Introduction

At dQ&A, we’re committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. We never take the information you give us for granted, we use it with reverence and responsibility, and we protect it fiercely.

This Policy explains when and why we collect information about survey respondents, website visitors, clients, and other parties interested in dQ&A; how we use it, the conditions under which we may disclose it to others and how we keep it secure.

We may change this Policy from time to time so please check this page occasionally to ensure that you’re happy with any changes. We last amended this policy in August, 2019.

Any questions regarding this Policy and our privacy practices should be sent by email to privacy@d-qa.com or by writing to dQ&A, 804 Haight Street, San Francisco, CA, 94117, USA.

Who is dQ&A?

dQ&A is a social enterprise committed to making life better for people with diabetes. Many of our employees have a personal connection to diabetes. We work closely with thousands of patients and healthcare providers to obtain trustworthy answers to important diabetes questions. These respondents are organized into ‘panels’. We get paid by our clients, who use the panels’ answers to these questions to inform critical business decisions, to create better products, and to make valid claims in marketing materials and regulatory filings. We work hard to be trusted by patients because of our independence and commitment to diabetes, and because we deliver authentic answers to our clients.

Information We Collect

Survey Respondents

The information we collect from survey respondents may include:

• Name and contact information, for example an email address
• Demographic and health information, such as your age, the type of diabetes you have, and the diabetes medications you take
• Device and browser data, such as your IP address, device type, and browser type
• Survey response history, such as which survey invitations you’ve answered and what time of day you take the surveys
• Other information that you provide through your participation in our research projects, for example your opinions about a particular diabetes product or topic.

We collect, store and process this data because you kindly gave us your consent to do so when you joined our panel or took a survey. You may withdraw your consent at any time by clicking the ‘unsubscribe’ link at the bottom of our emails, contacting us at privacy@d-qa.com, or writing us at dQ&A, 804 Haight Street, San Francisco, CA, 94117, USA.

dQ&A does not knowingly collect or request personal information from those under the age of eighteen without first obtaining consent from their parent or guardian. People under the age of 18 are not eligible to join our research panels. Instead, we ask parents and guardians to complete our surveys and other studies on their child’s behalf. Occasionally, a project requires the participation of people under the age of 18, and in those cases, we first ask for consent from the parent or guardian before contacting the child. If we find out that a child under eighteen has been improperly registered in our panel for any reason, we will delete the child’s personal information from our records.

Clients and Third Parties

For our clients, and other parties interested in dQ&A, we provide results from our research or information related to dQ&A or diabetes, such as informational emails. We also (as you might expect) survey our clients from time to time.

As part of these activities, we collect information such as:

• Name, job title and contact information, for example an email address
• Device and browser data, such as your IP address, device type, and browser type
• Email and survey response history, such as which emails you have opened or clicked and any surveys you’ve answered.
• Other information that you might provide through your participation in our surveys, such as your opinion of our services.

We collect, store and process this data because it’s necessary to provide you with the research services you purchased, or because you gave us your consent to do so when you joined our mailing list. You may withdraw your mailing list consent at any time by clicking the ‘unsubscribe’ link at the bottom of our emails, contacting us at privacy@d-qa.com, or writing us at dQ&A, 804 Haight Street, San Francisco, CA, 94117, USA.

dQ&A Website Visitors

Like almost all websites, the dQ&A websites also collect information using cookies and similar technologies. We may, for example, collect information about the type of device you use to access our websites, the operating system and version, your IP address, your general geographic location as indicated by your IP address, your browser type, the pages you view on our websites, and whether and how you interact with content available on our websites.

How We Use Your Information

dQ&A uses the information we collect for a number of purposes, including the following:

Sending Panel Members Invitations or Other Correspondence

From time to time, we send you invitations to take part in ongoing research projects. We use your information not only to send you the request, but also to select the most appropriate people to take part. We also will occasionally send you other information about dQ&A or communicate with you if you have any questions or concerns.

