Privacy policy
Your privacy is important to us. Please review our Privacy Policy to understand how we protect and use your personal information.
CRC PRIVACY NOTICE
Version 5 – January 31, 2025
CRC Research Inc. (“CRC”) is a CRIC Accredited market research company and operates premier facilities across Canada for focus groups and individual interviewing. CRC specializes in medical and consumer recruitment for qualitative projects. As per CRIC member requirements, CRC is compliant with the ISO 20252:2019 Market, Opinion and Social Research Vocabulary and Service Requirements.
CRC is committed to remaining compliant with the laws and regulations of the jurisdictions in which we operate, including Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), the Privacy Legislation Modernization Act of Quebec, the European General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), and other applicable provincial laws & regulations. We strive to adapt to changing industry standards and new technologies, and to remain compliant with new and incoming regulations and legislation.
This Privacy Notice is intended to communicate what information we collect about CRC Research
candidates for research, past participants and/or active participants (“you”).
CRC Research Inc., (“we,” “us,” “our”) understands the importance of privacy and the protection of personal information. As such, we maintain a rigorous privacy and data security program, and strive to provide you with a privacy notice that is easy to follow, clear, and comprehensive. In the table below, we provide a summary of each section of our Privacy Notice:
1. Overview: This section explains the scope and applicability of the Privacy Notice.
2. Collection of personal information, Choice and Transparency: This section describes in detail the different types of personal information CRC collects and the sources of that collection and CRC consent management.
3. Purpose of collecting personal information: This section explains the purposes for which personal information is disclosed or used.
4. Disclosure of personal information: This section explains who gets access to the personal information outside of CRC, the purpose for this access, and mechanisms that we put in place to protect this information.
5. Retention of personal information: This section explains the period of time CRC retains personal information.
6. Safeguards: This section discusses ways in which CRC safeguards personal information. It also discusses steps the data subject can take to safeguard their own information online.
7. Accessing your personal information: This section provides guidance on how the data subject can access the personal information held by CRC.
8. Cookies and similar technologies: This section confirms that CRC Research does not collect cookies.
9. Changes to this Privacy Notice: This section simply advises you that our privacy policy may change from time to time and encourages you to check back for the latest version. You can get all prior versions of our Privacy Notice on request.
10. Contact us about our Privacy Program: This section provides contact information in case the data subject has any questions, comments or complaints about CRC’s privacy practices.
1. Overview
This Privacy Notice governs the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information and personal health information (together, “personal information”)] by CRC Research Inc.
We collect, use, and disclose personal information, including audio, video, and electronic information, for reasons that are consistent with the purposes described in this policy, or as otherwise permitted or mandated by law. Personal information is kept securely by us and our service providers and retained only as long as necessary to provide our services or to meet legal obligations. Except in limited circumstances, you (your, yours) have a right to access the information collected about you, within a reasonable time frame, in accordance with existing legislation.
We will, from time to time, review and revise our privacy practices and this Privacy Notice. Policy changes will apply to the information collected from the date of the revised Privacy Notice as well as to existing information held by us at the time of the amendment. Updates to this Privacy Notice will be published on our website. Should you have any questions or concerns, you are invited to contact us at privacy@crcresearch.com.
When you provide personal information, you agree that we may collect, use, and disclose your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Notice. You are free to withdraw your consent at any time. However, if you choose not to provide us with consent to collect, use, or disclose personal information, we may not be able to offer some of the services requested (see section 3, purposes, for more information about the services we provide)
2. Collection of personal information, Choice and Transparency
Personal information is defined as any information, whether recorded or not, about an identifiable individual, or an individual whose identity may be inferred or determined from the information. Examples of personal information include age, name, ID numbers, income, opinions, evaluations, comments, or disciplinary actions.
Personal information also includes personal health information about an identifiable individual such as:
Physical or mental health;
Any health service provided to the individual;
Information that is collected in the course of providing health services to the individual and any testing results from that collection; or
Information that is collected incidentally to the provision of health services to the individual and any testing results from that collection.
| Category | Description | Source of Information |
|---|---|---|
| Profile Data |
|
You Participant lists directly from clients – lists where participation consent provided by you to the client |
| Personal Data |
|
You |
| Personal Health Information |
|
You |
Privacy Rights:
Subject to certain limitations and depending on the privacy laws applicable to you, you may have the following legal rights to your information:
Right to openness about our collection, use and disclosure of your personal information. You have the right to be informed in a manner that is clear, transparent, and accessible.
Right to access or correct your personal information held by us, as detailed in our “Accessing your Personal Information,” section.
