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Within this document, members that have actively joined the Qualified Opinions Research Panel to participate in surveys, competitions and other activities are referred to as "respondents".
This document details the principles held, and methods employed, by Qualified Opinions which ensure our commitment to respondents' privacy and confidentiality.
Throughout, the term 'personal data' is used to refer to any piece of information that could potentially identify a respondent. For example a person's surname, address, telephone number, mobile phone numbers, etc. 'Demographic data' is the term used to describe information that is collected which allows us to categorise or group respondents, but cannot identify them. For example, age, gender, postcode, city, state, etc.
Summary
The main points arising from this document are:
- Respecting privacy and confidentiality is of paramount importance at Qualified Opinions and we firmly endorse and abide by the Australian National Privacy Laws.
- Qualified Opinions chooses to also adopt the guidelines established by the Market Research Society of Australia for the confidential handling and delivery of respondents' information.
- Qualified Opinions guarantees to never intentionally distribute or sell respondents' personal data to any other organisation and company.
- All demographic data collected by Qualified Opinions is numerically coded at the point of collection and stored separately from respondents' personal data.
- Personal data remains the property of the respondent at all times. Each respondent is provided with secure access to view, and correct their data.
- Respondents are provided with an opportunity to unsubscribe whenever they are contacted by email and directly through the Qualified Opinions website. Respondents' personal data is completely removed from the system ten days after a respondent cancels their membership ("unsubscribes").
- Qualified Opinions abides by and supports the Australian Anti-spam legislation. Every email address we obtain and store is, to the best of our knowledge, provided by those who own them and who have further agreed to be contacted solely by us for the purpose of participating in research and marketing activities.
Purpose for collecting information.
Two types of data (information) are collected from panel members. Firstly, personal data which enables Qualified Opinions to contact respondents and where necessary validate or confirm information provided online. Secondly, demographic data, which enables profiling and targeting of respondents based on a set of demographic criteria. For example age, gender, etc.
All personal data and most demographic data is provided by respondents upon initial registration. Additional information may be requested by Qualified Opinions when necessary and where such information has not been previously obtained.
Qualified Opinions may be required to contact respondents by standard postal service, or by telephone.
For security reasons, when respondents are contacted by a Qualified Opinions Staff Member, they will be required to verbally provide their password as a means of identification.
Respondents may refuse to provide this information at any time and will in these cases be issued cheques to their postal address. Respondents may also be requested to provide information which could be considered sensitive. Qualified Opinions therefore allows respondents to refuse to disclose such sensitive information if they choose to.
Missing Data
Respondents who do not complete the registration survey, supplementary surveys or who refuse to provide sensitive information will have an incomplete record. As a result, respondents may be excluded from participation in certain campaigns which select on specific criteria. For example a respondent may refuse to provide details on household income and will subsequently be excluded from projects that use household income as selection criteria.
Information storage & security
Qualified Opinions employs multiple methods to ensure all sensitive information is secure. We collect information from panel members and can not be attributed
Demographic and statistical information is coded and stored separately from personal information. All pieces of information are matched by a unique identification tag (UID) with a unique identifier. Personal information and members unique ID tag are encrypted.
Anti-Spam laws & unsolicited emails
Qualified Opinions agrees with, and abides by the Australian Governments’ strict laws which govern the unsolicited distribution of emails (April, 2004).
Email invitations to participate in research projects are only sent to registered or registering members of the Qualified Opinions Research Panel.
It is assumed that all email addresses submitted by people wishing to join the research panel belong to those persons concerned. An initial automated email is distributed to confirm the email address has been entered correctly, is current, and is accessible by the person joining. Where this is not the case, notifications provide opportunity for immediate removal of an email address from the research panel database.
In confirming their registration through the initial confirmation email, members consent to receiving email invitations to participate in research projects. Each time an email is sent to a member, they are given the opportunity to refuse participation in a project, or to fully unsubscribe from the Research Panel.
Qualified Opinions guarantees to never intentionally send unsolicited emails to any individual(s) or organisation for the purpose of solicitation to join the research panel, for undertaking research, or for any other purpose.
Privacy laws & respecting your privacy
Qualified Opinions adheres and agrees with Australian laws regarding member privacy. We also strictly follow the Market Research of Australia guidelines regarding the collection and use of personal information. As a result, we will never disclose personal information that can identify a panel member to any other organisation or company without a members' approval to do so. Information provided by members is only reported in aggregate form.
Registered Qualified Opinions panel members may elect to view, edit and remove information provided at any time by accessing the members only area from this website.
Transfer of information
Information that is collected is transferred in aggregate form only. No personal information on members is made available to other individual or organisations external to Qualified Opinions.
Security
Qualified Opinions strives to provide highly secure data collection and storage. Personal information is stored in encrypted form and cannot be deciphered by gaining access to our database. All data is held on secure servers. We guarantee to treat the identification and repair or resolution of any potential security issue with absolute priority.
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