Branded Research, Inc. ("Branded," "us", "we”, or “our”), located in the United States, is the operator of www.gobranded.com and surveys.gobranded.com, along with our associated websites and services (collectively, the "Site"). Branded values the privacy of our users, members, and others (collectively or individually "Users") who visit and use the Site. This statement governs information you provide to us or that we learn from your use of the Site and tells you how we may collect, use, and in some instances share, this information. By accessing or using the websites, participating in our surveys, or in any other services we provide (collectively, Services), you are agreeing to the practices set within this Privacy Policy. If you do not consent to our Privacy Policy, then you must not access or use our Services. Our Services, which may be provided through or in connection with third party mobile applications or third party websites, may redirect you to third party mobile applications or websites through which you accessed the Services.
User Provided Information:
You may provide to Branded what is generally called "personally identifiable" information when you register, such as your name and e-mail address. In addition, Branded gives you the option to provide us with certain demographic information about yourself and to upload photographs or other personally identifiable information. For information you provide to Branded when you register or update your account, Branded is the controller and responsible for your data. As described in further detail below in the section Information Collected by Third Parties, you may also be connected with different third parties through their offers and surveys. Where you provide your information to a third party, the third party will serve as the controller of your data.
In order to become a member of the Site you are required to provide information through the registration process. At this time, Branded will ask for identity and contact data, including your first name, last name, email address, zip code, gender, country, username, and password. Additional profile, technical, usage, and marketing and communication data, such as your telephone number, IP address, and general demographic information such as postal code, marital status, education, relationship status, occupation history, ethnicity/race (where permitted by relevant law), health information, employment related information, and non-personally identifiable information on household members, household income, age, etc. may be asked. As a means to ensure consent around user data, you will be asked to provide confirmation that you have obtained consent on behalf of a family member, live-in member and spouse regarding their personally identifiable information.
We may also ask for special categories of personal data about you (this includes details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, information about your health, and genetic and biometric data). Providing this information, however, is entirely voluntary. As with other personal data collected by Branded, the information will be used to offer appropriate offers and surveys to you.
Branded is able to tailor its efforts to its users by receiving more (and accurate) information about users. You may edit your account information at any time by logging into your account with your username and password and going to the My Preferences drop down under your name on the Dashboard. Any and all changes will be made immediately once you hit Save. Please update this information as you see fit so that Branded maintains accurate information about you. Branded seeks to ensure that any information collected remains relevant for the intent for which it is to be used and, to the extent necessary, Branded takes reasonable steps to ensure that data is reliable, valid, complete, and current.
"Automatically Collected" Information:
When you visit the Site or open one of our HTML emails, we automatically collect and store information about your computer or mobile device along with your online activities. Referred to as “Response Metadata”, this information will be transferred and stored in accordance with the provisions contained in this Privacy Policy. Response Metadata (referred to as “Response Data”) and related information may be shared with survey generators and researchers along with clients and app developers. Response Data may also be provided to unaffiliated third parties for their own internal purposes, such as and not limited to marketing purposes. If you wish to opt-out of having your information shared with these Third Parties, please contact compliance@gobranded.com. You may also opt-out by deleting your account in its entirety.
Response Metadata, includes and is not limited to the below:
"Cookies" Information:
When you visit the Site, we may send one or more cookies – a small text file containing a string of alphanumeric characters – to your computer. Cookies are small files which are placed on your computer and allow us to perform analytics, operations of services and assessment of the usage of the Services – including but not limited to user preferences or trends (e.g., the Services may set a cookie on your browser allowing you to bypass engagement with a survey due to your previous completion of a survey). Branded uses both session cookies and persistent cookies. A persistent cookie remains after you close your browser and may be used by your browser on subsequent visits to the Site. These persistent types of cookies can be removed. Each web browser implements different functionality, so please refer to the manuals or technical support resources that are available in conjunction with your web browser to learn the correct way to modify your cookies set-up. If you are using the Site in a jurisdiction where your prior consent is required for us to deploy any particular cookies, you will be asked to accept such cookies before they are deployed. For additional information on cookies, reference Branded Surveys Cookie Policy and Branded Research Cookie Policy.
If you elect to disable or reject cookies, Services may not function properly. By doing so, you refuse any cookies from the Services and assume all responsibility of lacking or diminished functionality or benefits associated with the Services.
