Your personal information is safe with us. We don’t share or sell our lists with any outside entities.
When you provide Qessential with your contact information, we will contact you about studies that may be applicable to you, but you can rest assured that it won’t be shared beyond our organization without your prior approval. Your privacy and safety are our priority.
Our Privacy Policy – Last Updated 01/01/2024
Qessential Medical Market Research (Qessential) conducts market research solely from the United States of America. The privacy of those who participate in our market research studies is important to us. We protect the information provided by study participants and guard their personal information.
As such, Qessential has enacted a Privacy and Data Protection Policy in accordance with guidelines of CMOR, MRA, HIPAA and other applicable U.S. federal and state statutes (including CCPA), regulations and industry codes and standards governing privacy. The information provided to us by study respondents is kept confidential.
Any information collected from study participants is aggregated for analysis before being shared with study sponsors. All study participants must opt-in and agree to participation before taking part in any of our market research studies. Anyone who does not wish to be contacted can opt-out of participation in our market research studies, and their contact information will be eliminated from our records. This can be accomplished by clicking the opt-out link within one of our study participation email invitations or sending an email to answers@qmmr.net.
What is the purpose and legal basis for processing your personal data?
Information gathered in our studies is used only for market research purposes, to improve our understanding of how products are used, what improvements would be valued by physicians and patients, or where companies should focus their product design efforts to do the most good. Our research is not intended to promote the sale of any product, procedure, or service discussed in the course of the study. Personal contact information of all respondents is required to facilitate honoraria payments to compensate for their time participating in related studies.
Respondent personally identifiable information (PII) is only ever provided to outside parties to comply with federal and state reporting under the Physicians Payment Sunshine Act, adverse event reporting mandated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), or under strict court order. In these cases, the related parties will be notified in advance of disclosure.
We reserve the right to modify this privacy policy at any time, so please review it frequently. Changes and clarifications will take effect immediately upon their posting on the website. If we make material changes to this policy, we will notify you here that it has been updated, so that you are aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we use and/or disclose it.
Do California Residents have specific privacy rights?
Yes, if you are a resident of California, you are granted specific rights regarding access to your personal information.
California Civil Code Section 1798.83, also known as the “Shine The Light” law, permits California residents to request and obtain from us, once a year and free of charge, information about categories of personal information (if any) we disclosed to third parties and the names and addresses of all third parties with which we shared personal information in the immediately preceding calendar year. If you are a California resident and would like to make such a request, please submit your request in writing to us using the contact information provided below.
CCPA Privacy Notice
The California Code of Regulations defines a “resident” as:
Every individual who is in the State of California for other than a temporary or transitory purpose and
Every individual who is domiciled in the State of California who is outside the State of California for a temporary or transitory purpose
All other individuals are defined as “non-residents.”
If this definition of “resident” applies to you, we must adhere to certain rights and obligations regarding your personal information.
What categories of personal information do we collect?
We have collected the following categories of personal information in the past twelve (12) months:
- Category A. Identifiers, such as contact details, such as real name, postal address, telephone or mobile contact number, unique personal identifier, and email address. Collected: YES
- Category B. Personal information, as defined in the California Customer Records law, such as your name, contact information, education, employment, and employment history. Collected: YES
- Category C. Characteristics of protected classifications under California Customer Records statute, such as date of birth and gender. Collected: Gender Only
- Category D. Commercial information, such as transaction information, purchase history, financial details and payment information for the payment of honoraria only. Collected: Payment for Honoraria Only
- Category E. Biometric information, such as fingerprints and voiceprints. Collected: NO
- Category F. Internet or other similar network activity, such as browsing history, search history, online behavior, interest data, and interactions with our and other websites, applications, systems, and advertisements. Collected: IP Address for Quality Control Purposes Only.
- Category G. Geolocation data, including device location. Collected: NO
- Category H. Audio, electronic, visual, thermal, olfactory, or similar information, such as images and audio, video or call recordings created in connection with our business activities. Collected: Interview Recordings (audio/video) and Only with Participant Consent
- Category I. Professional and employment-related information, including business contact details in order to provide you our services at a business level, job title as well as work history and professional qualifications if you apply for a job with us. Collected: NO
- Category J. Education Information, including student records and directory information. Collected: NO
- Category K. Inferences drawn from other personal information, including any of the collected information listed above to create a profile or summary about, for example, an individual’s preferences and characteristics. Collected: NO
We may also collect other personal information outside of these categories, instances where you interact with us in-person, online, or by phone or mail in the context of:
Receiving help through our customer support channels;
Participation in market research studies; and
Facilitation in the delivery of our Services and to respond to your inquiries.
