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Rewards and Contribute Privacy Notice

Last Updated: December 27, 2025

SurveyMonkey Rewards (“SMR”) and SurveyMonkey Contribute (“SMC”)  are used by people who are interested in taking surveys for monetary rewards (SMR) or for donations to a charitable cause (SMC). In this notice, we refer to the people who take surveys on our SMR and SMC websites and apps as  "Panelists". We refer to the people who design and send the surveys taken by Panelists as "Panel Buyers". When surveys are sent specifically to SMC and SMR Panelists, we call these surveys “Audience Surveys”.

This privacy notice describes how SurveyMonkey collects, uses, shares, and protects the personal information of Panelists and Panel Buyers who use SMC and SMR.  This notice should be read in conjunction with our main Privacy Notice and Region Specific Privacy Notice (for US residents). Where there is a conflict, this privacy notice takes precedence. 

1. PRIVACY FOR PANELISTS 

1.1 What information does SurveyMonkey collect from Panelists? 

Below is a list of information that we collect from you and about you when you use SMC or SMR. 

1.1.1 Information we receive directly from you 

  • Registration information: You are required to have a SurveyMonkey account to use SMC or SMR as a Panelist. To register for a SurveyMonkey account, we need to collect account information from you including: your username, password, email address, first and last name, date of birth, phone number, and zip code. 
  • Profile data: To allow Panel Buyers to target Panelists with specific characteristics when conducting Audience surveys, we build profiles of Panelists. We build your profile by asking you to answer questions about yourself, and from your responses to Audience surveys that Panel Buyers conduct. We refer to all of this information as "profile data." When compiling profile data, we may collect your demographic information (e.g. year of birth, gender, employment status, the industry in which you work, ethnicity, religion, income level, education level, country of residence, zip code, political views, home ownership status, marital status, number of children, etc.), interests (e.g. what activities you participate in and how often you participate), preferences (e.g. what sort of food or drinks you like) and opinions.
    • Provision of this information is voluntary. You can always choose not to provide any personal information that we ask you for. However, your ability to use SMC or SMR may be limited if you do not give information that we require to provide you with our services. For example, if you do not provide profile data, you may be unable to participate in surveys or your chances of being chosen for a survey may be reduced. 
  • Audience survey responses: We receive your survey responses that you submit to Panel Buyers. 

You may be asked to provide sensitive information as part of your profile data or in response to Audience Surveys. When providing answers to sensitive questions (e.g. personal information specifying medical or health conditions, racial or ethnic origin, political opinions or affiliations, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership or information related to one’s sexual preferences), you explicitly consent to the collection of that data. You can opt-out at any time by not answering the question, or choosing “prefer not to say”, which will erase any previous answer to that question. We will treat sensitive information (e.g. personal information specifying medical or health conditions, racial or ethnic origin, political opinions or affiliations, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership or information related to one’s sexual preferences) with particular care. You may be asked to provide sensitive information as part of your profile data. If we intend to disclose such information to a third party or use it for a purpose other than as described in this privacy notice, we will obtain your specific permission to do so prior to any such use or disclosure. 

1.1.2 Information we receive about you from other sources 

  • Usage data: We receive usage data about you whenever you interact with SMC or SMR. This may include which webpages you visit, what you click on, and which Audience surveys you complete, and what amount you redeem or contribute and where you redeem or contribute that money. Additionally, like most websites today, our web servers keep log files that record data each time a device accesses those servers. The log files may include Internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, the files viewed on our site (e.g., HTML pages, graphics, etc.), operating system, date/time stamp, and/or clickstream data to analyze trends in the aggregate and administer the site. 
  • Device data: We receive data from the device you use to access SMC or SMR, such as your IP address, phone network carrier, and your browser type. We may also infer your geographic location based on your IP address. We receive usage data about you whenever you interact with SMC or SMR through a third party analytics provider. This may include which pages and screens within SMC or SMR you visit, what you click on, and which surveys you complete.  
  • Metadata: Panel Buyers may also append other metadata to your responses to assist them in classifying their survey responses 

1.2 How does SurveyMonkey use your information? 

Generally, we use your information in connection with providing SMC or SMR services to you and to Panel Buyers. More specifically, we use it: 

  • To provide you with relevant surveys: We use your profile data to target Audience surveys to you and send you emails inviting you to take those surveys. For example, if the profile data you provide shows you are a 30 year old female living in New York, we may send you a survey where a Panel Buyer is interested in the opinions of any person living in New York aged between 25-35 years. 
  • To improve SMC or SMR: We internally use the data we receive to improve the quality of our service. For example, we use and analyze usage data (such as page view data and response rates) to make the surveys we send more relevant to you, to improve the SMC or SMR user interface and to maintain a consistent and reliable user experience. We use profile data to help us to improve the quality of our panel. We may use aggregated profile data and your audience survey responses to provide and improve our services, and build new products and features.
  • To provide Panel Buyers with more targeting criteria: We may use the responses you give to Audience surveys to provide other Panel Buyers with more ways to reach the target demographic they want. However, we do not give your actual survey responses to Panel Buyers other than the buyer actually conducting the survey. For example, if you disclose in an Audience survey that your stock portfolio has 21 stocks, we might allow Panel Buyers to target Panelists based on their stock portfolio size. If a Panel Buyer wanted to target people with stock portfolios with more than 10 stocks and you responded to the survey, the Panel Buyer would know that you have more than 10 stocks in your portfolio. But, we would not share with them the more specific information that you have 21 stocks. 
  • To verify compliance: We may inspect and use techniques like machine learning on your Audience survey responses to ensure your compliance with the SMC Terms of Use and SurveyMonkey Rewards Terms of Use to determine quality responses so we have a consistent and reliable panel. 

