Market Communities Privacy Policy
At Maru Group Canada Inc. (“MARU”, “us” or “we”), respecting privacy is an important part of our commitment to clients, community participants, and the general public. This privacy policy, (the “Policy”) describes our practices specific to the collection and use of your personal information when you participate in our Market Community located at www.maruvoice.ca, (collectively known as the “Site”). This Policy is intended to be read in conjunction with our website privacy policy which outlines additional details about our data collection and processing practices.
MARU has appointed a Privacy Officer who is responsible for monitoring and enforcing compliance with this Policy. Should you have any questions regarding this Policy, you can contact our Privacy Officer by email at dataprotection@marublue.net, or by mail at:
2 Bloor Street East, Suite 1600
Toronto, ON M4W 1A8, Canada
Attention: Privacy Officer
You may also call us at any of our numbers listed at https://marublue.net/contact/
Market Communities
MARU owns and operates Maru Voice (‘Maru Voice’), collectively known as ‘Market Communities’. When you provide any information to the Market Communities, you are submitting this data directly to us.
Data Collection & Use
Our Market Communities are focused on providing you with the opportunity to voice your opinions on a variety of topics and issues. Your opinion is important to us and is the primary focus of the data we collect. In order to facilitate your membership and ensure that we are including you in relevant studies, we create a profile of you. To do this, we collect personal information from you such as your name, email address, gender, age, race, and political affiliation. On occasion, we may automatically add information from your survey responses to your profile. We may also request information about others residing in your household, including children. All information is viewable by us, and may be shared with third parties as outlined below.
When filling out surveys, we ask that you do not provide personal information unless it is explicitly requested. For example, do not provide information about a health condition in a field that is requesting information about your favorite food. When submitting information about others, we require that you obtain their consent before providing their information to us.
Any time you participate as a respondent in one of our surveys, you can be assured that your individual responses will be kept confidential and will only be shared as outlined in this Policy. You are free to choose whether or not to participate in a survey, free to choose not to answer any specific questions and free to discontinue participation at any time.
Sharing of Information / Third Parties
Generally, we do not provide personal information to third parties. Clients who purchase survey data from us receive aggregate, anonymized data and survey results that do not identify individual respondents. From time to time however, we may share your personal information with others including our clients and other third parties under the following circumstances:
• The third party provides a service to us (such as a hosting provider or sample partner) and is contractually bound to protect the confidentiality of your personal information;
• To administer points, sweepstakes/contests and other promotions;
• You have consented to participate directly in a study conducted by or on behalf of our client;
• You post the information while participating in an open discussion forum; or
• When we believe it necessary to comply with the law, to protect the rights or safety of our website, other users, or third parties.
A list of the third parties used most frequently can be found here: MARU/ Third Parties. Specific details of any third-party engagements and how they may use your information can be requested from dataprotection@marublue.net
We will never use your personal information for reasons that we have not disclosed to you, including selling it to marketers or advertisers for their own purposes.
We reserve the right to use and share all non-personal information with others without limitation.
Associates of Maru Voice
From time to time, we may invite you to directly participate in a study being conducted by an ‘Associate of Maru Voice’. Associates are MARU clients who conduct their own studies on another site. When you complete Associate studies you leave the Maru Voice environment and are responding directly to third parties. To simplify the survey experience and ensure that you do not have to answer profiling questions that you have previously submitted to us, we will automatically send our Associate certain information about you such as your age, race, region, household income, gender, and other demographic information when you grant your consent to participate.
All survey data including any personal information you submit when completing these Associate studies is viewable by the Associate. Participation in these surveys is completely voluntary and you may choose not to participate if you wish.
After completing an Associate survey you will then return to Maru Voice.
Communications from the Site
In order to participate in our Market Communities, you must opt-in to receive emails from us. The first email you receive from us will be sent to confirm your subscription and verify that the email address you have provided is valid. Subsequent emails will be sent to invite you to participate in surveys, to respond to your inquiries and support requests, to send you newsletters and other informative content, and to administer sweepstakes.
Cookies and Related Technologies
When you visit the Site, participate in a survey, access the member portal, or interact with a survey invite email, we use certain technologies to retain your preferences and provide other Site functionality. These technologies include cookies, web beacons, and digital fingerprints. To learn more about these technologies and your options, please visit our cookie policy.
Opting-Out
At any time, you may choose to opt-out of our Market Communities by clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of our emails, by using the unsubscribe option in the Profile area of the member portal, or by contacting us directly via the contact information listed above. Please note that when you unsubscribe, we will not only cease sending you emails, we will also deactivate your membership. Any information you have submitted to us, including survey invites and personal information will continue to be retained in accordance with our data retention practices outlined below. Any points you have accumulated and/or sweepstakes eligibility will be immediately forfeited and cannot be reclaimed even if you sign up again at a later date.
Opting-out of our Market Communities does not unsubscribe you from other communities you have chosen to join, including Associate and other client communities. If you have opted-in to participate in an Associate survey or have otherwise become a participant in one of our client's communities and wish to be removed, you will need to contact them directly to unsubscribe.
Certain communications are transactional in nature and do not provide you the ability to opt-out. For more information, please visit our main privacy policy.
Children’s Privacy
Our Market Communities are not intended for children under the age of 13. From time to time however, we may conduct surveys that are targeted at children. When we conduct such surveys, we will request express permission from a parent, legal guardian or other person legally responsible for the child before inviting the child to participate. We do not share the personal information of children with third parties, and participation can be revoked by the parent or guardian at any time by using the options listed above.
Data Retention
We will retain your personal information and survey responses for as long as it remains necessary or relevant for the purposes we have identified or as permitted/required by law. For example, we may need to retain the personal information of an unsubscribed member for the purposes of maintaining the integrity of the study, or to honor that member’s opt-out preference (by retaining the email address). If you would like to explicitly request the removal of your personal information, please contact us using the contact information listed above. Non-personal information is not subject to any retention limitations, and may be retained indefinitely.
Changes to This Policy
MARU encourages you to periodically review this Policy to stay informed of how we manage your personal information. If any changes are made to this Policy, MARU will revise the "Last Updated" date that is indicated on the Policy.
Last Updated: July 18, 2022
