Privacy statement

ATTACHMENT L 
Privacy Statement for KnowledgePanel® Members

L–1

This page is intentionally blank. 

L–2

PRIVACY STATEMENT FOR 
KNOWLEDGEPANEL® MEMBERS 
Effective date: 08/10/2000
Last updated: 02/23/2017
KnowledgePanel® Members have been invited to take part in a major national research
effort. Members may complete surveys to provide feedback and opinions on a range of
political, lifestyle, advertising and other questions, and may contribute other types of data
along with other Panel Members. Active Panel Members receive certain benefits from GfK
Custom Research, LLC in exchange for participating in surveys.

OUR PRIVACY COMMITMENTS
GfK Custom Research, LLC (“GfK”) respects the privacy of every Panel Member. This
Privacy Statement outlines the information GfK will collect and how we will use that
information you provide on our web
sites: join.knpanel.com, members.knowledgepanel.com and www.cadacabeza.com .
This Statement will also tell you how you can verify the accuracy of your Personal
Information (defined below) submitted to GfK and how you can request that we delete or
update your Personal Information.
We've developed our privacy policy from industry guidelines and standards, and local,
national, and international laws and requirements. All privacy practices and methods
described in this policy apply only insofar as permitted by the applicable standards, laws
and requirements.
Thanks again for placing your trust in GfK.
If you have an unresolved privacy or data use concern that we have not addressed
satisfactorily, please contact our U.S.-based third party dispute resolution provider (free of
charge) at https://feedback-form.truste.com/watchdog/request.

INFORMATION COLLECTED AND HOW WE USE IT
WHAT WE COLLECT:
A) PERSONAL AND DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION
During the KnowledgePanel® recruitment process, GfK collects personal information that is
information that could personally identify you, such as your name, address, email address
and the names and ages of members of your household (such personally identifiable
information being referred to as "Personal Information”);" Personal Information excludes
Demographic Information, as defined below). In addition, GfK frequently asks Panel
Members for characteristics that will not generally by themselves personally identify you
(such as health problems or consumer habits), attributes, and demographic information
(such as age, income, gender) (collectively, "Demographic Information") via online surveys.

L–3

B) OPERATING INFORMATION
GfK may, in the course of interacting with Panel Members, gather other types of information
from Panel Members ("Operating Information"). For example, as a
KnowledgePanel® Member, you will receive surveys from GfK on a regular basis. These
surveys will ask questions about your interests, needs, and attitudes. We will receive your
responses to these surveys. If we offer features, services, or programs in which you
explicitly agree to participate, then GfK will receive information from those features,
services, or programs.
C) LOG FILES
As is true of most websites, 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, which does not identify individual users, to analyze trends, to
administer the site, to track users' movements around the site and to gather demographic
information about our user base as a whole.
We do not link this automatically-collected data to Personal Information.
D) COOKIES AND TRACKING TECHNOLOGIES
Technologies such as: cookies, beacons, tags, scripts and similar technologies are used by
GfK and our partners for market research purposes.
A cookie is a small text file that is stored on a user's computer for record-keeping purposes.
We use persistent cookies on the GfK panel member site. Persistent cookies are used
when you register as a Panel Member or log into our site, and are used to store information
such as your email address and password. We use these cookies to recognize Panel
Members when they participate in surveys and to record information about the survey, such
as when the survey is completed and how much of the survey has been completed. A
persistent cookie remains on your hard drive for an extended period of time. You can
remove persistent cookies by following directions provided in your Internet browser's "help"
file. If you reject cookies, you may still use our site, but your ability to use some areas of our
site, such as contests or surveys, will be limited.
In addition, we use cookies to measure certain advertisements that are displayed on your
computer. We may invite you to participate in surveys that ask whether you recalled seeing
certain advertisements online. By detecting these cookies, we may also track certain
information regarding your activity on our or a third party’s website, which we use to conduct
research on Panel Members’ demographics, interests, and behavior. We do not link the
information we store in cookies to any Personal Information you submit while on our site.
We do not have access to, or control over, cookies that may exist on your hard drive that
were placed by third parties. We cannot control how they may be used by third parties or

