QualNow Privacy Policy

About this privacy policy

This privacy policy has been compiled to better serve those who are concerned with how their 'Personally identifiable information' (PII) is being used online. PII, as used in US privacy law and information security, is information that can be used on its own or with other information to identify, contact, or locate a single person, or to identify an individual in context. Please read our privacy policy carefully to get a clear understanding of how we collect, use, protect or otherwise handle your Personally Identifiable Information in accordance with our website.

We reserve the right to change this Privacy Policy from time to time without notice. You acknowledge and agree that it is your responsibility to review this Privacy Policy periodically to familiarize yourself with any modifications. Your continued use of this site after such modifications will constitute acknowledgment and agreement of the modified privacy policy.

What personal information do we collect from the people that visit our blog, website or app?

When registering on our site you will be asked to enter personal information that includes your first name, last name and email address to help you with your experience participating in and/or creating your own surveys. If you also choose to register for the QualNow panel you will be asked for demographic information, including your age, gender, education level, location (city/state/country/region), household income, employment status, school status (full/part-time student) and type of area you live in (rural, suburban, urban).

To protect your identity and be in compliance with the market research industry code of conduct, your email address and full last name are never revealed to your fellow survey participants and/or researchers (i.e., those that created the survey). Only the first letter of your last name is ever shown to the researchers/survey creator. However, your full name and email address is visible to employees of QualNow for the express purpose of sending honorariums (rewards) to survey participants.

As a QualNow customer will be asked to provide billing information (e.g., credit card number, billing address, expiration date, card security code, company name, company address, PO numbers, etc.) if you choose to to run a survey. We do not store your credit card information on our servers, and use a third-party service (Stripe.com) as a credit card processor.

When do we collect information?

We collect information from you when you register on our site, fill out a form (e.g., when registering or creating a survey) or enter information on our site (e.g., when participating in a survey, when entering payment information to run a survey).

How do we use your information?

We may use the information we collect from you when you register, sign up for an account, create a survey, participate in a survey, analyze a survey, view a survey, respond to email communications related to a survey, surf the website, or use certain other site features in the following ways:

  • To display information provided in the context of a survey (e.g., replies within survey questions).
  • To personalize a user's experience and to allow us to deliver the type of content in which you are most interested.
  • To administer a survey or other site feature.
  • To send periodic emails regarding your account and/or the surveys you are part of.
  • To send emails regarding surveys that are available and you may qualify for.
  • To manage the distribution of honorariums (rewards) to survey respondents.

Is my information anonymous when I am participating in a survey?

The creator of the survey and any people invited to view the survey are able to view your first name and the first letter of your last name. They are also able to vie the information that you shared when registering for the QualNow panel, as well as any answers you have provided to the pre-screening questionnaires (e.g., the questions you are asked to see if you qualify for a given survey). This is consistent with standard market research industry practices with regards to Personally Identifiable Information from survey respondents.

Is my information ever sold or rented to a third party?

No. QualNow does not sell or rent customer or survey participant information to any third-party advertisers or marketers. QualNow provides a platform for collecting feedback online in exchange for fees paid by QualNow customers, and as such does not have a business model that relies on selling data to third parties. Please note, however, that as a participant in a survey the person running your survey owns the data collected, and as such may share your responses and the information noted above with others for the purpose of marketing or sales activities.

Do I ever have to pay to participate in a survey?

No. Please email us immediately at [email protected] if you are ever asked to pay to participate in a survey on QualNow.

Do I get paid for participating in surveys on QualNow?

Yes. As a "thank you" for your time and valuable feedback, all people that participate in surveys on QualNow are offered monetary rewards for taking surveys. The amount you will receive for taking a given survey will vary direclty with the length of the survey on a one-to-one basis (e.g., for each additional question you answer, you will receive a larger reward). The rewards will vary with the length of the survey, although the minimum you will receive is $0.50 per reply. QualNow reserves the right to change this minimum threshold higher or lower at any time, although if we change the minimum amount this will NOT impact the rewards you have already earned.

Who sends out the rewards?

All survey rewards are tracked and administered directly by QualNow to ensure you are paid fairly for your time and in a reasonable time frame.

When will I receive my reward(s)?

