Privacy
Last Updated: February 18, 2022
What Is NPD And Video Game Voice?
The NPD Group, L.P. (“NPD” or “We”) provides consumer and retail information and insights for a wide range of industries. We have been conducting market research for over 50 years. Our clients include most of the largest video game publishers in the world. Video Game Voice (“VG Voice”) is NPD’s consumer gaming panel. In exchange for their participation, members have the opportunity to earn sweepstakes entries for prizes.
How Do You Access VG Voice?
You may access VG Voice at our website www.vgvoice.com or a successor site (the “Website”).
NPD Is Committed To Protecting Your Privacy
In addition to being a committed leader in market research, we are committed to protecting the privacy and security of your information. This privacy notice (“Notice”) describes our privacy practices, including how NPD collects, protects, uses, and shares your personal and demographic information. By visiting the Website, registering as a member and/or becoming a “Friend” of NPD through your Gaming Account (defined below), you agree that your Personal Information may be handled as described in this Notice. Please also read our Terms of Use and Membership (the “Terms”), which also apply and are incorporated by reference into this Notice.
What Types Of Information Do We Collect And Process About You?
How We Use Your Information
How We Share Your Information
“Do-Not-Track” Requests
Third Party Analytics
How Do We Protect Your Personal Information?
How Long Do We store Your Personal Information?
How Do You Update Your Personal Information?
Does NPD Collect Information From Minors?
How Do You Opt Out?
Special Information For California Residents
What Is Personal Information?
For purposes of this Notice, Personal Information means information that directly identifies you or that may reasonably be used to identify you as a specific individual.
What Types Of Information Do We Collect And Process About You?
Information That You Submit To NPD
1. Personal Information
In order to register to become a member of VG Voice, you must first complete our registration form. This requires you to provide certain information including your name, email address, date of birth, gender, zip code, type of internet connected X-Box Live® and/or PlayStation Network gaming system (“Gaming System”) and the Gaming System user name (“Gaming Account”).
2. Demographic Information
We may also ask you to provide certain demographic information (e.g., race and ethnic origin; household income; household size, number of children in the household and education).
3. Survey Responses
We may send you emails containing links to surveys in which we would like you to participate. Survey questions may ask you about things such as purchases you have made and your opinions about products or services. If you participate in these surveys, we will collect your answers to the surveys.
Information Collected From Third Parties
We may receive additional information about you, such as demographic data or fraud detection information from third party service providers and/or partners and combine it with information we have about you. We also may receive information about you and your activities through our partnerships.
Automatically Tracked Data
When you accept NPD’s “Friend” request and play games on your Gaming Account, our authorized data management platform provider, currently Vearsa Limited (including any successor provider(s), the “Authorized Platform Provider”) will automatically collect certain information about you on our behalf, in order to determine the titles of games played, amount of time spent playing each game title, cumulative amount of time spent gaming, media content viewed and amount of time spent viewing media content (“Game Play Information”).
We may collect information automatically through your use of the Website, such as: your IP address; your browser type; your domain name; the referring URL, or the webpage that led you to our Website. We may combine this information with other information that we have collected about you. The specific technology that may be employed is described below:
1. Cookies
A “cookie” is a small file containing a string of characters that is sent to your computer or device when you visit a website. When you visit the website again, the cookie allows that site to recognize you from previous visits. Among other things, cookies may store user preferences and other information. We use cookies to maintain information about use of the Website. Users of the Website may reject or delete our cookies and still use the Website, although in a restricted fashion. Third party panel recruiters working with us employ cookies on our Website to collect information relating to recruitment promotions in which they are involved.
2. Clear Gifs
From time to time, we employ a software technology called clear gifs (a.k.a. Web Beacons/Web Bugs). Clear gifs are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies, and are used to track the online movements of web users. In contrast to cookies, which are stored on a user's computer hard drive, clear gifs are embedded invisibly on web pages. We do not tie the information gathered by clear gifs to personal information.
How We Use Your Information
We may use your information, including your Personal Information for the following purposes:
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Generally, in our market research business to help clients and commercial partners better understand consumer behavior.
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To communicate with you about your use of our Website, to respond to your inquiries, and for other customer service purposes.
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For notifications and reminders. For example, we may use your information, such as your email address, for special offers, and promotions, or to otherwise contact you about information we think may interest you.
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To fulfill and administer our sweepstakes.
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To better understand how users access and use our Website, both on an aggregated and individualized basis, in order to improve our Website and respond to user desires and preferences, and for other NPD research and analytical purposes.
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To comply with federal, state or other applicable laws and regulations.
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To manage, protect against and investigate fraud, risk exposure, claims and other liabilities;
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To the extent we deem it necessary or appropriate, to enforce or apply our rights under our agreement with our users, and/or protect the property, rights or safety of our users, NPD, or others.
