Internet Privacy Policy

Updated: March 03, 2008

Western Wats takes the privacy and security of data seriously. Western Wats abides by the Safe Harbor framework as set forth by the United States Department of Commerce regarding the collection, use and retention of information collected from the European Union by our Web sites.

Western Wats, Incorporated is a licensee member of the TRUSTe Privacy Program. TRUSTe is an independent, non-profit organization whose mission is to build users' trust and confidence in the Internet by promoting the use of fair information practices. This privacy statement covers Western Wats' site www.westernwats.com. Western Wats is committed to privacy and demonstrates that commitment by disclosing its information and privacy practices for review by and in accordance with TRUSTe standards and policies.

If you have questions or concerns regarding our Internet Privacy Policy, you can contact Western Wats by e-mail, direct mail or telephone:

E-mail: privacy@westernwats.com

"This award reflects Western Wats' dedication to its employees, clients, the state of Utah and the marketing research industry," Haynes said.


Postal mailing address:
Attn: Privacy Concern
Western Wats Inc.
701 East Timpanogos Parkway
Building M
Orem, UT 84097 USA

Phone: 801-373-7735

If you do not receive acknowledgement of your inquiry or your inquiry has not been satisfactorily addressed, you can contact TRUSTe at http://www.truste.org/consumers/watchdog_complaint.php. TRUSTe will serve as a liaison with Western Wats to resolve your Internet concerns.

Sections:

1. Our Privacy Commitment
2. Collection & Use of Information on our websites
3. How to Access the Information Provided
4. Security
5. Opt-Out Options
6. Notification of changes
7. Contacting Us
8. Legal Disclaimers

Our Privacy Commitment

Western Wats is a survey research data collection company. We help leading firms make better decisions through the use of information. We recognize the privacy concerns and rights of our research participants, and are committed to ensuring the privacy of our clients, survey respondents and visitors. We take this commitment seriously and any information provided will be used only as set forth here in our privacy policy.

Western Wats asks willing research participants to share opinions and relevant information with us about various products and services. We value this information and want you to feel confident any information collected will remain confidential. To preserve the integrity of the data collection process our organization knows you must feel your information and privacy is protected. Western Wats will not use any information gathered for purposes outside of survey research-we are only interested in your opinions.

Western Wats supports the rights of our research participants by limiting the use of the information to legitimate marketing research purposes. Western Wats endeavors to conform to the Council of American Survey Research Organizations (CASRO) Code of Standards and Ethics for Survey Research, the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) Code of Professional Ethics and Practices and all relevant US regulations regarding privacy.

Western Wats and its key executives are active in supporting the following organizations created to uphold ethical survey research practices: Marketing Research Association (www.MRA-net.org) Council of American Survey Research Organizations (www.CASRO.org) American Marketing Association (www.marketingpower.com) Advertising Research Foundation (www.ARFsite.org) American Association for Public Opinion Research (www.AAPOR.org) European Society of Opinion and Marketing Research (www.ESOMAR.org)

Collection & Use of Information on Our Websites



We do not collect any personally identifiable information on our website www.westernwats.com. Western Wats collects answers to survey questions via the phone and Internet to help organizations research opinions and attitudes about products and services. If you participate, we may request certain personally identifiable information from you. Participation in these surveys is completely voluntary and you therefore have a choice whether or not to disclose this information. Some surveys offer incentives, need to be verified for quality control or ask for permission to follow-up with respondents. Hence, we do obtain name, address and other relevant information for these purposes.

Besides asking general questions about a product or service, we may ask for additional demographic information such as your gender, age, ethnicity, household income and other pertinent information used to summarize the data collected into market segments. These segments help our clients understand the opinions of products or services among different groups of the overall population. Collected data is used in aggregate by leading survey research consultancies throughout North America and the world to improve consumer products and services worldwide. By way of example, the collected data can be used to measure customer satisfaction, awareness of various advertisements, new concept testing or public opinion on a variety of political issues.

Personally identifiable information will only be used by Western Wats and approved, qualified third party companies for purposes of survey research, data analysis, reward or incentive fulfillment, or Web hosting. When third parties are used, we will always ensure the same level of security and limitations of use and disclosure of your personal information.

Information Collected Passively. Western Wats collects and stores the name of the domain and host from which you access the Internet, the Internet protocol (IP) address of the computer you are using, the browser software you use and your operating system, the date and time you access our site and the Internet address of the website from which you linked directly to our site.

Western Wats uses this information-which does not identify individual users-to analyze consumer trends, to more effectively administrate the site, to track users' movements around the site and to gather demographic information about our visitors as a whole. We are not able nor do we make any effort to match this information to personally identifiable information.