L–4

otherwise have any control over the type of content that may be included with any tags
incorporated in those cookies.
E) WEB BEACONS
A web beacon (also known as a tag, clear gif or 1x1 pixel), consists of a small string of code
that is embedded within a web page or email. There may or may not be a visible graphic
image associated with the web beacon, and often the image is designed to blend into the
background of a web page or email.
We use web beacons in our email messages to help determine whether our messages are
opened and to verify any clicks through to links within the email. We may use this
information to determine which of our emails are more interesting to users, to improve the
quality of the emails that we send and to query users who do not open our emails as to
whether they wish to continue receiving them. The web beacon is deleted when you delete
the email.
We also use web beacons that interact with our audience measurement cookies to inform
us when a Panel Member has viewed certain ads and other online content that we are
measuring. We and our authorized service providers may link personally identifiable
information to web beacons for operational and research purposes.
If you would prefer not to have web beacons in the emails that you receive, you should
adjust your email program to receive messages in plain text rather than HTML. It is also
possible to detect and control web beacons that are present on web pages by downloading
a plug-in for your browser.
BROWSER DO NOT TRACK SETTINGS
Your browser offers a Do-Not-Track (DNT) privacy setting. Enabling it may result in your
browsing history not being used by some advertising networks to serve targeted ads to you.
The cookies that we use to measure advertising effectiveness may tell us which websites
you visited where certain ads were displayed. Enabling or disabling the DNT setting in your
browser has no impact on our use of cookies that measure exposure to ads or other online
content on third party websites. For more information about DNT privacy settings,
visit www.allaboutdnt.com.
HOW WE USE YOUR INFORMATION:
A) PERSONAL AND DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION
Personal Information is used to set up e-mail accounts for each household member who is
13 years of age or older (if you do not have Internet access at the time of recruitment), to
communicate with you and your household members, and to assist you with questions that
you may have about the KnowledgePanel procedures. It may also be used for panel
recruitment, contest entry processing or delivery of free gifts to KnowledgePanel Members,
and delivery of our quarterly newsletter, which you are automatically enrolled to receive via
email.

L–5

(To opt out of the newsletter, follow the unsubscribe instructions included in these emails,
accessing the email preferences in your account settings page or you can go
to: members.knowledgepanel.com.) Personal Information concerning location or address
is also used to ensure that our panel accurately represents the country's population as a
whole.
Panel Members are asked for Demographic Information in order to pre-qualify members or
households for surveys that target specific groups. We also use this information to ensure
that our panel accurately represents the country's population as a whole.
GfK uses Personal Information and Demographic Information solely in the conduct of its
research business. Personal Information or Demographic Information may be combined
with information collected about you by GfK or third parties with your express permission,
with information that is collected about you from public records, or with information that GfK
may acquire from third parties that have a legal right to provide such information to GfK.
If you provide us with your mobile phone number, GfK and/or its agents may contact you
periodically using an automatic telephone dialing system, interactive voice response
technology or SMS text message for purposes related to your participation in
KnowledgePanel. For example, we may use interactive voice response technology and
SMS text messages to notify or remind panel members when a survey is available for
completion. You may revoke your consent to be contacted by an automatic telephone
dialing system or interactive voice response technology on your mobile phone by contacting
GfK. See the ACCESS TO YOUR INFORMATION AND COMPLAINTS section below. If
you no longer want to receive SMS text messages from GfK or our agents, please reply to
our or their SMS text messages by writing STOP.
Please refer to “Accessing, Correcting, Updating and Preventing Use of Your Personal
Information or Demographic Information” below for information regarding your ability to
control and manage your Personal Information and Demographic Information.
B) OPERATING INFORMATION
GfK uses Operating Information solely in the conduct of its research business. As is the
case with Personal Information and Demographic Information, Operating Information may
be combined with information collected about you by third parties with your express
permission, with information that is collected about you from public records, or with
information that GfK may acquire from third parties that have a legal right to provide such
information to GfK.