"Optionally Collected" Information:
By agreeing to participate and installing optional contextual tracking on your computer and/or mobile device, you are granting us permission to passively collect information about your online behavior. With collection of Mobile Device ID, we are able to collect mobile device identifiers including and not limited to Apple’s Identifier for Advertising ID (IDFA) and Google’s Android Advertising ID (AAID), to aid in our ability to identify you within a mobile application and match you to relevant survey opportunities.
When you use your computer, we may record the identity of the websites you visit, what time you visited those websites, how long you spent browsing or using them, the words and phrases you input into search engines, which search engines you use, the software and applications you use in order to browse online and use the internet. You have the ability to pause or disable the optional contextual tracking.
Additional information may be gathered and retained:
Survey Information
When hosting surveys for our survey partners, Branded may capture the information provided through these surveys. Branded does not own this information. As such, any information you elect to provide to Branded is used in accordance with the survey partner’s privacy practices.
User Feedback
In the instance during which you provide Branded with any comments, suggestions, or feedback related to our Services (referred to as “Feedback’), you understand that we may, although not obligated to do so, retain, utilize, disclose or otherwise commercially use your Feedback in connection with any or all of our Services without any compensation or consideration to you.
Branded uses the information we collect to provide to you all of the features and services found on the Site. When you complete offers and surveys on the Site, Branded will need to identify you so that we can determine you completed any offer or survey and that we can also credit your account accordingly. Branded may also use your email address to correspond with you and notify you of offers or surveys that we deem to be a good fit. We may use your email address for marketing purposes, unless you have expressly notified us that you prefer for us not to use your email address for any specific marketing purposes ("opt-out"). While you may opt-out from such marketing use, you may not opt-out from our use of your email address for nonmarketing or administrative purposes such as automatic notifications of recent account activity or notifying you of major site updates.
Bear in mind that Branded allows other users to view your name, other profile details and photographs should you provide this information and make it publicly viewable.
Per the terms of this Privacy Policy, we may use the information we collect from you for the following reasons:
As such, where required by law, we require your prior opt-in consent at the time of collection for the processing of (i) personal information for marketing purposes, (ii) personal, sensitive, or “special category” information per applicable law.
You may also withdraw your consent or object at any time, on legitimate grounds, to the processing of your personal information by contacting Branded Compliance at compliance@gobranded.com. Upon receiving your request, we will apply your preferences on a go forward basis. In some instances, withdrawing your consent to our use or disclosure of your personal information will dictate your ability to access certain services, surveys or promotional offers.
You may also opt-out and advise Branded to terminate sending you any marketing communications by e-mail. This can be achieved by clicking on the unsubscribe link within the marketing emails you receive from us or by contacting Branded Compliance at compliance@gobranded.com.
Optional contextual tracking will operate passively in the background and will not affect your connection speed. We will not intentionally use such contextual tracking to collect highly sensitive Personal Information such as passwords, usernames, social security or personal identification numbers, financial information (other than the fact that you may have visited the website or used the app of a financial institution or similar company) or health information (other than the fact that you have visited a health insurance or healthcare provider website or performed searches related to a particular medical condition or health concern).
Branded, by nature of its business, connects you with different third parties through their offers and surveys. In the event that you subscribe to or opt-in to a third party offer or survey, Branded may provide your information to the third party so that we can facilitate the relationship between you and the third party. In many cases you will be asked directly by third parties to give them your personally identifiable information. This may happen when you complete an offer or a survey or when you use their own websites or by other means. Branded is not responsible for any information which you provide to Third Parties. Branded suggests reading those privacy policies associated with those third parties.
Branded may disclose information to our providers who provide services such as website hosting, information technology, data analysis, and infrastructure services, email delivery, auditing, customer service, and other services. Branded may disclose both personally identifiable and automatically collected information to affiliated companies or other businesses or persons to process such information on our behalf, to provide website maintenance and security, to offer certain features on the Site, to assist us in improving the way the Site works and looks, and to create new features. We require that these parties agree to process such information in compliance with our Privacy Policy, we use reasonable efforts to limit their use of such information, and we require these parties to use any other appropriate confidentiality and security measures.
Branded may share automatically collected and other aggregated non-personally-identifiable information with interested third parties for their use and distribution for their business purposes, including without limitation for the purposes of assisting them in understanding the usage patterns for certain content, services, advertisements, and promotions.
