NielsenIQ Strategic Analytics and Insights Privacy Notice

This Privacy Notice is applicable and has an effective date as of October 15, 2025, for new survey participants.

Thank you for agreeing to participate in our market research study. For decades, NielsenIQ has set the global standard for market and consumer insight research. Our insights are based on representative samples of the population and help our clients (e.g., manufacturers, retailers, media companies, nonprofits and governments) learn about what consumers watch, listen to, and buy. Your participation in this study helps companies understand your behaviors and preferences, which often helps them provide better consumer products and services.

This Privacy Notice (“Notice”) describes how Nielsen Consumer LLC (“NielsenIQ,“ “NIQ,” “we,“ or “us“), as the data controller, handles the Personal Information we collect and the rights you may have over this information. We collect data through our online and offline interactions with you via our websites or chatbots (our “Platforms”), in person, or over the phone as part of recruitment efforts and your voluntary participation in any of our survey studies (“Surveys”). Throughout this Notice, we refer to you as a Survey “participant.” Participation in our Surveys is always voluntary.

NIQ belongs to the group of companies listed here, which together form the “NIQ Group.” This Notice does not apply to any other product or service owned by NielsenIQ or any other third party with which you may interact. USA: OurHealth Data Notice supplements this Notice and describes our privacy practices as related to consumer health data.

In this Notice, “Personal Information” means any information relating to an identified or identifiable individual (one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, by reference to an identifier). The term also includes “Personal Data,” or similar terms as defined in applicable law.

When we refer to “Sensitive Personal Information,” it means Personal Information revealing an individual’s private matters that, if disclosed, could lead to identity theft, fraud, or significant harm to an individual. The term also includes “Special Category Personal Information”, or similar terms as defined in applicable law.

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Notice at Collection of Personal Information

This Notice at Collection provides some key information about our privacy practices: the categories of Personal Information we collect; how we obtain, share, and maintain Personal Information; and how you can instruct NIQ to stop sharing your Personal Information.

For transparency purposes, please note that we do not use your name, address, or any directly identifiable information you provide to us for direct marketing or sales purposes to you. We never share this identifiable information with telemarketers, nor do we permit our business clients to use it for direct marketing or sales to you.

We may collect the following categories of Personal Information through our Surveys (your “Survey Data”):

Identifiers, such as your name, birth year, phone number, home address, email address, marital status, age, household size, or certain profile information stored in your social media platform account should you agree to participate in a Survey through a third-party service such as Facebook or X.
Behavior, Preference, and Commercial Data.
- “Behavior Data” includes when, why, or how you do things such as how frequently you shop for groceries or how often you use your computer, television, or the Internet.
- “Preference Data” means the choices you make such as which breakfast cereals you buy, which stations you listen to or watch, or websites you visit.
- “Commercial Data” is what products or services you’ve purchased, shown interest in, or provided feedback on, your payment methods and purchasing power, your price sensitivity and willingness to pay for specific products and services.
Professional or Employment-Related Data, like your occupation, industry, title, income range, and educational background.
Internet or Other Electronic Network Activity Data, such as the pages of our Platforms that you visit, the amount of time you spend viewing each page, form field entries, IP address, push notification status, device information, operating system and version, browser type and language, and other cookie-related information.
Approximate Location Data, such as your city, region, or country based on the IP address assigned to the device that you use to access our Platforms and Surveys.
Sensory, Audio, Electronic, Visual, or Similar Interaction Data, if you participate in an audio or video taped focus group or in-person or online interview or similar meeting, or any content or material you choose to submit, upload, or transmit such as photos, videos, or images.
Sensitive Personal Information if revealed in your Survey responses, such as your political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, dietary restrictions, or smoking or vaping use.
Protected Classification Characteristics (under U.S. State or Federal law), if revealed in your Survey responses, such as your age, race, gender, sexual orientation, or marital status.
Inferences, based on any of the above-listed Personal Information categories, about your interest in purchasing certain types of products or services.

