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ESOMAR and GRBN publish global guidance for organisations and professionals for processing secondary data for research

GRBN_News — Tue, 07 Jun 2022 05:37:04 +0000

Wednesday 8th June 2022

ESOMAR and GRBN publish global guidance for organisations and professionals for processing secondary data for research.

Guidance clarifies key responsibilities when collecting and using personal data Guidance clariﬁes key responsibilities when working with secondary data.

ESOMAR and the Global Research Business Network (GRBN) announce the release of a new guideline to support researchers applying new approaches in assembling and analysing large data bases to uncover patterns and deliver new insights.

We are experiencing a digital revolution with more data available than ever before coming from secondary data resources such as transactional databases, social media networks, sensors, scanners and data aggregations constructed from a range of sources.
The research and insight function is rapidly extending from collecting and processing primary data to managing, synthesising and analysing secondary data, using a wide variety of analytic concepts and techniques. In taking advantage of these exciting opportunities, researchers must uphold their ethical, legal and professional requirements to meet the needs of data subjects, clients and data owners.

Drafted by research and privacy experts, this new Guideline includes an overview of the challenges that researchers must solve when using second- and third-party data. It also gives guidance on how to ensure that any personal data contained in secondary data is used with a legal basis and that there are adequate privacy safeguards in place to protect the data. In addition, the new Guideline highlights how to ensure that researchers provide the right level of transparency regarding data provenance and quality with respect to how the data is assembled and analysed so clients can make informed judgements about the validity of findings.

Pravin Shekar, Director General of ESOMAR said:
“Working with a wider range of data offers researchers and insights professionals exciting new opportunities. We must ensure that we recognise our duty of care to those whose personal data we use in our projects. Researchers and analysts need to be transparent to clients about the specifics of the data processing and analysis so they can assess its quality. This Guideline provides clear guidance on what they need to do to meet their responsibilities.”

Andrew Cannon, Executive Director at GRBN comments:
“There is an ever-growing amount of secondary data available to researchers creating fantastic opportunities to generate new insights and inform business decisions. This ESOMAR GRBN Guideline is an invaluable resource for researchers empowering them to take advantage of the opportunities whilst working ethically and responsibly with secondary data.”

It is vital that the high professional standards of ESOMAR and GRBN members are maintained throughout the course of any research project, underscoring the expertise within the sector, ensuring its long-term growth, and fostering trust from clients and the general public alike.

Along with the Primary Data Collection and Duty of Care guidance previously published by ESOMAR and GRBN, this new Guideline ensures that researchers have a trusted source of support during all stages of any research project.

Click here to access the new guideline

Further Contact

To discuss these materials and their application, please contact:

GRBN for the local application of these guidelines – Andrew.cannon@grbn.org

ESOMAR’s Professional Standards Committee – Kathy.joe@esomar.org

About ESOMAR

Established in 1948, ESOMAR champions the insights sector. It is the global community for every data, research and insights professional. ESOMAR is a network of 40,000+ professionals working in more than 800 organisations worldwide.

As a non-profit membership organisation, its role is to:

promote the value of market, opinion and social research and data analytics,
provide ethical and professional guidance and advocate for the community
and strengthen international business connections

About the Global Research Business Network

The Global Research Business Network (GRBN) connects over 40 research associations and over 3,500 research businesses on six continents. More than US$24.9 billion in annual research revenues (turnover) are represented by these businesses. GRBN’s mission is to promote and advance the business of research by developing and supporting strong autonomous national research associations.

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ESOMAR and GRBN publish global guidance for organisations and professionals on fair use of data

GRBN_News — Mon, 13 Sep 2021 12:00:25 +0000

Monday 13th September 2021

ESOMAR and GRBN publish global guidance for organisations and professionals on fair use of data.

Guidance clarifies key responsibilities when collecting and using personal data

ESOMAR and the Global Research Business Network (GRBN) are pleased to announce today the release of two new complementary guidelines that further strengthen ethical standard framework to be used by their respective memberships; Primary Data Collection and Duty of Care.

These practical documents provide essential support to research, insight and data analytics practitioners and the organisations that work with them to best navigate important issues they encounter in their daily lives. The new guidance aims to better future proof ethical and professional practice at a time when the collection and use of data continues to accelerate, facilitated by new technologies. The guidance reinforces the importance of maintaining trust with participants and support practitioners to comply with existing and emerging legislation.

