Privacy Policy

Our business.

MRops performs data collection, data tabulation and related operations for market research companies and others. Most of our data collection occurs online, although sometimes we collect data by telephone and other means.

The data we collect.

The data we collect and tabulate consists primarily of individuals’ responses to online or telephone market research surveys (“Response Data”). Occasionally we also collect individuals’ names, contact information and/or demographic information (such as age, location, ethnicity and income range) that may be essential to the survey process (“Respondent Data”). Some of the Response Data and the Respondent Data may be “sensitive information,” such as driver’s license numbers, or such as relates to health or personal finances. We may also collect personally identifiable information from our customers, potential customers and others who visit our corporate Web site if they enter that information through that Web site or otherwise, but outside of the survey research process.

How we collect the data.

We collect most of the Response Data from individuals who participate in online surveys. These individuals are generally invited to our surveys by our third party sample vendors or panel companies via email survey invitations that contain links to Web survey platforms. In most of those cases we don’t learn the identities of the individuals who are surveyed; rather, the third party sends the invitations on our behalf. Occasionally the third party vendor (or our market research client or its end client) may provide us with individually identifiable Respondent Data for us to use in surveying individuals directly. In the latter case sometimes we may ask individual respondents for additional Respondent Data during the course of conducting the survey. In performing data collection, we strive to adhere to the confidentiality and non-harassment principals promulgated by the Council of American Survey Research Organizations (CASRO) and ESOMAR, of which organizations we are members. Among other things, we adhere to the anti-spam requirements of CASRO and ESOMAR. The CASRO Code of Standards and Ethics for Survey Research can be viewed at http://www.casro.org/codeofstandards.cfm. The ESOMAR International Code on Market and Social Research can be viewed at http://www.esomar.org/uploads/public/knowledge-and-standards/codes-and-guidelines/ESOMAR_ICC-ESOMAR_Code_English.pdf

Choices that individuals have in providing the data.

When we are conducting surveys, individuals always have a clear choice whether to participate in the surveys, and whether to discontinue their participation at any point mid-survey. An individual may also request us not to invite his or her participation in any more surveys by contacting us at the email or postal address shown below. We will honor that request with respect to future invitations conducted directly by us; and our third party sample vendors have undertaken to do the same with respect to the survey invitations they send out to individuals whose contact information they possess but we don’t. By using our Web site or taking surveys in which this Privacy Policy is identified, individuals agree to permit the collection, storage and use of their information as described in this Privacy Policy, including (if they live outside of the U.S.) the collection of their information in or the transfer of their information to the U.S. In cases when we acquire survey sample (that is, survey respondent names and contact information) from our clients, our clients confirm to us that their collection and transfer to us of that sample meets the requirements of CASRO. In cases when we acquire survey sample from third parties, we require them to assure us that the individuals have affirmatively opted-in to receiving the types of communications that we will be sending them.

What we do with the data.

When we acquire Respondent Data, we may use that information to invite individuals to participate in a market research survey and then to conduct that survey. In addition, we sometimes re-contact individuals to validate their survey responses, or to fulfill sweepstakes prizes they have won, or for further permissions, or to correct information, or some other follow-up directly related to conducting the market research survey. When we acquire Response Data – regardless of whether that data is personally identifiable by us – we tabulate and otherwise process the data to our clients’ specifications so that they can measure and evaluate the survey results and (if our clients are market research companies) report those results to their own end clients. Because in the case of Response Data we rarely know the identities of the survey respondents, when we report the survey results to our clients they too are unaware of those identities. On the occasions when we do learn the survey respondents’ identities, we won’t use that information for any purpose other than performing our market research operations, validating individuals’ survey responses, responding to individuals’ questions, and the like; we won’t market any goods or services to the individuals; and we won’t share their identities or their individually identifiable survey responses (including their “sensitive information”) (collectively, “personally identifiable information” or “PII”) with anyone else, except as follows:

• We may transfer the PII to one or more of our vendors, such as third party IT infrastructure hosting companies to facilitate our technical operations or sweepstakes fulfillment companies; provided that any such recipient must sign an agreement promising to keep the data confidential, to not use it for marketing purposes, and to otherwise provide safeguards similar to those described in this Privacy Policy (collectively, the “Use Restrictions”).
• We may transfer the PII to our client or one of its vendors for purposes of validating the survey results or performing additional market research with the data; again, provided that any such recipient agrees to the Use Restrictions.
• We may transfer the PII in the future to a company that purchases our business, or the pertinent portion of our business; provided that we will make commercially reasonable efforts to cause that purchaser to agree to the Use Restrictions.
• We may transfer the PII to other enterprises if we ask the individual for permission to do so and the individual consents.
• We may disclose the PII if we are required to pursuant to the order of a court or other governmental body.

Data security, storage and destruction.

We process and store PII pursuant to data security standards that are designed to protect it from loss, misuse, and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration or destruction. In doing so, we strive to meet or exceed the general standards of the market research industry in the United States, and we require any of our vendors with which we share PII to do the same. For example, we typically conduct and process surveys through a nationally known and highly regarded market research software company, on whose servers in the U.S. the survey questions and responses reside, and we have investigated their compliance with such standards. When we take delivery of the survey results, data storage may occur either electronically or in hard copy, and either at our own premises or at secure off-site premises, either within or without the U.S. We and our affiliated companies may access that data from countries other than countries where the data is stored. We store and destroy PII in accordance with CASRO and SOMAR requirements.