Right to have certain personal information that is held by us disposed of or removed as explained in our “Retention of Personal Information,” section.
Right to request that we restrict the processing of your personal information.
Right to object to certain processing of your personal information, including the right to object to marketing, and request that your personal information be moved to a third-party. You can object by changing your marketing and email preferences, as set out in the Unsubscribe Page.
Right to obtain your personal information in an accessible and transferable format so that you can re-use it for your own purposes with other service providers.
Right to receive non-discriminatory treatment for choosing to exercise your rights under applicable privacy legislation
Where we rely on your consent to process your information, you may have the right to withdraw or decline your consent at any time and, where we rely on legitimate interests, you have the right to object. Please note that withdrawing your consent may affect your access and ability to use our services (as detailed below).
You have the right to file a complaint about the way we use or process your information with the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario (Canada) or other data protection authority as may be applicable to your jurisdiction.
Should you need to access or correct your personal information that is held by us, please use the contact information in the “Contact Us About Our Privacy Program” section at the end of this policy to reach us.
Requests to update, modify or delete information will be performed by the CRC Incidence Response team consisting of: VP of Operations, Privacy Officer/VP of Business Development (“BD”), IT Administrator & Recruitment Management team.
CRC collects written and at times verbal, consent from all participants recruited for active studies or during database registration. Consent forms are issued to all selected participants outlining the purposes of the given study and details around respondent participations.
3. Purpose of Collecting Personal Information
The purposes for which we collect your information, include, but may not be limited to, enabling, and supporting:
To conduct qualitative market, opinion, and social research with you on behalf of our clients;
To understand respondents’ opinions, demographic/socio economic profile, and product/service use to establish suitability for participation in research on specific topics;
To create an account for you;
To verify your identity;
To personalize your experience;
To allow our employees to screen information about you to identify you as a candidate for research projects;
To communicate with you, including for direct marketing purposes that you have agreed to receive and that are relevant to you;
To respond to your communications to us;
To deliver our services to you including market research and precision recruitment extracted through the use of computerized query, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) tools to efficiently find the most appropriate research participants from our participant pool for client research projects that CRC manually screens for best fit;
To aggregate and de-identify findings from research conducted by us to share with our clients for their use;
To improve our service offerings; and
To meet legal or regulatory requirements.
4. Sharing Your Personal Information
We may share information we collect with:
CRC Research employees: personal information about participants is only accessed by and shared amongst employees on a need to know basis.
Service providers: we may engage third-party providers, such as contractors or software vendors for service optimization.
Corporate transaction entities: we might disclose personal information within the limits of the law and in accordance with this privacy policies for strategic business transactions such as sales or a merger.
Authorities identified in law: we may disclose personal information to authorized law enforcement, regulators, courts, or other public authorities in response to lawful requests or to protect our rights and safety.
Under no circumstances would CRC sell any participant information. Additionally, no third parties collect or have access to information that CRC gathers, and only authorized internal personnel access collected information stored in the database, client sample or target lists.Please keep reading for more details about how we manage risks to your personal information, which can be found in sections 5 and 6, retention and safeguards, respectively.
5. Retention of Personal Information
We store and retain personal information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purpose for which it was collected or as otherwise permitted by law. Once this purpose has been fulfilled, subject to any legal exceptions, we destroy the information in a secure manner that protects the privacy of the individual to whom the information relates. Our retention and destruction policy is reviewed and updated regularly.
As per standardized best practices and guidelines, study materials are kept for a minimum of six (6) months. After one (1) year, study materials are deleted from the servers. If participants agree, their information may be kept on file for the sole purpose of inviting individuals to future studies. This information may be parsed using computerized query tools to efficiently pre-screen participants for said studies, which is then further screened by a CRC employee. Information will be permanently deleted at the request of any individual.
Where a client provides a list of potential participants, this list is automatically destroyed at the conclusion of the study.
6. Safeguards
We endeavour to maintain adequate physical, administrative, and technical security safeguards with respect to our offices and information storage capabilities so as to prevent any loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, or modification of personal information. This commitment also applies to the disposal or destruction of personal information.
As part of these precautionary measures, we restrict access to personal information to those employees and, under appropriate contractual arrangements, third party service providers we determine need to know that information in order that we may provide our services. We treat employee misuse of personal information as a serious offence for which disciplinary action may be taken.
CRC does not rely on service providers where data will be transferred outside of Canada, and all information is stored within secure CRC servers located within our secure offices found in Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. Strict and specific security access perimeters ensure that only certified staff have access to information. File transfer protocols require project specific login credentials, all of which are password encrypted and distributed only to authorized recipients.
