Kantar TNS Postal Panels Terms and Conditions, Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy

This document explains your rights as a panellist, what we do with your personal data and how we keep it safe. Please read on. This stuff is important so we have done our best to make it short and easy to read.

Kantar TNS Postal Panels conduct research on behalf of Kantar TNS. Kantar UK Limited is the data controller. By joining the Kantar TNS Postal Panels and accepting these terms you agree that you have read and understood these terms and conditions and Privacy Policy.


Terms & Conditions of participation on the panels

Being invited to a panel or survey

Once you register we will check if we have an opening for you on any of the Postal Panels and will invite you to join when required. Participation is always voluntary and free. When you accept an invitation to one of our panels or surveys the information that you give must be true and accurate, and not misleading in any way. This applies both to the eligibility questionnaire and the information you submit once you are on the panel.

Mobile app

As part of our some of our surveys we may ask you to download and use our mobile app on your smartphone. The mobile app will not collect contact information or other data from your phone, only information that you agree to send us.

Keeping your personal information safe

We recommend that you take care with the personal information that you share

  • Do not send us your bank details or similar financial information in an email or letter, even when you need help with your panellist rewards or reimbursements.
  • We may ask you to take photographs and upload to our survey system as part of your participation in a survey. Please make sure that sensitive personal information is not visible in those photographs.
  • When we set up an account for you on one of our survey platforms, do not share your login details with others.

Privacy of other participants

On some of our Postal Panels surveys, we may send you the names and addresses of other panellists that are participating in the survey if it is necessary so that you can perform your survey tasks. We ask that you treat that information with the same confidentiality as your own personal information, dispose of it securely and not share it with others.

Panellists‘ rewards

The rewards and incentives that we offer for participation on Kantar TNS Postal Panels depend on you carrying out the panellist tasks as agreed. When we invite you to a panel or survey, we will explain the details of the rewards for that survey. By accepting the invite, you agree to the reward structure as it was explained to you. When your participation on the panels or surveys ends, you also stop earning rewards, incentives or entries to our prize draws.

Ending participation on our panels or surveys

You can end your participation in our panels at any time by sending us a message.

Kantar TNS may end your participation immediately, if:

  • You do not follow these Terms and Conditions
  • You misuse your participation on a panel, for any purpose
  • You have not carried out the agreed tasks as a panel member
  • Kantar TNS loses the right to process and use information that is necessary to run the panel.

Kantar TNS is also free to end your participation at its choosing, but we will always do our best to tell you the reason and to give you notice in advance.

Intellectual property and use of our websites

Our websites, questionnaires, survey materials, branding and images are protected by copyright laws. You should not copy, distribute, edit or make any use of them except what is allowed by these terms and conditions unless you have written permission from us.


Privacy Policy

Lawful collection and use

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, store and use the personal information you provide when taking part in the Kantar TNS Postal Panels. Panellists are members of the panels and for which Kantar UK Ltd is the data controller.

For the purpose of this Policy, the definition of ‘personal information’ is information which relates to and can identify a living individual.

When we contact you, generally in person, by telephone, email or post, we do so for one of the following purposes:

  • To invite you to participate in survey research;
  • To conduct a survey research interview with you;
  • To validate answers you gave in a recent survey we conducted;

Occasionally, we may contact you for one of these other purposes:

  • To notify you if you have won a prize draw that we conducted;
  • To arrange delivery/receipt of any rewards offered or any prize you may have won in a prize draw;
  • To take part in further research, if you have given us permission to re-contact you.

When you participate in our research, we may ask you for a range of information, including, for example, your personal opinions, and demographic information such as your age and household composition. You can refuse to answer any questions or stop your participation in a study at any time.

How Kantar TNS keeps your data safe

We apply strict processes, organizational structure and technological safety measures to protect the personal information you submit to us. These procedures are in line with accepted standards and legal requirements, and all Kantar TNS employees must follow them. Regular audits are carried out by internal and external auditors to check and confirm that our data security is effective.

How we use your data

We combine your survey responses in a given survey with the responses of all others who participate and report those combined responses to the client that commissioned the study.

Third parties and data transfer across borders

You can be assured that we will protect your privacy. We will not make your personal information available to anyone without your agreement unless it is for research purposes only or if required by law. This includes your name and e-mail address.

The only exceptions when we may disclose your personal information or survey responses to third parties are if:

  • You request or agree to share your identifying information and/or individual responses with a third party for a specified purpose;
  • When we provide your responses to a third-party data processor who is bound by contract to keep that information confidential and use it only for research or statistical purposes;
  • We may share your personal data with our sister companies within the WPP group, or 3rd party service providers for research-related purposes, such as data processing, and fulfilment of prize draws or other rewards. They are bound by contract to keep confidential any information they collect and disclose to us or we collect and disclose to them, and must protect it with security standards and practices that are equivalent to our own.

If these data transfers are across borders we put safeguards in place to ensure the transfer is made by a legitimate and secure method for the purposes of EU data protection law.