Branded may share optionally collected information to develop statistics about Internet use and online activity and provide in aggregate for clients regarding trends in consumer behavior and consumer interest for future and/or present products and services.
We may share personally identifiable information with other third party organizations for their marketing or promotional use without your consent, except with respect to any specific program or feature for which you will have the ability to opt-out.
We may disclose your personally identifiable information if we believe in good faith that such disclosure is necessary to (a) comply with laws or to respond to subpoenas, court orders, warrants or other legal demands or to establish or defend Branded from legal claims; or (b) to protect and defend our rights or property, you, or third parties from fraud, abuse or violations of the Terms of Service or illegal acts; or (c) to protect the safety or integrity of Branded, its users, the public or other parties as it is deemed appropriate, in our sole discretion. You hereby consent to our sharing your personally identifying information under the circumstances described herein.
We may also share your personal information and/or social-demographic information, including and without limitation, a unique identification number ("UID"), postal code, gender, marital status, education, ethnicity/race (where permitted by applicable law), employment related information, and non-personally identifiable information on household members, with third party sample/market research companies (individually each a "Third Party MR Company" and collectively the "Third Party MR Companies") for the purpose of identifying survey opportunities that you may be eligible for through the Third Party MR Companies. As such, Third Party MR Companies may share your social-demographic information with their clients or vendors. This includes information shared with an acquirer, successor, or assignee during a reorganization effort, sale, merger, joint venture, transfer, assignment or disposition of part or all of our business, assets or stock including and not limited to bankruptcy. Likewise, if necessary by law or by necessity of good faith, Third Party MR companies may deem the following actions necessary and share your information under certain circumstances:
If you are eligible for a survey opportunity, the Third Party MR Company will provide your unique identification number along with a survey link to us and we will invite you to participate in the survey. We will not share your name, email address, or phone number with the Third Party MR Companies. In connection with the sharing of your information with a Third Party MR Company, your information may be transferred and stored outside of your country of residence, including, without limitation, in the United States. If you have any questions about this data sharing please contact us using the details below or alternatively you can opt-out by deleting your account by navigating to your Preferences in Branded Surveys. Your participation in such survey opportunities does not entitle you to any benefits offered by, or membership with, the Third Party MR Companies. If you have any inquiries surrounding data sharing or would like to opt-out of having your information shared with Third Party MR Companies, please contact Branded Compliance at compliance@gobranded.com.
Except as otherwise noted in this Privacy Policy, Branded does not share personal information about Users with third parties unless doing so is appropriate to carry out a User’s request or it reasonably believes that doing so is legally required or is in Branded’ interest to protect its property or other legal rights or the rights or property of others.
Branded’s accountability for personal data that it receives under the Privacy Shield and subsequently transfers to a third party is described in the Privacy Shield Principles. In particular, Branded remains responsible under the Privacy Shield Principles if third party agents that it engages to process the personal data on its behalf do so in a manner inconsistent with the Principles, unless Branded proves that it is not responsible for the event giving rise to the damage.
Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal information. Additionally, you have access to your personal information through your account and you may update, correct, or delete your member information and email preferences at any time. You may also object or request restriction of the processing of your information, request transfer of your personal information or withdraw your consent to processing. To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at compliance@gobranded.com.
To protect your privacy and security, we take reasonable steps to verify your identity before granting Users profile access or changes. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR MAINTAINING THE SECRECY OF YOUR UNIQUE PASSWORD AND ACCOUNT INFORMATION AT ALL TIMES. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response. We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it could take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.
PLEASE NOTE THAT WITH THE EXCEPTION OF CERTAIN CATEGORIES OF INFORMATION AS IDENTIFIED BY Branded FROM TIME TO TIME, ALL INFORMATION THAT YOU POST FOR VIEWING ON THE SITE IS MADE PUBLICLY AVAILABLE TO ALL USERS OF THE SITE.
While we aim to protect your personal information from losses, breaches, disclosure, modification, or destruction, through maintenance and security measures, any provided information is subject to unauthorized entry or use, hardware or software failure, and exposed to inherent risks associated with Internet usage; resulting in potential compromise to the overall security of your data at any point in time. As such, we cannot guaranty the secure state of your information.
