PRIVACY NOTICE

EFFECTIVE DATE: January 2010

The National Consumer Panel will presume that it has the consent of each member of your household, including the parent of any minor in your household, to collect and use personal information about you and them (both adults and children) as described below, unless you contact us to advise us otherwise. Please be sure each member of your household reads this notice carefully.

We assure you that we do not disclose personally identifiable information to our clients

We will NOT use your personally identifiable information to advertise, promote, or market goods or services to you. Our reports and analyses to clients are made on an anonymous basis.  Our clients never see any single individual’s personally identifiable information. From time to time we may request that you participate in projects or studies that would involve the disclosure of identifiable data to clients, but we will notify you of that when we request your participation, and we will not release identifiable data to clients unless we specifically advise you otherwise.

How will we use the information you and other panelists provide us?

We may combine the data you provide us with research tools and information from other sources. We use this information to perform market research, and to prepare reports and analyses. If you qualify for a sweepstakes, we will use the e-mail address that you have given us to send you a confirmation of your sweepstakes entry. We will also use your contact information to let you know if you have won.

Occasionally, we partner with or subcontract with other companies and individuals.  Such companies or individuals may have access to personally identifiable information about you, but only as needed to perform their functions. Notwithstanding any other provision of this Notice, we also may disclose personally identifiable information to any third party when disclosure is required by law, or desirable to permit us to exercise our legal rights or take action regarding illegal activities or to protect the safety of any person. If all or part of our company is sold, merged, or otherwise transferred to another entity, we may transfer personally identifiable information as part of that transaction.

What information do we collect?

During the initial panel registration process or as part of a research survey, we request certain information about you and others in your household, such as name, address, telephone, e-mail, birth date, gender, marital status, occupation, education level, and income. We also may (but may not) request more detailed demographic information such as race or ethnic group, religion, political views, and/or more detailed financial information including net asset value. Once your household has joined our panel, we will obtain additional information about you and your household, because we track a wide variety of information about preference and consumption behaviors and exposure to advertising. For example, depending upon the panels in which your household is included, the information we collect may concern, in addition to everyday personal and household products, video, television (cable, satellite or otherwise), radio, music, and reading material preferences and consumption, and location data. If your household participates in a panel that involves healthcare information, we may collect certain health-related information about you and the members of your household, including healthcare services received, prescriptions and over-the-counter medications used, the conditions for which these medications are used, and other pharmacy products that you purchase or use. If your household participates in a panel that involves online or Internet activity information, we may collect information about your activity on your computer and online, either directly or automatically through the use of software or cookies or web beacons.

Our servers log the standard non-personally-identifiable information that accompanies Internet transmissions, like the date and time of your visit, browser type and version, IP address, and operating system. We use this information to administer the website, analyze trends, track users’ movements, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. We may associate the personally-identifiable information you give us with this information and may supplement it further with information supplied by our cookies or other sources. This would help us to understand you better and how you interact with the site.

Do we use cookies?
In order to manage our panel and to enhance your experience as a panelist, we place cookies on your computer. A cookie is a small amount of data, which often includes an anonymous unique identifier, sent to your browser from a website’s computers and stored on your computer’s hard drive. We may also use a small piece of code (sometimes referred to as “1x1 clear pixel,” “Web beacon” or “clear GIF”) to help us gather additional information about your Internet usage, including other websites that you visit. On occasion, we may also use cookies to understand your exposure to certain Internet advertisements as you surf the Web. To opt out of sending us this surfing information, please contact the Panel Support Center at 1-800-962-6700.

Additionally, we may allow some of the companies that we partner with to use Web beacons and cookies for specific, limited purposes. For example, our panel recruitment partners may use Web beacons and cookies on our registration pages solely for payment verification purposes; other partners may assist in our understanding of your exposure to certain Internet advertisements.

We have no access to or control over our partners’ cookies. This privacy statement covers the use of cookies by the National Consumer Panel only and does not cover the use of cookies by any of our partners.

You can set your browser to reject cookies, or delete individual or all cookies on your computer by following the browser help file directions. Setting your browser to reject cookies or deleting cookies, however, may interfere with your using some features of other web sites and may impair your ability to participate in activities at this site.

How do we collect personal information?

Depending upon the panel, information may be collected manually via scanners, or automatically, and automatic data collection may not always be obvious to you. By participating on our panel, you specifically authorize us to receive preference and consumption information about you either directly from you or from your household or from outside sources, even if the collection or disclosure of such information otherwise would be inconsistent with those sources’ privacy policies or obligations. Outside data sources may include, for example, the providers of the products and services you purchase or use, retail “loyalty” programs, and organizations that collect data online. We may periodically telephone you, and may periodically send you surveys or other correspondence and collect information from you via e-mail if you provide us with your e-mail address.

Your participation is always voluntary

You may contact us if at any time you would like to see the personal information we hold about you, or to ask us to correct or update this information, or to ask us to delete all personal data that we hold about you, or to stop your participation in our panel.

About children

Depending upon the panel or survey, the information we collect may include information about children, and we may communicate directly with children in the household to collect information from them. We may try to refresh the permission of parents before we collect information directly from children under age 18, but we cannot guarantee that we always will be successful.  However, working online with very young children requires special care, and special regulations apply in this circumstance.  We will never collect information online directly from a child under age 13 without the verifiable, informed consent of the parent or guardian.

Data security and transfer

We may store the personal details we hold about you for as long as needed for the purposes indicated in this policy, which may be indefinitely. We may store this data in the U.S., or we may transfer it to other countries. We have in place certain security measures to protect personal data while controlled by us (for example, firewalls), but the storage and communication of personal data cannot always be completely secure. Also, we cannot and do not guarantee that data transferred to third parties will be protected against intentional or accidental misuse or loss.

We may change this Notice

We reserve the right to update and make material and non-material changes to this notice and to our practices in handling information, including personal information. You may request a copy by mail or telephone. If we make a material change in the way that we handle personal information, we will post a notice prominently at this website in advance of the change. Your continued participation in our panel after the effective date of any changes will constitute your acceptance of all effective changes.

Any questions?  Please contact us:

You can reach us by calling the Panel Support Center at 1-800-962-6700, or by e-mailing Lynne Morrison. You also can write to us at The National Consumer Panel, 6800 Jericho Turnpike, Suite 102E, Syosset, NY 11791-4401.

THANK YOU - WE APPRECIATE AND VALUE YOUR PARTICIPATION!