ESOMAR and Partners Launch Public Information Service

Research industry body ESOMAR has teamed up with Kantar, comScore, GfK and Nielsen to launch an initiative called 'Research Choices', which aims to help the general public understand how their data is used for audience measurement research.

Research Choices comprises a web-based portal, accessible online at researchchoices.org, explaining participating companies' privacy policies and providing tools to exercise opt-out and choice. The launch follows eighteen-months of joint representation activities in front of European legislators regarding negotiations to adopt the EU General Data Protection Regulation. The regulation comes after calls from the US Federal Trade Commission and European Commission to raise consumer awareness and understanding of online data collection practices.

Laurent Flores (pictured), ESOMAR President, comments: 'I welcome the launch of Research Choices, as the first world-wide and industry-wide initiative designed to reiterate our profession's undertakings, and its self-regulatory strength. Initially focusing on the audience measurement sector, it is the sector's hope and intention to progressively broaden the service to cover all digital research activities'.

Web site: www.esomar.org .