Effective Date: April 6, 2020

Last Reviewed: September 2021

This Privacy Notice for California Residents supplements the information contained in Branded Research, Inc.'s Branded Surveys Privacy Policy and applies solely to all visitors, users, and others who reside in the State of California ("consumers" or "you"). Branded Research, Inc. (“Branded,” “us,” “we,” or “our”) adopts this notice to comply with the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA) and any terms defined in the CCPA have the same meaning when used in this notice.

Information We Collect

We collect information that identifies, relates to, describes, references, is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular consumer or device ("personal information"). Personal information does not include:

·         Publicly available information from government records.

·         Deidentified or aggregated consumer information.

·         Information excluded from the CCPA's scope, like:

·    health or medical information covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and the California Confidentiality of Medical Information Act (CMIA) or clinical trial data;

·    personal information covered by certain sector-specific privacy laws, including the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FRCA), the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) or California Financial Information Privacy Act (FIPA), and the Driver's Privacy Protection Act of 1994.

In particular, where provided, we have collected the following categories of personal information from consumers within the last twelve (12) months:

Category

Examples

Collected

Sources

Purpose

Third Parties Shared

A. Identifiers.

A real name, alias, postal address, unique personal identifier, online identifier, Internet Protocol address, email address, account name, driver's license number, or other similar identifiers.

YES

(a) Directly or indirectly from you
(b) From third parties, our clients

(a) Performance of a contract
(b) Necessary for our legitimate business interests
(c) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation

 

(a) Survey generators
(b) Researchers
(c) Service providers
(d) Data aggregators
(e) App developers

B. Personal information categories listed in the California Customer Records statute (Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.80(e)).

A name, physical characteristics or description, address, telephone number, education, employment, employment history, or any other financial information, medical information, or health insurance information.

Some personal information included in this category may overlap with other categories.

YES

(a) Directly or indirectly from you
(b) From third parties, our clients

(a) Performance of a contract
(b) Necessary for our legitimate business interests
(c) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation

 

(a) Survey generators
(b) Researchers
(c) Service providers
(d) Data aggregators
(e) App developers

C. Protected classification characteristics under California or federal law.

Age (40 years or older), race, color, ancestry, national origin, citizenship, religion or creed, marital status, medical condition, physical or mental disability, sex (including gender, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy or childbirth and related medical conditions), sexual orientation, veteran or military status, genetic information (including familial genetic information).

YES

(a) Directly or indirectly from you
(b) From third parties, our clients

(a) Performance of a contract
(b) Necessary for our legitimate business interests
(c) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation

 

(a) Survey generators
(b) Researchers
(c) Service providers
(d) Data aggregators
(e) App developers

D. Commercial information.

Records of personal property, products or services purchased, obtained, or considered, or other purchasing or consuming histories or tendencies.

YES

(a) Directly or indirectly from you
(b) From third parties, our clients

(a) Performance of a contract
(b) Necessary for our legitimate business interests
(c) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation

 

(a) Survey generators
(b) Researchers
(c) Service providers
(d) Data aggregators
(e) App developers

E. Biometric information.

Genetic, physiological, behavioral, and biological characteristics, or activity patterns used to extract a template or other identifier or identifying information, such as, physical patterns, and sleep, health, or exercise data.

YES

(a) Directly or indirectly from you
(b) From third parties, our clients

(a) Performance of a contract
(b) Necessary for our legitimate business interests
(c) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation

 

(a) Survey generators
(b) Researchers
(c) Service providers
(d) Data aggregators
(e) App developers

F. Internet or other similar network activity.

Browsing history, search history, information on a consumer's interaction with a website, application, or advertisement.

YES

(a) Indirectly from you
(b) From third parties, our clients

(a) Necessary for our legitimate business interests
(b) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation

 

(a) Survey generators
(b) Researchers
(c) Service providers
(d) Data aggregators
(e) App developers

G. Geolocation data.

Physical location or movements.

YES

(a) Directly or indirectly from you
(b) From third parties, our clients

(a) Performance of a contract
(b) Necessary for our legitimate business interests
(c) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation

 

(a) Survey generators
(b) Researchers
(c) Service providers
(d) Data aggregators
(e) App developers

H. Sensory data.

Audio, electronic, visual, olfactory, or similar information.

NO

N/A

N/A

N/A

I. Professional or employment-related information.

Current or past job history.