Your information is collected via secure pre-screening links, which are programmed by dedicated recruiting coordinators for each study. At times, this information is also collected by telephone or via ZOOM or Teams calls, pending your accommodation needs.
CRC research requires proof of identity from all participants to prevent fraud, verify details against
recruitment submissions, ensure accurate honorarium distribution, and confirm compliance with legal age regulations for research on regulated substances.
Breach Response
CRC has implemented comprehensive security measures and has not experienced any privacy breaches to date. The protocol for addressing potential breaches includes a documented and tested system, reviewed quarterly by the CRC Incident Response & Management team.
In the event of a breach, the system is shut down to quarantine the issue, allowing the IT team toidentify and resolve it. The CRC Incident Response & Management Team is then notified to initiate theinvestigation, notify impacted clients or participants when a risk of real harm occurs, and follow breach protocols.
After resolving the breach, the IT team conducts a full system check and enhances security as needed and provides a complete update to all affected individuals.
7. Accessing Your Personal Information
You can access your Profile Data by logging in via the unique profile link found in the emails sent to you by a CRC coordinator. Alternatively, you can request profile data modification, deletion or access, along with any privacy policy and/or personal information management practices to the CRC Privacy Officer: privacy@crcresearch.com
8. Cookies and Similar Technologies
Please note CRC does not use cookies and does not track your browsing behaviour via our websites.
9. Changes to this Privacy Notice
The CRC Privacy Notice is reviewed at minimum once per year and/or as required reflecting changes made to CRC information practices.
Any chances to this policy are communicated to all CRC registered database participants via email and via notice on our websites.
We encourage you to periodically review this page for the latest information on our privacy practices.
10. Contact Us About Our Privacy Program
Any further questions regarding this Privacy Notice and/or personal information management practices may be submitted to the Privacy Officer:
Kathy Harsz
VP, Business Development & Privacy Officer
121 Bloor Street East, 2nd Floor
Toronto, ON M4W 3M5
416 544-3005
privacy@crcresearch.com
If you are unsatisfied with our response, please let us know and we will seek to make amends. You do have the right to contact the enforcement agency of your jurisdiction after exhausting communication with CRC Research to lodge a formal complaint about our compliance with privacy management practices.
Below are links to the websites of certain authorities:
Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada:
Federal Communications Commission of the USA:
Information Commissioner’s Office, United Kingdom:
CRC Terms & Conditions
Last Updated January 31, 2025
INTRODUCTION
CRC Research Inc. (“CRC”) is a CRIC Accredited market research company and operates premier facilities across Canada for focus groups and individual interviewing. CRC specializes in medical and consumer recruitment for both qualitative and quantitative projects. As per CRIC member requirements, CRC is compliant with the ISO 20252:2019 Market, Opinion and Social Research vocabulary and Service Requirements.
1. Description of Services
“CRC POP” is the trade name for the market research database operated by CRC Research Inc. (“CRC”). CRC utilizes the database to invite individuals to participate in market research studies commissioned by CRC’s clients. These studies are conducted to provide such clients with anonymous feedback in order to help the clients develop better products and services or to help clients (including Governments) better understand the perspectives of Canadians. As an incentive for participating in the market research studies with CRC Research, participants are awarded agreed-upon honoraria delivered via e-transfer or cheque upon successful completion of the given study. The registration that CRC provides on this site (“Site”) is subject to the following terms and conditions (“T&C”). CRC reserves the right to update, add, delete or change some or all of the T&C at any time without prior notice. When the T&C are changed, CRC will revise the “Last Updated” date at top of the T&C. By registering with CRC Research, you acknowledge that you have read, understood and agree to be bound by the last updated version of the T&C and all documents incorporated by reference therein. If you do not agree with any provision of the T&C, you are not permitted to join the CRC database.
2. Eligibility for Participation
During most market research projects, confidential information is discussed. This could be about a new product or service, or a change to an existing product or service. In order to be considered as a panelist/respondent with CRC Research, you must agree to the following:
As a panelist/respondent with CRC Research Inc., I agree that if I am chosen to participate in any market research study that I will keep all information discussed confidential and will not disclose any information to anyone. I also agree to be honest and truthful with my responses to the questions asked during the screening process for any project as well I agree to be honest and truthful with my responses during any project that I participate in with CRC Research Inc.
CRC is under no obligation to invite panel members to participate in research projects and does so at its sole discretion.
BY COMPLETING THE REGISTRATION PROCESS, YOU ARE STATING THAT YOU AGREE TO BE BOUND BY ALL OF THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THIS AGREEMENT.
