Effective Date: July 2020

Thank you for agreeing to participate in our market research study. For decades, NielsenIQ has set the global standard for market and consumer insight research. Our insights are based on representative samples of the population and help our clients (e.g., manufacturers, retailers, media companies, non-profit organizations, and government bodies) learn about what consumers watch, listen to, and buy. Your participation in this study helps companies understand your behaviours and preferences, which often helps them provide better consumer products and services.

As the controller of personal data processed about you, The NielsenIQ group of companies (“NielsenIQ,” “we,” or “us”) is committed to protecting your privacy and handling your data in an open and transparent manner. This Privacy Notice explains how we use, share, and protect the data we gather about you in and your participation in any of our studies (hereinafter referred to as “Study” or “Studies”). This Privacy Notice also describes your choices and legal rights in relation to such data. Participation in our Studies is always voluntary.

Please note that this Privacy Notice applies only to data collected and processed by us in connection with your participation in a Study as well as your interaction with any websites where this Privacy Notice is posted or linked (collectively, the “Website”). This Privacy Notice does not apply to your participation in any other studies, surveys, or panels or your interaction with or use of any other websites, applications, or online services administered or provided by entities within the NielsenIQ group of companies. Other NielsenIQ studies, surveys, panels, websites, applications, and online services are governed by their own privacy notices, and we encourage you to review those privacy notices before disclosing any personal data.

HOW TO CONTACT US. One or more entities within the NielsenIQ group of companies will be processing your data. Information about NielsenIQ’s full group of companies can be found here.

If you have any general questions about this Privacy Notice, or would like to contact our EU Data Protection Officer, please contact us at connect.privacy@smb.nielseniq.com

If you have questions about how we process your data please submit a request by using this form.

Our Privacy Commitment
Your Participation in this Study
The Data We Collect
How We Use Data
Cookies and Other Digital Technologies
When we Share your Data
Your Choices & Your Legal Rights
About Children
Data Security and Transfers of Data Outside the European Economic Area
Data Retention

1. OUR PRIVACY COMMITMENT

NielsenIQ complies with all applicable privacy laws, including the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation. Indeed, it is crucial for us to keep NielsenIQ participant data confidential in order to prevent any interference with participants that could affect their behavior and the accuracy of our data. We will NOT use data that identifies you to advertise, promote, or market or sell third party goods or services directly to you or members of your household; we do not allow our clients to do so either.

2. YOUR PARTICIPATION IN THIS STUDY

NielsenIQ processes your personal data primarily on the basis of your consent and voluntary participation in this Study. By participating in this Study, you are contributing your data to a pool of data from which broad participant statistics are derived. These statistics are relied upon by a wide variety of other companies to set pricing, advertising, merchandising, and other key business decisions. You have legal rights with respect to your personal data, as described in “Your Choices & Your Legal Rights” below.

3. THE DATA WE COLLECT

We will collect or otherwise obtain data relating to you in a variety of ways. Such data includes personal data (i.e., data that alone or in combination with other data identifies you as an individual, such as your name, email address, phone number, and other data that can be reasonably linked to you as an individual). Additional details about the data that we may collect about you in connection with your participation in the Study and the sources of such data can be found below.

A. Data you provide to us.

As part of this research study, you provide us with certain data, which may include:

directly identifying data, like your first and last name, home postal address or personal email address that by itself, or in combination with other readily-available data, could identify you, or another member of your household;
demographic data such as age, gender, marital status, occupation, and income range;
your behaviors and preferences to help us better understand consumer behavior, use, and trends. “Behavior data” is when, why or how you do things such as how frequently you shop for groceries, use your computer, TV, or the Internet. “Preference data” means the choices you make such as which breakfast cereals you buy, which stations you listen to or watch, or websites you visit;
any content or material you choose to submit, upload or transmit to us, including without limitation, photos, videos, images, or your likeness if you choose to submit such content in connection with your participation in our market research activities;
certain profile information stored in your social media platform account, should you agree to participate in our market research activities through a third-party service, such as Facebook or Twitter;
voluntarily provided or disclosed “Sensitive Information,” which means directly identifying data that discloses or reveals health or medical conditions, biometric or genetic data, sexual orientation or sexual life, or race/ethnic origin.
your voice/ physical appearance, as we might be audio/video taping your participation in a focus group or in-person interview or similar.