How do we use and share your personal information?
More information about our data collection and sharing practices can be found in this privacy notice.
You may contact us by email at answers@qmmr.net, by calling toll-free at 1-800-932-4249, or by referring to the contact details at the bottom of this document.
If you are using an authorized agent to exercise your right to opt-out we may deny a request if the authorized agent does not submit proof that they have been validly authorized to act on your behalf.
How long do we store your personal information?
Qessential shall keep or retain your information up to one (1) year following your request to opt-out of Qessential’s processing of your information.
Will your information be shared with anyone else?
We may disclose your Personal Information for a business purpose to the following categories of third parties:
Our market research clients (with expressed permission)
Government entities as required by law for 1099 reporting
Interview platform companies, e.g., Civicom, Focus Vision, and Discuss.io, when you are involved in specific interviews
Qessential has disclosed the following categories of personal information to third parties for a business purpose in the preceding twelve (12) months:
- Category A. Identifiers, such as contact details, such as real name, postal address, telephone or mobile contact number, unique personal identifier, and email address.
- Category B. Personal information, as defined in the California Customer Records law, such as your name, contact information, education, employment, and employment history
- Category C. Characteristics of protected classifications under California Customer Records law, such as gender.
- Category D. Commercial information, such as transaction information, purchase history, financial details and payment information for the payment of honoraria only.
- Category H. Audio, electronic, visual, thermal, olfactory, or similar information, such as images and audio, video or call recordings created in connection with our business activities.
Your rights with respect to your personal data
Right to request deletion of the data – Request to delete
You can ask for the deletion of your personal information. If you ask us to delete your personal information, we will respect your request and delete your personal information, subject to certain exceptions provided by law, such as (but not limited to) the exercise by another consumer of his or her right to free speech, our compliance requirements resulting from a legal obligation or any processing that may be required to protect against illegal activities.
Right to be informed – Request to know
Depending on the circumstances, you have a right to know:
- Whether we collect and use your personal information;
- The categories of personal information that we collect;
- The purposes for which the collected personal information is used;
- Whether we sell your personal information to third parties;
- The categories of personal information that we sold or disclosed for a business purpose;
- The categories of third parties to whom the personal information was sold or disclosed for a business purpose; and
- The business or commercial purpose for collecting or selling personal information.
- In accordance with applicable law, we are not obligated to provide or delete consumer information that is de-identified in response to a consumer request or to re-identify individual data to verify a consumer request.
Right to Non-Discrimination for the Exercise of a Consumer’s Privacy Rights
We will not discriminate against you if you exercise your privacy rights.
Verification process
Upon receiving your request, we will need to verify your identity to determine you are the same person about whom we have the information in our system. These verification efforts require us to ask you to provide information so that we can match it with information you have previously provided us. For instance, depending on the type of request you submit, we may ask you to provide certain information so that we can match the information you provide with the information we already have on file, or we may contact you through a communication method (e.g. phone or email) that you have previously provided to us. We may also use other verification methods as the circumstances dictate.
We will only use personal information provided in your request to verify your identity or authority to make the request. To the extent possible, we will avoid requesting additional information from you for the purposes of verification. If, however, we cannot verify your identity from the information already maintained by us, we may request that you provide additional information for the purposes of verifying your identity, and for security or fraud-prevention purposes. We will delete such additionally provided information as soon as we finish verifying you.
Other privacy rights
- You may object to the processing of your personal data
- You may request correction of your personal data if is incorrect or no longer relevant, or ask to restrict the processing of data
- You may designate an authorized agent to make a request under the CCPA on your behalf. We may deny a request from an authorized agent that does not submit proof that they have been validly authorized to act on your behalf in accordance with the CCPA
- You may request to opt-out for future disclosure of your personal information to third parties. Upon receiving a request to opt-out, we will act upon the request as soon as feasibly possible, but no later than 15 days from the date of the request submission.
How can you contact us about this notice or review/update/delete the data we collect from you?
Any queries regarding this policy may be sent to answers@qessential.com or to Qessential Medical Market Research, LLC, 133 Washington Street, Unit 275, Dover NH 03821