SurveyMonkey Rewards Privacy Notice
Last Updated: August 1, 2023
This privacy notice (“Rewards Privacy Notice”) describes privacy practices which are specific to our survey-taking mobile app (“SurveyMonkey Rewards”) and should be read in conjunction with our main Privacy Notice (“Main Privacy Notice”) and Region Specific Privacy Notice (for US residents). Where there is a conflict, this Rewards Privacy Notice takes precedence.
SurveyMonkey Rewards is used by people who are interested in taking surveys using the SurveyMonkey Rewards (“Panelists” or “you”). The people who create the surveys taken by Panelists (“Survey Creators”) are either (i) users of our services or (ii) a third party vendor we may use, upon your consent, to map certain data to specific venues and locations or such third party's customers, and in both the case of (i) and (ii) are interested in sending surveys to Panelists through SurveyMonkey Rewards. SurveyMonkey Rewards is only offered for use in the U.S. If you are located outside the U.S., you should not be able to access or use SurveyMonkey Rewards.
SurveyMonkey Rewards is used by people who are interested in taking surveys using the SurveyMonkey Rewards (“Panelists” or “you”). The people who create the surveys taken by Panelists (“Survey Creators”) are either (i) users of our services or (ii) a third party vendor we may use, upon your consent, to map certain data to specific venues and locations or such third party's customers, and in both the case of (i) and (ii) are interested in sending surveys to Panelists through SurveyMonkey Rewards. SurveyMonkey Rewards is only offered for use in the U.S. If you are located outside the U.S., you should not be able to access or use SurveyMonkey Rewards.
This Rewards Privacy Notice describes how SurveyMonkey Inc. (“SurveyMonkey” or “we” or “our”) collects, uses, shares and protects the personal information you provide as a Panelist using SurveyMonkey Rewards. It also describes your choices regarding use, access and correction of your personal information. We refer to surveys conducted through SurveyMonkey Rewards as “SurveyMonkey Rewards surveys,” and these are treated differently than surveys conducted through our main website.
WHAT PERSONAL INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT
Below is a list of information that we collect from you and about you when you use SurveyMonkey Rewards. Information regarding the categories of information we may collect about you or your use of SurveyMonkey Rewards can be found in our Main Privacy Notice. The sections afterward describe what we do with this information.
Registration Information
You are required to create a SurveyMonkey Rewards user account (a “SurveyMonkey Rewards User Account”) to use SurveyMonkey Rewards as a Panelist. To register for a SurveyMonkey Rewards User Account, we need to collect account information from you (your first name, username, password, and email address).
Profile Data
To allow Survey Creators to target Panelists with specific characteristics when conducting surveys, we build profiles of Panelists. We build up your profile by asking you to answer questions about yourself and from device and metadata data we collect about your device. See “Device and Metadata Data” section below for more information on that. We refer to all of this information as “profile data.” When compiling profile data, we may collect your demographic information (e.g., year of birth, gender, employment status, the industry in which you work, ethnicity, religion, income level, education level, country of residence, zip code, political views, home ownership status, marital status, number of children, etc.), interests (e.g., what activities you participate in and how often you participate), preferences (e.g., what sort of food or drinks you like, and places you visit assuming you have turned on location tracking on your mobile device). We also build up your profile data by collecting your location data if you have consented to that. See “Location Data” section below for more information on that.
Survey Response Data
We collect your survey response data which may directly identify you or which, when used with other information which we hold about you, may identify you. For more details of how we treat survey responses generally and the appropriate owner of your responses, see the Survey Respondent section of our Main Privacy Notice.
Usage Data
We receive usage data about you whenever you interact with the SurveyMonkey Rewards through a third party analytics provider. This may include which pages and screens within SurveyMonkey Rewards you visit, what you click on, and which surveys you complete. Additionally, like most mobile apps, our web servers keep log files that record data each time a device accesses those servers. The log files may include Internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, the files viewed on our site (e.g., HTML pages, graphics, etc.), operating system, date/time stamp, and/or clickstream data to analyze trends in the aggregate and administer the site.
Device and Metadata Data
We receive data from the device you use to access SurveyMonkey Rewards, such as your operating system version, device manufacturer and model, carrier (i.e., mobile provider), system locale. We may also store any information collected by the core SDK, like device name (can be personalized by device owner) and user agent string. We also collect data through the use of cookies. Please see our cookies notice for more information.
Location Data and Sensor Data
If you have consented to location tracking by enabling in your device's settings “Always Allow” or “Allow,” or their current equivalent, as the case may be depending upon your device's operating system, then regardless if you have SurveyMonkey Rewards open or closed, we will collect GPS coordinates and other sensor data such as speed, bearing, list of installed apps, accelerometer, and vertical accuracy from your device so we can personalize the surveys directed to you.
If you have consented to location tracking by enabling in your device's settings “Only while using the app,” or its current equivalent, as the case may be depending upon your device's operating system, then only if you have SurveyMonkey Rewards open will we collect GPS coordinates and other sensor data such as speed, bearing, list of installed apps, accelerometer, and vertical accuracy from your device so we can personalize the surveys directed to you.
