SurveyMonkey Privacy Policy
Last updated: June 23, 2010
This privacy policy covers the Web site www.surveymonkey.com (the “Site”) and the services available through the Site. We may post supplementary privacy notices for some of those services where more detailed information is required to explain our privacy practices in relation to them.
TRUSTe Privacy Program
SurveyMonkey.com, LLC (“SurveyMonkey”, “we”, or “us”) is a licensee of the TRUSTe Privacy Program. TRUSTe is an independent organization whose mission is to build users’ trust and confidence in the Internet by promoting the use of fair information practices. Because we want to demonstrate our commitment to your privacy, we have agreed to disclose our information practices and have our privacy practices reviewed for compliance by TRUSTe.
If you have questions or concerns regarding this policy, you should first contact us at [email protected]. If you do not receive acknowledgement of your inquiry or your inquiry has not been satisfactorily addressed, you should contact TRUSTe at http://watchdog.truste.com/pvr.php?page=complaint. TRUSTE will then serve as a liaison with us to resolve your concerns.
SurveyMonkey complies with the EU Safe Harbor framework as set forth by the Department of Commerce regarding the collection, use, and retention of data from the European Union. A list of organizations complying with such framework can be found at: https://safeharbor.export.gov/list.aspx. Our computer systems are currently based in the United States, so your personal data will be processed by us in the United States. As a visitor from outside the United States, by using the Site you agree to this privacy policy and you consent to the transfer of all such information to the United States and to the processing of that information as described in this privacy policy.
Information Collection
Information You Provide
If you register for a free account, we collect your e-mail address and password and may collect certain demographic information, such as your time zone or country.
If you purchase a professional account or other service from use, you must provide certain additional personally identifiable information on our order form; in particular, certain contact information (including your name, address, e-mail address, and billing address) and financial information (including credit card number and expiration date), which we use for billing purposes and to fill your orders. If we have trouble processing an order, we will use this information to contact you. You will not be able to open an account if you do not provide the information that is identified as required in the account registration and/or purchase process.
When registering for an account or using other features on the Site, you may also have the option to provide business and additional demographic information to us. We encourage you to submit this information so we can provide you a more personalized experience on our Site, but such information is not required to use the Site.
If you submit a testimonial to the Site, we may collect your name, e-mail address, and any other personally identifiable information that you voluntarily include in your testimonial.
If you subscribe to a newsletter, we may collect your name and e-mail address.
From time-to-time we may provide you with the opportunity to participate in our contests or surveys on the Site. If you participate, we may request certain personally identifiable information from you. Participation in these surveys or contests is completely voluntary and you therefore have a choice whether or not to disclose this information. The requested information typically includes demographic information (such as zip code), and could also include contact information (such as your name and address).
We may collect your personally identifiable information from third parties if you give permission for those third parties to share you information with us. For example, we provide you with the option of signing into our Site with your Google account details. If you do this, the authentication of your details is handled by Google and we only collect information about your Google account that you expressly agree to share with us at the time you give permission for your SurveyMonkey account to be linked to your Google account. We use this information to facilitate account creation and the login process.
If you are a survey respondent, we may collect personally identifiable information from you on behalf of the survey creator whose survey you have responded to. Survey creators may have their own privacy policies which apply to surveys that they create using our services and that detail how they handle your personally identifiable information. We encourage you to read any such policy. Survey creators may choose to collect responses anonymously, but this feature does not prevent the creator from including specific survey questions that ask you for personally identifiable information. As between you and us, your submission of personally identifiable information is voluntary and you may opt out of responding at any time. However, if you do respond, you consent to its provision to use for the purpose of delivering our services to the survey creator.
If a user uses our tool to send you a survey invitation e-mail, we collect you e-mail address if the user provides it to us.
Automatically Collected Information
As is true of most Web sites, we gather certain information automatically and store it in log files. This information includes internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, operating system, date/time stamp, and clickstream data. We use this information to analyze trends, to administer the Site, to understand users’ movements around the Site, and to gather demographic information about our user base as a whole.
We also use “cookies” to recognize specific visitors and more quickly provide personalized content, or grant you unimpeded access to the Site. Cookies are small text files a Web site can use to recognize repeat users. With cookies enabled, you will often not need to fill in password or contact information. Information gathered through cookies also helps us measure use of our Site. Cookie data allow us to track usage behavior and compile data that we can use to improve the Site.