YES

(a) Directly or indirectly from you
(b) From third parties, our clients

(a) Performance of a contract
(b) Necessary for our legitimate business interests
(c) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation

 

(a) Survey generators
(b) Researchers
(c) Service providers
(d) Data aggregators
(e) App developers

J. Non-public education information (per the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (20 U.S.C. Section 1232g, 34 C.F.R. Part 99)).

Education records directly related to a student maintained by an educational institution or party acting on its behalf, such as grades, transcripts, class lists, student schedules, student identification codes, student financial information, or student disciplinary records.

NO

N/A

N/A

N/A

K. Inferences drawn from other personal information.

Profile reflecting a person's preferences, characteristics, psychological trends, predispositions, behavior, attitudes, intelligence, abilities, and aptitudes.

YES

(a) Directly or indirectly from you
(b) From third parties, our clients

(a) Performance of a contract
(b) Necessary for our legitimate business interests
(c) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation

 

(a) Survey generators
(b) Researchers
(c) Service providers
(d) Data aggregators
(e) App developers

 

Branded obtains the categories of personal information listed above from the following categories of sources:

·         Directly from you. For example, from forms you fill out when you register on our site and from surveys in which you participate.

·         Indirectly from you. For example, from observing your actions on our Website.

·         Third parties such as survey generators, researchers, service providers, data aggregators and app developers.

For each category of personal information above, Branded collects the information for the following business or commercial purpose(s):

·         Performance of a contract. For example, to match you with the appropriate survey opportunities or offer or fulfill promotional offers.

·         For our necessary legitimate business interests. For example:

o    To assess and generate survey data for use with the Services and our third party customers;

o    With the use of cookies, Branded is able to collect information as a means to: (a) remember your information so that you will not have to re-enter it during your visit or the next time you visit the Site; (b) provide custom, personalized advertisements, content and information; (c) monitor the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns; and (d) monitor aggregate usage metrics such as total number of visitors and pages viewed.

o    Develop new features and functionality

o    Enhance the survey experience and overall survey delivers through the Services;

o    To minimize instances of fraud and other illegal activities;

o    To monitor and analyze any trends and usage using Google Analytics to provide us with aggregated information about how Users interact with the Site and setting cookies and/or use web beacons for this purpose. The information gathered by the Google Analytics software (including any personal information about you) will be sent to Google where it will be stored and used by Google in accordance with its own privacy policy rather than ours. Please review the Google Privacy Policy http://www.google.com/policies/privacy/ or contact Google for more information.

o    To communicate with you about the various Services;

o    To furnish, uphold, and improve the Services and our business;

o    Provision of administration and IT services, network security, and to prevent fraud

o    To grow our business and to inform our marketing strategy; and

o    To keep our website updated and relevant.

Use of Personal Information

We may use or disclose the personal information we collect for one or more of the following business purposes:

·         To fulfill or meet the reason you provided the information. For example, when you subscribe or opt-in to a third party offer or survey, Branded may share your personal information with the third party in order to facilitate the relationship. If you provide your personal information to us, we will use that information in order to match you with the appropriate survey opportunities, including surveys relevant to your interests, targeted surveys, offers and ads through our Website, third-party sites, and via email (with your consent, where required by law).

·         To provide, support, personalize, and develop our Website and services.

·         To create, maintain, customize, and secure your account with us.

·         To process your requests and transactions to prevent transactional fraud.

·         To provide you with support and to respond to your inquiries, including to investigate and address your concerns and monitor and improve our responses.

·         To personalize your Website experience and to deliver content, offers, and surveys relevant to your interests, including surveys relevant to your interests, targeted surveys, offers and ads through our Website, third-party sites, or via text or email message (with your consent, where required by law).

·         To help maintain the safety, security, and integrity of our Website, products and services, databases and other technology assets, and business.

·         For testing, research, analysis, and service development, including to develop and improve our Website, offerings, and services.

·         To respond to law enforcement requests and as required by applicable law, court order, or governmental regulations.

·         As described to you when collecting your personal information or as otherwise set forth in the CCPA.

·         To evaluate or conduct a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of Branded's assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, in which personal information held by Branded about our users is among the assets transferred.

Branded will not collect additional categories of personal information or use the personal information we collected for materially different, unrelated, or incompatible purposes without providing you notice.