Rest assured, your directly identifiable personal data is not used to target you or sell to you, nor do we permit our clients to do so. For USA Participants: We may “sell” or “share” (as those terms are defined in applicable U.S. law) some types of data to third parties. We typically provide pseudonymized or aggregated data to our clients such as e-commerce businesses, investment companies, consumer brands, media companies, and data brokers, unless otherwise described to you at the time of collection (for example, if you consent to share audio or video feedback to our clients). We may “sell” or “share” (as those terms are defined in applicable law) aggregated information about individuals under the age of majority (subject to local jurisdictional age differences) only after gaining consent from parents or guardians.

Privacy Rights: In accordance with applicable law, you may have certain rights over your Survey Data, and you can always opt out or withdraw your consent of our data processing and sales. To exercise your rights, please navigate to Your Privacy Rights. You may also choose to enable a browser-based signal that automatically communicates your preferences, such as the Global Privacy Control (GPC). Where required, we will process the GPC signal as a request to opt out of sales through the website.

Retention: We will retain your Survey Data for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfill the purposes described in this Notice, or to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements. Our data retention period reflects several factors, including our relationship with our Survey participants, users of our Platforms, the nature and sensitivity of the data, and what is reasonably necessary and proportionate to provide and improve our business. Subject to our compliance requirements, retention periods are subject to change if you, our clients, or third-party panel owners request the deletion of your Personal Information, or if we aggregate, anonymize, or deidentify the data by removing your identifying information.

HOW WE COLLECT AND USE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

We collect Personal Information (a) that you provide directly to us; (b) automatically when you visit our Platforms; and (c) from third parties.

Information You Provide

We primarily process Survey Data to create a variety of market research insights for our clients. Specifically, we use your demographic data (statistical information about the characteristics of a population), data relating to your behaviors and preferences, and other data that you provide to help companies understand, amongst other things, how consumers like you may react to their products, the probability of success of a product in the market, whether there are opportunities to improve a product, and how to market a product and communicate effectively with consumers.

Our legal basis for processing data that you share with us directly is your consent, including when you register to participate through our social media recruitment, when you select your cookie preferences, and when you share photos, recordings, and Sensitive Personal Information in your Survey responses. We use this Personal Information for the following business and commercial purposes:

To operate, maintain, and improve our Surveys, Platforms, products, services, and business
To create and provide reports, audiences, and sales forecasts to our clients, based upon modeled data. “Modeled data” includes projections based on demographic and behavioral characteristics (like gender, age, and purchasing habits) that look at a sample group of people and then predict what people with similar characteristics or preferences would want to buy.
- These reports relate to retail sales measurement and analysis; product advertising and marketing strategies and tools; campaign effectiveness; consumer preferences and demands; product innovation and development; consumer purchasing decisions, histories, and behaviors; competitor and market analysis; and supply chain management.
To create and provide client- and product-specific reports along with our analyses and insights
- If you participate in a video research Survey, we may share your video, audio, or image within our reports or provide the client with access to videos you submit. This allows the client to observe your real-time reactions as you use the product, which may help uncover risks to the success of the product. In these cases, the clients are contractually bound to only use the data for internal market research and to delete it when the purposes are fulfilled.
To create and analyze synthetic Surveys, which sometimes use Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology
- This is essentially a computer model trained on aggregated data from individuals (like you) to more efficiently understand consumers. We can use AI to simulate how different groups of people might respond to potential scenarios, then validate the best options through more traditional human-based Surveys. We typically do not allow third parties to train their AI technologies with your Survey Data, unless we advise you otherwise.
To measure the effectiveness of advertising campaigns that our clients’ conduct
To ensure that you (our participants) are not targeted for direct marketing or sales purposes
For analytics, insights, product development, and market dynamics and/or research

B. Information That We Automatically Collect

We and our service providers may use cookies and other tracking technologies in connection with our Surveys, Platforms, and operating our business. We may use a variety of technologies, such as cookies, tags, SDKs or scripts, to collect information about how you use our Platforms. This includes information about your browser or device; approximate geographic location; and use of the Platforms (e.g., the pages of our website you visit and how long you spend browsing them). Our legal basis for processing data that we collect automatically is based on our legitimate interests as a market research company and a Platform operator to maintain the high quality of our Survey responses, to conduct and protect our business (including fraud detection), and to provide our Survey site to you in the most effective way possible. Non-essential cookie data is processed with your consent.

