US Speaks PRIVACY POLICY.
Last Updated: February 6, 2024
At Survey 160, doing business as US Speaks, we conduct public opinion research on behalf of ourselves and our clients via SMS polling and other methods. This Privacy Policy is designed to help you understand how Survey 160 (“Survey 160” “we”, “our”, “us”) collects, uses, and shares your personal information.
1. SCOPE
2. PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT
3. HOW WE USE YOUR INFORMATION
4. HOW WE DISCLOSE YOUR INFORMATION
5. DEIDENTIFIED DATA.
6. YOUR PRIVACY CHOICES AND RIGHTS
7. SECURITY OF YOUR INFORMATION
8. INTERNATIONAL DATA TRANSFERS
9. RETENTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION
10. CHILDREN’S INFORMATION
11. OTHER PROVISIONS
12. CONTACT US
1. SCOPE
This Privacy Policy applies to personal information processed by us, including on our website and through our distributed texting and other platforms (collectively, the “Platform”), which help our clients facilitate survey taking. To make this Privacy Policy easier to read, our website, Platform, and other offerings are collectively called the “Services.” By using our Services, you consent to the terms of this Privacy Policy.
2. PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT
The categories of personal information we collect depends on how you interact with us, our Services, and the requirements of applicable law. We collect information that you provide to us, information we obtain automatically when you use our Services, and information from other sources such as third-party organizations, as described below.
(i) Information You Provide to Us Directly
We may collect the following personal information that you provide to us.
Survey Respondents. The only information we collect from survey respondents is the information survey respondents provide to us when they respond to a survey. This information varies by survey and often includes demographic information (age, race, gender), sensitive personal information (racial or ethnic origin, religious beliefs, political affiliation/beliefs), geographic information, phone number, name, and your public opinion on various events, policies, political candidates, or other survey topics. We also collect related time stamps.
Clients/Survey Requestor. We collect information our Clients (who are seeking to have public opinion research conducted) directly provide to us. For example, we may collect information if you create an account, set up a survey, send survey questions or other text messages through the Platform, fill out a form on our website, request customer support, or otherwise communicate with us.
The types of information we collect may include your name, contact information (such as telephone number, email address, postal address, and payment information) and other information you choose to provide. We also collect any data or messages you input, upload, or otherwise allow us to access through the Platform, including names and telephone numbers, survey questions, survey responses, and time stamps.
If you register to access the Platform or to use our Service, we collect information necessary to set up your account, such as your user name and password.
Job Applicants. We may post job openings and opportunities on our Services. If you reply to one of these postings by submitting your application, CV and/or cover letter to us, we will collect and use your information to assess your qualifications.
Information You Provide Directly. We collect information you directly provide to us. For example, we may collect information if you fill out a form on our website or otherwise communicate with us. The types of information we collect may include your name, contact information (such as telephone number, email address, postal address) and other information you choose to provide.
(ii) Information Collected From Third-Parties.
We may collect information on you from third-party providers Any information collected from third parties is used solely for the purpose of providing our Services.
(iii) Information Collected Automatically
We may collect personal information automatically when you use our Services:
Automatic Data Collection. We may collect certain information automatically when you use our Services, such as mobile carrier and location information. We may also automatically collect information regarding your use of our Services, the frequency and duration of your activities, and other information about how you use our Services.
Our uses of these Technologies fall into the following general categories:
Operationally Necessary. This includes Technologies that allow you access to our Services, applications, and tools that are required to identify irregular website behavior, prevent fraudulent activity and improve security or that allow you to make use of our functionality;
Performance-Related. We may use Technologies to assess the performance of our Services;
Functionality-Related. We may use Technologies that allow us to offer you enhanced functionality when accessing or using our Services. This may include identifying you when you sign into our Services or keeping track of your specified preferences, interests, or past items viewed;
See “Your Privacy Choices and Rights” below to understand your choices regarding these Technologies.
(iv) Information Collected from Other Sources
We may obtain information about you from other sources and combine that with information we collect through our Service. For example, we may collect information about survey respondents from clients we serve or information that is publicly available. Information we collect from our clients may include your name, phone number, state, or zip code.
3. HOW WE USE YOUR INFORMATION
We use your information for a variety of purposes, including to provide our Services, for administrative purposes, and to market our Services, as described below.
(i) Provide Our Services
We may use information we collect about you for various purposes, including to:
Provide, maintain, and improve our Platform and Services;
Conduct data analyses of the results of our public opinion research;
Provide our clients reports that analyze the results of our public opinion research and provide the raw data collected during our public opinion research; our clients’ use of the data is governed by their own privacy policies;
Process payments, respond to your requests, and send our clients related information, including confirmations and invoices,
Send you technical notices, updates, security alerts and support, and administrative messages;
Respond to your comments, questions and requests, and provide customer service;
Monitor and analyze data, trends, usage and activities in connection with our Platform and Services;
Detect, investigate and prevent fraudulent transactions and other illegal activities, and protect the rights and property of Survey 160, our clients, and any other third parties;
Link or combine with information we get from others to help provide our Platform and Services; or
Carry out any other purpose for which the information was collected.
