Privacy Policy
MRA PRIVACY NOTICE
Last modified May 23, 2011
The Marketing Research Association (“MRA”) values the privacy of its users, members,
customers, subscribers, and others who visit and use (collectively or individually, “Members”) www.MarketingResearch.org and any other web sites or services owned or operated by MRA (collectively, “MRA Online”).
This Privacy Notice is incorporated into and is subject to the MRA Terms of Use. Your use of MRA Online and any personal information you provide on MRA Online remain subject to the terms of this Privacy Notice and our Terms of Use.
The Information MRA Collects
Personal Information. You may provide to MRA what is generally called “personally identifiable information” (including but not limited to your name, MRA member number, email address, postal mailing address, home/mobile telephone number, credit card number and billing information, etc.) when you participate in certain activities on MRA Online. In addition, you may choose to post certain information to your public “profile” on MRA Online such as avatar, general location, interests, occupation, and comments.
“Cookies” Information. When you visit MRA Online, we may send one or more cookies—small text files containing a string of alphanumeric characters—to your computer. MRA Online uses both session cookies and persistent cookies. A session cookie disappears after you close your browser. A persistent cookie remains after you close your browser and may be used by your browser on subsequent visits to MRA Online. Persistent cookies can be removed. Please review your web browser "Help" file to learn the proper way to modify your cookie settings.
The Way MRA Uses Your Information
Public Profiles. When you choose to create a public profile on MRA Online, you will post, at your option, certain personal information that will be publicly displayed to other Members on MRA Online.
MRA uses the information that we collect to operate, maintain, enhance, and provide to you all of the features and services found on MRA Online. We will use your email address, without further consent, for administrative purposes such as sending you account activation, member account access, and "welcome" emails, notifying you of major MRA Online updates, for customer service purposes, to address copyright infringement issues, or to contact you regarding any MRA Online activities in which you are presently participating.
MRA uses your email address to send to you activity emails, newsletters, and, from time to time, notices about special activities, features, or items available on MRA Online.
Usage tracking. MRA tracks user traffic patterns throughout site. However, we do not correlate this information with data about individual users. MRA does break down overall usage statistics according to a user's domain name, browser type, and MIME type by reading this information from the browser string (information contained in every user's browser).
Search terms. MRA may track search terms that users enter in our Search function, but this tracking is never associated with individual users. We use tracking information to determine which areas of our sites users like and don't like based on traffic to those areas. We do not track what individual users read, but rather how well each page performs overall. This helps us continue to build a better service for you.
When MRA Discloses Information
MRA does not share your personally identifiable information with other organizations for their marketing or promotional uses without your express consent.
MRA may disclose some types of Member Information to certain affiliated companies or other businesses or persons who provide web site hosting, maintenance and security services, fulfill orders, offer certain functionality, help improve our site and create new site features. We require that these parties process such information in compliance with this Privacy Notice, we authorize only a limited use of such information, and we require these parties to use appropriate confidentiality measures.
MRA may disclose Member Information if required to do so by law or in the good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with state and federal laws (such as U.S. Copyright law) or respond to a court order, judicial or other government subpoena, or warrant. We may make such disclosures, in some cases, without providing Members notice.
MRA also reserves the right to disclose Member Information that we believe, in good faith, is appropriate or necessary to take precautions against liability; protect MRA from fraudulent, abusive, or unlawful uses; to investigate and defend ourselves against any third-party claims or allegations; to assist government enforcement agencies; to protect the security or integrity of MRA Online; and to protect the rights, property, or personal safety of our Members or other persons.
Your Choices
You may, of course, decline to share your personally-identifiable information with MRA in which case you will not be able to participate in many MRA Online activities. To protect your privacy and security, we take reasonable steps to verify your identity before granting you account access. HOWEVER, You are responsible for maintaining the secrecy of your member identification at all times.
Third Party, Links to Other Sites
Third-party Advertisers, Links to Other Sites. This Privacy Notice only applies to information collected through MRA Online. When you access other third party sites through links on MRA Online, you do so at your own risk. These other sites are not under MRA's control, and you acknowledge that MRA is not responsible or liable for their privacy practices and/or policies. When linking to another site you should read the privacy policy posted on that site and make sure that you are comfortable with its privacy practices.
Commitment to Data Security
MRA uses commercially reasonable physical, managerial, and technical safeguards to preserve the integrity and security of Member Information. MRA operates secure data networks protected by industry standard firewall and password protection systems. Our security and privacy policies are periodically reviewed and enhanced as necessary and only authorized individuals have access to the information provided by our customers. Once we receive your Information, MRA makes commercially reasonable efforts to ensure the security of our systems. However, please note that this is not a guarantee that such information may not be accessed, disclosed, altered, or destroyed by breach of any of our physical, technical, or managerial safeguards.
If MRA learns of a security systems breach, then we may attempt to notify you electronically so that you can take appropriate protective steps. MRA may post a notice on MRA Online if a security breach occurs.
Commitment to Children’s Privacy
Protecting the privacy of young children is especially important. For that reason, MRA does not knowingly collect or maintain personally identifiable information on MRA Online from persons under 13 years-of-age, and no part of MRA Online is directed to persons under 13. If you are under 13 years of age, then please do not use or access MRA Online at any time or in any manner. If MRA learns that personally-identifiable information of persons less than 13-years-of-age has been collected, then MRA will take the appropriate steps to delete this information.
International Visitors
If you are visiting from the European Union or other regions with laws governing data collection and use that may differ from U.S. law, please note that you are transferring your personal data to the United States and by providing your personal data you consent to that transfer.
In the Event of Merger or Sale
In the event that MRA is acquired by or merged with a third-party entity, we reserve the right, in any of these circumstances, to transfer or assign the information we have collected from Members as part of such merger, acquisition, sale, or other change of control.
Your Consent; Changes and Updates to this Privacy Notice
This Privacy Notice may be revised periodically without further notice to you and this will be reflected by the "last modified" notice above. Please revisit this page to stay aware of any changes. In general, we only use your personal information in the manner described in the Privacy Notice in effect when we received that personal information. Your continued use of MRA Online constitutes your agreement to this Privacy Notice and any future revisions.
MRA Contact Information
Please contact MRA with any questions or comments about this Privacy Notice, your personal information, our third-party disclosure practices, or your consent choices at latoya.lang@marktingresearch.org or by postal mail at 110 National Drive, 2nd Floor Glastonbury, CT 06033. We will respond to your inquiry within 30 days of its receipt.