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Terms and Conditions

1. Introduction

  1. The below terms and conditions apply to any Contract signed between DataDiggers and Client as well as to any Contract signed between DataDiggers and Supplier. The terms and conditions specified in this document are part of any such Contract.
     

  2. By confirming the purchase of services in writing via email to DataDiggers’ staff the Client and/or Supplier accepts the below terms and conditions.
     

  3. The term ‘DataDiggers’ used in the text below refers to either one of the following entities:
     

    • Data Diggers Market Research S.R.L., a company registered under the laws of Romania with VAT ID RO34246710 and J23/915/2015 and having its office located at the following address: Union Building, 6th Floor, 11 Ion Campineanu Street Sector 1, 010031 Bucharest, Romania

    • DataDiggers Études de Marché Inc., a company registered under the laws of Canada with NEQ 1173895146 and having its office located at 1016-3463 Rue Sainte-Famille, Montreal QC H2X 2K7, Canada

    • DataDiggers Market Research Pte Ltd., a company registered under the laws of Singapore with Registration No. 201936534D and having its office located at the following address: 10 Anson Road #22-15, Singapore 079903

    • AVD DataDiggers-MR India Pvt Ltd., a company registered under the laws of India with Registration No. AAPCA8691P and having its office located at the following address: D-101, Sanmati Kunj, Plot 19-A, Sector-6, Dwarka, New Delhi - 110075, India

    • Client is referring to any company that agrees to purchase services from DataDiggers. Agreement to purchase services from DataDiggers is considered fulfilled as soon as Client confirms the intention to work with DataDiggers on a particular project in writing, via email.

    • Supplier is referring to any company that agrees to supply services to DataDiggers. Agreement to supply services to DataDiggers is considered fulfilled as soon as DataDiggers confirms the intention to work with Supplier on a particular project in writing, via email.​​

2. Definitions

  1. Project means all the services Client orders to DataDiggers and/or all the services DataDiggers orders to Supplier; each project will have a unique set of letters and numbers mentioned in the subject line of the email correspondence between DataDiggers and Client and/or between DataDiggers and Supplier.
     

  2. Field or Fieldwork means the process of collecting data from respondents via a survey
     

  3. Survey is a type of market research methodology that uses a questionnaire to collect information from respondents.
     

  4. Online survey is a survey conducted over the Internet using a questionnaire programmed online using specific software.
     

  5. Survey URL or Survey Link is the questionnaire programmed online using specific software that is used to collect information from online panel members or members of a database/list of email addresses; the survey URL is also called live URL; it is the link sent to online panel members or members of a database/list of email addresses that they can click on and answer to questions online
     

  6. Test link/URL or Testing link/URL is the survey URL used for testing purposes in order to ensure the survey URL works properly and the redirecting links are set correctly
     

  7. Questionnaire is a set of questions used to collect specific information from respondents.
     

  8. Respondent is an individual who has agreed to be invited to complete a survey.
     

  9. Feasibility refers to the number of completes DataDiggers estimates to achieve based on the specifications provided by Client or the specifications in field.
     

  10. Specifications refers to the set of information about a survey including but not limited to: target definition, quotas, LOI, IR etc.
     

  11. Online panel refers to a number of individuals residing in a specific country who agreed to be contacted for future online survey.
     

  12. Complete is a respondent who has answered to all the questions in a survey and who has been redirected to the Complete end page.
     

  13. Screenout means a respondent who does not meet the survey’s qualifying criteria, is terminated after less than 3 minutes of survey completion and has been redirected to the Screenout end page.
     

  14. Quotafull means a respondent who meets a survey’s qualifying criteria, but does not meet the required quotas set for that particular survey, and who has been redirected to the Quotafull end page.
     

  15. Quality terminate means a respondent who is disqualified due to one or more of the following reasons: is a duplicate, speedster, straightliner, offers unintelligible or nonsense answers to open-ended questions, accesses survey from a device that is not accepted in a particular survey or doesn’t pass any quality-related ‘trap’ questions set by client in a survey and who has been redirected to the Quality terminate end page. Any respondent who is a Quality terminate in the sense described in this definition above and who is not redirected to the Quality terminate end page may influence the final cost per interview (CPI) and/or the feasibility.
     