How We Share Your Information
We may share your information, including your Personal Information, as follows:
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Service Providers. We may disclose the information we collect from you to third party vendors, technology and other service providers, contractors or agents, including the Authorized Platform Provider, who perform functions on our behalf, or are engaged with us. For example, we use service providers to provide data append services, data validation services, data classification services, fraud prevention, data integrity, incentive fulfillment and sweepstakes related services. These service providers are allowed to access and use the information we make available to them only as needed to perform their functions and for no other purposes.
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Commercial Partners and Other Third Parties. (a) In connection with our business, we may disclose demographic information (e.g., gender) to commercial partners and other third parties in either single or aggregate summary form and may also provide other aggregate or de-identified information to such third parties. Singular summary includes demographic information about a person without specifically identifying the person. For example, this summary does not contain Personal Information such as an email address, nor does the combination of demographic information make it readily possible to identify the person. Aggregate summary includes demographic information about a group of persons without specifically identifying any person within the group; or (b) We may also provide your information, including your Game Play Information and your Personal Information, to commercial partners and other third parties, such as retailers or brands, for marketing research and analytics purposes (for example, to develop audience insights and/or look-alike models in connection with marketing campaigns, to create models that estimate consumer preferences in the total population or to inform market segments). In such cases set forth in the above clauses (a) and (b), we will take steps designed to ensure that your Personal Information is handled securely and is treated at least as protectively as under this Privacy Notice. We will not, however, allow such commercial properties or other third parties to use this information for the purposes of individually marketing to you or to contact you.
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Affiliates. We may disclose the information we collect from you to our corporate affiliates or subsidiaries; however, if we do so, their use and disclosure of your Personal Information will be subject to this Notice.
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Business Transfers. If we are acquired by or merged with another company, if substantially all of our assets are transferred to another company, or as part of a bankruptcy proceeding, we may transfer the information we have collected from you to the other company.
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In Response to Legal Process. We also may provide the information we collect from you in order to comply with the law, a legal proceeding, court order, or other legal process, such as in response to a court order or a subpoena.
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To Protect Us and Others. We also may provide the information we collect from you where we believe it is necessary to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the safety of any person, violations of our Terms, the Sweepstakes Rules or this Notice, or as evidence in litigation in which NPD is involved.
“Do-Not-Track” Requests
Currently, our systems do not recognize browser “do-not-track” requests.
Third Party Analytics
We use automated devices and applications to evaluate usage of our Website. We also may use other analytic means to evaluate our services. We use these tools to help us improve our services, performance and user experiences. These entities may use cookies and other tracking technologies to perform their services. We do not share your Personal Information with these third parties.
Third Party Links
Our Website may contain links to third-party websites. Any access to and use of such linked websites is not governed by this Notice, but instead is governed by the privacy policies of those third party websites. We are not responsible for the information practices of such third party websites.
How Do We Protect Your Personal Information?
NPD and its Authorized Platform Provider comply with their legal obligations, when applicable, by keeping personal information up to date; by storing and destroying it securely; by not collecting or retaining excessive amounts of data; by protecting personal information from loss, misuse, unauthorized access and disclosure and by employing physical, technical and administrative protections and procedures to help prevent unauthorized access to, disclosure, misuse, or loss of the data collected on the Website and through the NPD Gaming Account, in accordance with generally accepted, appropriate standards in the research industry. The data is stored on secure servers, and only specific, authorized personnel have access to non-aggregated data. Such personnel work on password-protected computers and are subject to confidentiality and security policies and procedures. The security technology is updated and tested on an on-going basis. In addition, we train our employees about the importance of confidentiality and maintaining the privacy and security of your information. If you have any questions concerning the steps taken by NPD to protect the security of the data you provide to us, please see How Do You Contact VG Voice?
How Long Do We Store Your Personal Information?
We will retain your Personal Information for as long as you are a member of VG Voice, and up to 24 months thereafter. However, we will retain and use your information as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements. If you wish to cancel your membership or unsubscribe please see How Do I Opt Out?
How Do You Update Your Personal Information?
We encourage our members to keep their information as up-to-date as possible. To change your email address, or make changes to other information provided during the registration process, please email our Customer Support at vgvoice.support@npd.com
What About The Sweepstakes?
After registering for VG Voice and becoming a “Friend” of NPD through your Gaming Account, you can earn entries into the VG Voice Sweepstakes through gaming playing on your Gaming Account. By participating in the Sweepstakes, you agree to let NPD share your contact information with its independent third party rewards administrator. Your contact information is used by the administrator to let you know if you have won a sweepstakes or to communicate program information. To receive your prize, you will be required to submit and/or verify certain information to the administrator (e.g. name and email address). When claiming prizes, winners also complete an online affidavit, which among other things, gives us permission to post winners' names and state of residence. For the complete VG Voice Sweepstakes Official Rules, please click here.
