Privacy Policy

Date last updated: 18/08/2023

Introduction

This Privacy Policy outlines the types of personal data collected by Vetspanel and CM Research, how the data is used and shared, how we protect it, your rights as a data subject, and how to contact us regarding privacy matters.

Please note that this Privacy Policy applies exclusively to personal data collected and stored as part of the panel (for Vetspanel panel members only) and provided in market research surveys (for both members and non-members). We may update this Policy from time to time, and we encourage you to review it regularly. By continuing to access and use our Sites, you agree to be bound by the updated Privacy Policy.

Who We Are:

Vetspanel is an international online community specialising in engaging veterinary professionals in market research surveys for the veterinary industry. Vetspanel is owned and operated by CM Research Ltd.

We are based at:

First Floor, 74 Church Street, Leatherhead, Surrey, KT22 8ER, United Kingdom

https://www.cm-research.com and https://www.vetspanel.com

Vetspanel operates a community of panel members who actively participate in various types of market research interviews, such as online surveys, telephone interviews, video-conferencing interviews and in-person focus groups, all on behalf of our clients. This Privacy Policy refers to the products and services offered by Vetspanel, including the member data stored as part of the panel, and also the survey response data collected from both panel members and non-members.

Employees of CM Research are based in the UK, which is covered by the UK GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), and also Spain, France and Sweden, where the EU GDPR applies with the same restrictions.

What is Personal Data and what do we collect?

Personal data is any data that can be used to identify a person. The personal data we collect varies depending on the situation, but in general personal data includes:

• Name
• Home Address
• Clinic Name
• Clinic Address
• Telephone number
• Email address
• Date of birth
• PayPal ID
• IP Address
• Voice recording
• Photo/video of face

We also collect a variety of other information as part of the panel joining process, and also within surveys (for example: occupation, age, gender, country), but this does not constitute personal data, as it cannot be used to identify you. You still have the right to ask us to edit or remove this information, in addition to the personal data, see the “Your Rights” section.

In addition to the membership and survey response data, we keep a record of which surveys you have been invited to, whether you responded to them, qualified for them, or completed them. This data helps us respond to member enquiries, track payments and send invitations based on past participation. We also keep a record of any data quality issues identified during surveys, in order to maintain our high-quality standards.

When do we collect Personal Data?

We collect personal data from our Vetspanel members when they register on the panel or update their details. We also collect personal data from survey participants in certain circumstances (e.g. for incentive payment or interview scheduling), but only with consent.

IP Address data is automatically collected during the survey participation process but is removed along with the rest of the personal data at the end of the project (see “How long do we retain personal data”).

We may also collect information about your usage of our website as well as information about you from emails or letters you send to us.

Clients may provide us with lists of veterinary professionals to contact for specific surveys (e.g. customer lists), but only with the consent of those on the list.

We may also use public sources to gather information about veterinary professionals who might be suitable for specific surveys or interested in becoming Vetspanel members. This information includes name, contact details, and veterinary position.

What do we use the Personal Data for?

The information we store about you on the panel will enable us to provide you with access to all parts of our site and to contact you when necessary. It will also enable you to receive our surveys and access your rewards account. We will also use and analyse the information we collect from non-members and website-visitors so that we can administer, support, improve and develop your experience within the website and surveys.

Specific market research tasks we use the personal data for include:

• To recruit for and maintain the panel
• To verify the identity of individuals wishing to sign up to the panel
• To invite panellists to surveys (via email)
• To contact panellists about missing information in their profile (via email or telephone)
• To contact inactive panellists to encourage participation (via email or telephone)
• To allow panellists to redeem their reward points (see “Personal data for incentive payment”)
• To pay non-panellists for participating in a survey (see “Personal data for incentive payment”)
• To notify the winners of any prize draws
• To confirm to you when a charity payment has been made on your behalf
• To recruit for a face-to-face, videoconferencing or telephone survey
• To conduct a face-to-face, videoconferencing or telephone survey, following recruitment
• To safeguard and defend Vetspanel’s interests (e.g. investigation of duplicate or suspected fraudulent accounts)
• To comply with applicable legal requirements, industry standards, and our policies.

The reason which applies will be specified at the point of collection, and explicit consent will always be requested.

