registered in the commercial register of England and Wales
under registration number 2388345
('Synovate', 'we' or 'us')
1. WE PROTECT YOUR PRIVACY
Thank you for agreeing to join our research panel. Synovate and the other companies of the Synovate network of market research firms which is owned by the Aegis Group plc, London/UK, is one of the largest global marketing research firms, specialises in collecting and processing information to assist clients with strategic business decisions ("Synovate Group"). For more than 50 years, we have gathered information from millions of consumers like you. Throughout that time, we have honoured the privacy of our research participants.
We assure you that we will never disclose individual personal information to our clients or any third party unless specified herein (see section 6 below). Any information you provide to us will be combined with responses given by others and reported in aggregate. Individual information, including your e-mail address, will be kept strictly confidential.
Your privacy is important to Synovate. We post this Privacy Statement so that you are aware of the information we collect, how it is handled and with whom it is shared.
You will NEVER be asked to buy anything or contribute financially to any organisation.
We will NEVER sell or send your name (or e-mail address) to another party that might want to sell you anything.
Should you decide to discontinue participation in a particular study or your Panel membership, we will respect your decision to do so (see sections 7 and 10 below).
2. WHAT KIND OF INFORMATION WILL WE COLLECT?
During the registration process we ask you to provide us with your name, address, e-mail address, telephone number, date of birth, sex, occupation, level of education, annual income as well as other demographic information. In some cases as a member of our Panel you may be asked to provide sensitive data including, for example, racial origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical believes, membership in unions, your health or sexual life. When we do so, we will explicitly ask for your consent to collect and process this data and you will never be required to provide this information if you do not wish to do so (although, of course, this may preclude you from participating in some research studies).
3. HOW DO WE USE YOUR DATA?
We will store personally identifiable data that you submit to us as well as data that we automatically collect on you (see section 8 below). We will then use such information to:
Determine for which specific surveys you and your household qualify, based on demographics and indicated interests, and contact you for participation;
Send product samples tailored to your habits, interests and preferences for testing; or
Award and publicise contest and sweepstakes prizes, or provide other rewards that we agree with you
In order for us to determine which survey opportunities are appropriate for you and your household, we may need to request additional personally identifiable information. When we request personally identifiable information, we clearly disclose what details are required and how your ability to participate in our services will be impacted if you choose not to provide such information
Immediately after receipt by us, your survey responses will be made anonymous. Thereafter, neither you nor we will be able to restore such data from the system, as it can no longer be attributed to you as an individual. Therefore, you should make a record of your responses if appropriate
From the anonymous survey responses we create tables and analyses of specific issues for clients that have commissioned the particular survey. The results from the surveys will be aggregated and made available to the client. At no point will we make your personally identifiable data available to our clients or other third parties
4. ABOUT CHILDREN
Because you must be 16 years of age or older to register for participation in survey projects through our Web site, we never target or knowingly collect personally identifiable information directly from children or young persons below the age of 16. If we would like the opinions of children who are under age 16 in your household, we will explicitly address the survey to the adult registered panel member and ask him/her to supervise the answering of the questions to be asked of the child. The way in which the opinions of children will be used will always be stated explicitly at the same time the question is asked and we will not require a child to disclose more information than is reasonably necessary to participate in an activity. The registered panel member may at any time ask to have a child's information deleted, and refuse to allow further collection or use.
5. ABOUT THE SECURITY AND ACCURACY OF THE DATA
We maintain the security of the personally identifiable information we hold about you. We store the personal details we hold about you for as long as needed for the purposes indicated in this policy.
We have in place appropriate security measures, including secure transfer technologies (SSL) as well as encryption methods, to protect the security and confidentiality of personal data whilst controlled by us. We will maintain and improve these measures over time in line with legal and technological developments. However, although we go to lengths to protect your personal data from unauthorized disclosure, you should be aware that electronic communications via the Internet are not always completely secure
To ensure the accuracy of Synovate records, we will contact you periodically to confirm the informa?tion we receive. You can also contact us to review, amend or correct such information. We will make a sincere effort to respond in a timely manner to any request to correct inaccuracies in your personal information. To correct inaccuracies, please return the message containing the inaccuracy to the sender with details of the correction requested. Alternatively, you may contact us at panelfeedback-uk@synovate.net or our address stated above.