B. Information collected in connection with your use of this Website

In certain cases, we (or third parties) may collect data about your device using cookies and other similar technologies. This data may include your device’s internet protocol (IP) address, unique device identifiers, device model, operating system and version, browser type and language, and other transactional data (e.g., pages visited and access dates and times). Additional information about our use of cookies and similar technologies can be found in the “Cookies and Other Digital Technologies” section below.

C. Data we get from other sources:

We may obtain data about you from third parties. For example, we may receive data from a Non-NielsenIQ Research Panel of which you are a member, which may include your name, contact information, and information about your willingness to participate in studies being carried out by companies like NielsenIQ.

Where applicable, we will combine the data we obtain from you with data obtained from other sources and will use it only for the purposes described in this Privacy Notice.

4. HOW WE USE DATA

We process the data that we collect in connection with the Studies in order to create a variety of market research insights for our clients. Specifically, your demographic data, data relating to your behaviors and preferences, and other data that you provide to us allows us to help companies understand, amongst other things, how consumers like you may react to their products, the probability of success of a product in the market, whether there are opportunities to improve a product, and how to market a product and communicate effectively with consumers.

When we prepare reports and share insights with our clients, we use tools and methods that are designed to ensure that there is no reasonable possibility of identifying you or any other participants in our Studies. For example, we will combine data obtained from you (including data in the photos and/or videos that you have uploaded) with data obtained from other participants in order to produce reports with aggregated data from which you cannot be reasonably identified.

We also create reports based upon modeled data. “Modeled data” are projections based on demographic and behavioral characteristics (like gender, age, and purchasing habits) that look at a sample group of people and then predict what people with similar characteristics or preferences would want to buy. This allows advertisers, for instance, to identify the likely audience for a marketing campaign.

We process your data to contact you. When we contact you – by phone (including mobile phone), email, SMS, or postal mail depending on what data you provide to us – we usually do so in order to:

respond to your inquiries or requests;
validate or clarify answers you have provided;
send you information regarding your participation in the Study; or
provide notice regarding changes to our terms, conditions, and policies.

We may also process your data for other purposes, including in order to:

manage the Study and assess your eligibility for participation in the Study;
facilitate the day-to-day operations and financial management of the NielsenIQ group of companies and any corporate transactions (e.g., a reorganization, merger, sale, joint venture, assignment, transfer, etc.);
prevent, investigate, and act concerning: (i) misconduct, such as fraud and unlawful or criminal activity; (ii) security or technical issues; or (iii) network and information security issues;
carry out data analysis and audits, develop new products, produce predictive data models, improve our services, identify usage trends, and determine the effectiveness of our communications;
protect the rights, property, operations, health, or safety of you, one or more entities within the NielsenIQ group of companies, or others;
enforce our agreements, comply with applicable laws and regulations, and establish, exercise, and/or defend the legal rights of one or more entities within the NielsenIQ group of companies; and
respond to subpoenas, court orders, or other legal process/requests and communications from law enforcement authorities or other government officials.

We may employ de-identification techniques in order to prevent your personal identity from being revealed from the data that we hold about you and use such de-identified data or allow others to use it for historical, academic, or longitudinal research. We ensure in such cases that there is no reasonable possibility of re-identifying you from the data used.

5. COOKIES AND OTHER DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES

We may use both session and persistent cookies in connection with our Studies. Cookies, pixel tags, web beacons or other similar technologies may be used on some of our website pages and HTML-formatted email messages to, among other things, manage such Studies and to enhance your experience as a participant. We may also use these technologies: (i) for security purposes; (ii) to facilitate navigation, display information more effectively, and better serve you with more tailored information; and (iii) for site administration purposes (e.g., to gather statistical information about the usage of the Website in order to continually improve the design and functionality, understand how the Website is used, and assist us with resolving questions regarding use of the Website). To learn more about the use of cookies in general, please visit http://allaboutcookies.org/.

You can adjust the settings in your device’s browser to reject cookies, or delete individual or all cookies on your device by following the browser help file directions. Adjusting your settings to reject cookies or deleting cookies, however, may interfere with your use of some features on the Website and may impair your ability to participate in our Studies .

