Effective Date: 15 July 2020
Thank you for agreeing to join our select group of panelists. For decades, Nielsen has set the global standard for market and consumer insight research. Our insights are based on representative samples of the population and help our clients (e.g. broadcasters, media companies, manufacturers, retailers, non-profit organisations and governments) learn about what consumers watch, listen to and buy. By participating in our panel you are helping to create industry-standard statistics for Ireland and influencing programming and advertising content.
We take your privacy very seriously. This Privacy Notice explains what data we collect from or about you; how we use and protect that data and your legal rights.
The Nielsen Company collecting and processing personal data is Nielsen Media Watch Ireland Ltd., 14 Riverwalk, National Digital Park, Citywest Business Campus, Dublin, D24 XN32.
More information about Nielsen’s full group of companies, one or more of which may also process personal data about you, can be found at: http://www.nielsen.com/eu/en/privacy-policy/gdpr-operating-entities.html.
You can contact Nielsen, including our Data Protection Officer, in any of the following ways:
In the next section of this Privacy Notice, you will find further details on each of the following:
Nielsen complies with all applicable privacy laws, including the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation. Indeed, it is crucial for us to keep Nielsen panelist data confidential in order to prevent any interference with panelists that could affect their behaviour and the accuracy of our data.
Nielsen processes your data and, where applicable, data about other members of or visitors to your household, on the basis of the contract you enter into with Nielsen, referred to as the Membership or Panel Agreement. The express purpose of our agreement with you is to obtain data from and about you and, where applicable, other members of your household, to be used for the purposes described in this Notice. By participating in a Nielsen panel, you are contributing your data to a pool of data from which broad audience statistics are derived. These statistics are relied upon by the media industry to make decisions on programming; scheduling and advertising. These statistics could be distorted if your data is subsequently altered or removed, so by participating in our panel, you expressly agree to allow us to maintain your data for the length of your participation in the panel, after which it will be used in a de-identified form for historical and statistical research purposes. You have legal rights with respect to your personal data, as described in “Your Choices and Your Legal Rights,” in Section 7.
Nielsen conducts research on usage of many different media platforms and Nielsen panelists can participate in different types of metering across different types of devices.
We perform different types of measurement in different countries and we do not perform all types in all countries. Where an opportunity exists to join one of our panels, panelists may agree to be measured on TV sets and/or additional digital devices. If you do not participate in a specific type of measurement (e.g. online viewing on smartphones or tablets), the provisions relating to those types of measurement, as set out below, do not apply to you.
Whichever type of panel(s) you participate in, data may be collected automatically and this automatic data collection may not always be obvious to you as it is happening. The goal of this Notice is to explain how these types of measurement work, what data they collect, and what we do with that data. Nielsen will only install measurement hardware or collect data from devices that you have authorised. We will not begin measuring an additional device without your prior knowledge and agreement.
Whichever Nielsen panel(s) you participate in, you may be invited to participate in additional research studies or surveys and some of these may require you to download software and/or interact with other companies, websites or applications. If you choose to participate, there may be additional types of data collection that would be disclosed to you at that time, as well as other terms and conditions. We will always tell you about new or substantially different types of data collection in advance and you can always withdraw your participation.
The following describes in detail the types of data Nielsen collects about panelists and its sources.
We categorise the data we collect into three general types:
We use the personal data we collect to create a variety of market research insights for our clients. We combine personal data you provide to us, information we collect via our hardware, and information from other sources to generate market research insights. Our research insights help our clients make choices about what type of programmes to show and when and where and how they advertise their products to consumers. Among other things, our data helps clients understand:
We use tools and methods to make sure that there is no reasonable possibility of identifying you from the data we provide to our clients. For example, the data we collect from you is combined with the data collected from our other panelists to produce aggregated reports from which you cannot be uniquely identified, or if it is not aggregated we take steps to make sure there is no reasonable possibility of re-identification.
We also provide data to our clients based upon modelled data. “Modelled data” are projections based on demographic and behavioural characteristics (like gender, age and TV viewing habits) that look at a sample group of people and then predict what people with similar characteristics or preferences are likely to watch or buy. For instance, this allows advertisers to identify the likely audience for a marketing campaign.
In connection with the above market-research related purposes, we process personal data on the basis of your agreement with us pursuant to Article 6(1) lit. b, GDPR or because we (and the broadcast industry) have a legitimate interest pursuant to Article 6(1) lit. f, GDPR in performing research to generate market insights for ourselves, our affiliates, and our clients (to the extent such interest is not overridden by your interests or fundamental rights and freedoms).
We may use your data to contact you. When we contact you by phone (including mobile phone), email, SMS or by post depending on what data you provide to us, we usually do so for one of the following reasons:
By participating in our research you agree that we may contact you by the means you provide to us for these purposes while you are participating in the panel. Where required by applicable law, we will seek your consent pursuant to Article 6(1) lit. a, GDPR.
Other Purposes: In addition to processing personal data for our research purposes as described above, we process personal data to:
We will also de-identify data about you and use it or allow others to use it for historical, academic or longitudinal research. We ensure in such cases that there is no reasonable possibility of re-identifying you from the data used.