Personal data (including video/audio recordings) is never sold to third parties. We only share it with a limited number of approved individuals involved in providing our services, or with your explicit consent (see “How we may Share Personal Data”).

Personal data for incentive payment:

In order to process your survey incentive, or allow members to redeem their points, we collect and use specific personal data such as PayPal account details, name and email address. This data is used exclusively for payment processing and may be shared with payment processing partners for this purpose. We also store this data for financial reporting, audits, and tax purposes.

Aggregate Data:

VetsPanel may match their aggregated panel data with third party information for statistical purposes only (for example, to check if our panel is representative of a population). VetsPanel may disclose anonymised non-personal data and aggregated statistics from our panellists (for example, 45% of our panellists are males) to third parties. This allows us to bring together a wide range of demographic information to illustrate our services to prospective partners, advertisers, and other third parties, and for other lawful purposes.

Purpose and Legal Basis for Processing Your Personal Data:

We process your personal data to manage our contact with you effectively. This includes reducing multiple contact attempts or refraining from contacting you after you unsubscribe.

The legal bases we rely on for offering our services are:

1. Legitimate interests: We have a valid business reason for processing your personal data, and we carefully balance this interest against your individual rights.
2. Contractual obligation: Processing your personal data is necessary to fulfil our contractual obligations with you.
3. Consent for direct marketing: If applicable, we will obtain your consent for direct marketing activities.

We will only process your personal data for the original purpose for which it was collected. If we need to use the data for a new purpose, we will obtain your consent.

Cookies/Tracking Technologies:

We may use tracking technologies, such as cookies, local storage, and pixel tags as well as other similar technologies, such as web beacons, tags, and scripts, including local storage objects such as HTML5 (“Tracking Technologies”). Tracking Technologies may set, change, alter or modify settings or configurations on your device.

Cookies and Local Storage:

Cookies and local storage may be set and accessed on your computer. Upon your first visit to our Services, a cookie or local storage may be sent to your computer that uniquely identifies your browser. “Cookies” and local storage are small files containing a string of characters that is sent to your computer’s browser and stored on your device when you visit a website. Many major Web services use cookies to provide useful features for their users. Each website can send its own Cookie to your browser. Most browsers are initially set up to accept Cookies. You can reset your browser to refuse all Cookies or to indicate when a Cookie is being sent. If you reject Cookies, you may not be able to use our Services or take full advantage of our Services. Additionally, if you clear all Cookies on your browser at any point after setting your browser to refuse all Cookies or indicate when a Cookie is being sent, you will have to again reset your browser to refuse all Cookies or indicate when a Cookie is being sent.

You can find more information about Cookies and how they work, what Cookies have been set on your computer or mobile device and how to manage and delete them at http://www.allaboutcookies.org/ and www.youronlinechoices.com/uk.

Your Rights:

As a member of Vetspanel, we contact you for your views via market research surveys and interviews. Participation in these surveys and interviews is entirely voluntary and you may choose whether to disclose some or all of the requested information, such your name, age, gender, clinic name and address. Panel members are under no obligation to participate in the panel, or in the surveys and may elect to leave the panel at any time. Vetspanel also reserves the right to end the panel at any time.

As a survey participant, you are under no obligation to provide personal data to CM Research/Vetspanel and have the right to refuse. This may result in you being unable to participate in the survey, or for us being unable to pay you. Should you change your mind about participating in a survey (the right to withdraw consent), you can do one of the following:

• If you are mid-way through the survey, simply close your browser, or inform the interviewer that you no longer wish to take part.
• If you have already finished the survey, please email us at [email protected]

Under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the UK Data Protection Act, the California Consumer Privacy Act, and other relevant laws, you have certain rights as a data subject. These rights include:

1. Access to your personal data
2. Rectification of inaccurate personal data
3. Erasure of personal data (the right to be forgotten)
4. Restriction of processing of your personal data
5. Objection to the processing of your personal data
6. Data portability
7. Opt-out of data transfer to third parties, except when legally required
8. Opt-out of direct marketing
9. Opt-out of automated decision-making

You are entitled to see the information we hold about you and you may make any necessary changes to ensure that it is accurate and kept up to date. If you wish to view or amend your panel data, please log in and update your details online. For survey data or any other requests, please contact us at [email protected] and we will send you the appropriate request form.

Reasonable access to your personal data will be provided at no cost within the legal time frame. If access is denied, we will provide an explanation for the denial.

