NIQ Retail Audit Privacy Notice
Last changed: 23 June 2026
As the controller of personal data processed about you, (“NielsenIQ”, “NIQ,” “we,” or “us“) is committed to protecting your privacy and handling your personal data in an open and transparent manner.
This Privacy Notice applies to how NIQ collects, uses, stores, transfers and processes your personal data in connection with the incentives and rewards for your contributions and participation in the NIQ Retail Manual Audit Incentive Management Program. This notice also describes your choices and legal rights in relation to such personal data.
We may need to amend or update this Privacy Notice from time to time. Therefore, please read this Privacy Notice which may be found at https://nielseniq.com/global/en/legal/privacy-policy at regular intervals.
I. Controller and How to Contact Us
For the purposes of this Privacy Notice, the controller is set out in the Annex to this notice.
Information about NielsenIQ’s full group of companies, one or more of which may process your personal data, can be found here and here.
If you have questions about this Privacy Notice or how we process your data, you may contact us as follows:
- The local country team is contactable at: GlobalStoreIncentive.Management@smb.nielseniq.com
- Submit a request using webform – click here. Please quote Manual Audit Store Incentive Management Program in the subject matter.
- We may also be contacted at connect.privacy@smb.nielseniq.com,
We encourage you to use the webform above so that your queries may be channeled to the right team for more expedient response.
II. Personal data categories, processing purposes, legal basis for processing and data storage periods
- Personal data categories: In the course of processing activities required for the payment of your incentives, we collect the following categories of personal data: Mobile phone number, Email address (if applicable).
- Processing purposes: Your personal data is collected for the purpose of managing and processing payments related to your incentives and rewards under the Retail Panel Manual Audit Incentive Management Program. Your personal data will be shared with service provider (s) of NIQ who are processing the incentives and rewards payment for us. This service provider may reside in another country. Your personal data will also be used to communicate with you about your participation in the retail panel and Retail Manual Audit Incentive Management Program, respond to your inquiries and requests, and/or update/validate the data that we have about you.
We will never use your personal data to advertise, promote, or market third-party goods or services to you. Additionally, we will not licence, publish, or sell any personal data collected from or about you.
- Legal Basis for processing: The processing of your personal data is based either on (1) our legitimate interest to ensure the payment of your incentives and rewards; (2) your consent; and/or (3) performance of a signed contract with you (as applicable).
- Storage period: We retain your personal data for the duration of your participation in the Retail Manual Audit Incentive Management Program, or until it is no longer needed for the purposes described in this Privacy Notice. When you are no longer eligible for incentives and rewards in the Retail Manual Audit Incentive Management Program, legal obligations that NIQ is subject to, mainly tax law, may require us to retain your personal data for a statutory retention period.
III. Recipients
We may share your personal data with other companies in the NIQ Group. Within the NIQ Group, only employees and departments with a “need to know” have access to your personal data and only to the extent necessary. Regarding the transfer of your personal data within the NIQ Group, the companies of the NIQ Group are either independent controllers, joint controllers or processors, depending on the processing activity.
We will transfer your personal data to incentive service providers, who will process it on behalf of the NIQ Group, for the purpose of delivering your incentives and rewards.
Where we use third party service providers (including processors), these third parties are subject to contractual obligations (e.g. a data processing agreement). These processors will only process your personal data in accordance with our prior written instructions and must take measures to protect the confidentiality and security of your personal data.
IV. Are you obliged to provide your personal data?
In principle, you are not obliged to provide your personal data. However, if you do not provide your personal data, or you withdraw your consent for us to process your personal information, we may not be able to provide you with the incentives and rewards under the Retail Manual Audit Incentive Management Program, nor answer your enquiries. Please be aware of this.
V. For the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom (UK): Transfers of Data outside the EU/EEA and UK
Due to the international nature of our business, it may be necessary for us to transfer your personal data to other companies within the NIQ Group and to third parties outside the European Union (EU) and/or the European Economic Area (EEA) (“Third Countries”). For this reason, we may transfer your personal data to Third Countries that have different laws and data protection compliance requirements than the country in which you are located. The third countries concerned, e.g. the USA, may not have the level of data protection that you enjoy under the GDPR. This can mean disadvantages such as an impeded enforcement of data subjects’ rights, a lack of control over further processing and access by state authorities. You may only have limited legal remedies against this.
Within the NIQ Group, we have concluded an intra-group data transfer agreement with the relevant transfer mechanisms (standard contractual clauses of the European Commission) to ensure an adequate level of protection for your personal data when it is transferred from the EU/EEA to third countries.