3. Program Terms
a. Contacting Members of the research panels: As a member of CRC Research database, CRC may contact you for potential studies using the email address and/or telephone number or fax number you provide upon registration.
b. Participation:
For Members of the database: To participate in qualitative market research studies or a survey, you will be provided with a link in an e-mail invitation that you can activate directly or cut-and-paste into your web browser. You will then be taken to the pre-screening survey page where detailed survey instructions will appear. This pre-screening survey will allow us to verify if you qualify for the given study against the client-provided participant criteria. Should you qualify, a CRC member will connect with you providing further study details, such as duration, timing, and honoraria amount awarded upon successful completion. At this stage, CRC will decide whether or not to invite you to the study and you will decide whether or not to participate.
CRC may also use artificial intelligence (“AI”) to assist in analyzing and processing the data within the CRC database, and to assist CRC staff with identifying eligible candidates more quickly and thoroughly. AI will not be used to make any final decisions regarding selection or participation in any study, which will continue to be made by trained and qualified CRC staff.For non-Members of the database: Upon completion of the study or any other time, if you do not wish to be contacted for future studies or otherwise be added to the CRC database, upon informing CRC of your decision your profile and associated information will be deleted and not retained by CRC.
As a prerequisite for participation in certain studies, CRC may require to verify your identity and personal information, including age. Verification will be done through video or videoconferencing platforms. Any video taken for the purposes of identity confirmation will not be retained or shared, and will be destroyed once your identity is confirmed. Any service providers that CRC retains for this function will be Canada-based and operate nation-wide. CRC is committed to being entirely transparent about any way in which data is collected or retained for this purpose.
c. Incentive Distribution: The honorarium amount will be sent at the contact information that you provided to CRC and will be re-confirmed via the email and phone confirmation that you will receive prior to the actual study start. The honorarium will be delivered to you via e-transfer or cheque, as per your preference, upon successful completion of the study. To receive the honoraria, you must participate in full as specified during the recruitment process including any and all required pre-tasks or post-tasks.
d. Limits on participation: Outside of special circumstances, users are limited to participating through CRC twice a year, regardless of if they otherwise qualify for participation in studies.
5. Breach
CRC may immediately issue a warning, temporarily suspend, indefinitely suspend or terminate your membership as a member of the research database, if you breach any of the T&C or if CRC is unable to verify or authenticate any information you provide to CRC.
6. Privacy
Information collected from research panel members is subject to the terms of CRC Privacy Policy. CRC Privacy Policy is incorporated herein by reference.
7. Respondent Confidentiality
By becoming a member of CRC database, you agree that you will hold in strict confidence and not disclose to any other party or parties any information learned in connection with a CRC market research project, nor use such information for purposes other than your providing data to CRC Research. You shall notify the CRC Privacy Officer should you discover any loss or unauthorized disclosure of the information. The kind of information you may learn in connection with a survey, project or questionnaire includes trade secrets, proprietary information, media content, unique techniques, sketches, drawings, works of authorship, models, inventions, know-how, research, experimental work, development, design details and specifications, sales and merchandising plans and other information provided, including relating to third parties. For greater certainty, even if you decide you do not wish to become a member or remain a member of the CRC database, you agree that you will remain subject to the above confidentiality obligations even following your removal from the CRC database.
8. Disclaimer, Limitation of Liability, Indemnity and Warranties
The performance of the Site and all content contained on, downloaded or accessed from the Site are provided to you on an “as is, where is, when available” basis. CRC disclaims all conditions, terms, representations and warranties, express or implied, statutory or otherwise, including but not limited to implied warranties of merchantability, merchantable quality, quality, fitness for a particular purpose, title and non-infringement, with respect to the Site or any of the content. CRC reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to modify, disable access to or discontinue, temporarily or permanently, any part or all of the Site or any information or services offered thereon, without liability or notice to you.
CRC does not warrant that the Site and the content are free from errors, computer viruses or other program limitations or that the Site and the content will be accessible and perform in accordance with your expectations. You specifically acknowledge that CRC will not be liable for any defamatory, offensive or illegal conduct of third parties. The operation of the Site may not be continuous or uninterrupted or secure. Security and privacy risks cannot be eliminated.
You agree that you shall indemnify and hold harmless CRC, its affiliates, licensors, and each of their officers, directors, other users, employees, attorneys and agents from and against any and all claims, costs, damages, losses, liabilities and expenses (including reasonable legal fees and costs) arising out of or in connection with: (a) your violation or breach of the T&C or any applicable law or regulation; (b) your violation of any rights of any third party; or (c) your use or misuse of the Site.
9. No Agency
You and CRC are independent contractors, and no agency, partnership, joint venture, employee-employer or franchisor-franchisee relationship is intended or created by this Agreement and the T&C noted herein.
