Data Privacy Statement
Market, opinion and/or social research

This data privacy statement is targeted towards persons who are participating in a study for the purposes of market, opinion and/or social research, especially those taking part in a survey (by telephone, in person or via the Internet) or are filling in online questionnaires, or who were contacted for these purposes.

We process your personal data exclusively within the directives of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Privacy Act 2018. In the following, we inform you about who we are and about the type, scope and purpose of the data collection, as well as about your rights in accordance with the GDPR.

1. Controller and data protection officer

The controller of your personal data is:

FOCUS Institut Marketing Research Ges.m.b.H
Maculangasse 8
1220 Wien
dsgvo@focusmr.com
Tel: 0043/1/258 97 01-0
Fax: 0043/1/258 97 01 – 99

2. Collection and processing of data

2.1. Collection

We only process the personal data that you have made known to us as part of a study (in person, by telephone, by post, by e-mail or web-based) or contact details that we have obtained legitimately from third parties (address publishers and direct marketing companies). In addition, we process telephone numbers generated by means of an RLD (Randomised Last Digit) procedure as a random number.

In particular, we collect and process the following categories of data:

Serial number, first name, surname, academic title, data of birth, address, judicial district, telephone and fax number, as well as e-mail addresses, demographic characteristics, data emerging from voluntary answers to questions defined by the respective purposes of the study.

Furthermore, we process special categories of data (“sensitive data”) pertaining to demographic characteristics (e.g. denomination or trade union membership) or voluntary answers to questions defined by the respective purpose of the study.

The supplying of your personal data is voluntary. There is no legal obligation to disclose it. If you do not wish to state your personal data, it is not collected and consequently not taken account of in a study.

2.2. Processing

a. purposes of processing

We process your personal data for selection as part of a representative population and to contact potential study participants (respondents).

We process your personal data for the purpose of market, opinion and/or social research, by systematically collecting, analysing and scientifically evaluating the replies of the study participants (respondents) or data collection results and in order to compare the results of short, medium and long-term studies and to draw conclusions from them.

b. legal basis

The processing of your personal data for selection as part of a representative population and to contact study participants (respondents) is based on our overriding legitimate interest. Our legitimate interest consists in carrying out studies in the field of market, opinion and/or social research as part of our customary business activities.

The processing of your personal data for the purpose of market, opinion and/or social research is based on our overriding legitimate interest. Our legitimate interest consists in carrying out studies in the field of market, opinion and/or social research as part of our customary business activities. In addition, special measures are taken to protect your persona data.

We process the stated personal data, especially data in the special categories, on the basis of the authorisation to process personal data for the purposes of scientific research in accordance with § 5 Research Organisation Act (FOG).

c. Anonymisation

We process your personal data for the purposes of market, opinion and social research in an anonymised or pseudonymised form.

If attributions to persons are not necessary for a study, the data necessary for this such as first name, surname or address is not collected, or else it is separated irrevocably from survey results and does not flow into the study results. In this case, it is no longer possible to attribute your answers to your person.

d. Pseudonymisation

If personal data is known to us that allows an attribution of your answers to you, your personal data is pseudonymised even before it is processed for the purposes of market, opinion and/or social research.

Pseudonymisation is understood as processing of personal data in which the data that enables attribution to a specific person (e.g. name, address and/or date of birth) is separated from the other personal data of the same person (as a rule the answers to the questions of a study) and replaced by an identification marker (such as a code or a number).

Without knowing which identification marker represents which person, it is no longer possible to attribute the further personal data (as a rule the answers to the questions of a study) to a specific person. The information about which identification marker stands for which person is stored separately and is subject to technical and organisational measures that ensure that the other personal data cannot be attributed unauthorised to a specific person.

3. Transmission and disclosure of personal data

Study results are transmitted to the client exclusively in an anonymous form (i.e. without personal data).

For carrying out the study, we make use of interviewers who carry out the questioning of study participants (respondents) for us as order processors. These interviewers receive your personal data from us for carrying out interviews and they collect personal data in the interviews on our behalf. They process your data at our request and only for as long as is necessary, bound strictly to our instructions.

Auditors are regularly appointed by the client for a study to ensure compliance with the quality directives for market and opinion research. These auditors inspect whether a study meets the high scientific standards of market and opinion research. Insofar as it is necessary for the inspection, personal data is transmitted to these auditors as described under point 2.1 of this data privacy statement.

Your personal data is not transmitted to a country that has a lower data protection standard to the European Union in comparison.

4. Retention period

Your personal data is retained for the duration of the study and beyond it, insofar as it is needed for the validation of the study results, to prove compliance with good scientific practice and as a basis for further scientific research (presentation of trends in short, medium and long-term studies).

5. Your rights

You have the right at any time to request information on whether and what data from you we are processing. In addition, under certain conditions you have the right to erasure, restriction of the processing or objection to processing, as well as the right to data portability.

If you would like to find out more about your rights or would like to exert one of the stated rights, contact us at the contact details stated under point 1 of this data privacy statement.

If you are of the opinion that we are processing your data improperly or unlawfully, you have the right to raise an objection at the Austrian Data Protection Authority, Wickenburggasse 8, 1080 Vienna.

Wien, am 25. Mai 2018