These technologies access and/or store information in your browser or on your devices to distinguish you from other users, make your site navigation more efficient, help remember your preferences, enhance your browsing experience, and improve the use, security, and functionality of our Platforms.

For more information about tracking technologies and the rights you may have over this information, visit our Cookie Notice on the respective Platform. To adjust your cookie settings, select “Your Cookie Choices” on the cookie banner, also located in the Platform footer.

C. Information From Third-Party Sources

Where applicable, we may combine data we obtain from you with data obtained from other sources and will use it only for the purposes described in this Notice. We process this data based on our legitimate interests as a market research company to maintain the high quality of our Survey responses and, when necessary, with your consent.

If you are invited to our Survey as a member of a “Third-Party Panel,” we typically do not receive your directly identifiable information, such as name or contact information; instead, we receive an individual identification number which we use as a reference to the Third-Party Panel. We use this reference number if there are questions regarding a specific questionnaire or response and when confirming your willingness to participate in Studies offered by companies like ours.

In some cases, we may commission third parties to assist with sourcing participants and/or with programming our online questionnaires. We may also use third-party online platforms for live conversations, video, and/or audio recording. In these cases, participants are subject to privacy-related notices provided by the panel vendor with whom they are registered.

Sometimes our clients will provide participants’ contact information. If we receive your contact information from a client, the client remains in control of your data while NIQ acts as a service provider (data processor) of this contact information (and in special cases also for the data collected from participants during these Studies) strictly pursuant to the client’s instructions.

D. Other Uses of Personal Information

In addition to the uses described above, we use Personal Information from all categories of sources for these commercial and business purposes to the extent permitted under applicable law:

To communicate with you, such as through bots, by phone, email, messaging, or postal mail, to respond to your inquiries, validate or clarify your responses, send you Survey information or updates to our policies, or to invite you to participate in additional Surveys
To manage the Surveys and assess your eligibility for participation
To monitor, protect, and maintain the security of our Surveys, Platforms, products, services, and business
To comply with applicable laws and regulations and respond to lawful requests for Personal Information
To carry out corporate restructures, sales, and business transactions in which information held by us is among the assets transferred or is otherwise relevant to the transaction
To protect our rights, privacy, safety, property and/or those of others
To fulfill any other purpose explained to you at the point of collection or with your consent

We process this data based on our legal necessity to comply with legal obligations, our legitimate interests as a market research company to maintain the high quality of our Survey responses and to conduct and protect our business, and, when necessary, with your consent.

2. HOW WE DISCLOSE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

We may disclose your Personal Information (in accordance with applicable law) for the purposes described in this Notice to:

Our Clients and Other Market Research Companies. We provide data about and derived from our participants’ Survey Data to some of our clients or other companies. When you register to participate in a panel operated by another company (the “Panel Owner”) and are subsequently chosen to participate in an NIQ Survey, we may also provide information to the Panel Owner to confirm your completion of the Survey and, in case of online surveys, from time to time share participants’ IP addresses with the Panel Owner for purposes of deduplication and quality checking.
Our Corporate Affiliates, which include our parent company and its subsidiaries listed here, the NIQ Group. We provide data to our affiliates for operational support, collaborative research and development initiatives, enterprise risk management, and to ensure consistency in our practices. For example, an affiliate in another country may provide backend support or host our data systems, or inquiries may be routed to an affiliate best equipped to respond to your requests based on your location.
Our Service Providers. We disclose data to our service providers that provide business, professional, or technical support services to us, help us operate our business and the Surveys, or administer activities on our behalf, such as companies that provide website or application hosting or data matching services. We may also work with service providers for Survey recruitment, rewards, incentives, sweepstakes, or for product development purposes.