Every Monday afternoon (US Eastern Time) we run a report on who is eligible to be paid for participating in a survey, and then pay those who have reached the minimum threshold. The minimum threshold for receiving a reward is currently $10.00. Please note that QualNow reserves the right to increase or lower the minimum threshold at any time.

What are the rewards?

All rewards are paid out in the form of Amazon.com gift cards, and are delivered by email to the confirmed email address we have for you on file.

Is there a processing fee to receive my reward?

No. We use Amazon gift card specifically because they do not charge fees for delivering gift cards and are relatively easy for us to administer, meaning you get paid exactly what you earned and deserve, with zero processing fees ever (unlike other survey panels!).

Do we use 'cookies' or log files?

Yes. Cookies are small files that a site or its service provider transfers to your computer's hard drive through your Web browser (if you allow) that enables the site's or service provider's systems to recognize your browser and capture and remember certain information. For instance, we use cookies to help us remember and process the information you share in the surveys you are part of. They are also used to help us understand your preferences based on previous or current site activity, which enables us to provide you with improved site features and services. We also use cookies to help us compile aggregate data about site traffic and site interaction so that we can offer better site experiences and tools in the future.

In addition, like most web sites we gather certain information automatically and store it in log files. This information includes IP (Internet Protocol) addresses, browser type, internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, operating system, date/time stamp and clickstream data. We use this information to analyse trends, to administer our site, to track users' movements around our site and to gather demographic information about our user base as a whole.

Why do we use cookies?

We use cookies to:

  • Understand and save a user's preferences for future visits.
  • Compile aggregate data about site traffic and site interactions in order to offer better site experiences and tools in the future. We also use trusted third party services (e.g., Google Analytics) that track this information on our behalf.

You can choose to have your computer warn you each time a cookie is being sent, or you can choose to turn off all cookies. You do this through your browser (like Internet Explorer) settings. Each browser is a little different, so look at your browser's Help menu to learn the correct way to modify your cookies.

What happens if you disable cookies?

If you disable cookies, some features will be disabled. It will turn off some of the features that make your site experience more efficient and some of our services (e.g., participating in surveys, creating surveys and creating questions to be asked in surveys, sorting the order of questions you have created, etc.) will not function properly.

Third Party Disclosure

We do not sell, trade, or otherwise transfer to outside parties your personally identifiable information. This does not include the specific information (outlined earlier in this Privacy Policy) that is shared with QualNow customers in the process of them administering and analyzing survey feedback. This also does not include sharing select information with website hosting partners and other parties who assist us in operating our website, conducting our business, or servicing you, so long as those parties agree to keep this information confidential. We may also release your information when we believe release is appropriate to comply with the law, enforce our site policies, or protect ours or others' rights, property, or safety.

Please note that non-personally identifiable visitor information may be provided to other parties for marketing, advertising, or other uses. For example, we may release information on our overall site statistics for marketing purposes. This non-personally identifiable visitor information is only shared at an aggregate level.

Third party links

We do not include or offer third party products or services directly on our website. However, each survey is run independently by organizations (e.g., customers of QualNow) that may not be directly affiliated with QualNow. In these surveys you may be solicited with offers for third-party products or services, which QualNow will not be aware of. QualNow does not endorse these third-party products and services posted in surveys not directly run by QualNow.

Staff access to information

QualNow staff will only access your account information to provide technical or administrative support, and to the least extent needed to solve a technical or administrative issue. We will not disseminate or share data other than you have directed, in accordance with the policies outlined in this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Service.

Data security

QualNow is hosted within Amazon.com's secure data centers using Amazon Web Services (AWS). Additional technical support and hosting services are provided by Heroku.com. More information about the AWS infrastructure and security policies can be found at https://aws.amazon.com/security, while information on Heroku's infrastructure and security policies can be found at https://www.heroku.com/policy/security.

In addition to the security provided via Amazon.com's infrastructure, QualNow uses a security and content delivery solution provided by CloudFlare to provide additional security protections against a range of potential threats, including cross site scripting and DDoS attacks, SQL injection, comment spam, excessive bot crawling and email harvesting.

All information transferred to and from QualNow.com (including unauthenticated pages) are secured by end-to-end 128 bit SSL connections via GlobalSign Organization Validation CA.