DATA SHARING AND TRANSFER
A) HOW WE MAY SHARE INFORMATION:
Except as detailed in this section of the Privacy Statement, Personal Information regarding
Panel Members will never be shared with any third parties without your express permission.
We do not sell your personal information to third parties.

L–6

We reserve the right, however, to disclose your Personal Information as required by law and
when we believe that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights and/or comply with a
judicial proceeding, court order, or legal process served on GfK or its employees or agents.
In addition, occasionally GfK will share contact information, such as name and mailing
address, with third parties with whom we have partnered to provide specific services to GfK,
or services on behalf of GfK, specifically for the purposes of panel recruitment, panel
communications, contest entry processing or delivery of free gifts to KnowledgePanel
Members. These partners have agreed not to share or resell this data and they are
contractually obligated not to use any Personal Information except for the purpose of
providing these services, unless you enter into a relationship with them that would directly
allow them to do so.
GfK collects and shares Demographic Information and Operating Information with its
research clients (“Clients”) in an anonymous form. We may share this information with our
Clients on an anonymous individual basis to provide your individual Demographic
Information and Operating Information (without specifically identifying you), and may
provide this information on an aggregate basis with respect to a group of our Panel
Members to describe group demographics or interest profiles (again, without specifically
identifying any Panel Member). As discussed above under the heading “Cookies,” certain
web pages that you view may be tracked by third parties using advanced cookies, and this
tracking data may be provided by such third parties to our Clients, and combined by our
Clients with your Demographic Information and Operating Information for market research
purposes.
Our research Clients will never receive Personal Information of Panel Members, nor will
they be able to identify Panel Members, without your express permission.
GfK is an expanding business, and like other companies, we sometimes acquire or divest
business units or ourselves be acquired. As part of such transfers or mergers, we may
convey the business assets of the particular business unit, or the company as a whole,
including Personal Information, Demographic Information, or Operating Information of Panel
Members. In that eventuality, you would be notified via email.
B) DATA TRANSFERS:
Your Personal Information, Demographic Information, and Operating Information will
generally be stored in our GfK databases. For easier processing of e-mail communications,
contests, sweepstakes, or other marketing purposes, or for panel recruitment or panel
communications, however, your Personal Information, Demographic Information, or
Operating Information may be sent to or accessed by GfK’ service providers and
contractors who are obligated to keep such information confidential in countries outside the
United States or the European Union. GfK data protection standards and those of its service
providers and contractors are the same, regardless of where your information is stored.
GfK’s legal entities outside the European Union have entered into intra-company data
protection agreements using standard contractual clauses prepared by the European
Commission. Moreover, GfK’s U.S. entities have entered into data protection agreements

L–7

with service providers and other business partners. These agreements require the
contracting parties to respect the confidentiality of your Personal Information and to handle
European personal data in accordance with applicable European data protection laws.

CHILDREN'S PRIVACY
GfK believes that it's especially important to protect children's privacy online and
encourages parents and guardians to spend time online with their children to participate and
monitor their Internet activity.
GfK complies with all applicable national and international children's privacy regulations. We
do not permit children who are under 13 years of age to become KnowledgePanel
Members. We do not collect any Personal Information from children under 13 years of age.
As part of the registration process for new Panel Members, we collect from the new Panel
Member the names of each individual in the Panel Members' household, which may include
the names of children who are under 13 years of age. Occasionally we may send a survey
to a Panel Member who is a parent or guardian of a child under the age of 13 that asks that
Panel Member to have his or her child who is under 13 answer the survey. We take
reasonable steps to ensure parental consent to such procedure by sending the survey to
the parent or guardian's password-protected email address. The information collected in
response to such surveys is not combined with identifying information about the child. In
every case such survey does not collect Personal Information about the child. We comply
with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998.
If a Panel Member has provided us with Personal Information about a child in the Panel
Member's household who is under the age of 13, a parent or guardian of that child may
contact us at the email address or mailing address listed at the bottom of this Privacy
Statement if he or she would like this information deleted from our records. We will use
reasonable efforts to delete the child's information from our databases.
If you would like to contact us about your or your child's Personal Information, or to find out
how you can have your child's Personal Information removed from our database, please
see the "Access To Your Information and Complaints" section later in this document.