Cookies and log files

Cookies are small text files stored on your computer by a website that assigns a numerical user ID and stores certain information about your online browsing. They are used by web developers to help users navigate their websites efficiently and perform certain functions. The website sends information to the browser which then creates a text file. Every time the user goes back to the same website, the browser retrieves and sends this file to the website's server.

For behavioural tracking research, we use optional cookies / software applications, but only if you have given your explicit consent to such cookies / applications.

As is true of most online surveys, we gather certain information automatically and store it in survey data files. This information may include things like Internet Protocol address (IP address), browser type, Internet Service Provider (ISP); referring/exit pages, operating system and date/time stamp.

We use this automatically collected information to analyse trends such as browser usage, to track users’ movements around the site, and for site administration and improvements. We may also use your IP address to check whether there have been multiple participations in the survey from this IP address.

The following is a list of cookies that may be used by this site:

ASP.NET SessionId - Cookie to track the session state. This is created automatically by ASP.NET engine in IIS.
ASPXAUTH Cookie to determine if a user is authenticated with Forms Authentication enabled in IIS. This is created automatically by ASP.NET engine in IIS.
Google Analytics
_ga
_gat
These cookies are used to collect information about how visitors use our site. We use the information to compile reports and to help us improve the site. The cookies collect information in an anonymous form, including the number of visitors to the site, where visitors have come to the site from and the pages they visited.
Microsoft Application Insights
ai_session
ai_user
These cookies are used to collect information about how visitors use our site. We use the information to compile reports and to help us improve the site. The cookies collect information in an anonymous form, including the number of visitors to the site, where visitors have come to the site from and the pages they visited.
pixel admin
pa_mmstate
This cookie is used to store the main menu 'expanded/collapsed' state.

Rights of individuals

If you want to request access to personal information that we hold about you, you should send your request in writing to the e-mail address or postal address shown below in ‘How to contact us’.

Under current EU data protection laws, you have the right to access, correct or erase your personal information from our systems, unless we have legitimate interest reasons for continuing to process it.

If we hold personal information about you, you also have the right to restrict our processing of your personal information and the right to withdraw consent for us to use your personal information.

If you notify us that you wish to use either of these rights we shall respond within 30 days. We shall also notify third parties to whom we have transferred your personal information of these changes.

How we store your data

Personal information will be retained only for as long as is appropriate for its intended and lawful use. In this case, we will keep your data for no longer than 12 months after you stop participating on our panels, unless otherwise required to do so by law. Personal information that is no longer needed will be disposed of in secure ways.

Our electronic systems are backed up and archived as part of the Company Business Continuity plan and as required by ISO 27001, ISO 9001, ISO 20252 and in certain instances by law.  These archives are retained for a defined period of time in a strictly controlled environment. Personal data that is no longer required is deleted in ways that ensure that their confidential nature is not compromised.

The standards and requirements that Kantar TNS follows

In addition to following the UK Data Protection Act 2018 and any subsequent legislation, we are also certified to:

  • MRS and ESOMAR professional codes of conduct and the quality commitment of the MRS Company Partner Service
  • ISO 20252 international market research quality standard
  • ISO 9001 international standard for quality management systems
  • ISO 27001 international standard for data security

Children‘s data

We never knowingly invite children under the age of 16 years to participate in any of our studies without consent. If it is necessary for a particular project to directly involve children under the age of 16 years, we ensure that we have been given permission by the adult responsible for the child.


Automated decision making / profiling

In certain circumstances, we will carry out automated decision making or profiling about you. However, in the majority of cases, this will not result in any legally significant decisions being made about you. You have the right to appeal if any automated decision made about you is legally significant. If you have any questions about this please contact us.


Notification of changes

If there are changes to our Privacy Policy or our Terms & Conditions, we will notify you. If you continue to participate in our panels or surveys after we send you such a notification we will take it to mean that you agree with the changes. If you do not agree with the changes, you should contact us as soon as you can.

We will always have the most up-to-date policy on this web page.  We will record when the policy was last revised.

Date created: 13/06/2011
Last revised: 24/05/2018


How to contact us regarding data or personal information

Contact information

Questions regarding this policy or complaints about our practices should be sent to the Quality and Information Security Team via email at QIS@kantar.com or in writing to ‘Quality and Information Security, Vivo, 30 Stamford Street, South Bank, London, SE1 9QL’.

We will investigate all complaints and attempt to resolve those that we find are justified. If necessary, we will amend our policies and procedures to ensure that other individuals do not experience the same problem.

If you have any questions or comments you may contact Kantar’s Data Protection Officer, Gillie Abbotts-Jones, please email GDPR@kantar.com

Complaints about our handling or protection of personal information

If you are not satisfied with how we handle and protect personal information, you have the right to complain to the Data Protection Authority in your country. In the UK, this is the ICO and their contact details are

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Tel: 0303 123 1113

Email: casework@ico.org.uk

We are a Kantar Group Company. Our registered name and address is Kantar UK Ltd, TNS House, Westgate, London W5 1UA (company number 3073845).