Branded is located in the United States and if you are accessing or using the Services outside of the United States, please be advised that your data, including any Response Data may be sent to, stored, and processed in the United States. Data provided directly to Branded may not be subject to “transfer” rules under the GDPR as no transfer is occurring. If a “transfer” does occur, Branded relies on Article 49 of the GDPR as the lawful basis for such a transfer. Take note that some countries may not uphold the same data protection laws as the country in which you initially provided the data. We will protect your data as prescribed by this Privacy Policy. By using the Services, you agree to the collection, use, transfer, storage and release of your information as described in this Privacy Policy. This includes the export of data outside of your country of residence. Consequently, per the applicable United States laws and regulations, United States Federal and state governments, courts, or law enforcement or regulatory bodies may be able to obtain disclosure of your information such as your Response Data.
We will only retain your personal data for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or reporting requirements. We may retain your personal data for a longer period in the event of a complaint or if we reasonably believe there is a prospect of litigation in respect to our relationship with you.
To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or other requirements.
Details of retention periods for different aspects of your personal data are available in our retention policy which you can request from us by contacting us.
Consistent with the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA), we do not knowingly collect or solicit Response Data nor personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of sixteen (16). Any person who provides their personal information to Branded through the Site represents that they are 16 years of age or older. In the case you are a parent or legal guardian who discovers that your child has provided us with any of the foregoing, you may contact Branded Compliance compliance@gobranded.com to delete their information.
The Site provides you with the opportunity to affirmatively opt-out of receiving communications from us and our partners at the point where we request information about you. The Site gives you the option to end our use of your information, and to cease receiving or otherwise having access to future communications or services.
https://surveys.gobranded.com/demo-survey-email.html
Branded may allow other companies, called third party ad servers or ad networks, to serve advertisements within the Site. These third party ad servers or ad networks may use technology to send, directly to your browser, the advertisements and links that appear within the Site. They may automatically receive your IP Address when this happens. They may also use other technologies (such as cookies, JavaScript, or web beacons) to measure the effectiveness of their advertisements and to personalize their advertising content.
If your web browser includes a "Do Not Track" signal when you visit the Site, Branded will not respond to the "Do Not Track" signal, because Branded doesn’t track users across the web except as part of a specific program or feature for which you will have the ability to opt-in.
Branded does not authorize the collection of personally identifiable information by, or provide personally identifiable information to, these third party ad servers or ad networks except as part of a specific program or feature for which you will have the ability to opt-in. Also, please note that if an advertiser asks Branded to show an advertisement to a certain audience or audience segment and you respond to that advertisement, the advertiser or ad-server may conclude that you fit the description of the audience they were trying to reach.
You should consult the respective privacy policies of these third party ad servers or ad networks. Branded’ Privacy Policy does not apply to, and we cannot control the activities of, such other ad servers or ad networks or their websites.
No data transmissions over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. Consequently, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us and you do so at your own risk. Once we receive your transmission, we make reasonable efforts to ensure security on our systems. We use secure server software (SSL) and firewalls to protect your information from unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. However, please note that this is not a guarantee that such information may not be illegally or improperly accessed, disclosed, altered, or destroyed by breach of such firewalls and secure server software.
If Branded learns of a security systems breach, then we may attempt to notify you electronically so that you can take appropriate protective steps. By using the Site or providing personal information to us, you agree that we can communicate with you electronically regarding security, privacy, and administrative issues relating to your use of the Site. Branded may post a notice on the Site if a security breach occurs. If this happens, you will need a web browser enabling you to view the Site. Branded may also send an email to you at the email address you have provided to us in these circumstances. Depending on where you live, you may have a legal right to receive notice of a security breach in writing. To receive a free written notice of a security breach (or to withdraw your consent from receiving electronic notice) you should notify us via email at compliance@gobranded.com.
If you are a California resident, for more information about how we collect and use personal information or for more information about your rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act, please navigate to our Branded Surveys Privacy Notice for California Residents.
