Caribou Digital

Privacy Policy

About us

"Caribou Digital" conducts research using representative panels of individuals who agree to share their anonymous smartphone data with the company in exchange for direct compensation. "Caribou Digital" analyzes this anonymous data in aggregate, and provides its clients with unique insights into digital markets and consumer behavior. This privacy policy contains the formal details of how we collect and manage data. We also have an informative FAQ that summarizes some of these key terms.

This Privacy Policy describes how we, Caribou Digital UK Ltd (""Caribou Digital"", "we", "us" or "our"), collect, use and share your personal data when you allow us access to your data in connection with your use of our mobile applications or in visiting our websites.

What information we collect

We collect data that you share with us through the registration process and through our mobile applications (“App”, “Apps”). This may include:

Demographic information such as age, gender, occupation and other information.
Information that you provide in surveys and/or studies; these surveys request additional information such as your behaviors and preferences and help us better understand consumer behavior and trends.
Through your use of our services, we will also receive passive data (data that is collected automatically in the background) through our Apps, including information about:
- Hardware
  For example, the make of the device, the model of the device, the version of the operating system, the battery level, and the available storage space on the device
- Device Status
  For example, turning a device on or off, waking it from sleep, or time spent with the screen turned on or off
- Connectivity
  For example, joining or leaving a mobile network, turning on or off airplane mode, making a phone call, sending an SMS, or the status of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
- Applications
  For example, how often an app is used and at which times of day
- Transactions
  For example, frequency and average value of airtime top-ups or payments sent using mobile money

Importantly, we never record or store your personal content. For example, we do not collect the audio recording of a phone call, or the text within an SMS. We are interested only in recording the metadata around these events, and because of that we might measure the time of day, hashed destination, and duration of the call, or the time of day and hashed destination of a message.

In addition to your use of the services offered through our Apps, we also collect certain information from visitors to our websites (“Site”, “Sites”). When you use our Site, we may collect information about your device application software, system and network. This includes information such as your Internet Protocol (IP) address, the type of browser you are using, the date and time of your visit, the web page you have visited immediately prior to visiting this Site, device identifier, device model, operating system, and language set. For information about cookies, pixel tags, web beacons, clear GIFs or other digital technologies that may be used in connection with your participation, please see section on Cookies and other internet technologies.

How we use the information you share

Information you provide during the recruitment process is used to determine eligibility for participation in one of our panels. After you join a panel, we use the information we collect to create a variety of research insights for our clients. We use tools and methods to make sure that there is no reasonable possibility of identifying an individual participant in the reports that we create for our clients.

We combine the responses we collect from you with the responses of others to produce "aggregated" reports. We also create scientific reports based upon modeled information. "Modeled information" is data we have developed based upon demographic and behavioral characteristics (like your gender, age, and purchasing habits) to predict what people with similar or matching characteristics would buy.

Our data insights help our clients better understand market trends and consumer behaviors. For example, we can provide insights that help our clients understand important indicators such as:

The distribution of different versions of the Android operating system
The common makes and models of phones, and their technical specifications
Time spent under different wireless network modalities (2G, 3G, etc.)
Profiles of data consumption
Behaviors around device status, such as disabling mobile data
App usage, including session duration, time of day, and frequency
Transactional behavior, including mobile payments value and volume

All of these indicators can be analyzed based on the demographic characteristics that you share with us. For example, we can provide insights such as “Males aged 25–34 spend twice as much time on Wi-Fi than females in that age range.”

We may also contact you for a survey based on the information you share. For example, we may want to survey all panelists who are female and between the ages of 35–44. This contact will only happen through the mobile app, because we do not maintain means of contacting you. Instead, we may push out a notification within the app inviting you to participate in a survey or similar study. Because this will take place completely within the app, you remain anonymous, and any additional information you share will be subject to the same data privacy policies and terms.

We will also use the information for internal business purposes, such as data analysis, audits, developing new products, enhancing our Site or software, improving our services, identifying usage trends and determining the effectiveness of our communications.

Who we share your information with

Your activity information is always anonymous, and only shared in aggregate—that is, as part of a much larger data set. We share that aggregated data and resulting insights with our partners and clients.

We may also share anonymised data that includes your data as we believe to be necessary or appropriate: (a) under applicable law; (b) to comply with legal process; (c) to respond to requests from public and government authorities including public and government authorities outside your country of residence; (d) to enforce our terms and conditions; (e) to protect our operations or those of any of our affiliates; (f) to protect our rights, privacy, safety or property, and/or that of our affiliates, you or others; or (g) to allow us to pursue available remedies or limit the damages that we may sustain.

