Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy was last updated on August 1, 2023

About this Privacy Policy

We recognize that some of the information we request from you is personal and sensitive, and requires trust on your part. We take your trust, and our responsibilities, very seriously. The following policy outlines our privacy practices regarding the information you entrust to us. We invite you to read our Privacy Policy in order to understand these practices. We've developed this privacy policy from industry guidelines and standards, as well as local and national laws and requirements.

If you do not understand this privacy policy or are under the age of 14, you should not participate in our research.

Survey Participation

The Hawai'i Panel members may complete surveys from time to time to provide feedback and opinions on a variety of topics. The information requested in these surveys may include, but is not limited to, your opinions, purchase history, and purchase intent with regard to consumer and/or business products and services. Participation in our research is completely voluntary and the participant has a choice of whether or not to disclose their purchase behavior or their demographic information (age, household income, ethnicity, etc.), or to release contact information with their survey data. Data reported from our online surveys will not be linked to any personal information that can identify an individual respondent. Demographic information is collected and reviewed as an aggregate of all survey respondents as a whole, for research purposes only. Contact information is used only to send out incentives, notify winners and award prizes, and/or to send invitations to future surveys when applicable.

Non-Personal Information We Collect

Without registration to The Hawai'i Panel, the only information we may collect is Non-Personal Information through the use of Cookies.

As is true of most websites, we gather certain information automatically and store it in log files. This information includes internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, operating system, date/time stamp, and clickstream data. We use this information, which does not identify individual users, to analyze trends, administer the site, track users' movements around the site, and gather demographic information about our user base as a whole. We do not link this automatically-collected data to Personally Identifiable Information.

A. Cookies

A cookie is a small text file containing information about a user that is placed by a Web site on the user's hard drive. The Hawai'i Panel uses the information maintained by cookies to monitor such things as how many people use our website and how many people open our e-mails. Cookies are also used as navigation aides and as session timers, but do not retain your personal information.

Most browsers offer instructions on how to reset your browser to reject Cookies in the "Help" section of the toolbar. We do not link Non-Personal Information from Cookies to Personally Identifiable Information without permission, and do not use Cookies to collect or store personal information.

B. Messages You Send to The Hawai'i Panel

This Privacy Policy does not protect you when you send content, business information, ideas, concepts, or inventions to The Hawai'i Panel via e-mail or SMS. If you want to keep content, business information, ideas, concepts, or inventions private or proprietary, please do not send them in an e-mail or SMS message. We attempt to respond to all messages within 48 business hours, but are not always able to do so.

C. Survey Responses

Aside from Personally Identifiable Information, we may, in the course of interacting with panel members, gather other types of information ("Operating Information"). Panelists receive survey invitations about once a quarter. These surveys generally ask questions about opinions and attitudes toward a variety of important product and service issues.

Personally Identifiable Information

When participating in a survey, we may ask panelists to submit Personally Identifiable Information. Personally Identifiable Information is any information that is identifiable with you. This information may include but is not limited to your name, age, gender, mailing address, phone numbers, email address, identification numbers, and, in certain circumstances, your opinions and individual preferences. Personally Identifiable Information, however, does not include: (1) your name, business title, business address, business telephone number, fax and email in your capacity as an employee of an organization; and (2) depending on the jurisdiction, publicly available information. However, if in your capacity as an employee of an organization you participate in one of our surveys, your responses will be treated as Personally Identifiable Information.

We may collect personal information about other members of your household. This information may include but is not limited to the age and gender of the other household members. We use this information to determine if certain surveys are relevant to you based on the composition of your household. Sometimes, we use this information to invite other members of your household to participate in our surveys. If one of your household members is selected for one of our surveys, we will always deliver the survey invitation to your email address, and ask you to personally invite the household member to participate.

In all cases, Personally Identifiable Information is used for research purposes only, and is not used for sales solicitations.

Disclosure of Information

Personally Identifiable Information collected through surveys will be used only by The Hawai'i Panel and its operations contractors, and will not be given or sold to a third party without the panelist’s consent.

The Hawai'i Panel will not disclose any Personally Identifiable or Personal Information gathered on our websites, without your consent. We will only release Personally Identifiable or Personal Information to third parties: (1) to comply with valid legal requirements such as a law, regulation, search warrant, subpoena or court order; or (2) in special cases, such as a physical threat to you or others. In the event that we are legally compelled to disclose Personally Identifiable or Personal Information to a third party, we will attempt to notify you unless doing so would violate the law or court order. In addition, we may disclose Personal Information as described below.

A. Aggregate Data

Aggregate data is data that describes the interest profiles and demographics of The Hawai'i Panel Members as a group (in the aggregate) without specifically identifying any single Member who helps comprise that group. This data does not contain personally identifying information such as a name or e-mail address but describes group interest profiles (for example, brand preferences of The Hawai'i Panel Members as a group) and group demographic information (for example, the average age of The Hawai'i Panel Members as a group).