Answering Client Questions

If you participate in our research, we will analyze the information you and other respondents give us to answer clients’ diabetes-related questions and provide insight into the experiences and opinions of people with diabetes. We typically analyze large sets of aggregated responses (so we can say, for example, that 67% of patients disliked Product X), and provide the results of our analysis to clients in written or presentation form. The results that we provide to our clients are completely anonymous. We will never give clients any information that can be used to identify you personally, without your explicit permission.

Paying Our Panel Members

We also use your information, such as name and email address or mailing address, to send thank you payments for taking part in our research projects.

Improving Survey Experience

We may use your previous survey responses to determine which research projects are relevant to you, and to skip you over certain questions within a survey that you have answered in the past. We collect device and browser data so we’re able to optimize surveys for that type of device, and we use your IP address to make sure that you don’t take the same survey twice.

dQ&A Company Information

We may use your information for the purpose of sending you emails containing information about dQ&A and the diabetes community, such as updates on the company, the research we are doing and its implications for people with diabetes, or new products.

Who Has Access to Your Information?

We respect your privacy and your rights to control your personal data. Under no circumstances will we sell or rent your personally identifying data to third parties.

Reporting

Usually, when we report our conclusions to our clients, we do so in an anonymous, aggregated fashion – meaning that your responses are merged with those of others and nobody is identifiable. When we speak with smaller groups or conduct individual interviews, we may share individual responses with clients, but we do so anonymously. On rare occasions, there might be an important reason to identify a particular panel member, but we would only do so after receiving explicit permission from that person, and we would carefully explain the reason. For example, if someone reported a very serious adverse event associated with the use of a particular device or medication, and the manufacturer wanted more information to protect the safety of others.

Third Party Service Providers Working on our Behalf

We do use a few carefully chosen third party service providers to help perform our work. These service providers are subcontractors that assist with such services as sending invitations, collecting responses to questions, storing data, performing statistical computations, and mailing checks. To perform these services, we may need to share some or all of your information with the service providers. However, when we use third party service providers, we disclose only the minimum of personal information that is necessary to deliver the service and we have a contract in place that requires them to keep your information secure and not to use it for any other purposes (such as marketing). We only choose service providers in the USA or the EU where they are also obligated to obey all laws relating to the security and confidentiality of personally identifying and health-related data.

Transferring Your Information Outside of Europe

We’d like to let panel members in the European Union (EU) know that information which you provide to us may be transferred to countries outside the EU, usually because servers are located in a different geography. For example, our company is based in the USA, and we store some data on servers in the USA. By submitting your personal data, you’re agreeing to this transfer, storing or processing. If we transfer your information outside of the EU, we will take steps to ensure that your privacy rights continue to be protected as outlined in this policy.

Security of Personal Information

When you give us personal information, we take measures to ensure that it’s treated securely. For example, we store the personally identifying data you provide on computer systems that have limited access and are in controlled facilities. Additionally, we ensure that our third-party providers provide adequate physical and data security measures. All your information is encrypted at rest, and we separate your personally identifying information from anything else you’ve told us wherever possible. This means the data we work with is normally anonymous – which helps to limit the security risk. (The main exceptions to this are when you take part in a survey or interview, or when we process your payments.) We store your information for as long as needed to provide the particular services we offer to our clients.

Your Rights

You have the right to control how we use your information. Subject to local law, you can do this in the following ways:

• You can ask us for a copy of the information we hold about you;
• You can inform us of any changes to your information, or if you want us to correct any of the information we hold about you;
• You can ask us to erase, or restrict the information we hold about you;
• You can object to particular ways in which we are using your personal information;
• You can also ask us to send the personal information you have given us to a third party.

Where we are using your personal information on the basis of your consent, you are entitled to withdraw that consent at any time. The easiest way to do this is to click the ‘unsubscribe’ link in any of our invitations.

You can also email us at privacy@d-qa.com or send mail to dQ&A, 804 Haight Street, San Francisco, CA, 94117, USA.

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