Whether brands launch a new product or refine an existing one, they study their customers and market. Even running a mammoth promotional program needs market research to gauge the market pulse. For that, they launch surveys.

And every study needs your data. Your demographics like name, age, gender, and sometimes your employment-related details and salary structure. Do you think propagating these facts about yourself is safe?

Yes! Provided you’re diligent and careful.

Data sharing is safe unless you don’t know some crucial guidelines. So, we’re running a series of 2 posts to keep you abreast against the data security threats prevailing in the market. Before that, you should know what you might face if your data is misused.

Why Your Data Privacy is Important in Online Surveys

Data is the hackers’ key to messing up with, replicating, or misusing your digital personality. If stolen and misrepresented, you might be locked out of your digital life. That means misappropriation or theft of your personal data might land you with identity theft. Manipulation of health and financial information can damage your economic status and social status and can even cause life-threatening situations.

If we keep aside the extremely hostile effects of personal data security breaches, your data is still vulnerable to small problems. Your gender, age, email address, and salary information, if leaked, might invite unwanted promotional materials and nagging emails, calls, and texts. No wonder you must protect your data to maintain peace of your mind.

However, you, as a participant, need not worry about all these scary circumstances in the online surveys of reputed panel companies like Opinionest. Cautious brands and legit market research companies deploy strict guidelines to take care of your data privacy while conducting studies.

Alongside these regulations, you should also be vigilant while you make money with online surveys and voicing out your opinions.

Ways You Can Keep Your Privacy Intact as A Survey Participant

1. Understand Data Collection Processes

Market research processes inevitably collect your personal information under the demographics. This is necessary to aggregate the outcome during analyses according to certain parameters like age, location, salary range, etc. However, surveys collect your name and email address to communicate.

Some surveys, like CATI, call on your number to collect data. Delving into such sensitive data might not suit you. Some surveys might ask you to record a video review of a product, and this video might be used on social media, review websites, and product pages.

So, know what a survey is collecting from you, for what purpose, and how that information will be used and stored.

2. Go Anonymous and Bank on Confidentiality

Most surveys and brands offer anonymity and confidentiality. Anonymity means your identity doesn’t connect with your responses. And confidentiality saves your identity and responses from being shared with an unauthorized party.

If a brand or survey panel doesn’t offer these, they must have a solid reason not to. And you have the right to check with them if they don’t.

3. Look into the Past

Before participating in a survey, thoroughly research the company and any controversial news related to its ethics and users’ personal data security breaches. Social media and the internet exist to help you find such snippets of information.

A quick scrutiny of the panel company, their online user reviews, and news about them can help you decide whether the survey is meant for you.

4. Read Those Fine Lines

Market research teams maintain data anonymity and aggregation policy to protect users’ identities. That is, they don’t reveal your identity or identifiable data in their results.

Every market research company and survey panel reveals elaborate privacy policies and terms of service related to the survey processes and data. If you don’t find reading this section vital, you might end up in a soup and will not have a way out.

Look for data sharing and privacy guidelines, their storage policies, what you’re consenting to, your rights to revoke your consent anytime, and other rights you can practice.

5. Know About Third-Party Data Sharing

Surveys may share limited data with third parties for analysis and research purposes. To not let your data get misused or your identity misrepresented, you must know how, why, and where that third party will use your data.

A third party could be an advert, social media widget, or any other embedded tool in the survey’s website for analytics, which generally uses the data via cookies. However, there are several other methods.

The least you must do to defend your private and sensitive information’s integrity is to be vigilant. Don’t accept sharing all the information via cookies; share what is mandatory. Decline sharing the data if you can.

Also, read the surveyor’s policy page about such data sharing and question them if anything is suspicious. Making informed choices about your participation can keep you safe in the digital world.

Now That You Know Data Privacy Tips…

By addressing the tips on protecting yourself from data privacy vulnerabilities, this post aims to equip survey takers like you with decision-making tools. Stay tuned for the concluding post in this series. And if you like to participate in legit online surveys, please register for free and start today with Opinionest. Follow the steps mentioned here to participate in safe and legit online studies.