Be aware that persons with whom you share your device may consent to such location tracking. Do not share your device if you wish to prevent this possibility.
Provision of Information is Voluntary
You can always choose not to provide any personal information that we ask you for. However, your ability to use the SurveyMonkey Rewards may be limited if you do not give information that we require to provide you with our services. For example:
- If you do not provide profile data, you may be unable to participate in surveys or your chances of being chosen for a survey may be reduced.
- If you do not enable your location tracking on your device at the device level, we cannot service you with location based surveys.
Sensitive Information
You may be asked to provide sensitive information as part of your profile data. When providing answers to sensitive questions (e.g. personal information specifying medical or health conditions, racial or ethnic origin, political opinions or affiliations, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership or information related to one's sexual preferences), you explicitly consent to the collection of that data. You can opt-out at any time by not answering the question, or choosing “prefer not to say”, which will erase any previous answer to that question. If we intend to disclose such information to a third party or use it for a purpose other than as described in this Rewards Privacy Notice, we will obtain your specific permission to do so prior to any such use or disclosure.
HOW DO WE USE YOUR INFORMATION?
To provide you with relevant surveys
We use your profile data to target surveys and send you invitations to take those surveys. For e.g., if the profile data you provide shows you are a 30-year-old female living in New York who was recently in the vicinity of a local branch of an international chain of coffee shops, we may send you a survey from a Survey Creator that is interested in the opinions of any person living in New York between age 25-35 who was recently in the vicinity of the local branch.
To improve SurveyMonkey Rewards
We internally use the data we receive to improve our service. For e.g., we use and analyze usage data (such as page view data and response rates) to make the surveys we send more relevant to you, to improve the SurveyMonkey Rewards user interface and to maintain a consistent and reliable user experience. We use profile data to help us to improve the quality of panel which we surface for Survey Creators.
To provide Survey Creators with more targeting criteria
We may use your survey responses to provide other Survey Creators with more ways to reach the target demographic they want. However, we do not give your actual survey responses to Survey Creators other than the Survey Creator actually conducting the survey. For example, assume that you disclose in a survey that your stock portfolio has 21 stocks and assume further that we allow Survey Creators to target Panelists based on their stock portfolio sizes.
To verify compliance
We may inspect and use techniques like machine learning on your survey responses to ensure your compliance with the SurveyMonkey Rewards Terms of Use and determine quality responses so we have a consistent and reliable panel.
WHO WE DISCLOSE YOUR INFORMATION TO AND WHAT INFORMATION WE SHARE
Our main Privacy Notice describes the categories of personal information we may disclose for business purposes or as required by applicable law. In particular, we disclose your personal information as follows:
Location Data
We may permit a third party vendor to collect certain location and sensor data (geographic data like latitude and longitude and other sensor data such as speed, bearing, list of installed apps, accelerometer, and vertical accuracy) from your device if you have enabled location tracking. The vendor can use that data to determine information about your device and to provide us information mapping your device to specific venues and locations, dates, times, and durations (“Return Data”).
Our location vendor may use that data to send you surveys through the SurveyMonkey Rewards (see “Survey Creators” section below for more information on that) so in that instance the vendor and its customer can be Survey Creators / users of our services and receive survey responses (see “Survey responses” section below for more information on that). Our location vendor may also use that data for market research and additional purposes.
Survey Creators
We disclose the following information to Survey Creators:
Survey responses
We host surveys for Survey Creators. Anything you expressly disclose in your survey responses is provided to them. Survey Creators may have their own privacy policies which apply to surveys that they create using our services. These policies detail how they handle your information and if one is provided, we encourage you to read them. SurveyMonkey's Privacy Notice only applies to treatment of your information by SurveyMonkey and a Survey Creator's privacy policy should be limited to the manner in which that Survey Creator will treat your information. In circumstances where there is any conflict between this Rewards Privacy Notice and a Survey Creator's privacy policy (in terms of the Survey Creator purporting to mandate how we treat your information), this Rewards Privacy Notice will take precedence.
Basic demographics to Survey Creators
When you respond to a survey, we automatically provide the Survey Creator with a specific set of information about you that we compile from your profile data for the Survey Creator. We refer to this set of information as “basic demographics”. It includes your:
- Age
- Device
- Gender
- Income
- Region (as produced using zip code)
The sharing of your basic demographics happens behind the scenes and is not visible in the survey questions themselves. We do not include your name or contact details as part of the basic demographics, but a Survey Creator could determine your identity by combining basic demographics with other information.
Location and other information to Survey Creators
When you respond to a survey, we may automatically provide the Survey Creator with certain Return Data about you that is deidentified.
The sharing of this Return Data happens behind the scenes and is not visible in the survey questions themselves. We do not include your name or contact details as part of it.
Other Third Parties
We may also disclose or share information about you with other third party trusted partners (in addition to any vendor we may use for location data) as part of provisioning and improving services. For example, in order to facilitate your requested reward redemption for certain gift card options, we may share certain account information such as your email address, country, balance amount, and user ID with our third party provider.
