Last Revised: 11/11/2011

This policy demonstrates our firm commitment to online privacy. Information obtained from visitors, survey participants, and clients will only be used for internal purposes. At no time will we sell, rent, or otherwise distribute your personal information or survey data to a third party.

All data collected by Lipman Hearne for research purposes is aggregated; at no time will we single out or provide attribution to individual research participants. We do not use “cookies” or any other online tracking data as part of our data collection procedures.

Lipman Hearne is committed to the protection and safeguarding of personal data collected from persons who are (a) consumers, (b) patients relating to health information and (c) business individuals or entities relating to business information.

Privacy is an especially important issue for marketing research and opinion research since we are in contact with consumers, patients and business persons on a daily basis. In this regard, we often obtain confidential information from such persons (Personally Identifiable Information or PII). In order to protect the company and our respondents and comply with legal requirements such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996, the Child Online Privacy and Protection Act (COPPA) and other relevant statutes and regulations, it is important to us that we are aware of and comply with our Privacy Policy when handling PII.

You will not be sold anything as a result of participating in survey research conducted by Lipman Hearne. Lipman Hearne will not share identifying information (e.g. name, student identification number) with any outside organizations, except for the purposes of paying incentives or as required by law. We reserve the right to disclose your personally identifiable information as required by law and when we believe that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights and/or comply with a judicial proceeding, court order, or legal process served on our web site.

Privacy and Data Protection

Lipman Hearne adheres to the Ethical Guidelines for Use of the Internet for Conducting Opinion and Marketing Research prepared by the Marketing Research Association.

These Ethical Guidelines include:

  • Respondent Cooperation Should Be Voluntary
  • Researcher’s Identity Should Be Disclosed to Respondents
  • Respondents’ Rights to Anonymity Should Be Safeguarded
  • Privacy Policy Statements Should Be Posted Online
  • Data Security Should Be Maintained
  • Reliability and Validity of Findings Should Be Disclosed to the Public
  • Researchers Interviewing Minors Should Adhere to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act
  • Unsolicited Email Should Not Be Sent to Those Requesting Not to Receive Any Further Email

If you receive an email on behalf of Lipman Hearne inviting you to participate in survey and would like to be removed from the follow-up email list, please send an email to research@lipmanhearne.com.

In order to fulfill our promise to protect consumer, health information and business information privacy, Lipman Hearne adheres to the following policies:

  • All PII obtained shall be lawfully collected, compiled, stored, allowed access to, processed and utilized by Lipman Hearne.
  • Participation in all research projects is voluntary and respondents may opt out of any research project, at any time. In addition, consent will be obtained prior to the collection of PII that will be recorded.
  • All PII obtained shall be treated confidentially, shall be used for research purposes only and shall not be disclosed to any person not employed by Lipman Hearne, except with consent, as required by law or by court order.
  • All PII obtained shall not be disclosed to any client other than for lawful research purposes. In this regard, in general, clients will not receive (a) the last name or telephone number of any recruited respondent for any research study; (b) any original screeners or sign-out sheets containing any last names or telephone numbers. Further, clients are bound by Lipman Hearne’s Privacy Policy and any such information shared with clients will be used for marketing research and opinion research purposes only.
  • Lipman Hearne adheres to the policy laws of all countries in which we manage research.
  • Lipman Hearne will not transfer personal data to a country or territory outside the U.S. or the European Economic Area unless that territory or country ensures an adequate level of protection for the rights and freedoms of data subjects.
  • Lipman Hearne adheres to research industry Codes and Standards.
  • To prevent unauthorized access, maintain data accuracy, and ensure the correct use of information, we have put in place appropriate physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online.

You may contact Lipman Hearne concerning this privacy policy and our privacy practices at the following:

Mailing Address:
Lipman Hearne
200 South Michigan Avenue, Suite 1600
Chicago, Illinois 60604 USA

Phone Number:
1-312-356-8000

Email Address:
research@lipmanhearne.com

If we change our privacy policy, we will post those changes to this privacy statement and other places we deem appropriate so that you are aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it. We reserve the right to modify this privacy statement at any time, so please review it frequently. If we make material changes to this policy, we will notify you here or by means of a notice.

If you have any questions about this privacy statement, the practices of this site, or your dealings with this web site, please feel free to contact us through the contact information listed above.