Privacy Issues In Market Research

1
Privacy Issues In Market Research
PLB Annual Conference Cambridge, MA 22 August
2007
Duane L. Berlin, Esq. General Counsel,
CASRO Principal, Lev Berlin, P.C.
Lev Berlin, P.C.
2
Were the people who ring you at dinnertime

• Quantitative surveys
• Qualitative focus groups
• Data collection methods
• In-person door-to-door mall intercept focus
  group facility
• Telephone
• Mail
• Fax
• Internet
• Anonymous random samples
• Third-party lists

3
Anonymity is a fundamental principle

• Industry standards and ethical codes of conduct
  predate most privacy laws
• Anonymity and data quality go hand in hand
• Personal information stripped from data files
• Responses reported in aggregate to research
  sponsor

4
Anonymity is a fundamental principle

• Respondents personal data may be disclosed to
  research client or third parties when
• Respondents consent
• Information is used only for research purposes
  (e.g. no direct marketing)

5
Telephone response rates falling precipitously

• Consumers bombarded with unsolicited calls to
  their homes
• In response, Do Not Call laws and registries
  established in several countries
• Most of them do not apply to survey research, but
  public often does not make distinction between
  survey research and telemarketing
• Telephone research becoming more expensive to
  conduct

6
Internet-based research growing rapidly

• Fast and inexpensive compared to other methods
• Most online research conducted with access
  panels
• Consumers opt-in to receiving periodic emails
  from research firm, inviting them to complete
  surveys
• Panel members rewarded for their time (e.g. cash,
  points, prize draws)

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Example of panel research recruitment website
Link to Privacy Policy should be on every page.
Site should use SSL encryption
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Panels and privacy

• Panel research firms collect and retain personal
  data (e.g. contact details and profile
  information)
• Recruiting new panel members may be challenging
  in the future
• Spam, phishing, spyware and online identity theft
  are causing consumers to be wary about submitting
  personal data at websites

9
Panels and privacy

• To counter the threats posed by Internet scams,
  panel research firms must demonstrate their
  trustworthiness to current and prospective
  panellists
• Participation rates in online surveys can be
  quite high if panel is managed well, including
  attending to privacy concerns

10
Client-supplied lists

• Customer or employee satisfaction research often
  conducted using lists provided by client
• Does your organisations privacy policy permit
  disclosures of personal data to service providers
  for market research purposes?

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Excerpt from Telus Privacy Code

• We may disclose a customer's personal information
  to
• A company or individual employed by TELUS to
  perform functions on its behalf, such as research
  or data processing
• Any such disclosure of a customer's personal
  information outside of TELUS is made on a
  confidential basis with the information to be
  used only for the purpose for which it was
  disclosed.

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Client-supplied lists

• Some respondents ask, how did you get my name
  and number?
• Discuss with your research partner how these
  requests will be handled
• Respondents may have a legal right to know, but
  revealing the name of the survey sponsor at the
  start of the interview could introduce bias

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Client-supplied lists

• Most clients rely on opt-out consent for sharing
  their customers personal data with research
  suppliers
• Opt-in consent strongly recommended for sharing
  customers email addresses, owing to spam
  complaints
• Even better, if possible, clients should issue
  the survey invitation emails to their customers

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Good example of client obtaining opt-in for
research
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In this example, TNS is sending survey
invitations from its domain to a client-provided
list of email addresses
Sending survey invitation emails

• From TNS on behalf of CLIENT
  ltxyzsurvey_at_tns-online.comgt
• To Rebecca Smith ltrsmith_at_yahoo.comgt
• Subject Complete CLIENTs survey and receive a
  reward
• for your time
• Date Wed, 6 Jun 2007 105110 -0500

?
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In this example, Research Firm X is sending
survey invitations from its domain, but spoofs
the From address
Sending survey invitation emails
From CLIENT ltsurveys_at_CLIENT.comgt To
Rebecca Smith ltrsmith_at_yahoo.comgt Subject
Complete CLIENTs survey and receive a reward
for your time Date Wed, 6 Jun 2007
105110 -0500
?
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Spoofing is not in anyones interest

• Major ISPs all use authentication systems to
  combat spamming and phishing
• Sizeable proportion of spoofed emails are routed
  to users junk mail folders, or carry warning
  messages, or are not delivered at all

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Questions to ask your research vendors
In addition to the standard privacy compliance
questions that you ask your market research
vendors, find out from them

• Which industry trade associations they belong to
• If they participate in privacy certification
  programs (e.g. TRUSTe, IAPPs CIPP) and privacy
  audits
• The URL of their panel recruitment website
  review the privacy policy
• Whether they are on ISPs whitelists and adhere
  to industry best practices for sending emails

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• Further Information
• Duane L. Berlin, Esq.
• Lev Berlin, P.C.
• Phone [phone]
• Fax [phone]
• Email dberlin_at_levberlin.com