In certain circumstances, we may disclose each category of your Personal Information to:

Governmental, Regulatory, and Public Authorities.We may disclose your Personal Information to government and law enforcement authorities to comply with legal or regulatory obligations or requests (including those outside your country of residence).
Relevant Third Parties as Part of a Corporate Transaction. In the event of a reorganization, merger, sale, joint venture, assignment, transfer, or other disposition of all or any portion of our business, assets, or stock (including in connection with a bankruptcy or similar proceeding), we may disclose or transfer your Personal Information to certain third parties, such as the acquiring entity and its advisers.
Other Third Parties. We may disclose your Personal Information to other third parties at your direction or with your consent. Additionally, we may disclose your data as necessary or appropriate to: (a) comply with applicable law; (b) enforce our terms and conditions; (c) protect and audit our operations; (d) protect our rights, privacy, safety, or property, and/or those of you or others; and (e) allow us to pursue available remedies or limit damages that we may sustain.

In addition, we may disclose your Personal Information for other reasons that we will describe at the time of information collection or prior to disclosing your data.

When we disclose Personal Information, we take contractual, technical, and organizational measures that are designed to limit the recipients’ use to specific purposes that are consistent with this Notice and in accordance with applicable law.

To the extent permitted under applicable law, we may deidentify, anonymize, or aggregate Personal Information such that there is no reasonable possibility of re-identifying you from the data used. Such deidentified data will no longer be considered Personal Information. Once deidentified, we do not attempt to reidentify the data and ensure it will not be reidentified by implementing strict technical and organizational measures and contractual measures to ensure third parties adhere to the same non-reidentification commitments. Our use and disclosure of deidentified, anonymized, or aggregated information is not governed by this Notice.

3. AUTOMATED DECISION MAKING, PROFILING, AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Automated processes may be used to administer our Surveys, including inferring information about participants or using screening questions to balance Survey samples. For example, if your sociodemographic group (gender, age group, region, etc.) is fully represented, you may not be asked to participate or be eligible for rewards or financial incentives. To the extent these activities constitute automated decision making or profiling, we do so in a fair and non-discriminatory manner. Note, we do not make legal or similarly significant decisions about you based on profiling, such as a decision to offer or decline your request for employment.

Our automated processing integrates generative artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities to help process, analyze, and summarize Survey responses more efficiently and identify key themes. We may use your aggregated data to train our AI technology and large language models (LLMs), keeping individual responses private. These models predict consumer reactions, test new ideas, and guide targeted research, reducing the need for repeated large-scale studies while ensuring humans remain involved in research.

NIQ maintains a steadfast commitment to the responsible, ethical, and secure application of AI technology and machine learning to enhance and evolve our business, Surveys, and Platforms. All AI-assisted analysis is reviewed by our team to ensure accuracy and fairness. Any processing involving AI is carried out in line with data protection principles, including data minimization and transparency, and our deployment and use is subject to applicable law and NIQ’s AI Safety Policies and Guiding Principles.

4. DATA AUTHORIZATIONS AND FINANCIAL INCENTIVES

Your Data Authorizations and Survey Participation. You authorize us to access and process your Personal Information by agreeing to this Notice and providing any necessary consent at or before our Surveys. You are not obligated to provide your Personal Information and can opt out/withdraw consent to our processing at any time. Without access to your Personal Information, you may not be asked to complete a Survey and may not be eligible for any rewards or financial incentives.

NIQ processes your Personal Information primarily on the basis of your consent and voluntary participation in our Studies. By participating in a Study, you are contributing your data to a pool of data from which broad participant statistics are derived. These statistics are relied upon by a wide variety of other companies to set pricing, advertising, merchandising, and other key business decisions.

Notice of Financial Incentive: Your Voice Matters — And We Thank You for It!

Your opinions matter, and so does your Personal Information. That’s why we offer rewards when you participate in our Surveys – it’s our way of saying thanks for your time and insights. Usually, your financial incentives are managed by the Third-Party Panel Owner; if NIQ handles them, the following applies.