The Primary Data Collection guideline guides practitioners and organisations when they collect data directly from or about a data subject for the purpose of their data, research and insights projects. The Duty of Care guidance reminds practitioners and organisations of their responsibilities to the privacy and well-being of their data subjects and outlines the key expectations taking into account established ethical and legal requirements.

Finn Raben, Director General of ESOMAR said:
“It is high time to refresh our commitments and ensure our standards keep up with an ecosystem where data science is mainstreaming and leading to a dramatic increase in the volume of personal data, much of it behavioural, being collected. The recognition of the potential value to societies and economies is only possible when responsible and ethical use of personal data occurs. In this context, these two documents are vital to industry progress in recognising our clear duty of care to those whose personal data we use in our projects.”

Andrew Cannon, Executive Director at GRBN comments:
“Trust is a fundamental to the future of our industry; trust by the general public, by clients and by regulators. Researchers’ ethical behaviour, especially with regard to privacy and the use of personal data, is central to maintaining and building this trust, and these two guidelines provide researchers with the essential guidance they need.”

To access the new guidelines please see the links provided below.

Primary Data Collection describes the ethical responsibilities of researchers, regardless of the type of organisation in which they work, when engaged in primary data collection, that is, when collecting data from or about a data subject for the purpose of research. It includes quantitative and qualitative methods that involve direct questioning of data subjects, but also methods of passive data collection in which the researcher observes,
measures or records an individual’s actions or behaviour.

https://esomar.org/guidance/primary-data-collection
https://grbn.org/codes-guidelines/

Duty of Care aims to advise researchers and those who do research on behalf of clients about their responsibility to protect the privacy and well-being of data subjects who participate in research or whose data is processed for a research purpose. It is
also designed to provide guidance for those who commission research to ensure that they are fully aware of their responsibilities and to set expectations about what is and is not possible given established ethical and legal requirements.

https://esomar.org/guidance/duty-of-care
https://grbn.org/codes-guidelines/

There will be a panel session at the Insights festival to take place 21-22 September 2021 which discusses these guidelines and their usage. To book a place at this session register to attend at the ESOMAR Insights Festival 2021 at https://esomar.org/events

Further Contact

To discuss these materials and their application, please get in touch with the following contact points;

GRBN for the local application of these guidelines – Andrew.cannon@grbn.org

ESOMAR’s Professional Standards Committee – Srikar Govindaraju, Senior Standards Programmes Coordinator at professional.standards@esomar.org

For press queries – Kim Smouter, Head of Public Affairs & Standards at comms@esomar.org

About ESOMAR

Established in 1948, ESOMAR champions the insights sector. It is the global community for every data, research and insights professional. ESOMAR is a network of more 40.000+ professionals working in more than 800 organisations worldwide.

As a non-profit membership organisation, its role is to:
• promote the value of market, opinion and social research and data analytics,
• provide ethical and professional guidance and advocating for the community for over 70 years,
• and strengthen international business connections

About the Global Research Business Network

The Global Research Business Network (GRBN) connects over 40 research associations and over 3500 research businesses on six continents. More than US$24.9 billion in annual research revenues (turnover) are represented by these businesses.

GRBN’s mission is to promote and advance the business of research by developing and supporting strong autonomous national research associations.

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New ESOMAR/GRBN Guidelines for Primary Data Collection and Duty of Care Open for Consultation – Have Your Say

GRBN_News — Mon, 16 Sep 2019 05:51:24 +0000

Two new guidelines are now up for public consultation. You are invited to share your opinion and suggest amendments.

The first guideline for consultation is the ESOMAR/GRBN guideline for researchers and clients involved in primary data collection. Instead of drafting guidelines for each of the research methodologies, ESOMAR and GRBN have chosen to combine the basic ethical principles for each methodology into three overarching guidelines. This will be the first of these guidelines.

The primary data collection guideline covers the ethical principles for any type of research in which the researcher has direct interaction with the people participating. Methodologies included are for example, surveys, focus groups, in-depth interviews, ethnographic studies, and some forms of observational research, including mystery shopping.

The second guideline is the ESOMAR/GRBN guideline on duty of care. This guideline is to advise anyone working with personal data on their responsibilities to protect the privacy and well-being of the data subjects. It also reflects on some specific research related risks, and new technologies which could increase the risk of an individual being targeted as a result of them having shared their data.

The guideline may also help individuals, clients, researchers and their employees in distinguishing research activities from non-research activities meant to take direct action towards individual data subjects.

We invite you to share your opinion on each of these guidelines and welcome any feedback you may have. To do so, you can download the guideline, insert your comments and/or suggested changes by 30 September and send it to professional.standards@esomar.org.