In addition, for users who request information, we may use your information to communicate with you about products, services, offers, and promotions, offered by Survey 160 and others, and provide news and information we think will be of interest to you.
(ii) Administrative Purposes
We use your information for various administrative purposes, such as:
Detecting security incidents, protecting against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent or illegal activity, and prosecuting those responsible for that activity;
Measuring interest and engagement in our Services;
Improving, upgrading or enhancing our Services;
Analyzing the use of our Services to improve our Services;
Ensuring internal quality control and safety;
Authenticating and verifying individual identities, including requests to exercise your rights under this policy;
Debugging to identify and repair errors with our Services;
Auditing relating to interactions, transactions and other compliance activities;
Enforcing our agreements and policies;
Complying with our legal obligations;
Prevent potentially inappropriate or illegal activities and otherwise act in accordance with our Terms and Conditions; and
For any other legitimate business purpose, as permitted by law.
(iii) Other Purposes
We also use your information for other purposes as requested by you or as permitted by applicable law.
Consent. We may use personal information for other purposes that are clearly disclosed to you at the time you provide personal information or with your consent.
De-identified and Aggregated Information. We may use personal information and other information about you to create de-identified and/or aggregated information, such as de-identified demographic information, de-identified location information, information about the device from which you access our Services, or other analyses we create.
Survey 160 is based in the United States and the information we collect is governed by U.S. law. By accessing or using the Services or otherwise providing information to us, you consent to the processing and transfer of information in and to the U.S. and other countries.
4. HOW WE DISCLOSE YOUR INFORMATION
We disclose your information to third parties for a variety of business purposes, including to provide our Services, to protect us or others, or in the event of a major business transaction such as a merger, sale, or asset transfer, as described below. We do not share personal information with third parties for their own direct marketing purposes.
(i) Disclosures to Provide our Services
The categories of partners with whom we may deliver your information to are described below.
Clients. When a Survey is conducted by or on behalf of a client through the Platform, all information collected in connection with such survey is delivered with such client. This may include survey participants’ opinion on varies topics, age, state, location, race, annual income, and other demographic income. Once we deliverthe information with our clients, the storage and handling of that information is governed by the client’s privacy policy.
Note that we do not use the content of any Survey responses or other messages for the purpose of targeted advertising or to create a profile of any individual. This privacy policy only governs Survey 160's use of the data. Third-parties' use, including clients of Survey 160's use, of the data is governed by their privacy policy.
Service Providers. We may deliver your personal information with our third-party service providers who use that information to help us provide our Services. This includes service providers that provide us with IT support, hosting, payment processing, customer service, and related services, as well as service providers who help us conduct our public opinion research. The personal information we may deliver to our service providers includes name, phone number, and email address.
Legally Required. In response to a request for information if we believe disclosure is in accordance with any applicable law, regulation or legal process, or as otherwise required by any applicable law, rule, or regulation.
(ii) Disclosures to Protect Us or Others
We may access, preserve, and disclose any information we store associated with you to external parties if we, in good faith, believe doing so is required or appropriate to: comply with law enforcement or national security requests and legal process, such as a court order or subpoena; protect your, our, or others’ rights, property, or safety; enforce our policies or contracts; collect amounts owed to us; or assist with an investigation or prosecution of suspected or actual illegal activity.
(iii) Disclosure in the Event of Merger, Sale, or Other Asset Transfers
If we are involved in a merger, acquisition, financing due diligence, reorganization, bankruptcy, receivership, purchase or sale of assets, or transition of service to another provider, your information may be sold or transferred as part of such a transaction, as permitted by law and/or contract.
5. DEIDENTIFIED DATA
We may also deliver aggregated or anonymized information that does not directly identify you with third parties such as current and prospective clients and business partners for our investment and sales purposes as well as with the press for consumption by the general public. When we receive deidentified data, we commit to maintain and use that data only in a de-identified fashion and will not attempt to re-identify the data.
6. YOUR PRIVACY CHOICES AND RIGHTS
Your Privacy Choices. The privacy choices you may have about your personal information are determined by applicable law and are described below.
Email Communications. We use email to receive transaction-related emails and we may also send you certain non-promotional communications regarding us and our Services, and you will not be able to opt out of those communications (e.g., communications regarding our Services or updates to our Terms or this Privacy Policy).
We process requests to be placed on do-not-mail, do-not-phone, and do-not-contact lists as required by applicable law.
Text Messages. You may opt out of receiving text messages from us by following the instructions in the text message you have received from us or by otherwise contacting us. You may also contact us directly to submit a Remove from Contact request at www.usspeaks.org/remove-from-contact, if you no longer wish to receive text messages for surveys. Upon receipt of your Remove from Contact request, we will ensure (1) you are not again contacted to participant in a survey and (2) within three months delete all the data Survey 160 holds on you. Please note we do retain your phone number to ensure you are not sent additional requests to participate in a survey but the phone number is no longer associated with your name or any other information on you.
“Do Not Track.” Do Not Track (“DNT”) is a privacy preference that users can set in certain web browsers. Please note that we do not respond to or honor DNT signals or similar mechanisms transmitted by web browsers.