We process personal data for Other Purposes because we have a legitimate interest (or our clients have a legitimate interest) pursuant to Article 6(1) lit. f, GDPR (to the extent the following legitimate interests are not overridden by your interest or fundamental rights and freedoms), in (i) managing and operating our business and day-to-day affairs. This includes our client’s interest in the continuity of the panel in the event our client (TAM Ireland who represent the Irish Broadcast Industry) wishes to appoint a different, non-Nielsen market research company, and we need to transfer personal data to a different market research company as a result; (ii) managing and enhancing protection against fraud, spam, harassment, intellectual property infringement, and risks to which we are exposed (e.g., crime and security risks), (iii) conduct research and improving our products and services; (iv) managing risks to which Nielsen is exposed, and to provide a safe and secure environment for panel members; (v) complying with laws and regulations to which one or more entities within the Nielsen group of companies is subject, including, where applicable, laws and regulations of countries other than your country of residence; and (vi) meeting our obligations and enforcing our legal rights.
We process personal data to comply with a legal obligation arising under applicable law to which we are subject such as compliance with Nielsen’s legal and regulatory obligations, as well as establishing, exercising, and defending our legal rights.
Because we are continually adapting our services to evolving consumer and media consumption patterns, we may, in the future, wish to use your data in other ways that we haven’t developed yet, in which case we will provide you notice and choice in accordance with applicable law.
We use cookies and other digital technologies (collectively “Digital Technologies”) for the purposes described in this section on our “Panelist Portal Website”.
The technologies we use may include (not all will be applicable in every case):
You can find more information about cookies at www.allaboutcookies.org.
The digital technologies we use on the panelist portal website are necessary in order to enable you to move around the website and use its features, such as accessing secure areas of the website (i.e. authentication cookie); navigating between pages (i.e. a session cookie – without this cookie, each page you visited would treat you as a new visitor); keeping track of the data you input when completing online forms (i.e. user-input cookies) and operating the website (i.e. load balancing cookies).
We may share personal data with:
Nielsen performs security reviews before engaging service providers who may have access to individual-level data. We obtain contractual assurances relating to the lawfulness of data we obtain from third parties.
Participation in our panel is always voluntary. You may withdraw from our panel at any time by contacting your Nielsen Representative. If you cease participation, we will continue to process the data we collected during the time you were a panelist. If you wish to exercise any of your legal rights described below, please contact us.
You can also contact us by the means found at the beginning of this Notice.
Your privacy rights include:
If you believe Nielsen has not complied with privacy laws or the terms of this Notice, you may lodge a complaint with Nielsen’s Data Protection Officer using the contact information found at the top of this Notice, or with the Irish Data Protection Authority https://www.dataprotection.ie/.
For our research, we generally seek to collect data about every member of your household, including children. As described in this Notice, our technology collects information about viewing behaviour and preferences from members of your household including from children who may use measured devices (e.g. Television sets, Tablets or Smartphones). A parent or guardian must contract via the Panel or Membership Agreement on behalf of each child in the household in order for us to conduct such measurement.
In addition, when children use devices from which our streaming meter technology measures media consumption, persistent identifiers are used to collect and track information. Only those devices registered by the technician when the meters are installed or, for new or replacement devices, at the Nielsen Panelist Portal will be measured and a parent or legal guardian must register (or authorize the registration of) any devices on behalf of a child.
All of the provisions of this notice apply to data about children of any age (up to 18) if data collection about them has been authorised by a parent or guardian. For more information on our collection and use practices for all panelists, please review the other sections of this Privacy Notice.
Nielsen maintains a global data security organisation that uses reasonable organisational, technical and administrative measures to protect your data while under our control.
We may store and process your data in your home country and/or we may transfer and export such data outside of the European Economic Area to any country where we have facilities or in which we engage service providers and processors, including the United States and India. The data protection laws of other countries may differ from those in your home country. When we transfer data outside the European Union, we ensure that we do so in compliance with the GDPR. Such transfers may be made on the basis of a data transfer agreement with the data recipient based on standard contractual clauses or such other mechanism as is approved by the European Commission for transfers of personal data to third countries.
We will retain your data for as long as needed for the purposes described in this Notice and in accordance with applicable law. When you are no longer an active panelist, we will continue to use data about your demographic characteristics as well as behaviour and preference data for historical and statistical research, but this data will be kept separate to data that could be used to identify you, and access to it will be strictly limited within Nielsen. All data will be permanently de-identified when we no longer need to identify you for panel management, audit, legal, fraud prevention or related purposes.
This Notice replaces any other statement, whether written or oral, made to you about our practices with respect to Nielsen’s collection and use of personal data about you.
THANK YOU – WE APPRECIATE AND VALUE YOUR PARTICIPATION!
Nielsen Holdings plc (NYSE: NLSN) is a global measurement and data analytics company that provides the most complete and trusted view available of consumers and markets worldwide. The company’s approach marries proprietary Nielsen data with other data sources to help clients around the world understand what’s happening now, what’s happening next, and how to best act on this knowledge. For more information, please visit www.nielsen.com.