Accessing, deleting and correcting the data.

By contacting us at the email or postal address shown below, an individual may request that we disclose what PII we possess about the individual, and the individual may further request that we delete or correct the individual’s name, contact information or demographic information. We will honor those requests unless the burden or expense of doing so would be disproportionate to the risks to the individual’s privacy, or if we believe that disclosing the foregoing could compromise an individual’s privacy or our own confidential information. But in all events it’s inconsistent with the purposes and mechanisms of survey research for survey respondents to change or delete their survey responses after having given them; and so we do not offer individuals the ability to direct such changes or deletions.

Information collected automatically.

As described below, some information is automatically collected about the device an individual uses to take a market research survey. This includes the date and time the individual visited the survey, the content the individual visited on the site, the Web site that directed the individual to the survey, the device’s browser type (e.g., Internet Explorer), the operating system type (e.g., Windows XP), details about the device’s Internet Protocol address and general information about the individual’s Internet service provider.

Cookies

Cookies are text files stored on a computer by a Web site that holds certain information about the user’s online browsing. We use cookies to help us recognize an individual as a prior visitor.

A browser’s privacy settings can be set to delete cookies upon exiting Web sites or when the user closes the browser. These settings can also be configured to block cookies, but doing this may negatively impact the user experience on that site.

Local Shared Objects

We may use local shared objects (flash cookies) for various purposes. These include storing your preferences, displaying custom content, tracking user activities across multiple visits to the site and combating fraud.

Cookie management tools provided by the browser or by anti-spyware applications will not remove flash cookies, and “private browsing” modes will not prevent their placement on the device.

Information on how to manage the settings for flash cookies can be found here: www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager.html

Log Files

Like many Web sites and the enterprises that use them, we collect certain information automatically and store it in log files. This information includes but is not limited to: Internet Protocol addresses, browser type, Internet service provider, referring/exit pages, operating system, date/time stamp and Web site navigation.

We use this information to analyze trends, to administer the site and to gather demographic information about our user base as a whole. We may link this automatically-collected data to personally-identifiable information for legitimate research purposes, such as to detect and prevent fraudulent activity.

Digital Fingerprinting

MRops uses digital fingerprinting technology to gather certain data about individuals and their computers. This data may include personally identifiable information such as an Internet Protocol (IP) address, as well as non-personally identifiable information such as a computer operating system or browser version number. MRops and other market research firms utilize digital fingerprinting technology to ensure the integrity of survey results by enabling us to authenticate users and to help ensure that users participate in surveys no more than the maximum allowable participation. In furtherance of MRops’s efforts to assist its clients in protecting and ensuring the integrity of survey results, MRops and its Web sites may: (a) link or associate an ID to an individual or to personally-identifiable information of an individual; (b) share an ID with MRops’s and/or its Web sites’ clients and/or sample or panel providers; and/or (c) receive or obtain a unique identifier that is linked to an identified or identifiable individual. Any unique identifiers received or obtained by MRops and/or its sites that are linked to identified or identifiable individuals will be protected in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

Children.

We never knowingly invite children under the age of 13 to participate in surveys without taking measures to ensure appropriate parental consent. If we discover that we have collected such information other than as stated in the preceding sentence, we will take commercially reasonable measures to delete it from our records.

Links to other Web sites.

From time to time we will provide links to third party Web sites that individuals viewing our Web pages may choose to click on. Because we aren’t able to take responsibility for the privacy policies or practices of those third parties, we encourage viewers to review the third parties’ privacy policies that govern the use of the linked sites.

Public forums.

We sometimes operate interactive chat rooms or forums for our clients. If an individual chooses to participate in any such facilities, he or she should assume that any content he or she posts will be public information, and not subject to the terms of this Privacy Policy.

EU & Swiss Safe Harbor.

MRops complies with the U.S.-EU Safe Harbor Framework and the U.S.-Swiss Safe Harbor Framework as set forth by the U.S. Department of Commerce regarding the collection, use, and retention of personal information from European Union member countries and Switzerland. MRops has certified that it adheres to the Safe Harbor Privacy Principles of notice, choice, onward transfer, security, data integrity, access, and enforcement. To learn more about the Safe Harbor program, and to view MRops’ certification, please visit http://www.export.gov/safeharbor/

As part of our participation in the Safe Harbor, we have agreed with the Better Business Bureau for that organization to resolve any disputes relating to our compliance with the Safe Harbor Privacy Framework. If an individual has any complaints regarding our compliance with that framework, he or she should first contact us. If contacting us doesn’t resolve the complaint, the individual may raise the compliant with the Better Business Bureau by contacting that organization at:

Council of Better Business Bureaus, Inc. BBB EU SAFE HARBOR Phone: 703-276-0100 Web: www.bbb.org/us/safe-harbor-complaints

Changes to this Privacy Policy.

If we make a material change to this Privacy Policy, we will post a prominent notice on our corporate Web site, at www.mrops.com

Contacting us.

Individuals may contact us regarding the topics covered in this Privacy Policy by emailing us at privacy@mrops.com or by mailing us at:

MRops
Attn: Privacy Officer
865 Easton Rd
Warrington, PA 18976

This Privacy Policy was most recently updated effective December 19th, 2011.