Sharing Personal Information

Branded may disclose your personal information to a third party for a business purpose. When we disclose personal information for a business purpose, we enter a contract that describes the purpose and requires the recipient to both keep that personal information confidential and not use it for any purpose except performing the contract.

We share your personal information with the following categories of third parties:

·         Service providers.

·         Data aggregators.

·         Survey generators.

·         Researchers.

·         App developers.

Disclosures of Personal Information for a Business Purpose

In the preceding twelve (12) months, Branded has disclosed the following categories of personal information for a business purpose:

Category A: Identifiers.

Category B: California Customer Records personal information categories.

Category C: Protected classification characteristics under California or federal law.

Category D: Commercial information.

Category E: Biometric information.

Category F: Internet or other similar network activity.

Category G: Geolocation data.

Category I: Professional or employment-related information.

Category K: Inferences drawn from other personal information.

We disclose your personal information for a business purpose to the following categories of third parties:

·         Service providers.

·         Data aggregators.

·         Survey generators.

·         Researchers.

·         App developers.

Sales of Personal Information

In the preceding twelve (12) months, Branded has sold the following categories of personal information: 

Category A: Identifiers.

Category B: California Customer Records personal information categories.

Category C: Protected classification characteristics under California or federal law.

Category D: Commercial information.

Category E: Biometric information.

Category F: Internet or other similar network activity.

Category G: Geolocation data.

Category I: Professional or employment-related information.

Category K: Inferences drawn from other personal information

We sell your personal information to the following categories of third parties:

·         Survey generators

Your Rights and Choices

The CCPA provides consumers (California residents) with specific rights regarding their personal information. This section describes your CCPA rights and explains how to exercise those rights.

Access to Specific Information and Data Portability Rights

You have the right to request that Branded disclose certain information to you about our collection and use of your personal information over the past 12 months. Once we receive and confirm your verifiable consumer request (see Exercising Access, Data Portability, and Deletion Rights), we will disclose to you:

·         The categories of personal information we collected about you.

·         The categories of sources for the personal information we collected about you.

·         Our business or commercial purpose for collecting or selling that personal information.

·         The categories of third parties with whom we share that personal information.

·         The specific pieces of personal information we collected about you (also called a data portability request).

·         If we disclosed your personal information for a business purpose, we will identify the personal information categories that each category of recipient obtained.

Deletion Request Rights

You have the right to request that Branded delete any of your personal information that we collected from you and retained, subject to certain exceptions. You have access to your personal information and you may delete your member information and email preferences at any time. You may also email us at compliance@gobranded.com. Once we receive your request via email and confirm your verifiable consumer request (see Exercising Access, Data Portability, and Deletion Rights), we will delete (and direct our service providers to delete) your personal information from our records, unless an exception applies.

We may deny your deletion request if retaining the information is necessary for us or our service provider(s) to:

1.       Complete the transaction for which we collected the personal information, provide a good or service that you requested, take actions reasonably anticipated within the context of our ongoing business relationship with you, or otherwise perform our contract with you.

2.       Detect security incidents, protect against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity, or prosecute those responsible for such activities.

3.       Debug products to identify and repair errors that impair existing intended functionality.

4.       Exercise free speech, ensure the right of another consumer to exercise their free speech rights, or exercise another right provided for by law.

5.       Comply with the California Electronic Communications Privacy Act (Cal. Penal Code § 1546 et. seq.).

6.       Engage in public or peer-reviewed scientific, historical, or statistical research in the public interest that adheres to all other applicable ethics and privacy laws, when the information's deletion may likely render impossible or seriously impair the research's achievement, if you previously provided informed consent.

7.       Enable solely internal uses that are reasonably aligned with consumer expectations based on your relationship with us.

8.       Comply with a legal obligation.

9.       Make other internal and lawful uses of that information that are compatible with the context in which you provided it.

Exercising Access, Data Portability, and Deletion Rights

To exercise the access, data portability, and deletion rights described above, please submit a verifiable consumer request to us by either:

·         Emailing us at compliance@gobranded.com.

·         Logging on to your password-protected account with us.

·         Writing to us at: Attn: Data Protection Officer, 343 4th Ave, Suite 201, San Diego, CA 92101.

Only you, an authorized agent, or a person registered with the California Secretary of State that you authorize to act on your behalf, may make a verifiable consumer request related to your personal information. You may also make a verifiable consumer request on behalf of your minor child.