The Site is hosted in the United States. If you are a User accessing the Site from the European Union, Asia, or any other region with laws or regulations governing personal data collection, use, and disclosure, that differ from United States laws, please note that your data will be sent to, stored, and processed in the United States which may not have the same data protection laws as the EU and other regions, and by providing your personal data you consent to:
the use of your personal data for the uses identified above in accordance with the Privacy Policy; and the movement of your personal data to the United States as indicated above. YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES TREAT YOUR INFORMATION IN A MANNER THAT MAY BE SUBSTANTIALLY DIFFERENT FROM, AND LESS PROTECTIVE THAN, THE TREATMENT REQUIRED UNDER THE LAWS OF OTHER COUNTRIES AND JURISDICTIONS. IF YOU DO NOT WANT YOUR INFORMATION TRANSFERRED TO THE UNITED STATES, YOU SHOULD NOT SHARE YOUR INFORMATION WITH US, OR MAKE USE OF THE SITE.
TO THE EXTENT ALLOWED BY THE LAW OF THE COUNTRY IN WHICH YOU ARE LOCATED, YOU EXPRESSLY WAIVE ANY RIGHT YOU MAY HAVE TO REQUIRE US TO TREAT YOUR IDENTIFYING INFORMATION IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAWS OF ANY COUNTRY OR JURISDICTION OTHER THAN THE UNITED STATES. HOWEVER, THE FOREGOING WAIVER MAY NOT BE LEGALLY BINDING IN SOME COUNTRIES, SUCH AS THE MEMBER STATES OF THE EUROPEAN UNION. TO THE EXTENT IT IS NOT LEGALLY BINDING IN THE COUNTRY IN WHICH YOU ARE LOCATED, THIS FOREGOING WAIVER DOES NOT APPY TO YOU.
Branded complies with the EU-US Privacy Shield Framework established by the US Department of Commerce, Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework as set forth by the U.S. Department of Commerce, as well as the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR) under the enforcement authority of the Federal Trade Commission and European privacy laws.
Compliance applies to the collection, use, and storage of personal information from EU member countries. As such, Branded has certified that it adheres to the Privacy Shield and GDPR principles noted above.
Branded no longer relies on the EU-US Privacy Shield Framework to transfer data that originated in the UK to the U.S.
Branded has certified to the Department of Commerce that it adheres to the Privacy Shield Principles. If there is any conflict between the policies in this privacy policy and the Privacy Shield Principles or GDPR Principles, the Privacy Shield and GDPR Principles shall govern.
To learn more about the Privacy Shield program, and to view our certification, please visit https://www.privacyshield.gov/.
To find out more about GDPR please visit the UK Information Commissioner’s website at www.ico.org.uk.
We encourage you to contact us should you have a Privacy Shield-related (or general privacy-related) complaint. European Union, UK, or Swiss individuals with inquiries or complaints regarding our Privacy Shield Policy should contact us by mail, telephone or email as follows:
Branded Research, Inc.
343 Fourth Ave, Suite 201. San Diego, CA 92101
888-848-2525
info@gobranded.com
Branded has further committed to refer unresolved privacy complaints under the Privacy Shield Principles to an independent dispute resolution mechanism, the BBB EU PRIVACY SHIELD, operated by BBB National Programs. If you do not receive timely acknowledgment of your complaint, or if your complaint is not satisfactorily addressed, please visit https://bbbprograms.org/privacy-shield-complaints/ for more information and to file a complaint. This service is provided free of charge to you.
Please note that if your complaint is not resolved through these channels, under limited circumstances, a binding arbitration option may be available before a Privacy Shield Panel.
If Branded should ever file for bankruptcy or have its assets sold to or merge with another entity, information Branded receives from you through the Site is a Branded asset and may be transferred to another party; however, in the event of such a transfer, we will require that the transferee agree to honor this Privacy Policy, as it applies to Users prior to the effective date of any such transfer, unless we are legally prohibited from doing so.
Branded reserves the right, at our discretion, to change, modify, add, or remove portions of this Privacy Policy at any time for any reason. With any changes to the Privacy Policy, Branded will display a "last updated" date found at the top of this Privacy Policy. Each time Branded exercises such right, you shall be required to affirmatively accept the updated Privacy Policy, and if you fail to do so, you will no longer be able to access or use the Site.
Branded commits to resolve complaints about our user’s privacy and our collection or use of user’s personal data. EU or UK citizens with inquiries of complaints regarding this Privacy Policy should first contact Branded at:
Address:
Branded Research, Inc.
Attn: Data Protection Officer
343 4th Ave, Suite 201
San Diego, CA 92101
Email: compliance@gobranded.com
You also have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK regulator for data protection issues www.ico.org.uk. We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO, so please contact us in the first instance.