Cookies. A cookie is a small text file stored on a user's computer for record-keeping purposes. We use session ID cookies on our sites. We use session cookies to make it easier for you to navigate our site. A session ID cookie expires when the browser is closed. We do not link the information we store in these session ID cookies to any personally identifiable information you submit while on our site. You do not need to have cookies turned on to participate in our surveys, or to visit our website. However, Western Wats' clients who have access to real-time reports through 'Wats Data Express' must have cookies enabled in order to view information beyond the summary welcome page.

Clear Gifs (Web Beacons). Clear GIFs are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies, used to track the online movements of Web users. In contrast to cookies, which are stored on a user's computer's hard drive, clear GIFs are embedded invisibly on Web pages and are about the size of the period at the end of a sentence. We do not use clear GIFs on www.westernwats.com.

Western Wats may permit certain third party suppliers to set clear GIFs on the panel referrals obtained through their websites. In addition, we may use clear GIFs in our HTML-based e-mails to let us know which e-mails recipients have opened. These GIFs allow us to gauge the effectiveness of certain communications, panel recruitment efforts and the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns. We make no attempts to tie the information gathered by clear GIFs to any personally identifiable information.

How to Access the Information Provided



Western Wats will use survey research information for the purposes for which it is provided. At your request, we will not use your information to further our survey research purposes. Please keep in mind such requests need to be made in a timely manner before the survey data is aggregated or presented to the end client

For additional assistance with accessing your information, please contact us by e-mail or telephone at the contact information listed below: E-mail: privacy@westernwats.com Phone: 801-373-7735

Security



Western Wats strives continuously to ensure proper safeguards are in place to protect the integrity and confidentiality of information collected.

We use secure socket layer (SSL) encryption to protect the transmission of personal information submitted to us through secure online forms such as logging in to client reports through 'Wats Express'. All information you provide to us through these forms is stored securely offline. Your information is further secured by the use of firewalls and password protection systems.

All survey research information collected is stored in Western Wats' data center. The data center is a secure, sealed environment with controlled entry, video surveillance, redundant environment controllers and un-interruptible power backup / generator. We have in place physical, electronic and procedural safeguards in order to protect collected data.

If you send us an e-mail, please understand e-mail is not necessarily secure against interception. So, if your communication includes sensitive information and you prefer not to use online forms, contact us by postal mail or telephone rather than e-mail.

If you have additional questions about the security on our Web site, you can send an e-mail to us at: privacy@westernwats.com.

Opt-Out Options



In our pursuit to conduct market research, we may use several methods to contact people, such as, outbound telephone calls and email invitations. We strive to provide ways for you to control how we contact you. Above all, we are open to any feedback you have on how we can make the survey experience better.

Opt-out. Potential respondents have the option to limit the methods we use to invite their participation in survey research. In each e-mail invitation sent to survey participants we provide the opportunity to opt-out of receipt of further mailings. The details for opting-out are located at the bottom of each e-mail. In the case of phone calls, they may request to be put on our do-not-call list. We run all future email sends and phone calls lists through our internal lists of those respondents who have indicated they do not wish to be contacted.

To opt-out of participation in research, please contact us by e-mail or telephone at the contact information listed below: E-mail: optout@westernwats.com
Phone: 801-373-7735

Notification of Changes



Western Wats reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to modify or remove portions of this privacy policy at any time, so please review it frequently. If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes to this privacy statement. If we make material changes to this policy, we will post a prominent notice on our home page.

Contacting Us

Any questions or comments regarding our policies and practices should be directed to the Western Wats administrator at:
E-mail: privacy@westernwats.com
Postal mailing address:
Attn: Privacy Concern
Western Wats Inc.
701 East Timpanogos Parkway
Building M
Orem, UT 84097 USA

Phone: 801-373-7735

Legal Disclaimers

We value your opinions and want to protect your privacy. However, we reserve the right to disclose your personally identifiable information as required by law and when we believe disclosure is necessary to protect our rights and/or to comply with a judicial proceeding, court order, or legal process served on our Web site.

We do not share, sell, rent or trade PII with third parties for their promotional purposes.

In the event of a business transition, such as a merger, acquisition by another company, sale of all or a portion of our assets or any other change of control, your personally identifiable information will likely be among the assets transferred. We reserve the right to transfer personally identifiable information as part of a business transition. Any future buyer would be required to honor this privacy policy or provide advance notice of changes as indicated in this privacy policy.

Use of the site www.westernwats.com constitutes acceptance of the terms of this privacy policy.