Generally, cookies work by assigning a unique number to the user that has no meaning outside of the Web site that he or she is visiting. You can easily turn off cookies. Most browsers have a feature that allows the user to refuse cookies or issues a warning when cookies are being sent. Please consult the “Help” section of your browser for more information about how to disable cookies. However, our Site will not function as effectively without cookies. Enabling cookies ensures a smooth, efficient visit to our Site.
We use a third-party tracking service that uses cookies and web beacons to track aggregated anonymized data about visitors to our Site to capture usage and volume statistics to help us improve our Site. We have no access or control over these tracking technologies.
This privacy policy covers the use of tracking technologies by SurveyMonkey only and does not cover the use of tracking technologies by any third party.
Children Under Thirteen
Our Site is not intended for, and is not directed to, children under the age of thirteen. SurveyMonkey does not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from children under the age of thirteen. If you are thirteen, please ask your parent or guardian to contact us at [email protected] for more information.
Information Use
In addition to the uses of your information described elsewhere in this privacy policy, we may also use your information in one or more of the following ways. We will not use or share your personally identifiable information in ways unrelated to those described in this privacy policy without your permission.
Communications from SurveyMonkey
We will use your information to communicate with you and provide you with transactional messages in response to your inquiries, to provide the services you request, and to manage your account. For example, when you register for an account (including a free account), you will receive a short welcome e-mail.
We will send you service-related announcements when it is necessary to do so. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance, we might send you an e-mail. If you are a paid subscriber, you may also receive e-mails regarding your account status and billing. Generally, you may not opt-out of these transactional communications which are not promotional in nature. If you do not wish to receive them, you have the option to deactivate your account.
We may use your information to contact you about other products or services that we offer and about products and services of third parties in which you may be interested. You may opt out of receiving such communications from us at any time (but not the transactional e-mails described in the paragraphs above) by contacting us as set out in the section below entitled “Opting Out of Communications from SurveyMonkey.”
If you wish to subscribe to our newsletter(s), we will use your name and e-mail address to send the newsletter to you. Out of respect for your privacy, we provide you a way to unsubscribe from newsletters at any time. Please see the section below entitled “Opting Out of Communications from SurveyMonkey.”
We use information that we collect from the participation in contests or surveys we create to notify contest winners and to monitor Site traffic or improve the Site (in the case of anonymous information collected in surveys).
We post testimonials on the Site that you submit to us from time to time. We always request permission to post your testimonial on the Site, and we may use your information to contact you for the purpose of requesting such permission.
Sending E-mails on Users’ Behalf
At the direction of our users, we send survey invitation e-mails on behalf of them to e-mail addresses provided by them. Each user’s list of such e-mail addresses is stored on our system, but the e-mail addresses in those lists are not used by SurveyMonkey in any other way. The e-mails sent on a user’s behalf appear to come from that user’s e-mail address.
Use of Survey Questions and Results
Your survey questions, responses and results are kept in strict confidence and used in compliance with legal requirements. We will never use your survey questions or responses other than in accordance with this privacy policy unless we have your consent, and then only anonymously and by aggregating them with questions and responses from other surveys. You may be asked whether you wish to opt in to allowing us to use your survey questions and/or responses in this way at the time of creating your account or your survey. If you opt in, we may use the anonymized and aggregated survey questions and/or responses to create data services or content.
You have the ability to export, share, or publish data from your surveys. We provide various features to export, share, or publish your survey questions, responses, and results in summary or detailed format.
We may also use your information, including your survey questions and your respondent’s responses, as well as aggregated data we collect through survey results to help you with your own survey creation and analysis, and to help us provide and improve our overall survey services.
Statistical Analyses
SurveyMonkey reserves the right to perform statistical analyses of user behavior and characteristics. We do this in order to measure interest in, and use of, the various areas of the Site. Statistical analyses are performed on anonymized, aggregated data.
IP Addresses
SurveyMonkey collects IP addresses for system administration and record keeping. Your IP address is automatically assigned to your computer when you use the World Wide Web. Our servers record incoming IP addresses. By tracking IP addresses, we can determine which Web sites refer the most people to SurveyMonkey. The IP addresses are analyzed in the aggregate, and we may also associate your IP address with your account for the purpose of managing your account and your surveys.