You may only make a verifiable consumer request for access or data portability twice within a 12-month period. The verifiable consumer request must:

·         Provide sufficient information that allows us to reasonably verify you are the person about whom we collected personal information or an authorized representative, usually by sending us an email from the account in our records or by submitting a request through your password-protected account. If you submit a written request through the mail, please provide your name, email, mobile number, account name, and specify your request. We may need to further verify your written request before we can respond.

·         Describe your request with sufficient detail that allows us to properly understand, evaluate, and respond to it.

We cannot respond to your request or provide you with personal information if we cannot verify your identity or authority to make the request and confirm the personal information relates to you.

Making a verifiable consumer request does not require you to create an account with us. However, we do consider requests made through your password-protected account sufficiently verified when the request relates to personal information associated with that specific account.

We will only use personal information provided in a verifiable consumer request to verify the requestor's identity or authority to make the request.

For instructions on exercising sale opt-out rights, see Personal Information Sales Opt-Out and Opt-In Rights.

Response Timing and Format

We will confirm receipt of your request within ten (10) business days. We will endeavor to respond to a verifiable consumer request within forty-five (45) days of its receipt. If we require more time, up to 45 additional days, we will inform you of the reason and extension period in writing.

We will deliver our written response electronically via the email address you provided to us.

Any disclosures we provide will only cover the 12-month period preceding the verifiable consumer request's receipt. The response we provide will also explain the reasons we cannot comply with a request, if applicable. For data portability requests, we will select a format to provide your personal information that is readily useable and should allow you to transmit the information from one entity to another entity without hindrance.

We do not charge a fee to process or respond to your verifiable consumer request unless it is excessive, repetitive, or manifestly unfounded. If we determine that the request warrants a fee, we will tell you why we made that decision and provide you with a cost estimate before completing your request.

Personal Information Sales Opt-Out and Opt-In Rights

We do not allow consumers of less than 16 years of age to register with our site and therefore do not sell this information.

If you are 16 years of age or older, you have the right to direct us to not sell your personal information at any time (the "right to opt-out"). If you make a request to opt-out of the sale of your personal information, due to the nature of our business, we will be required to delete your Branded account. Choosing to opt-out of the sale of your data and thereby deleting your Branded account cannot be undone.

To exercise the right to opt-out, you (or your authorized representative) may submit a request to us by visiting our Do Not Sell My Personal Information.

If you make a request to opt-out of the sale of your personal information, due to the nature of our business, we will be required to delete your Branded account. Choosing to opt-out of the sale of your data and thereby deleting your Branded account cannot be undone.

If you change your mind and would like to opt back in to personal information sales, you may create a new account with us at https://surveys.gobranded.com/users/sign-up/ .

You do not need to create an account with us to exercise your opt-out rights. We will only use personal information provided in an opt-out request to review and comply with the request.

Non-Discrimination

We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your CCPA rights. Unless permitted by the CCPA, we will not:

·         Deny you goods or services.

·         Charge you different prices or rates for goods or services, including through granting discounts or other benefits, or imposing penalties.

·         Provide you a different level or quality of goods or services.

·         Suggest that you may receive a different price or rate for goods or services or a different level or quality of goods or services.

However, we may offer you certain financial incentives permitted by the CCPA that can result in different prices, rates, or quality levels. Any CCPA-permitted financial incentive we offer will reasonably relate to your personal information's value and contain written terms that describe the program's material aspects. Participation in a financial incentive program requires your prior opt in consent, which you may revoke at any time.

Other California Privacy Rights

California's "Shine the Light" law (Civil Code Section § 1798.83) permits users of our Website that are California residents to request certain information regarding our disclosure of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. To make such a request, please send an email to compliance@gobranded.com or write us at: Attn: Data Protection Officer, 343 4th Ave, Suite 201, San Diego, CA 92101.

Changes to Our Privacy Notice

Branded reserves the right to amend this privacy notice at our discretion and at any time. When we make changes to this privacy notice, we will post the updated notice on the Website and update the notice's effective date. Your continued use of our Website following the posting of changes constitutes your acceptance of such changes.

Contact Information

If you have any questions or comments about this notice, the ways in which Branded collects and uses your information described, your choices and rights regarding such use, or wish to exercise your rights under California law, please do not hesitate to contact us at:

Email: compliance@gobranded.com

Postal Address:

Branded Research, Inc.

Attn: Data Protection Officer

343 4th Ave, Suite 201

San Diego, CA 92101