DATA SECURITY AND RESPONSIBILITY
GfK is committed to keeping the data you provide us secure and will take reasonable
precautions to protect your Personal Information from loss, misuse or alteration. Vendors,
contractors, or partners of GfK who have access to your Personal Information in connection
with providing services for GfK are contractually required to keep the information
confidential and are not permitted to use this information for any other purpose than to carry
out the services they are performing for GfK.
GfK also safeguards Personal Information, Demographic Information, and Operating
Information from unauthorized access. Most Operating Information is maintained in
databases that are separate from those containing Personal Information and Demographic
Information. Only authorized GfK employees or agents carrying out permitted business
functions are allowed to access these databases. In addition, each employee of GfK is

L–8

required to sign a confidentiality agreement requiring him or her to keep confidential all
Personal Information of Panel Members. Employees who violate the confidentiality
agreement are subject to disciplinary actions, including termination when appropriate.
While we strive to use industry-standard security technology, procedures and other
measures to help protect your Personal or Demographic Information, we cannot guarantee
the security of the information you transmit.

LINKS TO THIRD PARTY SITES
Our Site includes links to other websites whose privacy practices may differ from those of
GfK. If you submit personal information to any of those sites, your information is governed
by their privacy policies. We encourage you to carefully read the privacy policy of any
website you visit.

CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY STATEMENT
We may update this privacy statement to reflect changes to our information practices. If we
make any material changes we will notify you by email (sent to the e-mail address specified
in your account) or by means of a notice on this Site prior to the change becoming effective.
We encourage you to periodically review this page for the latest information on our privacy
practices.

ACCESS TO YOUR INFORMATION AND COMPLAINTS
A) Accessing, Correcting, Updating and Preventing Use of Your Personal Information
or Demographic Information.
If you have submitted Personal or Demographic Information to GfK through
KnowledgePanel or otherwise, or if someone else has otherwise submitted your Personal or
Demographic Information to GfK, you can:






Access, Correct, Update Your Personal or Demographic Information, by emailing
your request to: [email protected], or by sending us a letter to the
address listed below. GfK will use reasonable efforts to supply you with the
information you requested to access and to correct any factual inaccuracies in this
information within a reasonable timeframe.
Prevent Further Use of Your Personal or Demographic Information, by emailing your
request to: [email protected]. Alternatively, you may call us at 1-800782-6899 or send us a letter to the address listed below. In each case, we will then
use reasonable efforts to prevent further use of your Personal Information or
Demographic Information in our files.
We will retain your information for as long as your account is active or as needed to
provide you services. If you wish to cancel your account or request that we no longer
use your information to provide you services contact us
at [email protected] . We will retain and use your information as

L–9

necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our
agreements.
B) Complaints
GfK is committed to working with consumers to obtain a fair and rapid resolution of any
complaints or disputes about privacy. Please send us your questions or comments
regarding our privacy practices or requests to revoke consent to be contacted by an
automatic telephone dialing system or interactive voice technology on your mobile phone by
emailing us at: [email protected], or send us a letter to:
Privacy Compliance Coordinator
GfK Custom Research
120 Eagle Rock Avenue, Suite 200
East Hanover, NJ 07936
We value the opinions and feedback of Panel Members to help improve our service. If your
participation in KnowledgePanel comes to an end, we may choose to send you a brief,
voluntary exit survey regarding your experience.
If you would like to see the GfK general privacy policy for GfK.com, click here.

L – 10