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Privacy policy

Information collected and used by The Opinion Panel

The Opinion Panel collects user-submitted information including name, email address, and age to verify new accounts and send notifications regarding The Opinion Panel's services. The Opinion Panel collects additional data that is included in member profiles. This data includes but is not limited to: occupation, interests, school affiliations, gender, and location.

We also collects non-personally identifiable information including IP address and browser type to help run the site more efficiently.

Use of information members submit to The Opinion Panel

Email addresses are used to send notifications related to the service(s) the user has signed up for, as a confirmation when a The Opinion Panel member has requested to add another member as a friend, and to invite new friends to join The Opinion Panel. A user may choose to stop receiving email notifications from The Opinion Panel at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email. When the user sends email or other communication to The Opinion Panel, The Opinion Panel may retain those communications in order to process the user's inquiries, respond to the user's requests and improve The Opinion Panel's services.

The Opinion Panel provides members with the opportunity to upload a self-portrait and/or testimonial of our service. We will preserve your privacy, but reserve the right to use your first name, last initial, city and state for our testimonials. We will not release your contact information in these testimonials. If you would like to email us your feedback or testimonial but would like it to remain confidential, please express your intention clearly when you submit your photo and/or testimonial.

The specific use of a user's personal information will be defined at the point of collection. Should The Opinion Panel wish to change anything regarding the use of a user's personal information, a prominent notice will be displayed on the website.

Use of non-personally identifiable information

The Opinion Panel uses your IP address and browser type for the general administration of the website. Demographic information you provide such as age, postal code, gender and country of residence may be used to target surveys, advertisements and special offers. In cases where advertisements are being displayed by a third-party, non-personally identifiable information may be passed to the third-party to allow for targeting.

Sharing of collected information with third parties

Except in cases where members are expressly informed otherwise, The Opinion Panel does not sell, rent, share, trade or give away any of your personal information unless required by law to do so. In certain circumstances, The Opinion Panel may share profile information and aggregate usage information in a non-personally identifiable fashion to advertisers or other third parties for the purpose of delivering more targeted advertising, products and services to members. In these instances The Opinion Panel will only disclose information that will be used to personally identify you if you grant permission through an opt-in process. The Opinion Panel reserves the right to transfer personal information to a successor in interest that acquires rights to that information as a result of the sale of The Opinion Panel or substantially all of its assets to that successor in interest.

Communications to Non-members

When members choose to use The Opinion Panel's Invite-a-Friend service, the member is prompted to input their friend's email address. The Opinion Panel will automatically send an email to that address with a message inviting the recipient to join the The Opinion Panel community. The Opinion Panel stores these email addresses for the purpose of automatically adding the invitee to the member's friend list upon signing up. The Opinion Panel will not send more than one follow up email to an invitee for any given peer referral. Should the invitee explicitly decline to join The Opinion Panel and opt out of receiving any future emails, The Opinion Panel will cease to send the receiver any future emails, even if additional peer referrals are given.

Use of cookies

The Opinion Panel uses cookies to manage sessions on the site, remember user preferences, and to ensure members do not continually see the same advertisements. Cookies must be enabled in order for members to use The Opinion Panel services. Information stored in cookies will never contain any personally identifiable information.

Links

The Opinion Panel contains links to other websites. The Opinion Panel is in no way responsible for the privacy practices employed by other sites. Such websites may independently collect data, solicit personal information, or send their own cookies to your computer. The Opinion Panel is not responsible for any use of the information, including click-stream data, and you may create and disclose when visiting such third party sites. This privacy policy applies solely to information collected by The Opinion Panel.

Correcting/updating information

Members can update their information at any time by logging in to The Opinion Panel and editing their information. The user may also request a copy of the personal information The Opinion Panel has on record for their account by sending a self-addressed., stamped envelope to the following address:

The Opinion Panel
Attn: User Privacy
243 Fifth Avenue, Suite 541
New York, NY 10016

Security

All The Opinion Panel member accounts are password-protected. The Opinion Panel goes to great lengths to protect the information our members have provided us. Access to this information is limited to only the employees who need it in order to perform their job function (e.g. Customer Service Representatives). Please note that while The Opinion Panel employs the best commercially reasonable measures of security, we do not guarantee account security. Hardware/software failure, unauthorized access, and other factors may lead to a breach in The Opinion Panel security. Should you have any questions regarding this, please contact us.

Email choice/opt-out

Should a member of The Opinion Panel wish to stop receiving notification emails from the site, or cancel their membership to the site altogether, they can log on and make the required changes to their account profile. There are also instructions on how to opt out of receiving future emails included at the bottom of every email sent from The Opinion Panel. The Opinion Panel will honor all requests for cancellation within 10 days.

Requests for opting out of receiving emails or account cancellation may also be sent by mail or over the phone. The Opinion Panel will honor these requests within 10 days. All such requests are considered final and the user will not receive any further emails from The Opinion Panel unless explicit permission is granted at a later date.

Third party advertising

A portion of the advertisements seen on The Opinion Panel are delivered to users by third-party advertising partners. These partners may use cookies when showing ads to users. These cookies may be used to determine which site the advertiser's advertisement was displayed on and whether or not the user interacted with the advertisement. This information helps advertising partners deliver targeted advertisements that will be most relevant to you. The Opinion Panel does not have access to the cookies placed by third parties. The Opinion Panel privacy statement applies only to The Opinion Panel and does not apply to use of cookies by any third parties.

Changes in our privacy policy

The Opinion Panel reserves the right to change this privacy policy at any time. In the event that this policy is significantly changed, these changes will be posted to the site. If any changes are made that affect the nature or intent of this privacy policy, users will be informed of these changes via email.

Should The Opinion Panel wish to use member's personally identifiable information in a way materially different than that which was posted at the time a user submitted this information, The Opinion Panel will notify members either via email or by posting a prominent notice on the site.

California Online Privacy Protection Act

Under California law, individual customers who reside in California and have provided personal information to The Opinion Panel may request information about our disclosing of certain categories of personal information to third parties for direct marketing purposes. These requests must be submitted to privacy@theopinionpanel.com. Within 45 days of receiving such a request, The Opinion Panel will provide a list of the types of information disclosed to third parties for direct marketing purposes during the immediately preceding calendar year and the names and addresses of those parties.

Individual customers who reside in California may also choose to opt out of providing information to third parties for direct marketing purposes by canceling their account at any time.

If you have any questions or comments about The Opinion Panel's Privacy Policy, please contact us using one of the methods below:

The Opinion Panel|Attn: User Privacy|243 Fifth Avenue, Suite 541|New York, NY 10016

Telephone: 1-877-484-6325
Facsimile: 1-866-841-3898

LAST UPDATED 06/01/2009