator. SMS message services are provided on an AS IS basis. We do not guarantee that your use of the SMS Service will be private or secure, and we are not liable to you for any lack of privacy or security you may experience. You are fully responsible for taking precautions and providing security measures best suited for your situation and intended use of the SMS Service. This process impacts only the future delivery of the particular SMS message offering, so you must send that message for each offering.
Legal disclaimer
We may disclose personal information when required by law or in the good-faith belief that such action is necessary to conform to the edicts of the law or to comply with a legal process served on our website.
Children’s privacy
Opinion Seekers will not knowingly collect any information from any child under the age of 13.
Privacy contact
Privacy Officer
Opinion Seekers
6471 S Birch Circle
Centennial, CO 80121
USA
E-Mail: privacy@alcresearch.com