When you share your feedback, you’re helping us better understand what people want – from shopping habits to personal preferences. This helps us improve our products, create new ones, and build stronger relationships with our clients.

While we don’t assign a specific currency value to your Personal Information, the rewards we offer reflect the value your input brings – balanced against the cost of collecting data and providing the incentives program. The amount you receive may vary depending on the Survey and your location, but your contribution is always appreciated.

Thank you for helping us grow – and for letting us thank you in return!

Opt In Consent: We invite participants (like you) to participate in our Surveys – and for some Surveys, participants may receive a reward or financial incentive upon completion.
Withdrawing Consent: Survey participants can withdraw their consent at any time by simply exiting their browser or choosing not to submit the Survey.

5. PRIVACY RIGHTS AND CHOICES

IMPORTANT: If you participated in an NIQ Survey as a member of a Third-Party Panel, we most likely won’t be able to identify you by your name or email address because we do not typically receive your identifying information from the Third-Party Panel Owner. Therefore, to exercise your privacy rights in relation to your Survey Data, we recommend contacting your Panel Owner who can then forward us your request in a pseudonymized form by referencing your assigned identification number, which will enable us to find and action your Survey Data in accordance with your rights.

Nielsen Consumer LLC, or the NIQ company identified at the beginning of your Survey is the controller of Personal Information collected from or about you. Participation in our Studies is always voluntary, meaning that you can choose whether to provide any of the data requested and withdraw from a Study at any time. If you cease participation, we will continue to process the data we collected during the time you were a participant. In accordance with applicable law (and subject to certain exceptions), you may have certain rights in relation to your Personal Information, including the right to:

Access your Personal Information (including a copy in a portable format). You may request a privacy report detailing the Personal Information we maintain about you and the purposes for doing so, unless your request proves impossible or would involve disproportionate effort to fulfill. Under certain conditions, you may request that we transfer your Personal Information to another organization, or directly to you, but we may not be required to respond to your requests “to know” or access specific pieces of Personal Information more than twice in any 12-month period.
Request a List of Third-Party Recipients though we are not required to provide the names of NIQ Group clients or other trade secrets.
Correct or Rectify inaccurate Personal Information that we maintain about you, subject to appropriate verification.
Delete or Erase, subject to certain exceptions. We may be unable to delete your data without also deleting your Survey account.
Restrict or Limit Processing, under certain conditions. This includes the right to restrict the use or disclosure of your Sensitive Personal Information.
Object to Processing that is based on our legitimate interest, under certain conditions. We will no longer process your Personal Information unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for the processing which override your interests or for the establishment, exercise, or defense of legal claims.

Opt Out of Sales, Sharing, or Targeted Advertising (as defined by applicable law). As a reminder, we do not use your Personal Information for targeted advertising to you, nor do we allow our clients to do so.
- In addition, we will treat requests sent through GPC as a valid request to opt out of the sale or sharing of Personal Information linked to that browser and any consumer profile we have associated with that browser. If you use different browsers or browser profiles, you may need to enable the signal on each browser or profile.
Opt Out of Automated Processing or Profiling resulting in a decision based solely on automated processing, including profiling which produces legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affects you. As a reminder, we do not process your Personal Information for these purposes.
Withdraw Consent at any time where we rely on consent as the legal basis, with effect for the future.
Appoint an Authorized Agent on your Behalf. Only you, or someone legally authorized to act on your behalf, may submit a request related to your Personal Information. Agents may need to demonstrate via written, signed documentation that you’ve authorized them to act on your behalf.
- Authorization must be done in writing and signed, and the writing must identify the agent and explain what request they are authorized to make. Your agent must include a copy of this writing or a copy of a valid power of attorney with the request. The NIQ Group retains the right to request confirmation directly from you, confirming that the agent is authorized to make such a request, or to request additional information that is necessary to identify you.
Appeal or Lodge a Complaint in the event of a suspected infringement of applicable data protection laws, you may appeal our decision directly with us or lodge a complaint with your (US) State’s Attorney General or with a supervisory authority.

