CONTENTS

GENERAL
SURVEYS
REWARDS PROGRAMME
DATA PROTECTION / SECURITY

General

What is an online panel?
An online panel consists of a group of selected internet users who have expressed their readiness to participate in online surveys. The difference between on-line surveys and conventional surveys is that in an online panel the sample can be selected in advance (e.g. by their age) and invited to participate e.g. young people in a survey about pop music, and older people in a survey about pensions.

How can I become a member of myonlinepanel.co.uk?
You will be personally contacted by us and we will ask you to sign up to membership of myonlinepanel.co.uk. We contact you directly. For this reason you cannot register online with myonlinepanel.co.uk by yourself.

Why is it not possible to register with myonlinepanel.co.uk by myself?
We only carry out quality surveys. We check with our panel members who they are in order to be able to invite them to surveys which are of interest to them. We do not want to have anonymous respondents in our database.

What are my obligations as a panel member?
In registering with myonlinepanel.co.uk you are only agreeing to take part in the surveys, nothing else. And you can decide each time you are invited whether you want to take part, or not. So if you are busy for some reason, you do not have to take part that time. The only thing we ask of you is to answer all questions correctly and honestly. You should fill in the questionnaire yourself, and not allow other members of your household to do this.

How and when can I terminate my membership?
You can terminate your membership at any time. Just click on the <terminate membership> button in the <members only> area. Or just send an e-mail to .

Are other people who live in my household also allowed to participate in the surveys?
No, this is not possible. We only select one person per household whose details we have checked for sampling purposes.

Surveys

How much time is allowed to return a survey I am sent online?
There is no general answer to this question. As a rule of thumb, a survey is online for about one week. However, depending on the type of survey it may well be that a survey is accessible for a shorter or for a longer period of time. In the invitation e-mail we will tell you how long it will take to complete the questionnaire, the time the survey will be online and the number of mypoints you will receive for participating in this survey. As soon as the required number of participants for a survey has been achieved, the survey will be closed. In some cases a survey may be closed early, and taken off the web if the right number of participants reply quickly.

It is some time since I was invited to take part in a survey. / I have not yet been invited to take part. Why is this?
The most likely reason is that there are no surveys at the moment which fit e.g. your interests or age group.

How frequently will I be invited to participate in a survey?
This will vary and depends on the survey subjects and topics. We can only invite those myonlinepanel-members who fit the criteria (e.g. age, number of children in the household) we are looking for for that survey.

How much time does it take to complete a questionnaire?
This depends on the type of survey. In general a survey will last between 10 and 20 minutes. The longer the survey is, the more mypoints you will earn. More details under <reward programme>. In each invitation e-mail for a survey we will tell you how long it will take to complete the questionnaire and the number of mypoints you will earn.

Rewards Programme

How many mypoints will I receive for taking part in a survey?
This depends on the nature of the survey and the length of the questionnaire. We appreciate that you need time to fill in the questionnaire. For a survey which lasts about 10 to 15 minutes you will earn about 300 mypoints.

Where can I look at the balance of my mypoints account?
In the <members only> area you can look at your personal account balance at any time.

What are mypoints worth?
125 mypoints are worth 1.00 Euro (approx. GBP 0.90).

What do I get for the mypoints?
As soon as you have collected 1,250 mypoints for the first time, you can redeem your mypoints for a voucher, which can be used to buy products or leisure event tickets with over 80 companies. You can then cash in the mypoints for a voucher after every 625 mypoints you collect. <Reward Programme>.

Will I also receive mypoints, if I haven’t filled a questionnaire completely?
As we cannot analyse questionnaires which are not filled in completely, no mypoints will be credited for incomplete questionnaires.

How and when can I redeem my mypoints?
When your personal account shows a balance of 1,250 mypoints for the first time, you are entitled to redeem your mypoints for a voucher. After this you can redeem mypoints when you have collected 625 mypoints.

Is it also possible to get cash for my mypoints?
Unfortunately this is not possible. The cost of administration would be too high and affect the level of rewards we could offer. We believe that the voucher system we use represents the most attractive reward method.

For how long are the mypoints valid?
The mypoints you collect are valid until you stop being a member. They do not expire. If you cancel your membership we will send you a voucher to the value of your mypoints. It is only possible to redeem mypoints in groups of 625 mypoints.

How does the prize draw work?
Every month we put into the draw for all myonlinepanel-members 10x 1,000 mypoints. For some surveys, we sometimes offer interesting prizes in addition to mypoints. The exact offer for your participation in a survey will be stated in the invitation e-mail for each survey. The winners will be drawn at random. The results of the draw cannot be challenged.

Data Protection and safety

What happens to my personal data?
We take data protection and data security very seriously. The type of surveys we conduct are confidential surveys and these are bound by the code of conduct of The Market Research Society of Great Britain, and ESOMAR for the European Union. We adhere to the code of conduct with regard to the data protection laws and do not disclose your data nor your email address to any third party. Your personal data is used only for sample selection, sending you the questionnaires and vouchers, for data analysis which is anonymised, and for quality control. For more details about data protection look at <Privacy>.

I forgot my password, how can I log-in?
In the <members only> area you find directly under the fields for entering your log-in data a link which you can click onto to request your password. We will then send your password to your e-mail address immediately.

I have several e-mail addresses which one should I use?
Please enter the e-mail address which you used for your initial registration with myonlinepanel.co.uk and which you normally use for logging-in to myonlinepanel.co.uk. We can only allocate your mypoints to your account if you stick to the same e-mail address.

Why do I have to give you my e-mail address?
Your e-mail address is required for your identification as a panel members when you log-in. Also, we need your e-mail address to send the invitations to take part in our surveys and to inform you when you have won a prize in one of the draws.

Why am I asked for my postal address?
Your postal address is important for two reason:
1) We send your vouchers to the postal address you have given to us.
2) Sometimes we are trying to recruit people for a survey who live in certain areas of the country or in big cities. In order to be able to invite you to take part in those surveys, we need your address and post code. You will not receive any advertising material from us. Also, we will not disclose your name or address to any third party.

Is it possible to take a look at the answers I have given in the survey?
No, this is not possible. As soon as you have completed a questionnaire and sent it back to us, your answers will be stored in our database for analysis and is no longer accessible to you or anyone else via the internet. In the <members only> area you have the chance to retrieve and to update your personal profile data (e-mail address, password, etc.).