Google

Google's advertising requirements can be summed up by Google's Advertising Principles. They are put in place to provide a positive experience for users. https://support.google.com/adwordspolicy/answer/1316548?hl=en

We have not enabled Google AdSense advertising on our site, but reserve the right to do so in the future.

California Online Privacy Protection Act

CalOPPA is the first state law in the United States to require commercial websites and online services to post a privacy policy. The law's reach stretches well beyond California to require a person or company in the United States (and conceivably the world) that operates websites collecting personally identifiable information from California consumers to post a conspicuous privacy policy on its website stating exactly the information being collected and those individuals with whom it is being shared, and to comply with this policy. - See more at: http://consumercal.org/california-online-privacy-protection-act-caloppa/#sthash.0FdRbT51.dpuf

According to CalOPPA we agree to the following:

  • Users can visit our site anonymously before registering/signing in to the service.
  • Once this privacy policy is created, we will add a link to it on our home page, or as a minimum on the first significant page after entering our website.
  • Our Privacy Policy link includes the word 'Privacy', and can be easily be found in the footer of each page of our website.

Users will be notified of any privacy policy changes:

  • On our Privacy Policy Page

Users are able to change their personal information:

  • QualNow customers (survey creators/administrators) can change their personal information by logging in to their account. To login to your account visit https://app.qualnow.com/c/sign_in. To sign-in, enter the email address and password you used to register. On the page that follows signing-in, click on your username on the right-hand side of the header (at the top of the website) and then click "My Account". On this page you can change/update your email address and password.
  • Participants in surveys on QualNow and QualNow panel members can update their personal information by emailing our panel support address at [email protected].

How does our site handle do not track signals?

We don't honor do not track signals and do not track, plant cookies, or use advertising when a Do Not Track (DNT) browser mechanism is in place. We don't honor them because:

  • Capabilities do not currently exist to track signals.

Does our site allow third party behavioral tracking?

It's also important to note that we do not allow third party behavioral tracking

COPPA (Children Online Privacy Protection Act)

When it comes to the collection of personal information from children under 13, the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) puts parents in control. The Federal Trade Commission, the nation's consumer protection agency, enforces the COPPA Rule, which spells out what operators of websites and online services must do to protect children's privacy and safety online.

We do not specifically market to children under 13, nor do we allow children under the age of 13 to participate in any surveys on QualNow.com.

CAN SPAM Act

The CAN-SPAM Act is a law that sets the rules for commercial email, establishes requirements for commercial messages, gives recipients the right to have emails stopped from being sent to them, and spells out tough penalties for violations.

We collect your email address in order to:

  • Send information related to your account and/or the surveys you are part of, respond to inquiries (e.g., for customer or survey participant support), and/or other requests or questions. If you decide to run a survey, we may from time-to-time email you with information related to new features, how-to and assistance/advice and (very occasionally) company news. This information is never sent to survey participants. You may unsubscribe at any time from these survey moderator-related communications.

To be accordance with CANSPAM we agree to the following:

  • NOT use false, or misleading subjects or email addresses
  • Identify the message as an advertisement in some reasonable way
  • Include the physical address of our business or site headquarters
  • Monitor third party email marketing services for compliance, if one is used.
  • Honor opt-out/unsubscribe requests quickly
  • Allow users to unsubscribe by using the link at the bottom of each email

If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from receiving future emails, you can:

Access to personal information

To request access to personal information that we hold about you, we require that you submit your request in writing at the e-mail address or postal address shown below (in Contacting us). You may be able to access your personal information and correct, amend or delete it where it is inaccurate, except as follows:

  • Providing access to your personal information would be likely to reveal personal information about others;
  • Disclosing the information would reveal the confidential commercial information of a QualNow customer or its clients.
  • The burden or expense of providing access would be disproportionate to the risks to your privacy in the case in question.
  • We will endeavour to provide your requested personal information within 30 days of receiving your access request. If we cannot fulfil your request, we will provide you with a written explanation of why we had to deny your access request.

Contacting Us

If there are any questions regarding this privacy policy you may contact us using the information below:

QualNow
260 East Main Street, Suite #6317
Rochester, NY 14604
[email protected]

Last Edited on 2018-8-29