Data Ethics & Quality Control

Good research depends on trust.

Research For Good and SaySo Rewards connect people with legitimate market research opportunities. Protecting participant information and maintaining research quality are fundamental to making that system work for participants, research customers and the organizations that provide access to participants.

Our approach is straightforward: use information for legitimate research and participation purposes, protect participant privacy, and apply rigorous quality controls so researchers can have confidence in the participation we provide.

Your users remain your users

Organizations that offer SaySo Rewards participation retain their own users, members, customers and supporters.

They do not need to provide names, email addresses, phone numbers or other directly identifying information to identify their users for participation. Instead, participation can be associated with a persistent, opaque identifier.

Users are not required to become Research For Good or SaySo Rewards members. The organization retains its relationship with its users and remains responsible for the benefits, rewards or other value it chooses to provide them. Participation partners do not need to hand their user lists to RFG in order to make research participation available.

Information used by Research For Good

RFG collects and processes information related to operating research participation. This information helps us match participants with appropriate opportunities, manage their participation and validate the resulting activity.

Depending on the activity, this can include demographic and eligibility information used to find appropriate research opportunities, along with technical information used to operate the platform, prevent fraud and protect research quality. In practice, after opting in, participants are sequentially asked simple questions so that potential matches with one or more surveys may be determined; this is a simple, low-effort process rather than a rigorous questionnaire.

SaySo Rewards uses this information to improve matching and reduce the likelihood of sending participants to surveys for which they are unlikely to qualify. Many studies seek people with very specific attributes. Asking well-chosen questions during prescreening can therefore reduce unnecessary redirects and increase the likelihood that a participant who enters a survey is indeed a likely match for it. This diligence can sometimes be mistaken for unnecessary questioning, when its purpose is actually to reduce wasted time across one or many surveys and increase the participant’s likelihood of a successful match.

Information provided in a research study

Once a participant enters a research study, the study itself may ask for additional information.

The questions depend on the research. Participants may be asked about their opinions, experiences, behaviors, purchases, demographics or other subjects relevant to a particular study. Some studies may request information that is personal or sensitive.

That information is requested as part of the research study and should not be confused with information RFG uses to identify, match or manage participants.

Research customers determine what information their studies require. Participants decide whether to participate and provide information requested as part of a particular research experience.

Privacy, professional standards and regulatory compliance

Research For Good maintains privacy and security practices designed to comply with applicable privacy and data-protection laws and regulations, including the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), UK GDPR, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), and other applicable U.S. state privacy laws and regulations.

Research For Good is a member of the Insights Association, the leading U.S. professional organization for the market research and insights industry. As a member, RFG follows strict professional research standards governing areas including the treatment of research participants, privacy, transparency, data handling and responsible research practices.

These requirements extend beyond our public Privacy Policy. RFG’s agreements and Insertion Orders contain additional provisions governing data protection, permitted data use, processing and transfers between RFG and the organizations with which we work.

Our full Privacy Policy explains the information we may collect and process, how it may be used or disclosed, participant rights and choices, international data transfers and other privacy practices in greater detail.

Why we use quality controls

Researchers depend on accurate, thoughtful participation. Our participation partners also need confidence that activity attributed to their users is legitimate.

Research For Good uses a range of methods to validate participation and identify activity that may not meet research-quality requirements. These can include eligibility checks, device and traffic signals, duplicate and fraud detection, response-quality checks and other validation methods.

Quality control also protects legitimate participants. Fraudulent and automated activity consumes research opportunities, distorts results and makes it more difficult to provide a good experience to people participating in good faith.

Our objective is to ensure that validated participation represents legitimate human activity and that the resulting research can be relied upon.

Learn More

For complete information about our privacy and data-handling practices, see our Privacy Policy.

Organizations working with RFG should also refer to their applicable Insertion Order, agreement and data-protection terms for the specific requirements governing their relationship with RFG.