We will not share your information with any third parties for reasons outside of provisioning and improving our services and for the other purposes described in this privacy policy except when we have:
- obtained your consent (e.g., by contacting you by email to ask you); or
- providing anonymized information, so that the information does not contain your personal information
We disclose the following information to third parties:
Anonymized Panelist statistics for informational purposes
We may disclose aggregated or anonymized statistics about our Panelists. For e.g., we may post on our blog or include in our marketing emails interesting statistics like the average response rate for surveys or what percentage of Panelists are male. Where data has been de-identified, we commit to preventing future re-identification.
Your information to Service providers
We may provide your personal information to companies that provide services to help us with our business activities such as log management. These companies are authorized to use your personal information only as necessary to provide these services to us.
Your information if there's a change in business ownership or structure
We may transfer your information, including all profile data, account details, other personal information, and responses to surveys, to a successor entity upon a merger, consolidation or other corporate reorganization in which SurveyMonkey participates or to a purchaser of all or substantially all of SurveyMonkey's assets related to SurveyMonkey Rewards. In this event, you will be notified via email and/or a prominent notice on our website, of any change in ownership, uses of your personal information, and choices you may have regarding your personal information. We may also disclose your personal information to any other third party with your prior consent.
Disclosures required by law
We may disclose your information as required or permitted by law, including for purposes of national security and law enforcement, or when we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, protect your safety or the safety of others, investigate fraud, and/or to comply with a judicial proceeding, court order, subpoena, or other legal process served on us.
Are your survey responses anonymous?
To Survey Creators, the answer is maybe. Of course, if you disclose your name in a survey, you won't be anonymous. But even if you don't, the information you do provide may be identifying, such as when combined with other information. Remember that Survey Creators are also supplied with your basic demographics. To help preserve your privacy, we require a Survey Creator's targeting criteria to match a certain minimum number of Panelists before we allow the survey to be conducted.
To SurveyMonkey, the answer is no. We link your responses back to your username but never fear, we do not abuse or exploit this. We do this to provide Survey Creators with additional targeting criteria (see “How do we use your information?” above). We do not disclose this link to the Survey Creators.
YOUR CHOICES AND CONTROLS
You can always refuse to answer a survey
Your participation in any survey is entirely voluntary and you may opt out of responding at any time.
You can update your information
If you want to change your profile data, contact rewards@surveymonkey.com and we will be happy to help. As a Panelist, you may access and correct certain personal information that we hold about you by visiting your SurveyMonkey Rewards profile page.
Information related to data collected by Survey Creators
If you are a Panelist that has chosen to provide your contact information to one of our Survey Creators and would no longer like to be contacted by one of our Survey Creators that use our service or who seeks access, or who seeks to correct, amend, or delete inaccurate information, please contact the Survey Creator that you interact with directly. Transfers to subsequent third parties are covered by the service agreements with our Survey Creators.
You can leave the SurveyMonkey Rewards and have your SurveyMonkey Rewards information deleted
If you no longer wish to use the SurveyMonkey Rewards or to receive notifications to take surveys, you can delete SurveyMonkey Rewards from your device.
If you wish to remove SurveyMonkey Rewards from your SurveyMonkey Rewards User Account and permanently delete your profile data, please contact rewards@surveymonkey.com. We will respond to your request within a reasonable timeframe. Any personal information submitted in the past to surveys will not be deleted - you will need to contact the Survey Creators who created those surveys to access that data.
Note that removing SurveyMonkey Rewards User Account will not delete your main SurveyMonkey account.
Data retention
We may retain your information (including the information we process on behalf of our Survey Creators) for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide you or the Survey Creator with services, comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes and enforce our agreements.
Rights and choices under local laws
Your local laws may extend additional rights and choices to you. Please review the "Your rights” section of our main Privacy Notice for further details.
Notice of financial incentives
SurveyMonkey provides certain rewards or incentives for Panelists to provide responses to surveys. You can opt into the rewards or incentives by registering for a SurveyMonkey Rewards User Account and answering surveys using your account credentials. Your participation is completely voluntary, and you have a right to withdraw from SurveyMonkey Rewards at any time. If you decide you don't want to participate, you can refrain from submitting responses to surveys, or you can close your SurveyMonkey Rewards User Account.
The specific reward or incentive offered, if any, is made available to you when you provide responses to available surveys in SurveyMonkey Rewards - including completing your profile survey - and may vary based on the length of the survey and other factors identified below. The monetary value of the reward or incentive is a reasonable approximation of the monetary value of your survey responses to us. We have arrived at this estimate based on consideration of multiple factors, including the following: (1) revenue generated by SurveyMonkey in providing aggregated and/or anonymized responses and insights to customers; (2) expenses incurred by SurveyMonkey in operating SurveyMonkey Rewards; and (3) our reasonable assessment of revenue we may generate as a result of SurveyMonkey providing aggregated and/or anonymized responses and insights to customers.