Select Page

PRIVACY NOTICE

NCP PRIVACY NOTICE

Effective Date: January 1, 2020

The National Consumer Panel, LLC (NCP) is a joint venture between its two members – the two leading consumer insights providers in the United States – IRi and Nielsen. NCP provides the highest quality, actionable consumer data to support the needs of both IRi and Nielsen.

We take privacy very seriously. We have created this Privacy & Cookie Notice (this “Notice”) to help answer questions you may have about how we protect and use your information.

This Notice states that NCP has the express consent of each member of your household, including the parent or guardian of any minor in your household, to collect and use personal identifying 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.

• Our privacy commitment
• What information we collect
• How we contact you
• How we use the Information you provide us
• When we share your information
• Your choices and access
• Cookies and other Internet technologies
• Third party sites
• Data security & transfer
• Data retention & Deletion
• About children
• Updates to this Statement
• Contacting us

A. OUR PRIVACY COMMITMENT

We protect the identities of our participants. We will NOT use your personal identifying information to advertise, promote, or market goods or services directly to you and we do not allow our clients to market directly to you.

“Personal identifying information” means information that by itself – like your first and last name, home postal address or personal e-mail address – or in combination with other information, could identify a specific individual.

B. WHAT INFORMATION WE COLLECT

  • Information you give us.During the recruitment process, the panel registration process or as part of a research survey, you provide us with information about you and others in your household. This may include your name, mailing address, telephone number, and e-mail address. You also provide us with demographic information such as gender, birth date, marital status, occupation and other information. We may also (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. Through your participation in our panels, we collect your behavior and preference data. “Behavior data” is when, why or how you do things such as how frequently you shop for groceries. “Preference data” means the choices you make such as which breakfast cereals you buy. If your household participates in a panel that involves healthcare information, we or our service providers 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. We or our service providers will anonymize all such health-related information prior to it being sent to our clients.

We may also administer surveys to some members. These surveys request additional market research information and help us better understand consumer behavior, use, and trends. Your participation in a survey is always voluntary, and you therefore have a choice whether to provide the requested survey information..

  • Information from your use of our scanners or software, Site and on the Internet.Depending upon the panel, information may be collected manually via scanners or automatically, and automatic data collection may not always be obvious to you. If your household participates in a panel that involves online or Internet or mobile device activity information, we may collect information about your activity on such devices, either directly or automatically through the use of software, cookies, web beacons or other technology.

If you download our application software onto your mobile device, we will receive data when you voluntarily activate hardware functions such as your camera. With your consent, we may also collect information about the location of your device once you download our application software onto your mobile device.

We may also automatically receive information about your system, device, network, and application software. This includes technical information, such as your Internet Protocol (IP) address, the type of browser you are using, the date and time of your visit, the web page you have visited immediately prior to visiting this Site, device identifier, device model, operating system, and language set. Cookies, pixel tags, web beacons, clear GIFs or other similar technologies may be used in connection with the Site. Please see Section G on Cookies for more information.

  • Information we get from other sources.

  • ” We employ analytics vendors to gather anonymous or aggregate information about how users interact with our scanners or software.
  • ” After you join a panel, we may receive additional information about you from other sources, including other NCP measurement products. This may include information such as what you watch or buy, and your exposure to advertising. We obtain this information from many sources, including outside sources. These include, for example,
    • Census data,
    • The manufacturers and sellers of the products you purchase or use,
    • “Loyalty” programs (like those that offer rewards and points),
    • Organizations that collect online data,
    • Data suppliers,
    • Companies that combine purchase information, and
    • Other entities that have a legal right to provide such information to us.

We may combine the information from your household with these additional data. We will use it only for the purposes described in this Notice. By participating in this panel, you agree that we may obtain this information about you and combine it in this way.

C. HOW WE CONTACT YOU

  • By participating in the National Consumer Panel, you agree to receive communications from NCP for purposes including (but not limited to):

  • Reminders to transmit your shopping trip data
  • Newsletters and other updates
  • Sweepstakes and contests
  • Information about your scanning technology
  • Requests to return your scanning equipment (if necessary)

• NCP will utilize various types of communication methods, including (but not limited to):

  • email
  • phone – utilizing both live Panel Support Specialists and IVR automated calls
  • Panelist website message center
  • Push messaging (for mobile app users)

• Pursuant to FCC regulations, you have the right to opt in/opt out of receiving telephone calls from NCP:
• Individuals applying for panel membership may elect not to provide a phone number during registration (however a valid email address must then be provided).
• Existing Panelists may elect to be added to NCP’s “Do Not Call” list by either logging into the Panelist website and changing their personal settings or by contacting our Panel Support Center (however a valid email address must then be provided).
• In order to maintain your panel membership, NCP requires at least one method other than standard mail in which to contact you – either a valid email or phone number. If you request to opt out of both forms of communication, your panel membership will be subject to cancellation.

