Privacy Policy 

We are committed to responsible stewardship of the data under our control and to compliance with all applicable privacy laws that regulate the collection, use, and disclosure of data about individual people. Nielsen’s internal privacy team oversees compliance with applicable privacy laws, self-regulatory programs that we participate in, and our internal privacy policies. We use tools and methods designed to prevent individuals from being identifiable in our reports and insights, and we take steps to prevent the data we collect from being reused in ways that have not been communicated to individuals and/or could negatively affect them.

Nielsen participates in the IAB Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF) to facilitate compliance with requirements of relevant privacy laws in the European Union (EU) and United Kingdom (UK) and the following self-regulatory programs specifically for our integrated Nielsen Marketing Cloud platform:

• The Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA): We adhere to the DAA’s self-regulatory principles for online behavioral advertising, including the DAA’s application of self-regulatory principles to the mobile environment.
• The European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance (EDAA): We adhere to the European Principles.
• The Network Advertising Initiative (NAI): We adhere to the NAI Code of Conduct.

Learn more about Nielsen Marketing Cloud's privacy practices.

Nielsen collects personal data from:

• Our panelists and prospective panelists—individuals and households who agree contractually to participate in one or more of Nielsen’s panels.
• People we contact with regard to Nielsen surveys conducted online, in person, by telephone, email or postal mail.
• Website browsers, mobile, and other devices that are measured by our digital and mobile products, or segmented into audiences for online or mobile advertisements by Nielsen Marketing Cloud.
• Visitors to our websites and people who contact us via our websites, via email, or other means.
• Public sources - about the public activities of certain public figures, such as professional athletes or actors.
• Publicly available social media posts, for products that measure online reaction to video content, products, and brands.
• Our employees, contractors, and business contacts at other companies in the course of conducting our business.

For more information, and a list of the categories of information we collect, please refer to the privacy notice for the specific product or service.

We provide clear notice about what data we collect and how we use it. We offer choices about our data collection at a time and in a context that reflect the sensitivity of the data being collected. Panelists and survey respondents agree to the collection and processing of their data and may withdraw their participation at any time. Individuals also have the ability to opt-out of our online and mobile data collection at any time.

We are continually working to maintain the personal data we collect so that it is complete, accurate, relevant and up to date.

Many privacy laws require companies to establish a lawful basis for their uses of personal data. While Nielsen has established different lawful bases for different types of processing, in almost all cases our basis for processing personal data will be one of the following:

• Performance of a contract: Nielsen operates its research panels and conducts surveys on the basis of a contract - a panel membership or market research agreement between Nielsen and our research subjects. For many panels, these agreements cover all members of a household, because market research practices often require analysis of data at a household level.
• Consent: Where Nielsen bases its processing of personal data on consent, we may seek consent directly from individuals or, where Nielsen acts as a data processor (a service provider to another company), we may rely on consent obtained by the data controller (a third party who typically has a direct relationship with the individual and obtains consent).
• Legitimate interests: In some cases, we may base the processing of personal data on our legitimate interest in performing market research or other services, because of its benefits in improving the efficiency of our clients and the markets in which they operate. Where we rely on this as our basis for processing, we make sure our activity is appropriately balanced by strong privacy protections designed to minimize the risks to data subjects.

Where Nielsen does not rely on one of the above bases for processing, we may process your data for a variety of business purposes, including:

• Performing services.
• Internal research and technology development.
• Verifying or maintaining the quality or safety of a service or device that we own, manufacture, or we control.

Following the concept of data minimization, we limit the collection of personal data to the extent possible while still enabling us to derive meaningful and accurate measurements and insights. We do this by:

• Using direct identifiers, limiting access to such information both internally and externally, and implementing appropriate data security measures, which are designed to protect individuals’ privacy.
• Reviewing third party’s data collection practices and the privacy notices that are made available to individuals to make sure that our use of the data is consistent with the commitments those companies have made to individuals.
• Removing identifying elements from the data that we collect and taking steps to prevent the data from being re-associated with identifiable data.

We restrict access to and use of personal data to Nielsen associates and service providers with a legitimate business purpose. We have established records retention policies to limit how long we keep personal data.

Under applicable law, individuals have certain privacy rights. These rights may include an individual’s right to request access, correction, deletion, or confirm the processing of their personal data. Individuals may also have the right to manage their consent for particular uses of their data, including the right to: opt-out of targeted, or cross-context behavioral advertising, profiling in furtherance of decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects, and the sale or sharing of personal data; and limit our use of their sensitive personal data.

Nielsen is committed to supporting individual rights and carrying out our legal obligations. Nielsen does not discriminate against individuals who exercise their rights under applicable law. For more detailed information on individual privacy rights, refer to the privacy notices associated with specific Nielsen products and services.

If, based on your review of these Principles and the applicable privacy notice(s), you wish to exercise one or more of the rights described above, you can submit a request using the form here or contact us at privacy.department@nielsen.com. Please note that we may require proof of your identity before we can give effect to these rights.

If we refuse to take action on your request, you may have the right to appeal that decision depending on your state of residence. You may make such an appeal by submitting the required information here.

Individuals that have questions or concerns about Nielsen's collection and processing of personal data can contact our EU Data Protection Officer at privacy.department@nielsen.com. Individuals that are dissatisfied with the way Nielsen has processed personal data or any privacy query or request that they have raised to us have the right to complain to the Supervisory Authority in their country of residence or the location where the issue that is the subject of the complaint occurred. The contact details of all the EU national Supervisory Authorities can be found by visiting: EU National Data Protection Authorities.

We comply with applicable laws regarding the collection of data about minors. When we collect personal data from minors (U18) , we do so with parental consent, which can be withdrawn at any time.

We respect applicable local laws regarding cross-border transfers of and access to personal data.

Personal data collected may be disclosed to clients and service providers under contract. We contractually prohibit our clients from re-identifying individuals from the de-identified data that we provide them (e.g., audience statistics). Furthermore, we contractually prohibit recipients of our data from using it to make decisions regarding credit, insurance, housing, employment or other legal effects on individuals. We contractually require service providers that have access to our data to keep it secure and use it to perform only the services they have been engaged to provide. We will provide data to government and law enforcement entities to the extent required by applicable law, to protect Nielsen’s legal interests and, where needed, to protect the health or safety of others.

For more specific information on data disclosures related to individual products or services, please review that product or service specific privacy notice.

We implement multi-layered organizational, technical and administrative measures that are designed to protect the personal data under our control. These include, among other things: limiting access to data; using technology measures like firewalls, encryption, malware protection and intrusion detection; maintaining policies that are aligned to a wide variety of legal requirements; and holding our associates accountable for maintaining safe data-handling practices and adhering to our internal policies. We have a global organization of qualified information security professionals and engage in regular system testing and updating of our controls to keep pace with changing technology and security threats.

Personal data will only be kept as long as necessary to meet Nielsen’s business needs while complying with legal and governmental obligations.

We are committed to respecting the diverse cultures and local laws of the countries in which we operate.

If you have any comments or questions regarding this Privacy Statement, please contact us at privacy.department@nielsen.com. You may also send us a letter to the following addresses: