CMI Privacy Policy

ConsumerMetrics, Inc. d/b/a CMI (“CMI,” “we,” or “us”) respects the privacy of the individuals who visit our website, located at http://www.cmiresearch.com and participate in our research projects and/or download our resources. This Privacy Policy outlines the information we collect, how we collect it, and how we will use that information.

We’ve developed this Privacy Policy from industry guidelines and standards, and local, national, and international laws and requirements.  We routinely review our privacy and security practices and continually enhance them to protect your privacy.

The information we gather
As part of our research studies, we receive the information that you voluntarily provide, including, without limitation, your name, residential or work address, email address, phone number, certain demographic information (such as your age, income level or race), and information regarding your hobbies and/or shopping behavior.  Because we generally use third-party sample providers for our online research, we usually do not receive any personally-identifiable information as part of our research conducted online.   For some research projects, we may also request certain limited financial or health information.  Please note that CMI never asks for your financial account numbers or passwords. 

We may also receive personally-identifiable information from a third-party who may request that we contact you to participate in a research project, and from third-party providers of address and phone lists.  In those instances, we may receive from such third-party basic personal information (such as name, address, age, etc.), your connection with the third-party, your interests and/or product ownership, and your contact information.  

In all other instances, we collect information through our research methods, website and when you make requests for information about our services or other inquiries.  We may also seek other personally or non-personally identifiable information from you or where such information is otherwise publicly available. 

In addition to the information described above, we will passively collect information that is automatically sent to us by your web browser.  This information typically includes your IP address and domain name (the site after the @ in your email address).  It may also contain your user name (the name before the @ in your email address).  The amount of information sent depends on the settings you have on your web browser; please refer to your browser if you want to learn what information it sends.

How we use your information
Research project respondent information is used solely for research purposes.  We will never try to sell our respondents anything; we are only interested in opinions.  When you complete a research project, your responses are generally analyzed in aggregate with all other respondents’ information and reported not individually, but in the aggregate.  We support the rights of our survey respondents by limiting the use of their information for legitimate marketing research purposes, and are active in supporting industry organizations created to uphold ethical survey research (this support includes making every effort to conform to the organizations’ ethical standards), such as the Council of American Survey Research Organizations (CASRO).  We will never share our survey respondents’ email addresses or personally identifiable information with anyone except our clients and vendors, but only for marketing research purposes and in compliance with applicable industry codes.  All clients, agents or sub-contractors who receive personally-identifiable information from CMI must sign a confidentiality or “chain of trust” agreement. 

We may also disclose your personal information to a third-party when required to do so by law, or to protect someone’s safety, or our rights or property.

If you participate in one of our “bulletin board” online research studies, please note that your posts may be visible to other members of the board. 

If you submit a request for information regarding our services through our website, we will use your personal information to respond to your request. We also may automatically register you for our marketing list so that we can communicate directly with you by email or physical mailing address.  You may opt-out from our mailing lists by following the instructions at the bottom of such email or by contacting us using one of the methods described below. 

We use the information we automatically receive from your web browser to improve the quality of our website, including, without limitation, which pages you visit within our site, which site you visited before coming to ours, and where you go after you leave.  We can then develop statistics that are helpful to understand how this site is used.  This statistical data is interpreted by us in our continuing effort to present the website content that visitors are seeking in a format they find most helpful.

Compliance with Law; Children’s privacy protection
We strive to conform with the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), the CAN-SPAM Act, and other privacy regulations and guidelines in the US and other countries.

Occasionally, we conduct research with children under 13 but only with parental or legal guardian consent, as required by COPPA.  Depending on the sensitivity of the topic, we may also seek parental or legal guardian consent for interviewing children between 13 and 17 years of age.  If a parent or guardian learns that a child under 13 has provided us with personal information, such parent or guardian may contact us at the email address or mailing address listed at the bottom of this Privacy Policy 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.

Links
When participating in research, you may have the opportunity to link to other web sites. We are not responsible for the privacy policies of those sites.  We recommend that you carefully read the privacy policies of each site you visit.

Use of Cookies
Like many other websites, we may use cookies to provide a better experience for our visitors.  We limit their use for quality control and validation.  Cookies are used temporarily during the time you are actively on our website and we do not store or retain your cookie information in any way.  No personally identifiable information is transmitted via these cookies. 

Device ID
We or our third-party sample provider(s) may use digital fingerprinting technologies to assign a unique identifier or “Machine-ID” to a user’s computer to identify and track the computer.  We work principally with a third-party provider to deploy this technology (the “Technology”) and do not use it to collect personally identifiable information, or track the online activities, of the user of a computer; and the Technology will not disrupt or interfere with the use or control of a computer or alter, modify or change the settings or functionality of a computer.  We use the unique identifier to assist our clients in ensuring the integrity of survey results.  The third-party provider may use and analyze publicly available information and data obtained from the computer’s web browser and from other publicly available data points, including, without limitation, the technical settings of the computer, the characteristics of the computer, and the computer’s IP Address, to create a unique identifier assigned to the computer.  The Technology may employ both cookies as well as locally shared objects (also known as “flash cookies”).  The unique identifier is an alpha-numeric ID.  Additionally, to assist our clients in protecting and ensuring the integrity of survey results, we (a) may link or associate your unique identifier to you and any of your personally identifiable information; (b) may share your unique identifier with sample or panel providers; and (c) may receive or obtain a unique identifier linked to you from a third-party, including, without limitation, a sample or panel provider or a client of CMI.  Any unique identifier(s) received or obtained by CMI and linked to a specific individual will be protected in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

Data Security
We take the security of your information seriously.  Access to your personal information is restricted and limited to select CMI staff members who have a need to access such information to complete a legitimate business purpose, and access is subject to a strict password policy.  Our employees receive training in data privacy and protection.  We have security measures in place to prevent the loss, misuse, and alteration of the information under our control.  

While navigating our websites you may be directed to content or functionality that is hosted by a third-party supplier, not on a CMI-owned domain.  When information is collected on behalf of CMI exclusively, our Privacy Policy will be referenced on the site and will govern how your information is used.  For sites not owned by us, the site owner’s Privacy Policy will be referenced and will apply.

Do Not Track
Because we do not record any personally identifiable information without your express voluntary consent, we do not honor Do Not Track requests.

Transfer of information
We reserve the right to transfer personally identifiable information to a buyer in connection with a sale of stock or assets, merger, or any other change of control transaction.  Any acquirer would be required to honor our Privacy Policy.

Access to and Correction of Your Information
We will make available to you the personal information in our custody or control that we have collected, upon your written request, to the extent required and/or permitted by applicable law.   You may request your information and correct any information that you believe is inaccurate by contacting us in writing at the physical or email addresses provided below, and we will attempt to fulfill your request within 30 days, including requests regarding the personal information we have in our possession or control, what that information is being used for, and to whom it has been disclosed, if applicable.  In certain situations, however, we may not be able to give individuals access to all of their personal information, including where access would be likely to reveal information about a third-party or confidential commercial information or where the information has been collected or disclosed for the purposes of a legal investigation. 

Contacting us
Please contact us at connect@cmiresearch.com with any questions; we respond to most email inquiries by the end of the following business day.  You can also contact us by postal mail at Attn: Marketing Department, CMI, 2299 Perimeter Park Drive, Atlanta, Georgia 30341.

Changes to this policy
We will use information in accordance with the Privacy Policy under which the information was collected. If we are going to use your personally identifiable information in a manner different from that stated at the time of collection, we will notify you via email.  If you have opted out of all communication with the site, then you will not be contacted, nor will your personal information be used in this new manner.