  16. Long screenout means a respondent who does not meet the survey’s qualifying criteria and is terminated after more than 3 minutes of survey completion. DataDiggers may charge client a cost per each long screenout registered; this charge will be decided by DataDiggers based on the actual time a respondent spends answering to questions before is disqualified and it will be communicated to Client during or after fieldwork. In the event Client refuses to accept the cost per long screenout that DataDiggers offered, DataDiggers reserves the right to stop the fieldwork and charge Client for all the completes achieved up to that moment, using a cost per interview (CPI) based on the actual specifications in field, regardless if this cost per interview (CPI) has been approved by client or not.
     

  17. Country of field refers to the country survey is conducted in.
     

  18. Sample size (N) is the total amount of completes required and/or supplied in a survey or a project.
     

  19. Incidence rate (IR) is a probability ratio calculated by this formula: total number of completes /(total number of completes + total number of screenouts).
     

  20. Length of Interview (LOI) is the median length of interview calculated in minutes by DataDiggers.
     

  21. Cost per interview (CPI) is the amount of money DataDiggers will charge Client per each complete provided; also, Cost per interview (CPI) is the amount of money Supplier will charge DataDiggers per each complete provided.
     

  22. Quota refers to the amount of completes required for specific demographics ranges/intervals in a survey, such as – but not limited to: age, gender, region, income, education etc.
     

  23. Drop out rate (DOR) is the percentage resulting from dividing the number of incompletes to the sum of completes and incompletes.
     

  24. Incomplete is the respondent who has started to complete a survey but dropped completion at any point during the survey.
     

  25. Minimum fee is the amount of money DataDiggers will charge Client regardless of the amount of completes provided by DataDiggers in a project. Minimum fee is confirmed by DataDiggers to Client at the bidding stage, in the email body that contains DataDiggers’ offer.
     

  26. Cancellation fee is the amount of money DataDiggers may charge Client when Client decides to cancel a fieldwork; this amount shall be the equivalent of the amount of work DataDiggers provided up to that moment, including the costs for all interviews achieved up to that moment; the cost per interview (CPI) used at calculating the Cancellation fee may be adjusted by DataDiggers based on the actual specifications in field, regardless if Client has approved the revised cost per interview (CPI) or not; cancellation fee will be communicated by DataDiggers to Client via email immediately after Client confirms in writing the decision to cancel the project.
     

  27. Screening or Screening stage is the set of questions placed at the beginning of a questionnaire that a respondent must pass in order to be able to complete a survey.
     

  28. Target is the set of qualification criteria an individual must meet in order to be able to pass a survey’s screening stage; this may include some of the following elements but is not limited to them: age, gender, region, education, etc.
     

  29. Pre-targeting means the ability to pre-select individuals members of an online panel that meet specific criteria including but not limited to: age, gender, region, education, etc.
     

  30. Redirects or Redirecting links or End pages defines the specific web pages where respondents of an online survey have to be redirected to after attempting to complete a survey, based on the answers given; a Complete will be redirected to a specific complete web page, a Screenout will be redirected to a specific screenout web page, a Quotafull will be redirected to a specific quotafull page and a Quality terminate will be redirected to a specific end page; reaching such page allows the online panel owner to provide correct incentives to respondents.
     

  31. Incentive or honoraria is the reward an online panel owner pays to online panel members for completing surveys, based on the answers given in each survey and the status they achieve: complete, screenout, quotafull or quality terminate; the online panel owner is the sole decision maker about any aspect related to rewarding own online panel members: what that reward consists of, when is it paid, the payment means etc.
     

  32. Timing refers to the amount of time in business or calendar days required by DataDiggers to perform the services ordered by Client; DataDiggers shall mention in the email correspondence with Client whether timing is in business days or calendar days.
     

  33. Questionnaire translation means the service provided by an authorized translation Supplier to translate a questionnaire from one language into another.
     

  34. Verbatim translation means the service provided by an authorized translation Supplier to translate the answers respondents provide to open ended questions during a survey from one language into another.
     

  35. Coding means the service provided by a Supplier to arrange or code the answers respondents provide to open ended questions during a survey, so that they are easier to organize and analyze by Client.
     

