The ORU Privacy Policy

 

Our commitment to  panel member confidentiality and transparency are paramount and The ORU takes its obligations under privacy legislation and codes of professional conduct seriously.

The ORU abides by the Australian Market & Social Research Society’s Code of Professional Behaviour and is bound by the Market & Social Research Privacy Principles. For more information on this code of practice please visit the following website on www.amsrs.com.au or by calling The ORU 1300 136 046.

Any personal information will not be provided to any other party without your consent.

Our Online Panel Membership

The ORU gathers personal information when individuals register to become a member of our panel. After registration we ask panel members to provide us with personal information so that we may invite them to take part in appropriate surveys.

To become a panel member, we ask that you fill out a registration survey that gathers some personal and general consumer information. The information we gather, such as your name, address, email, gender, year of birth, and employment status, is used for matching you with the appropriate research projects.

Once you have registered on our registration site you, or any of the household members you register, will be considered an online panel member(s). This means that we will contact you from time to time to participate in surveys. There is no obligation to take part in surveys, and you can leave the panel at any time you wish by sending an email to support@theoru.com. We only report the information you provide in aggregate form and never use this information to personally identify you and all personal information is treated with confidence. In the relatively few instances where we ask you for permission to pass data on in a form which allows you to be personally identified, we will ensure that the information will be used only for research purposes.

If you become a panel member, your information (name, address, city, state, and postcode) is also used for the purposes of incentive fulfilment.

Sensitive information will only be collected if we have your direct consent. Sensitive information means information or an opinion about an identified individual’s racial or ethnic origin, political opinion, membership of a political association, religious beliefs or affiliations, philosophical beliefs, membership of a professional or trade association, membership of a trade union, sexual preferences or practices, criminal record or health. We do not share any sensitive information unless required by law.

A special note regarding young people

The ORU has a dedicated panel for young people aged 14-17 years, and we are especially mindful of protecting the privacy of young people. We adhere to strict principles when dealing with young people under 15 years old and always follow the following procedures:

- All teenagers and children 15 years and under must be registered on the Youth Panel by a parent or guardian

- An email address of a parent or guardian must be provided at registration, so that we can verify that the necessary consent has been granted.

We will ensure that to the best of our abilities parents are made aware of all surveys that their children are invited to participate in. Parents and guardians must give explicit consent prior to a child completing a survey and are encouraged to review the survey before letting children take part in the study. We also recommend that parents and guardians monitor children’s online activities.

A note for New Zealand Panel members

Our personal information handling practices are conducted in accordance with the New Zealand Privacy Act 1993.

A note for non-panel members

When receiving client lists or panel registrations from an existing database we ensure the clients methods of recruitment comply with legislation and regulatory requirements. Where a third party provides panel recruitment information or a client list the third party shall confirm compliance to regulatory matters. We have implemented control procedures that help ensure that we do not contact members of the public who have not agreed to further email contact and the use of your data is in accordance with list swap agreements between The ORU and our client who has passed on your personal details.

If you complete a survey or provide us with personal information without being a member of our panel, we may preserve your personally identifiable information. We do this so we may contact you if you have won a prize or are entitled to an incentive. Unless you elect to become a member of The ORU panel, we will not contact you for any reason other than to notify you that you have won a prize or are eligible for an incentive. If you are entitled to a prize or an incentive, we will collect and maintain such personally identifiable information, as we are required to maintain or report by virtue of any law or regulation.

Use of this information

The ORU collects personal information for the research purposes only. We will NOT use your personally identifiable information to advertise, promote, or market goods or services to you

The ORU does not sell or transfer the personally identifiable information collected about the members of its panels or the individuals that take part in our surveys. Please rest assured we do not provide your details to external parties for their advertising and marketing purposes.
Please note The ORU holds the right to disclose your information to its related corporate bodies and wholly owned subsidiaries. If all or part of our company is sold, merged, or otherwise transferred to another entity, we may transfer personally identifiable information as part of that transaction.

Disclosure of your information to wholly owned subsidiaries does not extend to sensitive information. The ORU does not share sensitive information with its wholly owned subsidiaries. In order to collect sensitive information the subsidiary must obtain your direct consent.

Please email us at support@theoru.com.au if you are not a member or our panel and have queries about our privacy policy and use of your information.

Use of Cookies and other tracking devices

Tracking Cookies: Tracking cookies are small files that store information on your computer. They can inform a website what pages you visit, and your preferences. The ORU does not use any tracking cookies and will not install any tracking cookies on anyone’s computer

Session Cookies: Some surveys can create temporary session cookies in order for the survey to progress as designed. These session cookies expire at the end of each session and they do not transfer any information to any other application or website.

To be clear these DO NOT capture data or track your internet behaviour. Accepting The ORU privacy policy is taken as accepting the use of these session cookies.
 

Data Security

Our data is held on secure password protected servers within Australia. Data protection is protected by perimeter and intranet firewalls and backed up to an off-site data centre across a VPN also in Australia.
 

Access to personal information

You have a right to access most personal information we hold about you. To request access, please contact our privacy officer as set out at the end of this document.
If you make an access request, The ORU will ask you to verify your identity and specify what information you require.

A note about Incentives

As a sign of appreciation for participation in our surveys, we offer a wide range of incentives including our $5,000 cash prize draw, $2,000 gift card draw, individual shopping gift cards, charitable donations and great prizes such as Apple I-pods. View our website for previous prize winners or to read the Terms & Conditions of our monthly prize draws.

If you have any questions about our incentives, or have a dispute regarding an incentive owed to you, email support@theoru.com  or call us on 1300-136-046.
 

We may change this Notice

This Notice supersedes and replaces any other statement we may have made to you about our collection and use of personal information. The ORU may, from time to time, review and update this privacy policy statement to take account of new laws and technology and changes to company operations. Please visit this page periodically, to check for updates. All personal information held by The ORU will be governed by its most recent policy, posted on its website. Unless the Notice states otherwise, any change reflected in the currently effective notice will apply to all information we have collected about you. Your continued participation in our panel after the effective date of any changes will constitute your acceptance of all of the changes.

Liability
At all times The ORU is committed to taking all necessary steps to protect the privacy of all users of our sites and/or studies. However, this statement is not intended to create a contract and is not a legally binding document.

Retention of Information

The profile information we hold on you is held until you unsubscribe.

Unsubscribe

Participation in our online surveys is voluntary and if you wish to unsubscribe from our online panel please email us at support@theoru.com.au or call us on 1300-136-046 and provide us with your user ID and/or email address. You can also unsubscribe yourself by simply clicking on the unsubscribe link within a previous survey invitation.

More Information

If you require any more information, please contact the privacy officer, Gianni Pegolo at support@theoru.com  or call us on 1300-136-046.