The Irish Opinions website is owned and operated by Research Now Limited, a UK company, ("Research Now"). e-Rewards, Inc. (a US company), e-Rewards Europe Limited (a British company), Research Now, Inc. (a US company), Research Now Limited (a UK company), The Mobile Panel Ltd., The Mobile Channel Ltd., Research Now Pty Ltd. (an Australian company), Research Now Inc. (a Canadian company), Research Now Consulting Co. Ltd (a Chinese company), Research Now Technology EPE (a Greek company), Research Now GmbH (a German company), Research Now PTE LTD (a Singaporian company), Research Now Pty Limited (a New Zealand company), Research Now Spain S.L. (a Spanish company) and Research Now SARL (a French company) together form the Research Now group. This Privacy Policy governs the website located at www.irishopinions.com and we respect the privacy of individuals who use our website.

Below we have set out how we use the information that you give us and how our site operates. Please note that Research Now is registered in England and therefore UK data protection law applies to Research Now’s activities in Ireland.

Subject Information Statement

Research Now processes your personal data (as defined by the United Kingdom Data Protection Act 1998 (the 1998 Act)) for the following purposes:

• to keep you informed and obtain your views of Research Now’s products, services and activities;
• the creation of a database of individuals willing to take part in research and surveys;
• evaluating which individuals registered with Research Now should be approached in respect of surveys being conducted;
• to provide you with information about benefits given to you by Research Now as a result of your responding to survey requests;
• processing the answers to surveys and summarising the results;
• undertaking research surveys on behalf of third parties;
• transferring to service suppliers who undertake processing on our behalf and at our direction;
• permitting third party research organisations to question individuals registered with Research Now in respect of surveys;
• to provide you with information relating to any benefits provided to you by any third parties, including but not limited to a benefit provided to you by our client in response to your answer to a survey request;
• transferring any personal data to any subsidiary or group company;
• the administration of your membership of the Irish Opinions Panels (if you have registered as a member);
• statutory and regulatory compliance;
• to identify your behaviour in relation to Internet advertising through the use of specialist Cookies as outlined in our Cookie section below;
• to process any enquiries raised by you and other communications initiated by you in relation to your dealings with Research Now and any services provided by Research Now;
• marketing Research Now and its products and services, including those of its group companies and third party suppliers;
• to transfer to third parties who provide services to Research Now or provide benefits to participants in Irish Opinions Panels; and
• contacting you by email to invite you to take part in surveys and when permitted by you, to send you electronic marketing communications keeping you informed about the activities of Research Now; and
• achieving the general objectives of Research Now.

We collect personal information from you when you communicate with us by any media.  We may also collect personal data which relate to you from third parties.Sensitive Personal InformationCertain personal information is categorised by the 1998 Act as “Sensitive Personal Data” as defined by the 1998 Act. In some circumstances, Research Now provides you with the opportunity to inform us of your sensitive personal data, unless we are permitted to process such sensitive personal data under the provisions of the 1998 Act, we will ask for your consent. In general, the sensitive personal data collected by Research Now is limited to information in connection with:

• your racial or ethnic origin;
• your political opinions,
• your physical or mental health or condition; and
• your sexual life.

In some circumstances we may ask about offences you have committed or are alleged to have committed and any proceedings taken in respect of such an offence.

Anonymisation

Research Now conducts surveys on a variety of topics. Clients will give Research Now a brief setting out the types of individuals from whom we should seek answers. The brief will include matters such as age, ethnic background, qualifications and occupation. Research Now will review its database and then send out invites to an online survey to people falling within the client brief.

Research Now provides clients with data files containing anonymous answers to survey questions.  No personal data in respect of those individuals responding to a survey will be given to clients of Research Now.

Research Now will, from time to time, assist research organisations in other jurisdictions to survey people in the countries in which it operates. In these circumstances it will either send you a survey to complete, the answers of which will be summarised, anonymised and sent to the client or they will prepare questions for you to answer directly. In such circumstances your personal data are not transferred to third parties.

Permitted Processing

Research Now ensures that it is permitted to process your personal data. If no statutory condition applies to the form of processing we undertake, we can only undertake such processing with your consent. You may withdraw your consent to our processing your personal data for some of the above purposes by writing to the address below.

If a statutory condition applies allowing Research Now to process your personal data and you withdraw consent to process your personal data this will not necessarily mean that Research Now ceases to process your personal data as it may, for example, be under a statutory duty to continue to process your personal data for some purposes e.g. to keep copies of commercial transactions for a minimum of seven years.

Any personal information you send to us will be treated in the strictest confidence.

Research Now may continue to process your personal data after you have ceased to be a member of a Research Now or Irish Opinions Panel or we have sent you any information requested by you.

Sharing Your Information

In some circumstances Research Now may be required by law to share sensitive personal data about you to a third party. Otherwise Research Now does not share sensitive personal data outside of the companies forming the Research Now Group without your consent. Your personal data may be shared as set out in the above purposes. If you do not wish us to share your personal data with any third party for marketing purposes, please write to us at the address below.