6. WHEN WE SHARE YOUR DATA

We may share data about you with:

Other NielsenIQ affiliates or subsidiaries for the purposes described in this Privacy Notice.
Our service providers, such as companies that provide the following services: website or application hosting; management, or support; data analysis or processing; data security and storage; and data matching. These companies are contractually required to keep data that we disclose to them confidential and secure and are prohibited from using this data for any purpose other than carrying out the services that they are performing for us.
Other market research companies and our clients, in accordance with market research industry ethical guidelines. This may include audits by our clients or other third parties.
A third party in the event of any reorganization, merger, sale, joint venture, assignment, transfer, or other disposition of all or any portion of our business, assets or stock (including in connection with any bankruptcy or similar proceedings).
As we believe to be necessary or appropriate: (a) under applicable law; (b) to comply with legal process from public and government authorities (including those outside your country of residence); (c) to enforce our terms and conditions; (d) to protect our operations or those of any of our affiliates; (e) to protect the rights, privacy, safety, or property of any person; or (f) to allow us to pursue available remedies or limit the damages that we may sustain.

NielsenIQ performs security reviews before engaging service providers who may have access to individual-level data. We obtain contractual assurances relating to the lawfulness of data we obtain from third parties. We also limit how our clients may use data that we share with them in order to prevent re-identification of aggregated data and to prevent data from being reused in a way that is inconsistent with this Privacy Notice.

7. YOUR CHOICES & YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS

Participation in our Studies is always voluntary, meaning that you can choose whether or not to provide any of the data requested and withdraw from the Study that you are participating in at any time. If you cease participation, we will continue to process the data we collected during the time you were a participant. Depending on your country (or U.S. state) of residence, under applicable law you may have various additional rights with respect to personal data processed. Your privacy rights may include one or more of the following:

The right to obtain confirmation as to whether or not personal data concerning you are being processed, and, where that is the case, the right to request a copy of the data we hold about you, and to correct it where it is inaccurate (note that in order to preserve the accuracy of our research data and avoid potential bias, in some cases exercising your right of access may require ending your participation in the Study, if it is likely to affect your behavior);
The right to request that certain data about you be erased (note that this right is not absolute, but applies in certain cases);
The right to propose other restrictions on the processing of data about you; and
The right of data portability for data you have provided (to the extent applicable).

If you are interested in exercising one or more of the rights described above, please contact us. Because we want to avoid taking action regarding your personal data at the direction of someone other than you, please note that we may request data verifying your identity before we can give effect to these rights.

For EU/EEA residents, if you believe NielsenIQ has not complied with privacy laws or the terms of this Privacy Notice, you may lodge a complaint with NielsenIQ’s Data Protection Officer using the contact information found at the top of this Privacy Notice. If you are unsatisfied with the way in which we have processed your personal data or responded to any privacy query or request that you have raised to us, you have the right to complain to the Supervisory Authority in your country of residence or where the activity that is the subject of the complaint occurred (current contact information is available here).

8. ABOUT CHILDREN

We understand the importance of protecting children’s privacy, and it is our policy to never knowingly collect or maintain personal data about anyone under the age of 18 without first obtaining consent from a parent or guardian. If our research seeks to study children and we have obtained consent from a parent or guardian, minor children may participate in some Studies.

All of the provisions of this Privacy Notice apply to data about children of any age (up to 18), if data collection about them has been authorised by a parent or guardian.

9. DATA SECURITY AND TRANSFERS OF DATA OUTSIDE THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AREA (EEA)

NielsenIQ maintains a global data security organisation that uses reasonable organisational, technical, and administrative measures to protect your data while under our control.

We may store and process your data in your home country and/or we may transfer and export such data outside of the EEA to any country where we have facilities or in which we engage service providers and processors, including the United States and India. The data protection laws of other countries may differ from those in your home country. When we transfer data outside the EU/EEA, we ensure that we do so in compliance with applicable law. .

10. DATA RETENTION

We will retain your data for as long as needed for the purposes described in this Privacy Notice and in accordance with applicable law. Following your participation in a Study, we may continue to use demographic data that we have obtained from you as well as “behavior data” and “preference data” for historical and statistical research, but we will keep this data separate from your directly identifying data and strictly limit access to your directly identifying data, even within NielsenIQ. All data will be permanently de-identified when we no longer need to identify you for disaster recovery, audit, legal, fraud prevention, or related purposes.

This Privacy Notice replaces any other statement, whether written or oral, made to you about our practices with respect to NielsenIQ’s collection and use of personal data about you.

THANK YOU – WE APPRECIATE AND VALUE YOUR PARTICIPATION!