Update or Delete Information. You (or your authorized agent) may review, correct, update, and have us delete your personal information at any time as permitted by applicable law. If you (or your authorized agent) would like to review, correct, update or delete personal information you provided to us or that we have collected as permitted by applicable law, you may contact us as indicated in the Contact Us section. We will respond to your (or your authorized agent’s) request as required by applicable laws.
Before processing your (or your authorized agent’s) request, we may need to verify your identity, in which case we may request additional information from you or send you a request or confirmation to the email address or phone number associated with your account.
We will use reasonable efforts to respond to your request promptly. We generally will not charge a fee for processing or responding to your request, apart from in exceptional circumstances. In those cases, we will explain the reasons and indicate the amount in question. Should we need to refuse your request, we will explain to you the reasons for this.
If you wish to lodge a complaint on how we have handled your request, you may contact us as indicated in the Contact Us section below.
Residents of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, and Virginia have certain rights under state law. This includes the following rights:
The right to know what personal information we collect about you, including the categories of personal information, the categories of sources from which the personal information is collected, the purpose for collecting or sharing personal information, and the categories of third parties to whom we discloses personal information.
The right to have us delete your personal information.
The right to correct any inaccurate personal information we may have.
The right to opt-out of our sharing your personal information with the clients we serve.
The right not to receive discriminatory treatment by us for the exercise of any of your privacy rights conferred by state law.
Residents of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, and Virginia are also entitled to request and, once a year, obtain free of charge a copy of their personal data that we hold.
Limit Use of Sensitive Personal Information. You may have us limit our use of your sensitive personal information at any time. We only collect your sensitive personal information when you voluntarily provide this information to us in response to our public opinion research; your responses are delivered to our clients on whose behalf we conduct our research. If you would like us to limit our use of your sensitive personal information, you may contact us as indicated in the Contact Us section. We will respond to your request as required by applicable laws.
Cookies. You may stop or restrict the placement of Technologies on your device or remove them by adjusting your preferences as your browser or device permits. However, if you adjust your preferences, our Services may not work properly. Please note that cookie-based opt-outs are not effective on mobile applications.
7. SECURITY OF YOUR INFORMATION
We take steps to ensure that your information is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy. Unfortunately, no system is 100% secure, and we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you provide to us. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, we do not accept liability for unauthorized disclosure.
By using our Services or providing personal information to us, you agree that we may communicate with you electronically regarding security, privacy, and administrative issues relating to your use of our Services. If we learn of a security system’s breach, we may attempt to notify you electronically by posting a notice on our Services, by mail or by sending an email to you.
8. INTERNATIONAL DATA TRANSFERS
All information processed by us may be transferred, processed, and stored anywhere in the world, including, but not limited to, the United States or other countries, which may have data protection laws that are different from the laws where you live. We endeavor to safeguard your information consistent with the requirements of applicable laws.
9. RETENTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION
We store the personal information we collect as described in this Privacy Policy for as long as you use our Services or as necessary to fulfill the purpose(s) for which it was collected, provide our Services, resolve disputes, establish legal defenses, conduct audits, pursue legitimate business purposes, enforce our agreements, and comply with applicable laws. Generally, we only store information collected for three months, though we may retain information longer, as needed.
10. CHILDREN’S INFORMATION
The Services are not directed to children under 13 (or other age as required by local law), and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children. We do not sell any of the personal information we collect to third parties.
If you are a parent or guardian believe your child has uploaded personal information to our site without your consent, you may contact us as described in “Contact Us” below. If we become aware that a child has provided us with personal information in violation of applicable law, we will delete any personal information we have collected, unless we have a legal obligation to keep it, and terminate the child’s account if applicable.
11. OTHER PROVISIONS
Third-Party Services. Certain features and functionalities of the Services may link to or allow you to interface, interact, or share information with, or access and/or use third-party websites, services, products, and technology (collectively, “Third-Party Services”) through the Services. Survey 160 does not provide or control any aspect of the Third-Party Services and is not responsible for any compatibility issues, errors or bugs in the Services or Third-Party Services caused in whole or in part by the Third-Party Services or any update or upgrade thereto. We encourage our users to read the privacy policies of each Third-Party Service with which they interact. We do not endorse, screen or approve, and are not responsible for, the privacy practices or content of such Third-Party Services. Providing personal information to Third-Party Services is at your own risk.
Changes to our Privacy Policy. We may revise this Privacy Policy from time to time in our sole discretion. If there are any material changes to this Privacy Policy, we will notify you as required by applicable law. You understand and agree that you will be deemed to have accepted the updated Privacy Policy if you continue to use our Services after the new Privacy Policy takes effect.
If we make changes, we will notify you by revising the date at the top of the policy and, in some cases, we may provide you with additional notice (such as adding a statement to our homepage or sending you an email notification). We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy whenever you access the Services to stay informed about our information practices and the ways you can help protect your privacy.
12. CONTACT US
If you have any questions about our privacy practices or this Privacy Policy, or to exercise your rights as detailed in this Privacy Policy, please contact us via our contact form.