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New GRBN Research Guidance

GRBN_News — Mon, 17 Jun 2019 06:34:02 +0000

A new guideline for undertaking research and data analytics with children, young people and other vulnerable individuals has been issued as part of GRBN’s standards partnership with ESOMAR. The new guidance sets out the relevant legal, Code and best practice requirements, and is an essential reference document for any practitioners undertaking research with children and/or vulnerable participants. The focus of the guidance is on respecting the privacy, protecting the welfare and taking steps to reduce potential for harm across a range of methodological approaches when researching children, young people and vulnerable adults. So who do we mean by children? The definition of children varies across the globe and whilst the ESOMAR/GRBN guideline defines a child as being someone under the age of 12 and a young person as someone aged between 13 years and 17 years, it is essential that practitioners became familiar with national and international definitions as in many countries the definition of a child is someone older. The UN Convention on the Rights of a Child for example defines children as those under 18 years of age unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier. Within research the age varies e.g. the US Insight Association’s definition of children and young people is the same as the ESOMAR/GRBN definition whilst in Australia a child is defined as under 14 years. Within many countries there are also legal requirements for pre-employment screening of adults and volunteers who come into contact with children, and these can apply to researchers who undertake research with children e.g. in Australia pre-employment screening is mandatory, and applies to researchers moderating groups or conducting depth interviews as well as interviewers working on quantitative projects (see the AMSRS Guideline on Interviewing Children and Young People). And what is a vulnerable participant? Within the ESOMAR/GRBN guidance vulnerable adults are defined as those with “…limited capacity to make voluntary and informed decisions…”. The legal and ethical requirements also vary considerably between counties and practitioners are advised to take a broad approach when considering whether vulnerable participants may be part of their research. Vulnerability is a dynamic, complex state which can be short-term or long-term that can fluctuate over time, and can affect anyone at any time for many difference reasons; and as such practitioners need to be aware and trained to ensure all necessary steps are taken to avoid any possible harm. In the UK, the MRS has produced separate guidance on vulnerability which explores vulnerability and the differences between permanent, short-term and fluctuating vulnerabilities providing guidance on methodological considerations and includes questions to help practitioners recognise vulnerability plus guidance on common mistakes. Anything else on this horizon? Concerns about children and vulnerable adults remains an evolving and changing landscape across research, analytics and marketing primarily due to concerns about social media and digital data. There are a number of initiatives which are taking place at both a national and international levels for which members of GRBN are involved including:

A proposed ISO standard on advertising and marketing to children. GRBN member associations including MRS are involved in consultations on this document and are in touch with ISO regarding developments
A number of countries are looking at age appropriate design, the most recent being the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (the UK data protection regulator) recently issued draft consultation document, Age Appropriate Design: A Code of Practice for Online Services, which contains 16 standards of age-appropriate design for information society services likely to be accessed by children. EFAMRO’s EU Policy Manager, Camilla Ravazzolo, has been involved in the sector’s response to this document.

Resources via GRBN The NEW ESOMAR/GRBN Guidelines on Research and Data Analytics with Children, Young People and Other /vulnerable Individuals (link) The NEW ESOMAR/GRBN Research with Children one page reference document (link) References: National Association Guidance AMSRS Guidelines on Interviewing Children and Young People MRS Guidelines for Research with Children and Young People MRS Best Practice Guide on Research Participant Vulnerability Insights Association Code of Ethics ICO Age Appropriate Design: A Code of Practice for Online Services UN Convention on the Rights of a Child

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Agencies & Corporate Researchers Discuss Respondent Engagement at SampleCon