  36. Data Deliverables include any type of report that results from a survey.

3. Quotation

  1. All quotations provided by DataDiggers are shown in various currencies, depending on the country Client is located in.
     

  2. Any quotation DataDiggers sends to Client is valid for 3 months from the issue date, which is the date recorded in the email correspondence including the cost estimate DataDiggers provided Client with; DataDiggers reserves the right to adjust quotation after this period.
     

  3. If the currency invoice is issued in deppreciates by more than 5% against the US Dollar between the time quotation is accepted by Client and the time project is finished, the invoice will be recalculated taking into account the currency exchange rate from the day project was finished.
     

  4. Quotation does not include any applicable taxes.

4. Invoicing

  1. Payment of any invoice issued by DataDiggers is required to be made within 21 calendar days from the moment of receiving the invoice from DataDiggers by any means (email, regular mail etc.), unless otherwise mentioned by DataDiggers staff. DataDiggers reserves the right to charge penalty charges for delayed payment in the amount of 0.5% of total invoiced amount per day of delay.
     

  2. The amount agreed by Client in a Contract may change based on any changes in terms of the following specifications, although not limited to them: country of field, incidence rate, length of interview and/or sample size occurred during survey. DataDiggers will inform Client during fieldwork if any adjustment needs to be made to the CPI, set-up fees or any other fees and charges. If Client requests fieldwork to continue at this point, it means Client accepts the adjustments required by DataDiggers, regardless if Client provided a written approval of the CPI adjustments DataDiggers required or not.
     

  3. Minimum fee will be charged every time it applies.
     

  4. Each invoice may be issued in a different currency from a different business unit, based on where the Client is located.

5. Cancellation

In the event a project is cancelled by Client, Client will be liable to pay cancellation fees to DataDiggers. The cancellation fees will be decided by DataDiggers staff on a case by case basis and it will cover all the amount of work or service undertaken by DataDiggers up to the moment of receiving the written cancellation confirmation from Client by email, including but not limited to: partial provision of samples, generation of links, passback, language testing, translation, coding and others.

6. Execution of survey

  1. Before fieldwork start Client will make the survey available in own platform and provide DataDiggers with a testing link and a live survey link.
     

  2. DataDiggers reserves the right to reject conducting any survey for any reason – this includes but it’s not limited to: inappropriate language, length of interview, sensitive topics, incorrect logic in the questionnaire, Client’s refusal to remove logos, Client’s refusal to remove questions that are asking for respondents’ name, email address, phone number and other such personal details; DataDiggers will provide Client with an explanation about the reason of rejecting the survey.
     

  3. The Supplier may not change, modify or alter in any way a survey link after it has been approved by DataDiggers, unless DataDiggers provides a written agreement approving that.
     

  4. Quotas will be set by Client in its own survey platform/software and it is Client’s sole responsibility for any sample overachievement. DataDiggers reserves the right to charge Client for any costs incurred by sample overachievement, caused by incorrect quotas setting in Client’s survey platform/software.
     

  5. DataDiggers reserves the right to stop or pause fieldwork in any of the following cases:
     

    • If the incidence rate drops below 5%​

    • If median length of interview exceeds 35 minutes in all countries except for Norway, Denmark and Sweden, where the maximum acceptable median length of interview is 25 minutes

    • If dropout rate exceeds 35%

    • If the Client does not approve the CPI revision asked by DataDiggers at any time during fieldwork and caused by changes in project specifications, including but not limited to: incidence rate, length of interview, sample size, country of field etc.

    • If Client refuses to remove questions that are considered unacceptable and/or offensive by DataDiggers, taking into account current international laws.
       