You also have the right to request we delete all data we hold about you (the right to erasure). Once again, please contact us at [email protected] and we will send you the appropriate request form.

Should you wish to file a GDPR-related complaint about CM Research or Vetspanel, please contact us in the first instance at [email protected], or otherwise contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at https://ico.org.uk/

How We May Share Personal Data:

Vetspanel will never sell, rent, or trade personal data to third parties. We may share your personal data only with:

1. Affiliates of Vetspanel when reasonably necessary or desirable;
2. Service providers retained by Vetspanel to perform services on our behalf, such as IT service providers. Service providers are prohibited from using the personal data for their own purposes and from onward transfer without our written consent;
3. Law enforcement and other government authorities when required by law or to protect the rights, property, and safety of others or ourselves;
4. Clients or carefully selected partners with your explicit consent (for example, interview recordings).

Survey data may be shared with third parties in anonymised or aggregate form, but no personal data will be included, and the third parties cannot trace it back to you.

As outlined in this Privacy Policy, we may share limited information with our clients or carefully selected partners. This sharing might involve transferring your personal data to countries outside the EEA, the UK, or Switzerland. Such transfers are conducted in accordance with the legal restrictions set forth in the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and EU General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR). Vetspanel strives to apply suitable safeguards to protect your privacy and security, consistent with this Privacy Policy.

Third Party Websites:

Our websites may contain links to other external websites. We do not have control over other websites, and they are not governed by this Privacy Policy. We are therefore not responsible for the protection and privacy of any information you share on external websites. Please review the respective privacy statements on those websites.

How We Protect Personal Data:

At Vetspanel, we take the security and confidentiality of your personal data seriously. We maintain appropriate technical and organisational safeguards to protect against accidental, unlawful, or unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, loss, or destruction of your personal data. Access to your personal data is restricted to employees who require it for providing services or benefits to you. All our employees receive training on the importance of confidentiality and maintaining the privacy and security of your data. However, while we strive to protect your personal information, any information you do send to us is done so at your own risk. Once we receive your information, we make our best effort to ensure it is secure on our system.

Your Vetspanel account Information and profile are password-protected which ensures that only you have access to this personal information. We recommend that you keep your password secret. Vetspanel will never ask you for your password in a phone call or in an email. Remember to sign out of your account when you have finished.

How Long We Retain Personal Data:

All personal data relating to a particular survey will be deleted three months after the closure of the project.

Personal data stored on the panel will be held until 12 months after the last survey participation, at which point the panellist will be contacted and asked if they wish to remain on the panel. See the “Inactive Accounts” section.

To manage our business effectively, we retain limited personal data about previous members for certain situations, such as managing opt-out requests or preventing subsequent Survey participation. This data is not shared and is only used to honour your requests.

How to unsubscribe:

Members may unsubscribe from this service at any time by accessing the Profile section of their Vetspanel member account and clicking “To unsubscribe please click here” at the bottom of the page. The cancellation process may take up to 4 days and Members may still be invited to surveys while the process is finalised. Members should be aware that once the account is deleted from Vetspanel.com, any points that have not been redeemed BEFORE cancellation of the account will be lost.

Inactive Accounts:

Vetspanel and CM Research reserve the right to remove any Member accounts which have not been active for a period of 14 consecutive months. An active panellist is a member who registered to join Vetspanel and has participated in at least one survey or has updated his/her profile data within the last 14 months.

An inactive account on Vetspanel.com is an account held by a Member who has not either made use of the Members’ area of the Vetspanel Website and/or not participated in Surveys for 14 consecutive months. Inactive accounts will be sent a notification email after 12 months of inactivity and deleted with no warning after 14 months of inactivity. Any points remaining on the account at the time of deletion will be lost.

Changes and Updates to the Privacy Policy:

We reserve the right to amend the Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions at any time and for any reason without prior notice, except for posting the updated versions on our website. While we may send periodic reminders and emails about material changes, we encourage you to frequently review the Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions in effect on our website.

Contact Information:

For any GDPR or data protection queries, please contact our Data Protection Officer at [email protected].

For all enquiries related to your Vetspanel member account, please email [email protected].

For any other enquiries, please email [email protected].

We appreciate your trust in Vetspanel and assure you that protecting your personal data and privacy remains our top priority.