SurveyMonkey also collects the IP addresses of survey respondents on behalf of survey creators unless the survey creator has elected to create a survey without IP address collection turned on.
Sharing Information with Third Parties
Service Providers
We use third parties to provide billing services on our Site. When you purchase a service from us, we will share contact and credit card information as necessary for the billing service provider to provide that service.
We may also from time to time share your personally identifiable information with other service providers to enable them to assist us to provide our survey-related services. Our service providers are contractually prohibited from using your information for any other purpose, including their own marketing purposes.
Other Third Parties
SurveyMonkey does not ever disclose your survey questions or responses unless you permit or request for us to do so.
SurveyMonkey may disclose survey questions and responses anonymously and by aggregating them with other users’ survey questions and responses on an opt-in basis.
We may from time to time request your permission to provide your personally identifiable information to third parties for various purposes, including to allow those third parties to contact you about products and services in which you may be interested. If you permit us to do so (by opting-in), we may provide your information to those third parties for those purposes. If you later wish to opt out, you may do so at no cost by contacting us at [email protected]. However, if you wish to stop receiving communications from a third party to which we provided your information prior to your opting out, you will need to contact that third party directly. We will not sell, rent, or otherwise provide your information to any other third parties, except as otherwise described in this privacy policy.
Disclosures Required by Law
We reserve the right to disclose your personally identifiable information as required by law and when we believe that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights and/or to comply with a judicial proceeding, court order, or legal process served on us.
Merger or Other Acquisition
We may transfer your personally identifiable information to a successor entity upon a merger, consolidation, or other corporate reorganization in which SurveyMonkey participates or to a purchaser of all or substantially all of SurveyMonkey’s assests to which this Site relates.
Opting Out of Communications from SurveyMonkey
Upon request, SurveyMonkey will allow any user to opt out of our monthly newsletter and from receiving e-mails about other products and services. You can contact us through our Help Center by e-mail ([email protected]), or follow the unsubscribe instructions included in each promotional e-mail sent to you, including the newsletter.
Survey respondents may also opt out of receiving future surveys directly from SurveyMonkey via e-mail.
Accessing, Changing, or Deleting your Information
We endeavor to ensure that your personally identifiable information is accurate by collecting it directly from you and providing you with the ability to update it.
If your personally identifiable information changes, or if you no longer desire our service, you may request us to correct, update, or delete your personally identifiable information or deactivate your account by making the change on our My Account page, by e-mailing our Customer Support at [email protected], or by contacting us by postal mail at the address listed below. We will endeavor to fulfill requests to delete personally identifiable information unless such information is required to be retained by law or for legitimate business purposes (such as storage in backup media created as part of our routine system backup procedures). We will respond to your request for access, amendment, or deletion within 30 days.
Where we have collected your personally identifiable information on behalf of a survey creator, contact the survey creator if you want to access, update, or delete that information. If the survey creator has their own privacy policy, please refer to it. We provide survey creators with tools to maintain any personally identifiable information they collect through a survey.
SurveyMonkey Security Statement
Further details about SurveyMonkey’s security practices are available in our Security Statement.
Changes to this Privacy Policy
We reserve the right to modify this privacy policy at any time, so please check for change notices on a regular basis. If we decide to change our privacy policy in a material way, we will post a prominent change notice on the Site, and we may notify you by e-mail of those changes so that you continue to be aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it.
Links to Other Web Sites
This Site contains links to other Web sites that are not owned or controlled by SurveyMonkey. Please be aware that SurveyMonkey is not responsible for the privacy practices of such other Web sites. We encourage you to be aware when you leave our Site and to read the privacy policies of each and every Web site that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy policy applies only to information collected by this Site and the services available through the Site.
The Privacy Policy was last updated on June 23, 2010. The previous version of the policy is available here.
| File Type | application/msword |
| File Title | SF-12 SUPPORTING STATEMENT |
| Author | United States Patent and Trademark Office |
| Last Modified By | csandberg |
| File Modified | 2011-05-05 |
| File Created | 2011-05-04 |