Privacy & Confidentiality Policy for Opinion Share's Market Research Panel

Privacy & Confidentiality Policy for Opinion Share's Market Research Panel

Last Updated August 1, 2014

1. Our commitment to protecting your privacy

Opinion Share is committed to respecting individual and client privacy, to safeguarding confidential information and to ensuring the security of all personal information. When you decide to share your information with us, we feel that it is important to assure you that your information will be safely protected. This statement discloses our information collecting, handling and disclosure practices. Please read the following privacy policy to understand how your personal information will be treated.

2. What do we do?

Opinion Share is a medium sized market research panel and product of Discovery Research Group. It is focused on connecting online research buyers and market research participants to engage on online market research activities. Headquartered in Midvale, Utah, USA, Opinion Share serves International clients who are interested in opinions of people in the United States.

3. Our Standards

Opinion Share supports and strictly adheres to the standards and guidelines set out by ESOMAR: www.esomar.org and the MRA: www.marketingresearch.org.

4. Collection & Use of Personal Information

Opinion Share only collects personal information directly from panelists who, of their own free will, decide to give certain information. Panelists may join other panels, but do so of their own accord. Panelists join panels voluntarily to voice their opinions regarding products and services. Opinion Share helps facilitate this process. When Opinion Share facilitates data collection research, we ensure that we use invitations and research activities that clearly identify the research company and explain the purpose(s) of our contact. We only use the panelist's personal data for the following purposes:

1. To invite the panelist to participate in market research;
2. To execute a profiling study to garner more information on the panelist;
3. To respond to a support based issue;
4. To validate answers a panelist gave in a recent market research activity we carried out;
5. To update and ensure that our records of a panelist's personal information is true and correct.
6. Occasionally, we may contact a panelist for one of these other purposes - (1) To gather information to provide any other form of incentive offering (2) To ask for a panelist his/her permission to use their personal information for a purpose that was not explained to them when their personal information was first collected. (3) When a panelist participates in any of our market research activities on behalf of our clients, the activities may ask a panelist for their personal opinions, as well as demographic information, such as their age and household composition. A panelist may refuse to answer certain questions or discontinue participation in a study at any time. If a panelist joins one of our panels, they may rescind their membership at any time by following the opt-out instructions.

5. Disclosures of Personal Information

We DO NOT give, sell, or otherwise transfer your personal information to third parties without your prior consent, except as otherwise set out below.

1. Survey Responses: Your responses to survey questions are combined with those of other people and are tabulated only in the aggregate. Only non-identifiable and aggregated data will be shared with our clients. Any answers you provide to survey questions will remain entirely confidential.
2. Sale of a Business: We may transfer any information we have about you as an asset in connection with a merger or sale (including transfers made as part of insolvency or bankruptcy proceedings) involving all or part of our business or as part of a corporate reorganization or other change in corporate control.
3. Legal: Opinion Share and our service providers may provide your personal information in response to a search warrant or other legally valid inquiry or order, or to an investigative body in the case of a breach of an agreement or contravention of law, or as otherwise required by law. We may also disclose personal information to assist us in collecting a debt owed by you, or otherwise where necessary for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims.

6. Use of cookies, log files and other technologies on our website

Cookies are small text files stored on one's computer by a website that assigns a numerical user ID and stores certain information about one's online browsing. Opinion Share uses cookies on our platform to help us provide panelists with a better experience and to provide quality control and validation functions. No personal information is stored on any cookie that Opinion Share uses.

Some of the cookies that we use on ours or our partners' platforms are required to identify and validate a panelist, and they protect access to a panelist's profile and account information. The privacy settings of a panelist's browser must be configured to allow cookies from our website (www.discoveryresearchgroup.com) or our software providers website (www.cint.com) or a panelist will not be able to register on the panel or access the Opinion Share Portal. Panelists can adjust their browser's privacy settings to delete cookies upon exiting web sites or when they close their browser.

Some of Opinion Share's and Opinion Share's partner's sites use Flash Local Shared Objects (LSO), also known as "Flash cookies," to store panelist's preferences, to display content based upon what a panelist views, personalize their visit, or to otherwise track their behaviour and activities across multiple visits to the site. We use Flash cookies strictly for research purposes only.

Flash cookies are different from browser cookies because of the amount and type of data stored and how the data is stored. Cookie management tools provided by one's browser or anti-spyware applications will not remove Flash cookies, nor will the "Private Browsing" modes prevent their placement on one's computer.

A panelist can, however, manage privacy and storage settings for Flash cookies or disable their use entirely by visiting Macromedia's website, the manufacturer of Flash Player, at the following link: Adobe - Flash Player: Settings Manager

7. Security of personal information

Your Account Information and Profile are password-protected so that you and only you have access to this personal information.

We recommend that you do not divulge your password to anyone. Opinion Share will never ask you for your password in an unsolicited phone call or in an unsolicited email. Also remember to sign out of your panel account and close your browser window when you have finished your work. This is to ensure that others cannot access your personal information and correspondence if you share a computer with someone else or are using a computer in a public place like a library or Internet cafe.

Whenever Opinion Share handles personal information as described above, regardless of where this occurs, Opinion Share takes steps to ensure that your information is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

8. Children's Privacy Protection

Opinion Share strongly believes that it is important to protect the online privacy of children and Opinion Share encourages parents or guardians to spend time online with their children to participate and monitor their Internet activities. Opinion Share will never process personal data of children without parental consent. Accordingly, Opinion Share complies with applicable Laws and Codes pertaining to the protection of Children's privacy, including without limitation the United States Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (for US panelists), the European Union Data Directive (95/46/EC) (for panelists within the EU), to the extent applicable, and all applicable international and country specific laws. For online research conducted globally, Opinion Share complies with all applicable international and country specific laws regarding obtaining consent from parents/guardians for a child's participation in such online research. Parents or guardians are encouraged to contact Opinion Share to discuss the Personal Information collected from their child or children.

9. How to contact us

To ensure you are up to date with any changes to this policy, please see the last updated section of this policy. Questions regarding this policy, complaints about our practices and access requests should be directed to:

Opinion Share Support Team, info@opnshr.com

or by mail at:

Opinion Share C/O Discovery Research Group, 6975 Union Park Center, Ste. 150, Midvale, Utah 84047