European Economic Area (‘EEA’)

Please note that information displayed on our Website or sent to Research Now over the Internet may be transferred outside of the EEA, where data protection laws are not as strong as within the EEA. If you have any concerns in relation to such transfers, you should not use the Internet as a means of communication with Research Now.

Monitoring of telephone calls and e-mails

Your telephone calls and e-mails to us may be recorded and monitored for quality control purposes. We may also intercept communications made to individual members of staff at Research Now when this is required for business purposes.

Cookies

We may use technology to track the patterns of behaviour of visitors to the Site and members of our panels including but not limited to the Irish Opinions Panel. This can include using a "Cookie", pieces of information that are transferred to an individual user's hard drive for record keeping purposes.

We have several different Cookies which we use in relation to your personal data:

• the Basic Cookie we send to your computer stores only basic information which you enter into the Site, which may include your name, address, phone number and email address.  It is possible for Research Now to retrieve the information stored in the Cookie; however this retrieval is unlikely at the current time;
  
  
• the Advanced Cookie incorporates a key which can identify tags contained in certain on-line advertisements relating to our clients and their products, services and other information (the Advanced Cookie). If you click on an advertisement including the tag, the key will send Research Now an update confirming that you have linked to this advertisement. We use this information for the purposes specified above. We ensure that tags are not included in any advertisements which could provide information which amounts to sensitive personal data, for example information about your religious beliefs, your sexual life or your health; and
  
  
• general Cookies which enable us to manage our relationship with you, these have a general application, including reviewing the status of the Advanced Cookie and providing Research Now with information relating to your membership of the Irish Opinions Panel.Only information collected by Cookies as specified in this section of our privacy policy is automatically collected from Irish Opinions Panel Members. In the event that we do collect any personal data about visitors to the Site it is available only to Research Now. The Advanced Cookie is only sent to the computers of member of our on-line research panels. It is not sent if panel members do not provide consent by means of an opt out.

The Basic Cookies function by saving your passwords and site preferences.  As a result it is possible to speed up your future activities at the Site and allow Research Now to provide you with information specifically tailored to your interests.

The information collected by Cookies is used for the purposes specified above, including identifying you as a suitable candidate for particular studies so you can provide your opinions and receive the related rewards. If you do not wish to be identified as such a candidate you can modify your browser settings by clicking on the help section of your internet browser and following the instructions.

We use the Advanced cookie in order to indentify you as a suitable candidate for particular studies. This way, we can send you surveys which match your preferences giving you the opportunity to both give opinions and earn more rewards.

By deleting this cookie you will still be able to participate in Irish Opinions surveys. However you will reduce your chances of receiving more tailored surveys and as a result lower your reward earning opportunities.

If you do not want to receive the Cookies, please click on the following link http://www.aboutcookies.org/Default.aspx?page=2 for instructions on how you can delete it from your computer.

The table below explains the cookies we use and why.

The table below shows cookies we use.

Third Party Use of Links

If another person uses your computer log on you should inform them if you have agreed to accept the Advanced Cookie on the computer as part of your profile and that if they link to certain on-line advertisements then such information may be captured by Research Now.

Other Websites

The Site contains links to other websites. Research Now is not responsible for the privacy policies and practices or the content of any websites which are linked to the Site.

Research Now encourages parents and guardians to use the parental control tools available from online services and software manufacturers to help supervise their childrens’ online activities. Research Now shall only obtain the data of individuals if it is permitted by the laws of the United Kingdom and shall take steps to ensure that children from jurisdictions other than the Republic of Ireland cannot use the Site.

Please check this page periodically for changes as Research Now reserves the right, at its discretion, to change, modify, add, or remove portions of the Privacy Policy and the Site at any time. Your continued use of the Site following the posting of any changes to this Policy will mean that you accept such changes.

Contact us

If you have any queries relating to this Statement, please feel free to contact us by letter at the following address:

The Panel Manager
Research Now Ltd
160 Queen Victoria Street
London
EC4V 4BF
United Kingdom

DEFINITIONS

Please find below definitions of some of the terms used in the above privacy policy for your information and assistance. Please note that for the purposes of these definitions a reference to a particular gender is a reference to all genders.

Processing

In the Act “processing” means obtaining, recording, or holding the information or data or carrying out any operation or set of operations on the information or data, including:

• organisation, adaptation or alteration of the information or data,
• retrieval, consultation or use of the information or data,
• disclosure of the information or data by transmission, dissemination or otherwise making available, or
• alignment, combination, blocking, erasure or destruction of the information or data.

Personal Data

Personal data are:

• any data from which the identity of a living individual can be determined, either by itself or with other data processed by data controller;
• any information such as name and address, email address, telephone number and general contact details, personal data includes images on film (e.g. CCTV images), photographs and telephone voice recordings.

Sensitive Personal Data

Sensitive Personal Data means personal data consisting of information as to:

• the racial or ethnic origin of the data subject;
• his political opinion;
• his religious beliefs or other beliefs of a similar nature;
• whether he is a member of a trade union (within the meaning of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992);
• his physical or mental health or condition;
• his sexual life;
• the commission or alleged commission by him of any offence; or
• any proceedings for any offence committed or alleged to have been committed by him, the disposal of such proceedings or the sentence of any court in such proceedings.