Lawful or legal basis/Sharing your data

We will only use your individual information in reliance on a valid legal basis for such use. When you begin the registration process, we ask questions to determine your eligibility for participating on a panel (for example, your age or gender). We process this information in order to fulfill our contractual obligation to determine your eligibility. If you are determined eligible to participate in a panel, we then ask for your express consent to use the information provided during registration and the information provided through the mobile Apps.

Managing your participation

Your participation is always completely voluntary, and you can stop sharing data at any time. The mobile app offers an option for temporarily stopping data sharing, and also for permanently withdrawing from the panel.

Accessing, modifying, or deleting your data

While "Caribou Digital" does not hold identifiable individual information to link an individual to their anonymized data set, we provide access to an individual’s anonymised data set pursuant to GDPR article 15, and treat requests for data access as such.

In order to provide the anonymized data set, individuals must initiate the request through our App on the device itself (this is the only way to connect you with your data). Once a request is received, we will provide a link to download your data. Note that your data is always anonymous and stripped of identifiers, even when provided back to you.

You have the ability to completely withdraw from a panel, and when doing so are also offered the option to completely erase your anonymised data set, as if it were identifiable data. As above, this request must be made through the App and prior to uninstalling the App—if you uninstall the App or lose that phone, there is no way to then connect you with your anonymous data.

Children’s privacy

The Service is not directed to children and is intended for use by adults only. We do not knowingly collect personal data from individuals under 16 years of age. If you are under the age of 16, please do not submit any information through the Service and do not provide your consent for the use of your data unless your parent or guardian has approved.

Cookies and other internet technologies

Cookies are small files that store certain data on a device or computer. We may use both session and persistent cookies on our recruitment, panel member and survey respondent websites. Cookies, pixel tags, web beacons or similar technologies may be used on some of our website pages and HTML-formatted e-mail messages to, among other things, manage panels and surveys and to enhance your experience as a panelist or survey respondent. We may also use these technologies for security purposes, to facilitate navigation, to display information more effectively, and to better serve you with more tailored information, as well as for site administration purposes, e.g., to gather statistical information about the usage of our websites in order to continually improve the design and functionality, to understand how visitors use our websites, and to assist us with resolving questions regarding use of the websites.

Third-party sites

This Privacy Policy does not address, and we are not responsible for, the privacy, information or other practices of any third parties, including any third party operating any site to which this Site contains a link. The inclusion of a link on the Site does not imply endorsement of the linked site by us or by our affiliates.

Data security and transfer

We operate our services from the United Kingdom and our data collection and processing activities take place predominantly in the United Kingdom and through third-party cloud service providers and other IT service providers in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

When you visit our Site, or use our Apps, your communications may likely result in the transfer of your information across national borders. If you provide information when visiting our Site, or you participate in one of our panels through the App, this data may be transferred from your current location to our servers and to those of our affiliates, agents, and service providers, which are located in the United Kingdom and Ireland.. The United Kingdom and Ireland and such other countries may not have the same level of data protection as those that apply in the jurisdiction where you live. For Site visitors or App users who reside in the European Economic Area, Switzerland or the United Kingdom, without your affirmative consent, we will only transfer your information (a) to jurisdictions with “adequate protection” as used in the GDPR, or (b) to recipients with appropriate safeguards in place, including where contractual arrangements exist, which include “Standard Contractual Clauses” (as defined in the GDPR) without any additions, modifications, or omissions.

Data retention

For our fully anonymised data sets, we do not enforce a retention or automatic erasure policy, as we believe the data to be non-identifiable. However, we welcome requests from individuals for the right to erasure if they no longer wish to participate in a panel (see section “Accessing, modifying, or deleting your data”).

However, for the anonymous tokens generated when linking a device to a panel, we ensure that any metadata connected to the token (e.g., enrollment, remuneration, or device status) is routinely erased 90 days following an individual’s resignation from a panel. A resignation can also occur programmatically, if a device does not “check in” with our servers once during the same period (that is, if the device does not attempt to ping our servers, or upload data).

Updates to this Privacy Policy

We may change this Privacy Policy. Please take a look at the "Effective Date" at the top of this page to see when this Privacy Policy was last revised. If we were to make a material change (the kind of change to the way we use your data that might make you reconsider participating in this panel) we will notify you through our App, providing you with access at least 30 calendar days prior to its implementation, giving you time to resign from the panel if you want.

You may view the currently effective Privacy Policy at any time by checking the Privacy Policy posted on this Site. Your continued participation after the effective date of any changes will mean that you accept all effective changes.

Contacting us

If you have any questions about this Notice, you can contact a real human being with any questions through email at privacy@cariboudata.com.

Please note that online communications are not always secure; so please do not include sensitive information in your inquiry to us.

This Privacy Policy replaces any other statement, whether written or oral, made to you about our practices with respect to the collection and use of personal identifying information.