6. TRANSFER OF DATA, SAFE HARBOUR
In principle, we will not share personally identifiable information about you with third parties. However, Synovate may send personally identifiable information about you, including your email address, to other companies or people when:
We have your consent to share the information;
We need to share this information to provide to you the information, product or service you have requested
We are conducting business with companies that are a member of the Synovate Group;
We respond to subpoenas, court orders or legal process or comply with the law;
We find or have strong reasons to believe that your actions on our website violate website terms or conditions or are in violation of law; in that case we may forward your information to the authorities or to third parties helping us prosecuting such alleged or shown violation
We store your data in the United Kingdom and may transfer it to operations of the Synovate Group in countries outside the United Kingdom or the EU, including, for all panellists, to the United States of America. Not all of these countries provide the same level of data protection as the the United Kingdom and the EU.
However, Synovate adheres to the Safe Harbour Agreement concerning the transfer of personal data from the EU to the United States. Accordingly, Synovate follows the Safe Harbour Principles published by the U.S. Department of Commerce ("Principles") with respect to all such data, and this Statement complies with such Principles. Compliance with the Principles may be limited, however, in certain cases to the extent necessary to meet national security, public interest or law enforcement requirements. All Synovate personnel with access to personally identifiable data are obligated to familiarize themselves and comply with provi?sions of this Statement. A full statement of the Synovate Safe Harbour Agreement is provided here: www.synovate.com/legal/safeharbor
7. HOW CAN YOU DEREGISTER?
You may freely revoke the consent you provide at our website at any time, for instance by sending an email to panelfeedback-uk@synovate.net.
Upon receipt of your revocation we will inform the other companies of the Synovate Group and all of your personally identifiable data will immediately be deleted or made anonymous
8. ABOUT THE USE OF COOKIES AND OTHER TECHNOLOGIES
A cookie is a small string of text that a web site can send to your browser and that will be stored on your hard drive. Cookies were designed to assist in distinguishing a user's browser from a previous visitor by saving and remembering any preferences that may have been set while browsing the particular site. We may use "cookies" or other technologies now or in the future to tailor our website to your interests based on the items you review while visiting our site; such technologies may also be used by us for other purposes related to your visit to our site or to improve our website and our business purposes. You can choose to have your computer warn you each time a cookie is being sent, or you can choose to turn off all cookies. You do this through your browser settings. Since each browser is a little different you have to look at your browser help menu to learn the right way to modify your cookies setup. If you turn cookies off you may not be able to access our website or to have access to many of the features that make your web experience more efficient and some of our services may not function properly. If there is ever an occasion to expand the use of this technology, we will first ask for your complete consent to do so and explain the intended use of the information gathered
Synovate uses pixels, or transparent GIF files, to help manage online advertising. These GIF files are provided by our ad management partner, DoubleClick. These files enable DoubleClick to recognize a unique cookie on your Web browser, which in turn enables us to learn which advertisements bring users to our website. The cookie was placed by us, or by another advertiser who works with DoubleClick. With both cookies and Spotlight technology, the information that we collect and share is anonymous and not personally identifiable. It does not contain your name, address, telephone number, or email address. For more information about DoubleClick, including information about how to opt out of these technologies, go to http://www.doubleclick.com/us/corporate/privacy.
9. WE MAY CHANGE THIS NOTICE
We reserve the right to update and make changes to this notice. As we continue to modify our website and take advantage of developing technologies, this Privacy Statement will most likely change. Therefore, we encourage you to refer to this Privacy Statement on an ongoing basis. You can obtain historic Privacy Statements by sending a corresponding email to us under the email-address stated under section 10 below.
10. ANY QUESTIONS?
Do you wish to know which personally identifiable data we store on you, please use your username/ password combination and enter the secure part of our website for more information
For any questions, complaints, comments or suggestions, or in the event that you wish to receive a written excerpt from the personally identifiable data that we store on you, please contact us by e-mail at panelfeedback-uk@synovate.net or under our address stated above.
THANK YOU - WE APPRECIATE AND VALUE YOUR PARTICIPATION!