D. HOW WE USE THE INFORMATION YOU PROVIDE US

  • Information you provide during the recruitment process is used to determine eligibility for participation in one of our panels. After you join a panel, we use the information we collect to create a variety of research insights for our clients. We use tools and methods to make sure that there is no reasonable possibility of identifying an individual participant in the reports that we create for our clients. For example, we combine the responses we collect from you with the responses of others to produce “aggregated” reports. We also create scientific reports based upon modeled information. “Modeled information” is data we have developed based upon demographic and behavioral characteristics (like your gender, age, and purchasing habits) to predict what people with similar or matching characteristics would buy. This allows advertisers to identify the likely audience for a marketing campaign.

Our research insights help our clients make choices about where and how they advertise, including on print, broadcast television, radio, online and mobile. Among other things, our solutions have helped clients:

  • Understand which detergents appeal to households with pets
  • Identify the types of breakfast cereals consumers in different demographic groups would be likely to buy
  • Learn which radio stations attract more listeners that are registered voters of a particular political party
  • Determine the audience that would be more likely to respond to a particular advertisement

  • We may use the information you give us to contact you, whether you are a current or former member of our panels. When we contact you – by phone, e-mail, text message, or postal mail depending on what information you provide to us – we will usually do so for one of the following reasons: to respond to your inquiries; to validate answers you gave; to update our records to ensure your information is correct; to ensure that the equipment is working properly; to send you important information regarding your participation such as how to redeem rewards; to provide notice regarding changes to our terms, conditions, and policies; to ensure compliance with terms of active panel membership; or to offer you expanded research opportunities through panels and surveys. For instance, if our service will be temporarily suspended for maintenance, we might send you an e-mail. Generally, you may not opt-out of these communications, which are not promotional in nature. If you qualify for a sweepstakes, we may use the e-mail address that you have given us to send you a confirmation of your sweepstakes entry. We will use your contact information to let you know if you have won a sweepstakes. When contacting you by phone, we may do so using automatic dialing systems and/or pre-recorded messages. We may also send you push notifications through our software.

  • We may also use the information for business purposes, such as data analysis, audits, developing new products, enhancing our Site and software, improving our services, identifying usage trends and determining the effectiveness of our communications.

If we combine non-personal information with personal identifying information, the combined information will be treated by us as personal identifying information as long as it is combined.

E. WHEN WE SHARE YOUR INFORMATION

We employ third parties who provide services for us such as website or application hosting, data analysis, infrastructure provision, IT services, customer service, email delivery services, credit card processing, auditing services, reward, incentive, sweepstakes, and other similar services.

We also work with other companies for the purposes of data processing or market research product development purposes, which, as part of the services being provided, may be given access to or come into contact with your information. These companies are contractually required to keep your information confidential and are not permitted to use this information for any other purpose except to carry out the services that they are performing for us. In accordance with market research guidelines, we may also provide individual level information to other companies. If we do, they are bound to keep the information confidential and use it only for research or statistical purposes.

In consideration of your participation in NCP, NCP may share and/or disclose your information, from time to time, for the purposes set forth in and subject to the terms of this Notice, to each of NCP’s members, being IRi and Nielsen. We may disclose your information to other members of the Nielsen and/or IRi family of companies for the purposes described in this Notice.

We will provide your information to a third party if the law requires it or if it allows us to exercise our legal rights or take action regarding potentially illegal activities, or to protect the safety or rights of any person or legal entity. If all or part of our company is sold, merged or otherwise transferred, we may transfer your information as part of that transaction and will take steps to ensure that your information is protected as described in this Notice.

F. YOUR CHOICES AND ACCESS

Participation in an NCP panel is always completely voluntary. If you participate in an NCP panel, you may review your contact information at any time by logging into the panel member website at www.ncponline.com. You may also contact us if at any time you would like to correct or update the information we hold about you or if you wish to withdraw your consent and stop your participation. Please see the “Contacting Us” section below.