GRBN_News — Fri, 15 Mar 2019 06:20:03 +0000

Respondent Engagement was a major topic of discussion at the recently concluded SampleCon in Austin, Texas. RTi Research, a sponsor of the GRBN’s Respondent Engagement initiative, had the opportunity to participate in a lively panel discussion on the topic sharing the agency and corporate researcher perspective, chaired by GRBN’s Andrew Cannon. Joining us on the stage were representatives from Illuminas, Dell, and Maru/Matchbox. Andrew also interviewed several corporate researchers who shared their opinions on a number of topics around the subject. While at SampleCon, through our panel and other discussions, we realized that a desire to improve Respondent Engagement went beyond the reaches of the GRBN initiative, and the reasons for wanting to improve it differ amongst sample providers, research agencies, and corporate researchers. For corporate researchers, poor respondent engagement affects data, which may influence the results of the study. Additionally, corporate researchers do (and should!) view certain surveys as brand touchpoints, so poor Respondent Engagement may have an adverse effect on their image. There are also shared concerns that touch the corporate researchers, agencies, and sample providers. For sample companies, whose existence depends on the willingness of people to take surveys, positive respondent engagement is vital towards ensuring a large and diverse asset. Agencies and corporate researchers agree, a shrinking pool of survey takers invites the specter of a respondent base that is motivated solely by incentives, versus genuinely sharing their opinions. Additionally, the panel discussed assigning responsibility for positive Respondent Engagement, and unanimously agreed that research agencies shoulder the responsibility for this. Corporate researcher representatives interviewed for the panel stated that while they found Respondent Engagement to be important, it is not something they think about or discuss in their day-to-day work. By sitting between the corporate researchers and survey panels in the process, research agencies have the ability to most influence Respondent Engagement by being able to see all sides. Understanding this, RTi Research has been taking steps to ensure that we treat our survey takers as people, and not just a source of data. We illustrated some of these steps during the discussion, such as: developing a mobile first approach, being more conversational and shortening our survey length. We also show a short thank you video from RTi staffers to our respondents at the end of our surveys. These are just some of the ways that we have invested in improving the experience of our respondents. Agencies and sample providers also play a role in improving the respondent experience by raising their voices when they see questionnaire issues that impact engagement. This might be a tough conversation to have with a client, but several of those interviewed stated that they appreciate when a supplier brings up survey elements that might prove problematic for respondents. Ultimately, what was most encouraging was that virtually everyone attending SampleCon understood how important this is for the future of our business. And many, like RTi Research, are prepared to act. Phil_Giubelio RTi Research

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GRBN Leadership Meets in Berlin – Course Set for 2019

GRBN_News — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 21:02:16 +0000

The GRBN Executive Management Board (EMB) met in Berlin in September. The EMB confirmed that the GRBN mission remains unchanged: GRBN’s mission is to promote and advance the business of research across the globe through developing and supporting national research associations and implementing global industry-wide initiatives. The Board laid out the strategy for 2019, the core focus of which is to strengthen regional federations and national associations. GRBN will continue to provide regional federations and national associations with thought-leadership content, which they can use to add value to current members, generate revenues and attract new members. GRBN will continue to work on our two key initiatives:

Building Public Trust Program
- Participant Engagement Initiative
Invest in Insights Program
- ROI of Insights Initiative

In addition, GRBN will continue to work with ESOMAR on issuing global guidelines for practitioners. The GRBN EMB Board meeting was followed by an extended meeting with representatives of GRBN member organizations invited. In particular, we were pleased to welcome Bernadette Rogers, from our new Associate Member, EphMRA, who gave an enlightening presentation on EphMRa. We were also pleased to have Barry Watson, representing the to-be-formed trade association in Canada, attend the meeting. We would like to thank Dr. Haspel and his colleagues at Haspel & Partner Teststudio GmbH, who kindly hosted us at their test facilities in Berlin. We can highly recommend the facility if you are looking to conduct test research in Berlin.

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Participant Engagement – how to favorably impact your business

GRBN_News — Mon, 23 Jul 2018 07:00:24 +0000

What do you do? Describe your business in a few words. A scan of member websites suggests the answers would include:

Data analytics
Qualitative research
Online communities
Access panels
Survey research
Market insights

While descriptive, the list isn’t very exciting. What do you really do? To say we are in the business of analyzing data hides the importance of the source of that data. We are in the people business. Without people, there are no data. Without people, there are no consumers to analyze, understand, predict and impact. Without people, there are no data to gather, no insights to analyze. Okay Captain Obvious, I realize I am in the people business, but what do I really do? Some History Prior to the millennium we defined our role as researchers. We did social research, market research, opinion polling, etc. We collected data and gave it to the client to find the story. Like many people driven by ego, we craved more—more relevance, more recognition, more credibility. We wanted to make a difference. We were no longer content to collect data on the outside for someone inside to use. We wanted access to the inside. We wanted to be invited inside. Increasingly, clients have given us that opportunity. We hope to stay inside. So now we’ve become insights professionals—the term du jour for what we do with data. The more colloquial term is storytellers. We now tell stories to impact people. Participant Engagement I suggest that’s exactly what you do–you impact people. By choosing to impact them favorably, you’ll enrich their experiences as well as yours. You impact clients by providing valuable insights that lead to favorable impact—profitable growth, for example. You can also strategically choose to favorably impact research participants—the very source of your insights, and dare I say, your livelihood, as well. Do you approach each touchpoint with your research participants by optimizing the hard factors such as survey length, user experience and incentives? Do you also assess and apply the soft factors including a sincere thank you and perhaps access to results—so participants know how their input favorably impacted the client? Our firm works to favorably impact clients and participants using a variety of methods including online communities. In a recent community forum, we asked members to share their improvement suggestions for the site. This one was particularly impactful: On the content side, more surveys would be good, and some additional information on how the information collected from the site is being used to better the company. This person wants more engagement and, as importantly, wants to know how their participation favorably impacts the company. We’ve increased the frequency of sharing back examples of that impact. Much of how you can favorably impact participants can be found in the comprehensive GRBN Participant Engagement handbook available as a free download. The 10 Golden Tips, if implemented, will immediately result in favorable impact on your research participants. In our case, tips 2 and 8 were especially valuable. Kevin Menk Strategic Research Partners

