TNS UK PRIVACY & COOKIE POLICY FOR SURVEYS ( Policy )

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1 TNS UK PRIVACY & COOKIE POLICY FOR SURVEYS ( Policy ) Introduction Market and survey research serves an important function in society. Businesses and governments are able to make informed decisions through survey research. As a survey participant, your opinions may help companies develop new products, make existing ones better, and improve customer service or employee satisfaction. Political organisations and governments also rely on survey research to develop laws and policies that the public wants or needs. Your privacy is important to us and when you participate in research conducted by TNS UK, you can be assured that we will take all reasonable steps to protect your privacy. This Policy explains how we collect, store and use the personal information you provide when taking part in an online, face to face or telephone market research survey for TNS UK Limited ( TNS UK ). For the purpose of this Policy, the definition of personal information is information which relates to and can identify a living individual. Privacy Policy 1. Contacting you and the information that we collect When TNS UK conducts research, our interviewers/invitations and questionnaires clearly identify us and explain the purpose(s) of our contact. When we contact you, generally in person, by telephone, by or by post, we do so for one of the following purposes: To invite you to participate in survey research; To conduct a survey research interview with you; To validate answers you gave in a recent survey we conducted; Occasionally, we may contact you for one of these other purposes: To notify you if you have won a prize draw that we conducted; To arrange delivery/receipt of any incentives offered or any prize you may have won in a prize draw; To take part in further research, if you have given us permission to recontact you. When you participate in our research, we may ask you for a range of information, including, for example, your personal opinions, and demographic information, such as your age and household composition. You may decline to answer any questions or withdraw from participation in a study at any time. Issued 14 th August 2014 Page 1 of 5

2 We never knowingly invite children under the age of 16 years to participate in research studies without consent. If it is necessary and appropriate to a particular project to directly involve children under the age of 16 years, we take measures to ensure we have been given permission by the responsible adult to the interviewer. We will never misrepresent ourselves or what we are doing. If you receive an that concerns you, purporting to be from TNS, please let us know as shown below in How to contact us. 2. Confidentiality of survey responses and contact information We take appropriate technological and organisational measures to protect the personal information submitted to us, both during transmission and once we receive it. Our security procedures are consistent with generally accepted commercial standards used to protect personal information. All our employees are contractually obliged to follow our policies and procedures regarding confidentiality, security and privacy. We adhere to the following standards and industry requirements: MRS and ESOMAR professional codes of conduct and the quality commitment of the MRS Company Partner Service ISO international market research quality standard ISO 9001 international standard for quality management systems ISO international standard for data security The Data Protection Act Your survey responses and personal information may be collected, stored, transferred or processed by our sister companies within the WPP group, or 3 rd party service providers for research-related purposes, such as data processing, and fulfilment of prize draws or other incentives both within and outside the EEA. They are all contractually bound to keep any information they collect and disclose to us or, we collect and disclose to them, confidential and must protect it with security standards and practices that are equivalent to our own. We require these companies to safeguard all personal information in a way that is consistent with TNS UK s measures and as regulated by law. We combine your survey responses in a given survey with the responses of all others who participate and report those combined responses to the client that commissioned the study, unless one or more of the following criteria are met. The only exceptions when we may disclose your personal information or survey responses to third parties are as follows You request or consent to sharing your identifying information and/or individual responses with a third party for a specified purpose; Issued 14 th August 2014 Page 2 of 5

3 When we provide your responses to a third party processor who is contractually bound to keep the information disclosed confidential and use it only for research or statistical purposes; In the rare but possible circumstance that the information is subject to disclosure pursuant to judicial or other government subpoenas, warrants, orders or for similar legal or regulatory requirements. We will never try to sell you anything and we will never sell your name or other details to anyone. We are market researchers interested only in your opinions. 3. For online survey participants only - Use of cookies, log files and other technologies on our website Cookies are small text files stored on your computer by a website that assigns a numerical user ID and stores certain information about your online browsing. They are used by web developers to help users navigate their websites efficiently and perform certain functions. The website sends information to the browser which then creates a text file. Every time the user goes back to the same website, the browser retrieves and sends this file to the website's server. TNS UK does not use cookies on standard online market research surveys. For behavioural tracking research, we use optional cookies / software applications that are available only to members of our panel who have agreed to participate in our behavioural tracking research. The information that we collect from members who participate in this programme is used strictly for research purposes and is designed to help advertisers and websites develop relevant and useful content for online consumers. No commercial messages or communications will be directed to you as a result of taking part in this research. Members may discontinue their participation in this programme at any time by following the instructions that are available to them when they are logged into our panel members site. As is true of most online surveys, we gather certain information automatically and store it in survey data files. This information may include things like Internet Protocol addresses (IP address), browser type, Internet service provider (ISP); referring/exit pages, operating system and date/time stamp. We use this automatically collected information to analyse trends such as browser usage and to administer the site, e.g. to optimise the survey experience depending on your browser type. 4. Accuracy of personal information TNS UK takes all reasonable steps to keep personal information in its possession or control, which is used on an on-going basis, accurate, complete, current and relevant, based on the most recent information available to us. We rely on you Issued 14 th August 2014 Page 3 of 5

4 to help us keep your personal information accurate, complete and current by answering our questions honestly. 5. Access to personal information To request access to personal information that we hold about you, you should submit your request in writing at the address or postal address shown below in How to contact us (this may incur a 10 fee per request). You may be required to provide evidence to validate your identity and sufficient details to enable us to locate such personal information. You may be able to access your personal information and correct, amend or delete it where it is inaccurate. We will endeavour to provide your requested personal information within 40 days of receiving your access request. If we cannot fulfil your request, we will provide you with a written statement explaining why this has been denied. 6. How long data is stored on TNS UK systems Personal information will be retained only for such period as is appropriate for its intended and lawful use. Personal information that is no longer required will be disposed of in ways that ensure their confidential nature is not compromised. As part of the Company Business Continuity plan and as required by ISO 27001, ISO 9001, ISO and in certain instances the law, our electronic systems are backed up and archived. These archives are retained for a defined period of time in a strictly controlled environment. Once expired, the data is deleted and the physical media destroyed to ensure the data is erased completely. 7. Notification of material changes to this policy We keep our privacy policy under regular review and we will always have the most up-to-date policy on this web page. We will record when the policy was last revised. Date created: 13/06/11 Last revised: 14/08/14 8. How to contact us Questions regarding this policy, complaints about our practices and access requests should be directed to the Quality and Information Security Team via e- mail at qinfosec@tnsglobal.com or in writing to Quality and Information Security, 6 More London Place, London, SE1 2QY. Issued 14 th August 2014 Page 4 of 5

5 We will investigate all complaints and attempt to resolve those that we find are justified. If necessary, we will amend our policies and procedures to ensure that other individuals do not experience the same problem. We are TNS UK Ltd, A Kantar Group Company, and our registered address is TNS House, Westgate, London W5 1AU (company number ). Issued 14 th August 2014 Page 5 of 5