G. COOKIES AND OTHER INTERNET TECHNOLOGIES

General Use:
Cookies are small files that store certain data on a device or computer. We use both session and persistent cookies on our recruitment and panel member websites. Cookies, pixel tags, web beacons or similar technologies may be used on some of our website pages and HTML-formatted e-mail messages to, among other things, manage panels and to enhance your experience as a panelist. We may also use these technologies for security purposes, to facilitate navigation, to display information more effectively, and to better serve you with more tailored information, as well as for site administration purposes, e.g., to gather statistical information about the usage of our websites in order to continually improve the design and functionality, to understand how users use our websites, and to assist us with resolving questions regarding use of the websites.

Additionally, we may allow our member recruitment vendors to use Web beacons and cookies on our registration pages for purposes such as payment verification. We have no access to or control over these cookies. This Notice covers the use of cookies by NCP and members of the Nielsen and/or IRi family of companies only and does not cover the use of cookies by any of our vendors.

Audience Measurement and Ad Effectiveness – Panel Members Only:

After you become a panelist, we also use cookies for audience measurement purposes. These cookies are used to track exposure to advertising and relate it back to purchases. If you are an existing panelist and you do not want to participate in NCP’s online audience measurement research, please click here to get an opt-out cookie. Please note that because this is a browser-level opt-out, if you use more than one browser, you will need to opt out in each. If you delete your cookies, you will have to opt-out again. To learn more about the use of cookies in general, please visit www.allaboutcookies.org, located outside the Site.

H. THIRD PARTY SITES

This Notice does not address, and we are not responsible for, the privacy, information or other practices of any third parties, including any third party operating any site to which this website contains a link. The inclusion of a link on this website does not imply endorsement of the linked site by us or by our affiliates.

I. DATA SECURITY & TRANSFER

We may store and process your information, including your personally identifiable information, in any country where we have facilities or in which we engage service providers. The data protection laws of other countries may differ from those in your home country, but you may be assured that your information will be stored using administrative, managerial and technical measures to protect its confidentiality. Please remember that storage and communication of data cannot always be one-hundred percent secure.

By participating in this panel, you consent to the transfer of your information to countries outside of your country of residence.

J. DATA RETENTION & DELETION

We generally retain your personal information for as long as necessary for the performance of the agreement between us with you as a panelist and to comply with our legal obligations. You can request to have all your personal information deleted entirely. Please note that if you request the deletion of your personal information:

  • We may retain some of your information as necessary for our legitimate business interests, such as fraud detection and protection and enhancing safety.
  • We may retain and use your personal information to the extent necessary to comply with our legal obligations. [For example, NCP may keep some of your information for tax, legal reporting and auditing obligations.]
  • Information you have shared with others (e.g., Reviews) may continue to be publicly visible on the NCP Platform, even after your account is cancelled. However, attribution of such information to you will be removed. Additionally, some copies of your information (e.q., log records) may remain in our database, but are disassociated from personal identifiers.
  • Because we maintain the NCP Platform to protect from accidental or malicious loss and destruction, residual copies of your personal information may not be removed from our backup systems for a limited period of time.

K. ABOUT CHILDREN

If we collect information about children, we take special care. When we collect information online directly from very young children (under age 13), special regulations apply. The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”) requires that we get the verifiable, informed consent of the parent or guardian and we comply with this law. The parent or guardian may cancel this consent at any time. You may also contact us at any time if you would like to learn about any information we may have about your children. All of the other provisions of this policy apply to information about both adults and children of every age.

L. UPDATES TO THIS STATEMENT

We may change this Notice. Please take a look at the “Effective Date” at the top of this page to see when this Notice was last revised. If we were to make a material change (the kind of change to the way we use your data that might make you reconsider participating in this panel) we will notify you at the most recent mailing address or e-mail address we have on file and we will provide you with access at least 30 calendar days prior to its implementation, giving you time to resign from the panel if you want. You may view the currently effective Notice at any time by checking the Notice posted on this Site. Your continued participation in our panel after the effective date of any changes will constitute your acceptance of all effective changes.

M. CONTACTING US

If you have questions or complaints regarding our privacy statement or practices, please contact the NCP Panel Support Center at 1-800-962-6700, or email us. You also can write to us at The National Consumer Panel, 6800 Jericho Turnpike, Suite 102E, Syosset, NY 11791-4401. Please note that online communications are not always secure; so please do not include sensitive information in your inquiry to us. If you wish to make a request to access the personal information we collect and retain about you, please complete this form.

This Notice replaces any other statement, whether written or oral, made to you about our practices with respect to the collection and use of personal identifying information.