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EU Data Protection Reforms: Practical Compliance Steps – EFAMRO Webinar

GRBN_News — Thu, 01 Jun 2017 07:00:26 +0000

Free Webinar

This EFAMRO Data Protection webinar follows on from the first webinar in the Data Protection Series which provided an overview of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the significant changes in individual rights, the accountability of organisations and the step change in the data protection enforcement regime.

Access the webinar here

This webinar builds on the core recommendation for a GDPR Compliance Project. It discusses some practical compliance steps that researchers can take to meet their compliance obligations under the GDPR. It discusses the importance of understanding your data use and minimising collection of data, and provide some tips to help organisations be more transparent with data subjects and accountable for data use.

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Information Security – Your People – CASRO Webinar

GRBN_News — Thu, 01 Jun 2017 07:00:16 +0000

Your People Webcast on April 12, 2016

Buy the webinar here

When the topic of information security comes to mind we are apt to think first of technology. Often, however, data breaches and other failures result from human error or improper safeguards around employees. When clients come to kick the tires of market research firms they often ask to meet with HR to get a sense of who will be handling their data and how they are being trained to protect it. Be certain you are doing all you can to ensure employees are aware of their critical role in risk management and data security. Are your policies being communicated and followed? How are employees accessing internal networks? Are they trained on the risks posed by e-mail communications, social media, password sharing, etc.? Experts with diverse perspectives will share their experiences and advice to help your company adequately. address the human side of data security.


Amy Jones Director of Human Resources MaritzCX	Analise Polsky Business Solutions Manager, SAS	Zach Harding Contracts Manager MaritzCX

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Welcome to GRBN News – 2017 14

GRBN_News — Sat, 08 Apr 2017 05:15:17 +0000

This special edition of GRBN News contains a selection of articles from the newsletters we have issued during the first quarter of this year. In partnership with RP Translate, the official translation partner of GRBN News, this week’s newsletter is also being issued in Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Portuguese (Brazilian) and Spanish (ES and MX). If you would like to receive this newsletter in one or more of these languages, do not hesitate to get in touch. Andrew Cannon Executive Director, GRBN BCG and GRBN team up to create ROI from Insights self-assessment tool Measuring the ROI from Insights is one of the characteristics of an Insights department that is perceived as a strategic insights partner. Read more about the goals and planned actions of this joint initiative…. Read more The Morality of Market Research in the Age of Artificial Intelligence By Andrew Konya, Remesh “As I plunged into the MR world, after a decade of working on computational physics and artificial intelligence, the first thing that struck me was the tremendous amount of technological overhang…..” Read more Keeping User Experience Top of Mind By Roddy Knowles, Research Now “Over the past year, I’ve observed an increase in talk about the importance of respecting research participants and ensuring they have positive experiences. This is good…..” Read more Building Public Trust Charter – National association endorsement underway Following on from the endorsement of the Charter by the four regional federations, the national associations AMSRS, Insights Association, MRS and RANZ are the first ones to endorse the charter, demonstrating their strong commitment to building trust in our industry across the globe… Read more Participant Engagement – Partners set ambitious goals Partners in the Participant Engagement Initiative met yesterday and the partners confirmed their intention to make this an action- and results-based initiative. Read more about the goals and planned actions… Read more Paragon, a Unilever initiated partnership, and GRBN join forces to create a global database Paragon, a Unilever initiated partnership, and GRBN join forces to create a global database of research companies willing to help tackle the UN Global Goals… Read more

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