  6. For any amount of work completed up to the moment of stopping or pausing the fieldwork due to the above reasons DataDiggers has the right to charge client a cost per interview directly correlated with the actual specifications in field, regardless if Client has accepted or approved that cost per interview.​
     

  7. Any quotafulls resulting from quotas that have been confirmed by DataDiggers to Client as not-targetable or not sufficiently populated on the panel will be included in the Incidence Rate calculation formula, as follows: total number of completes /(total number of completes + total number of screenouts + total number of quotafulls)
     

  8. The quotas have to be placed within the first 3 minutes of the survey, otherwise DataDiggers will consider them Long Screenouts and charge Client a cost per interview (CPI) that takes into account the actual time spent on the survey before Quotafulls were disqualified; this CPI will be communicated by DataDiggers to Client via email during or after fieldwork. In the event Client refuses to accept the cost per long screenout that DataDiggers offered, DataDiggers reserves the right to stop the fieldwork and charge Client for all the completes achieved up to that moment, using a cost per interview (CPI) based on the actual specifications in field, regardless if this cost per interview (CPI) has been approved by Client or not.
     

  9. In the event that the delivered number of completes is higher than the requested number of completes specified in the Contract, DataDiggers is entitled to charge a full/normal CPI for the delivered number of completes.
     

  10. Final IDs have to be provided by Client to DataDiggers within 48 hours after receiving the written confirmation by email from Client that fieldwork can be closed.
     

  11. Client agrees not to invite any online panel member owned by DataDiggers to become part of Client’s online panel or any other online panel, mailing list, database and/or to contact them for advertising purposes; this applies to studies done on mobile devices, when the online panel members DataDiggers provides are asked to download and install a mobile application on their devices which Client manages.
     

  12. When online panel members DataDiggers provides are used for a study conducted on mobile devices that requires them to download and install an application which Client manages, the Client will provide DataDiggers with the survey completion data for any study these online panel members will complete within that mobile application.
     

  13. Unless there is a specific prior agreement between DataDiggers and Client before fieldwork start, DataDiggers reserves the right to charge Client full/normal CPI for any complete that Client rejects as bad data. DataDiggers’ definition for bad data is:
    ​

    • Speedster: any complete who completes survey in a time period less than 33% of the median LOI of that particular survey.​

    • Straightliner: any complete who provides straight or an identical answering pattern at minimum 3 grid-like questions

    • Duplicate: any complete flagged as duplicate by our survey software or by Client’s survey software

    • Any complete who offers unintelligible or nonsense answers to open ended questions

    • If Client wants to use any different definition for bad data DataDiggers must be announced in writing before fieldwork start; failure to do so gives DataDiggers the right to charge full/normal CPIs for any complete Client rejects as bad data.
       

  14. DataDiggers must be informed before fieldwork start if there are trap questions or trap logic in the questionnaire​
     

  15. DataDiggers may use different online panel providers in any project conducted, without specifically notifying Client about that
     

  16. The Client agrees to adhere to all relevant laws as it relates to data collection and privacy regulations
     

  17. The Client will be solely responsible for any data collection practices that may not follow laws and regulations on a country by country basis, including but not limited to Hippa, Copa, EU Safe Harbor etc.

7. Using DataDiggers’ name

Client shall not use DataDiggers’ name in any public release of research data resulting from or referring to a project DataDiggers conducted, without a prior written approval signed by DataDiggers.

8. Confidentiality

  1. Any information DataDiggers provides Client or Supplier with will remain confidential and will not be disclosed to a third party at any time. This information includes, but it’s not limited to: invoices, quotations, questionnaires, survey methodology, software utilized, trade connections etc.
     

  2. Any violation of the confidentiality requirement mentioned at the previous paragraph is considered a violation of the Contract and of the Terms and Conditions.

9. Liability

  1. Client shall use the data achieved from any project conducted by DataDiggers on its own responsibility. DataDiggers will not be liable to Client for any economic damage, loss or any similar disadvantage resulting from the usage of the data from any project DataDiggers conducts.
     

  2. In the event a project cannot be conducted from reasons outside DataDiggers’ control, such as – but not limited to – natural disasters, internet connection failure, technical issues with the telecommunications means etc., DataDiggers will have no liability to Client for any damage, loss or other disadvantage that these kinds of events may cause.

10. Effective date

These Terms and Conditions are effective from the moment DataDiggers receives the Contract signed by Client or Supplier.

11. Governing law and jurisdiction

  1. These Terms and Conditions will be interpreted according to the laws of Romania.
     

  2. Any disputes resulting from these Terms and Conditions will be resolved amicably by discussion between parties.
     

  3. In case a dispute cannot be resolved amicably the Romanian Court of Law will have jurisdiction.

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