10. Notices
Except as explicitly stated otherwise, any notices shall be given by email to hello@crcresearch.com (in the case of CRC) or to the email address you provide to CRC during the registration process (in your case), or such other address as the party shall specify. Notice shall be deemed given 24 hours after the email notice is sent.
11. General
This Agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Province of British Columbia, Canada without regard to its conflict of law principles, and the Parties hereby attorn to the jurisdiction of the courts of the Province of British Columbia, Canada in relation to any disputes or claims arising from this Agreement.
CRC does not guarantee continuous or uninterrupted access to its services, and operation of the Site may be interfered with by numerous factors outside of CRC’s control. If any provision of this Agreement is held to be invalid or unenforceable, such provision shall be struck and the remaining provisions shall be enforced. Headings are for reference purposes only and in no way define, limit, construe or describe the scope or extent of such section. CRC’s failure to act with respect to a breach by you or others does not waive its right to act with respect to subsequent or similar breaches.
12. Intellectual Property Rights
“CRC POP”, “CRC Research Inc” and related trademarks and service marks appearing on the Site are registered trademarks, trademarks or service marks of CRC Research Inc. All custom graphics, icons, logos and other items that appear on the Site are trademarks or service marks of CRC Research Inc. The use of any of CRC trademarks or service marks without obtaining prior written consent from CRC Research, is strictly prohibited. By agreeing to use this Site you hereby assign all of your right, title and interest in and to all survey results, project results, questionnaire results, market research results, creative suggestions, ideas, concepts, or other information (collectively, the “Submissions”) which you
provide to CRC Research Inc, so that CRC Research Inc or its clients shall exclusively own all now-known or hereafter existing rights to the Submissions of every kind and nature worldwide and shall be entitled to unrestricted use of the Submissions for any purpose whatsoever, commercial or otherwise, without compensation to you. In addition, you warrant that all “moral rights” in those Submissions have been waived. You agree that you shall have no recourse against CRC
Research for any alleged or actual infringement or misappropriation of any proprietary right in your Submissions.
13. Use of the Site
Subject to Section 14, the Site and information and materials contained at this Site, including the text, graphics, sound files, video files, logos, images, arrangement and general design of the Site (collectively, the “Content”) is owned or licensed by CRC. You many not use this Site in any manner which could damage, disable, overburden or impair the Site or interfere with any other party’s use and enjoyment of the Site.a. You agree that you will use the Site for lawful purposes only and represent and warrant that you will not:
a) use the Site to upload, post or otherwise transmit through or to the Site any content that (i) is unlawful, abusive, threatening, harmful, obscene, lewd, offensive, defamatory or otherwise objectionable, (ii) might infringe the intellectual property rights, privacy rights, rights of publicity, or other proprietary rights of others, or (iii) contains any viruses, trojan horses, time bombs, or any other harmful programs or elements;
b) disrupt, place unreasonable burdens or excessive loads on, interfere with or attempt to gain unauthorized access to any portion of the Site, our computer systems, servers or networks, or the passwords of other users;
c) provide false information about yourself (including without limitation your identity, your location, age, or financial capacity) or impersonate any other person, or otherwise attempt to mislead others about your identity or the origin of any content, message or other communication;
d) collect information about other users without their consent or otherwise systematically extract data or data fields, including without limitation e-mail addresses; or
e) sell access to or the use of the Site, including any content contained on, downloaded or accessed from the Site.
By uploading, posting or otherwise transmitting any content through or to the Site you grant to CRC Research, its successors and assigns, a non-exclusive, world-wide, royalty free, perpetual, non-revocable license to (i) display, reproduce, translate, reformat, adapt, archive, distribute, and broadcast to other users of the Site such content in accordance with the T&C noted herein and (ii) use or distribute such content in any manner otherwise stated in our Privacy Policy. Any breach of the above representations, covenants and warranties will result in immediate termination of your right to use the Site, and, if appropriate, referral to relevant law enforcement authorities.
14. Other Links
Links to the Site without CRC’s express written permission are strictly prohibited. The framing of the Site or any of its content in any form and by any method is strictly prohibited.
15. Language
You agree that English and French Canadian will be the languages of the Site and all transactions occurring in connection with the Site, and you agree to waive any right to use and rely upon any other language and translations. You acknowledge that it is your express wish that these T&C have been drawn up in English and French Canadian.
16. Disclosures
CRC Research is operated by:
CRC Research Inc
1378 West 7th Ave,
Vancouver, BC
V6H 3W5
Further information may be obtained by writing to this address.