The Hawai'i Panel and its research partners may provide aggregate information to third parties. For example, we might inform an interested company or organization that "33% of our panel members are 25 years old or younger" or that "60% of our panel members redeemed a HI-5 beverage container at a redemption center in the past year." Depending on the circumstances, we may or may not charge third parties for this aggregate information. We require parties with whom we share aggregate information to agree that they will not attempt to make this information personally identifiable, such as by combining it with other databases.

B. Disclosure to The Hawai'i Panel

The Hawai'i Panel operations and maintenance contractors sometimes have limited access to Personally Identifiable Information in the course of providing products or services to The Hawai'i Panel. These contractors include vendors and suppliers that provide us with technology, services, and/or content related to better operation and maintenance of our website. Access to Personally Identifiable Information by these contractors is limited to the information reasonably necessary for the contractor to perform its limited function for The Hawai'i Panel. We also contractually require that our operations and maintenance contractors: 1) protect the privacy of Personally Identifiable Information consistent with this Privacy Policy, and 2) not use or disclose Personally Identifiable Information for any purpose other than providing us with products and services.

Data Security and Responsibility

We consider the protection of all Personally Identifiable Information we receive from our website visitors and subscribers as critical to our corporate mission. Please be assured that we have security measures in place to protect against the loss, misuse, and alteration of any information that we receive from you. As with any transmission over the Internet, however, there is always some element of risk involved in sending personal information. In order to try to minimize this risk, we encrypt all information that you submit using the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol provided by Comodo.

Your Personal Information, Demographic Information, and Operating Information will be stored in The Hawai'i Panel’s databases. The Hawai'i Panel uses firewalls to protect information held in our servers, and requires all employees to abide by our Privacy Policy (and be subject to disciplinary action if they violate this policy). The Hawai'i Panel also backs-up our systems to protect the integrity of the Personally Identifiable and Personal Information we collect.

Despite our efforts to protect the Personally Identifiable Information and Personal Information of our panelists, there is always some risk that an unauthorized third party may find a way around our security systems or that transmissions of information over the Internet will be intercepted. However, The Hawai'i Panel will always be vigilant in minimizing such risk to the best of our ability.

How You Can Control Your Information

You may "opt out" of giving personal information at anytime when taking a survey. You may also update your personal information at any time, or you can elect to discontinue your membership which will delete your information.

• Once you join our panel and receive invitations to complete surveys, you are under no obligation to complete those surveys. You can simply choose not to respond.
  
  
• If you start taking a survey and are asked questions you do not wish to respond to, you may simply stop taking the survey at any point.
  
  
• Once you have registered, you may safely update your personal data or cancel your membership (and delete all of your personal data) online at any time. To modify your user profile or account information, simply log in and click on Account Info or Update Contact Info. When you are finished entering your updated information, click the appropriate button on the page to save your changes. If you find that your account information is still incorrect, please contact us online or send us an e-mail at help@hawaiipanel.com.
  
  

Privacy For Children Under 14

• The Hawai'i Panel, in compliance with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, does not accept registrations from children under 14. If The Hawai'i Panel learns that a child under the age of fourteen (14) has submitted Personally Identifiable Information online, The Hawai'i Panel will take all reasonable measures to delete such information from its databases and to not use such information for any purpose (except where necessary to protect the safety of the child or others as required by law).
  
  
• We do not directly advertise or market to children.
  
  
• From time to time we may have a survey available for children, but we will not directly contact any children under 14. For these surveys, we will contact the parents who are members of the panel and ask them to give consent for the child to complete the screener or survey.
  
  

Links to Outside Sites

The Hawai'i Panel website contains links to other websites. While these websites might be of interest to you, please note that their privacy policies may differ from that of The Hawai'i Panel. We encourage you to read the privacy statement of each site you visit.

Notification of Changes

If there is a significant change in our privacy policy or practice, or in how we use Personally Identifiable Information, we will notify you by email before the policy is changed and give you a chance to opt out of membership in The Hawai'i Panel.

You Will Not be Spammed by The Hawai'i Panel

As a requirement of your membership in The Hawai'i Panel, you will periodically be sent e-mail communications inviting you to participate in surveys, as well as occasional member service emails (newsletters, reward fulfillment communications, and program announcements). If you no longer want to receive these email communications, you must cancel your membership to The Hawai'i Panel as described in the "Opting Out" section below.

Contacting The Hawai‘i Panel

A. Complaints

If you have a complaint or problem, please email us at help@hawaiipanel.com.

B. Opting Out

Panelists may discontinue participation with The Hawai'i Panel at any time by logging in and clicking Account Info and selecting "No" under the "Opt-in" section. Alternatively, panelists may send an email to help@hawaiipanel.com.

C. Contact Us

The Hawai'i Panel
680 Iwilei Road, Suite 600
Honolulu, Hawaii 96817

Tel: (808) 204-8232 
For inquiries about The Hawai'i Panel, please email info@hawaiipanel.com