Does NPD Collect Information From Minors?
We comply with all applicable laws and codes pertaining to the protection of children’s privacy, including, without limitation, the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (as amended). We do not knowingly collect Personal Information from participants who are under the age of 13. If you are under 13 years old, you may not participate in VG Voice. If we become aware that we inadvertently collected Personal Information from anyone under the age of 13 or if you have reason to believe that a child under the age of 13 has provided personal information to us, please contact us and we will promptly delete such Personal Information and will terminate the account from our databases.
How Do You Opt Out?
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To opt-out of emails, please follow the opt-out instructions contained in the email or send an email to vgvoice.support@npd.com. If you opt-out of receiving emails about recommendations or other information we think may interest you, we may still send you emails about your account or any requests you have made to us. Please note that it may take up to 10 business days for us to process opt-out requests.
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To opt-out of being a member of VG Voice, please go to the Website, click on "Opt Out" in the footer of the Website and follow the instructions; or send an email to vgvoice.support@npd.com and request to be deactivated. Please note that it may take up to 10 business days for us to process opt-out requests.
Changes To This Notice
This Notice is current as of the Effective Date set forth above. We may change this Notice from time to time, so please be sure to check back periodically. We will notify you of any changes to this Notice on our Website and on NPD’s Gaming Account. If we make any changes to this Notice that materially affect our practices with regard to the Personal Information we have previously collected from you, we will provide you with notice in advance of such change by sending you an email at the address you have provided.
Special Information For California Residents
A. California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)
The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) requires VG Voice to provide California consumers with the following information about how we process their personal information and the rights available to them with respect to their information.
Categories of Personal Information that We Collect, Disclose, and Sell
The categories of personal information about California consumers that we have collected and disclosed in the preceding 12 months for a business purpose are as follows:
NAME, CONTACT INFORMATION AND IDENTIFIERS: name, postal address, unique personal identifier, online identifier, Internet Protocol address, email address, account name, or other similar identifiers.
PROTECTED CLASSIFICATIONS: characteristics of protected classifications under California or federal law such as race, gender, or age.
PURCHASE HISTORY AND TENDENCIES: commercial information including products or services purchased, or obtained, or other purchasing or consuming histories or tendencies.
USAGE DATA: internet or other electronic network activity information, including, but not limited to, information regarding a consumer’s interaction with the Website, the Gaming System or the Gaming Account.
Categories of Sources of Personal Information
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From you, directly and indirectly as described above
Purposes for Collecting and Selling Personal Information
We describe how we use your personal information above, please see, How We Use Your Information. We have sold information from the categories of data set forth above to commercial partners and third parties for marketing research and analytics purposes (for example, to create models that estimate consumer preferences in the total population or to inform market segments).
Categories of Third Parties with Which Personal Information is Shared
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Commercial Partners and Other Third Parties
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Affiliates
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Business Transfers
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In Response To Legal Process
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To Protect Us And Others
For further information, please see How We Share Your Information
California Consumer Rights
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You have the right to make the following requests, at no charge, up to twice every 12 months:
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Opt-out of the sale of your personal information. To exercise your opt-out rights, please visit our Do-Not-Sell page here.
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Request deletion of your personal information that we have collected about you, subject to certain exemptions. To exercise your deletion rights, please click here.
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Request that we disclose what personal information we have collected, used and sold about you in the prior 12 months. To exercise your rights, please click here.
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Request a copy of the specific pieces of personal information that we have collected about you in the prior 12 months. To exercise your rights, please click here.
Submitting Requests. You can submit requests for access to and deletion of your information online by clicking on the links above or by contacting us at vgvoice.support@npd.com. All requests must be verifiable in accordance with the CCPA.
Incentives and Discrimination. We offer financial incentives in return for the sharing of your data. The incentives we offer are financial rewards in exchange for the disclosure of certain information we collect from you (stated above). We will not discriminate against you if you exercise your CCPA rights.
B. Shine the Light Law. California residents may request a list of certain third parties to which we have disclosed personally identifiable information about you for their own direct marketing purposes. You may make one request per calendar year. In your request, please attest to the fact that you are a California resident and provide a current California address for your response. To request this information in writing, see How Do You Contact VG Voice? Please allow up to thirty (30) days for a response.
How Do You Contact VG Voice?
If you wish to exercise any of the options described above, or if you have any questions about our privacy practices, or the Site, please contact:
VG Voice – Member Services
900 West Shore Road
Port Washington, NY 11050
vgvoice.support@npd.com