Insofar as we transfer your personal data from the EU/EEA to recipients in third countries that are not covered by an adequacy decision of the EU Commission, we achieve an adequate level of data protection by concluding standard contractual clauses of the European Commission or by means of binding corporate rules of our business partners and supplement these transfer mechanisms with further contractual, technical and organisational measures if necessary. Please contact connect.privacy@smb.nielseniq.com to obtain a copy of transfer mechanisms.
Other regions other than the EU/EEA and UK: Transfers of Data outside the country of collection
Due to the international nature of our business, it may be necessary for us to transfer your personal data to other companies within the NIQ Group and to third parties outside the country of collection to countries where we have facilities or in which we engage service providers and processors or where our servers are hosted.
For the transfer of your personal data outside of the country of collection, we respect applicable local laws and regulations regarding cross-border transfers of and access to personal data.
The transfer of personal data is necessary to enable you to participate in the Retail Panel Manual Audit Incentive Management Program and/or to perform any requested transaction.
By providing us with any personal data under the terms of this Privacy Notice and signing electronic consent, you expressly agree and confirm that you consent and have no reservations regarding the transnational transfer of your personal data, allowing NIQ to fulfill the purposes detailed herein.
VI. Your rights as the data subject
You have the following rights in relation to your personal data (as applicable pursuant to local data protection legislation):
- right to access and right to receive a copy of your personal data;
- right to rectification;
- right to erasure;
- right to restriction of processing;
- right to data portability;
- right to object;
You have a general right to object, on grounds relating to your situation, especially if we process your personal data based on our legitimate interest.
Further, you have the right to object to the processing of your personal data for direct marketing purposes at any time.
- right to withdraw your consent;
- right to lodge a complaint;
In the event of a (suspected) infringement of applicable data protection laws, you may lodge a complaint with the personal data protection supervisory authority in your country.
We do not make decisions based solely on automated processing, including profiling, which produces legal effects or similarly significantly affects you.
You can exercise all of your rights as listed above at any time by contacting us at GlobalStoreIncentive.Management@smb.nielseniq.com. Please indicate the city and country you are from to expedite matters.
VII. Data Protection Officer
The data protection officer of the NIQ Group is contactable at niq@hewardmills.com.
ANNEX – List of Controllers
| Country | NIQ Entity |
| Hong Kong | NielsenIQ (Hong Kong) Limited |
| India | NIELSENIQ (INDIA) PRIVATE LIMITED |
| Indonesia | PT. NIELSENIQ SERVICES INDONESIA |
| Malaysia | NielsenIQ (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd |
| Singapore | NielsenIQ (Singapore) Pte Ltd |
| Taiwan | NielsenIQ Taiwan Limited |
| Thailand | NIELSENIQ (THAILAND) LIMITED |
| Vietnam | NIELSENIQ (VIETNAM), LIMITED |
| China | NielsenIQ (Guangzhou) LTD |
| Poland | Nielsen Services Polska sp. z o.o. |
| Brazil | A.C. NIELSEN DO BRASIL LTDA |
| Chile | A.C. Nielsen Chile Ltda |
| Colombia | AC NIELSEN DE COLOMBIA LTDA |
| Costa Rica | ACNielsen Costa Rica,S.A |
| Dominican Republic | ACNielsen Dominicana, SRL |
| Ecuador | ACNIELSEN ECUADOR S.A. |
| El Salvador | ACNielsen el Salvador,S.A de C.V |
| Guatemala | ACNielsen Centroamerica S.A |
| Mexico | NielsenIQ México Services, S. de R.L. de C.V. |
| Nicaragua | ACNielsen Nicaragua S.A |
| Panama | Ac Nielsen Panamá ,S.A |
| Puerto Rico | AC Nielsen PR, LLC |
| Uruguay | Nielsen Uruguay (US)LLC Sucursal Uruguay |
| Algeria | EURL Ac Nielsen Amer algeria |
| Egypt | Nielsen Egypt LLC |
| Pakistan | AC Nielsen Pakistan Private Limited |
| Qatar | Nielsen Consultancy LLC |
| Saudi Arabia | NIELSEN HOLDING SAUDI COMPANY LIMITED |
| South Africa | NielsenIq South Africa Pty LTD |
| United Arab Emirates | AC Nielsen AMER Shj Br. |
| Sweden | NielsenIQ Services Sweden AB |
| Kuwait | E-Consult For Economic & Marketing Consultancy |
| Jordan | Nielsen for Consultancies Limited Liability Company |
| Morocco | ACNielsen SARL |
| Nigeria | ACNielsen Nigeria Limited |
| Kenya | ACNielsen Kenya Limited |
| Oman | Nielsen for Market Research LLC |
| Hungary | ACNielsen Piackutató Kft. |
| Bulgaria | AC Nielsen Bulgaria EOOD |
| Greece | Nielsen Consumer Greece Single Member S.A. |
| Vietnam | NielsenIQ (Vietnam) Limited |