BRANDTEST MARKET RESEARCH QUESTIONNAIRE

Brand Institute conducts a variety of online research surveys and studies utilizing members of the BI Online Panel. Incentives in the form of cash are offered to those who participate in our studies. BI recruits and maintains this Online Panel to support various attitude and behavior studies. Membership in our Panel is free, and is currently available only to those individuals 18 years or older.

Protecting your privacy is essential to our research. We report our survey results in aggregate, and never provide individual information to anyone without your prior consent. At BI, we believe the Internet is the future of research. Our goal is to make our users' experience secure, informative, and fun.

About The Information We Gather

Personal Information and Demographic Information
As part of our Online Panel recruitment process, we ask you to provide personal information such as your name, address, and ages of members of your household ("Personal Information").  In addition, BI frequently asks Panel Members for characteristics (such as consumer habits), attributes, and Demographic Information (such as age, income, gender).

You are in control of the Personal Information and Demographic Information that you provide to us.  We rely on you to provide accurate information and to update your Personal and Demographic Information when requested.  You can:

• Ask for a copy (verification) of your Personal Information and/or Demographic Information; 
• Ask for your Personal Information and/or Demographic Information to be corrected or updated; and
• Ask us to remove your Personal Information and Demographic Information from our database.

To do this, please access your profile page on our website. Brand Institute will use all reasonable efforts to comply with your request.

Operating Information

Brand Institute may, in the course of interacting with Panel Members, gather other types of information from its Panel Members ("Operating Information").  For example, as an Online Panel member, you will receive surveys from us on a regular basis.  We receive your responses to these surveys with your full knowledge and participation.  Similarly, if we offer other features, services or programs in which you explicitly agree to participate (such as the BI Referral Program), then BI will also receive Personal Information, Demographic Information and/or Operating Information from these features, services or programs with your full knowledge and consent.

We may also record anonymous site statistics, such as your Internet Provider address, to help diagnose problems with our server and maintain our database. We may place a "cookie" on your computer, which saves your Panel ID and allows for a more user-friendly interface on some of our survey forms. Cookies may also occasionally be used in our online surveys to prevent duplicate responses. A "cookie", by itself, cannot be used to find out the identity of any user. If you do not wish to accept "cookies", you can turn this feature off in the options menu of your browser.  If you choose to turn off this feature, we may not be able to include you in some of our research projects. 

How We Use Your Information

Personal Information and Demographic Information
Any Personal or Demographic Information collected by Brand Institute is used exclusively to support our research efforts.  The Personal Information you provide is used to communicate with you and your household members, and to assist you with questions you may have about your participation in the BI Online Panel.  Personal Information concerning location or address is also used by us to ensure that our Panel accurately represents the US/International population as a whole.  

A panel members' Demographic Information is used to pre-qualify or identify prospective respondents for research, based on specific member characteristics (such as men/women of a certain age range or occupation). This Demographic Information may also be combined with your survey responses ("Operating Information") and reported in aggregate to our clients.  At no time will any Personal Information be transmitted to anyone outside of Brand Institute without your express permission. 

Operating Information
Brand Institute uses the Operating Information collected from you solely in the conduct of its research business.  The Operating Information you provide while completing our online surveys is maintained in independent internal databases and is not Personal Information or Demographic Information.  Operating Information may be combined with select Demographic Information and reported in aggregate to our clients.  At no time will any Personal Information be transmitted to anyone outside of Brand Institute without your express permission. 

Data Sharing and Transfer
Personal Information about panel members will never be shared with any third parties without your express permission, except that we may disclose your Personal Information or Demographic Information if we believe we are required to do so by law or subpoena, if we must do so to protect someone's safety or our rights or property, or in order to comply with this policy or other policies that may be applicable.  If at any time BI is required to share Personal Information and/or Demographic Information, the entity with which this Personal Information or Demographic Information is shared will be required to sign a Data Transfer Agreement that protects this Personal Information and/or Demographic Information. These partners agree not to sell or otherwise share this data and they are contractually obligated not to use any Personal Information except for the purpose of providing the services for which BI has contracted, unless you enter into a relationship with them that would directly allow them to do so.

BI collects and shares Demographic Information and Operating Information with its research clients in anonymous form.  Our research clients will never receive Personal Information about panel members without your express permission, nor will our clients be able to identify panel members from the Demographic Information or Operating Information we provide.

BI is an expanding business, and like other companies, we sometimes acquire or divest business units.  As part of such transfers, we may convey the business assets of the particular business unit, including Personal Information, Demographic Information or Operating Information of panel members. 

Security

BI 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 BI who may have access to your Personal Information in connection with providing services to BI are contractually required to keep the Personal Information confidential and are not permitted to use this data for any other purpose than to carry out the services they are performing for BI.

BI also safeguards Personal Information, Demographic Information and Operating Information from unauthorized access.  Only authorized BI employees or agents carrying out permitted business functions are allowed access.  In addition, each employee of BI is required to sign a confidentiality/non-disclosure agreement requiring him or her to keep confidential all Personal Information of panel members.  Employees who violate this agreement are subject to disciplinary actions, including termination of employment.  BI does not maintain any Personal Information online. All data is stored at our offices, on our internal office computing network. At no time is your Personal Information available to anyone else, or used for anything other than market research purposes. You will never be asked to purchase any products or services as a result of your membership in our Online Panel or participation in any studies.

Access to Your Information and Filing Complaints 

If you have submitted Personal Information or Demographic information to BI through our BI Online Panel or otherwise, or if someone else has submitted your Personal Information or Demographic Information to BI, you can:

1) Access, Correct or Update your Personal Information or Demographic Information -- by visiting the Members Only area of our web site, by e-mailing your request, or by sending a letter to the address listed below. BI will use reasonable efforts to comply with your request for access or to correct any inaccuracies in your Personal Information or Demographic Information.

2) Prevent Further Use of Your Personal Information or Demographic Information -- by visiting the Members Only area of our web site, by e-mailing your request, or by sending us a letter to the address listed below. BI will use reasonable efforts to prevent further use of the Personal Information or Demographic Information in our files.

3) Notify Us of Comments or Complaints 
BI is committed to working with our panel members and web site visitors 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 by e-mailing us or send a letter to:

BI Online Panel
Privacy Compliance Coordinator
Brand Institute
200 SE 1^st Street, 12^th Floor
Miami, FL  33131

BI is happy to respond to all questions and comments.

Opting-Out - Removal from our Panel

At any time, you may discontinue your participation in the BI Online Panel by visiting the Members Only area of our web site and clicking on the appropriate icon.  You may also make your request by sending us an e-mail or by sending a letter to the address listed above.  Each survey invitation you receive will also provide you with instructions for removal from our Panel. Please note that opting-out of the BI Online Panel will not result in our deleting Operating Information (survey responses) previously collected from your household.

Other Sites

BI is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of other web sites.  We recommend that you carefully read the privacy policies of each site you visit.

Your Acceptance of our Privacy Practices

By agreeing to become a member of the BI Online Panel (signified by supplying Personal Information and/or Demographic Information) or participating in a BI survey, service or program, you signify your acceptance of the terms and conditions of this Privacy Pledge.  BI will make changes to this privacy statement from time to time, and will post these changes to our web site.  We encourage you to periodically review our Privacy Pledge.  A notice of any significant changes will be provided to panel members via written, electronic, or other notice from BI.