We empower and support the exercise of your rights. At any time, you may request or assert any of the rights listed above by selecting Your Privacy Rights from our website or by emailing us at connect.privacy@nielseniq.com.

We may take steps to confirm your identity before responding to your request by asking you a series of questions about your previous interactions with us. We will work to respond within applicable legal deadlines and let you know if we need additional time. If you believe there has been a violation of your privacy rights, please contact us or the supervisory authority. We may decline a request (other than an opt-out request) if we are unable to confirm your identity (or an agent’s authority to make the request) or confirm the Personal Information we maintain relates to you.

We will not discriminate against you if you decide to exercise your privacy rights.

6. TRANSFERS OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

Due to the international nature of our business, it may be necessary for us to transfer your Personal Information to other companies within the NIQ Group and to third parties outside the jurisdiction in which you reside that may not have the level of data protection that you enjoy under your jurisdiction (“Third Countries”). This can, for example, result in impeded enforcement of individuals’ rights, a lack of control over further processing, and access by state authorities.

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) and additional safeguards to ensure an adequate level of protection for your Personal Information when it is transferred to Third Countries.

Insofar as we transfer your Personal Information to other recipients in Third Countries, we ensure that your Personal Information is protected by adequate safeguards recognized by your jurisdiction (for example, by concluding standard contractual clauses of the European Commission or by means of binding corporate rules of our business partners) and supplementary measures, as necessary. You can contact us to obtain a copy of our transfer mechanisms.

7. PERSONAL INFORMATION OF CHILDREN

We understand the importance of protecting children’s privacy, and it is our policy to never knowingly collect or maintain Personal Information about anyone under the age of majority (subject to local jurisdictional age differences) without first obtaining consent from a parent or guardian, when required according to applicable law and codes of conduct for the market research industry.

If our Survey seeks to study children, minor children may participate in some Surveys and all provisions of this Notice will apply to Personal Information about children of any age (up to 18). If we become aware that we have collected or received Personal Information from a child without appropriate consent, we will delete the Personal Information or take other steps to comply with applicable law. We may sell or share (as those terms are defined in applicable law) pseudonymized information about individuals under the age of majority only after gaining consent from parents or guardians.

8. DATA SECURITY AND EXTERNAL LINKS

We maintain a comprehensive information security program with administrative, physical, and technical safeguards to maintain the confidentiality, integrity, and accessibility of your information. However, as no transmission of information over the internet is absolutely secure, we cannot guarantee the safety of your information.

Our Surveys and Platforms may have links to third-party sites and services, which may have privacy policies that differ from our own. We are not responsible for the practices of these third-party sites and services. We encourage you to review their privacy information to learn more about their practices.

9. REVISIONS TO THIS NOTICE

We reserve the right to change, modify, add, remove, or otherwise revise portions of this Notice at any time, for example as our Surveys develop and evolve, to comply with legal requirements, or to address changes in our business practices. When we do, we will post the revised Notice to our Platforms and Surveys. Your continued use of our Platforms and participation in our Surveys following the posting of changes to these terms means you acknowledge these changes. If we change the Notice in a material way, we will provide appropriate notice to you and update the date at the top of the Notice.

10. HOW TO CONTACT US

If you have any questions or concerns about this Notice, our privacy practices and the protection of your Personal Information, or the privacy rights and choices available to you as described in this Notice, you may contact us in the following ways:

Privacy Rights Webform	Your Privacy Rights
Email	connect.privacy@nielseniq.com
Data Controller	Nielsen Consumer LLC, or as otherwise identified in your Survey
US Postal Mail	NielsenIQ, 200 W Jackson Blvd, Chicago, IL 60606, USA, Attn: Legal Dept.
EU Postal Mail	NielsenIQ, 3-5 Sophie-Germain-Str, Nuremberg 90443, Germany, Attn: Legal Dept.
Data Protection Officer	HewardMills Ltd., 77 Farringdon Road, London, EC1M 3JU, United Kingdom Attn: NIQ Privacy niq@hewardmills.com