1.3 Who we disclose your information to and what information we share 

We recognize that because you give us and allow us to use your profile data and other personal information, we are entrusted with safeguarding the privacy of that information. Your continuing trust is very important to us, so the only time we will disclose or share that information with a third party is where we have: 

(a) given you notice (e.g. in this privacy notice); 
(b) obtained your consent (e.g. based on your account's opt-in/opt-out settings); or 
(c) anonymized the information, so that you cannot reasonably be identified by it. 

Our main Privacy Notice and Region Specific Privacy Notice describe the categories of personal information we may disclose for business purposes or as required by applicable law. In particular, we disclose your: 

  • Survey responses to Panel Buyers: We host Audience surveys for Panel Buyers, but they are really the primary curator of survey data. Anything you expressly disclose in your Audience surveys will be provided to them. Panel Buyers may have their own privacy notices which apply to surveys that they create using our services. These policies detail how Panel Buyers handle your information and if one is provided, we encourage you to read it. 
  • Basic demographics to Panel Buyers: When you respond to a survey, we automatically provide the Panel Buyer with a specific set of information about you that we compile from your profile data for the Panel Buyer. We refer to this set of information as "basic demographics". It includes your: 
  • Age 
  • Gender 
  • Region (as produced using zip code) 
  • Device 
  • Income 

The sharing of your basic demographics happens behind the scenes and is not visible in the survey questions themselves. We do not include your name or contact details as part of the basic demographics. 

  • Other demographics to Panel Buyers (indirectly): Although we do not disclose more than basic demographics to Panel Buyers, because they target their Audience surveys to specific demographics, they will be able to infer that you belong to this demographic simply because they will only receive responses from that demographic. When selecting the characteristics of desired survey respondents, a Panel Buyer may also receive an indication of how many Panelists match the Panel Buyer's particular demographic requirements for a given survey. 
  • Anonymized Panelist statistics for informational purposes: We may disclose aggregated, or otherwise anonymized, statistics about our Panelists. For example, we may post on our blog or include in our marketing emails interesting statistics like what the average response rate for Audience surveys is, or what percentage of Panelists are male. Where data has been de-identified, we commit to preventing future re-identification. 
  • Your information to Service providers: We may provide your personal information to companies that provide services to help us with our business activities such as offering customer service. These companies are authorized to use your personal information only as necessary to provide these services to us. 
  • Your information if there’s a change in business ownership or structure: We may transfer your information, including all profile data, account details, other personal information, and responses to surveys, to a successor entity upon a merger, consolidation or other corporate reorganization in which SurveyMonkey participates or to a purchaser of all or substantially all of SurveyMonkey’s assets related to SMC or SMR. In this event, you will be notified via email and/or a prominent notice on our website, of any change in ownership, uses of your personal information, and choices you may have regarding your personal information. We may also disclose your personal information to any other third party with your prior consent. 
  • Disclosures required by law: We may disclose your information as required or permitted by law, including for purposes of national security and law enforcement, or when we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, protect your safety or the safety of others, investigate fraud, and/or to comply with a judicial proceeding, court order, subpoena, or other legal process served on us. 

1.4 Are your Audience survey responses anonymous? 

  • To Panel Buyers, the answer is maybe. Of course, if you disclose your name in a Audience survey, you won't be anonymous. But even if you don't, the information you do provide may be identifying, such as when combined with other information. Remember that Panel Buyers are also supplied with your basic demographics. To help preserve your privacy, we require a Panel Buyer's targeting criteria to match a certain minimum number of Panelists before we allow the Audience survey to be conducted.  Please report it to us if you receive a survey that asks you for your email or personal information as we prohibit our Panel Buyers from collecting this information. 
  • To SurveyMonkey, the answer is no. We link your responses back to your account . We do this to provide Panel Buyers with additional targeting criteria (see "How does SurveyMonkey use your information?" above). We do not disclose this link to the Panel Buyer. 

1.5 Your choices and controls 

You may wish to exercise a right to obtain information about yourself or to correct, update, or delete that information. This section provides more information about how to do so. For more information about these rights you can read about it here. 

  • You can always refuse to answer a survey: Your participation in any Audience survey is entirely voluntary and you may opt out of responding at any time. 
  • Information provided to SurveyMonkey:
    • Correction: If you want to change your profile data, contact our support team and we will be happy to help.
    • Access: You may access certain personal information that SurveyMonkey holds about you by visiting your My Account page from the SMC or SMR website.
    • Deletion: If you no longer wish to use SMC or SMR, you can request to leave by contacting our support team. We will respond to your request within a reasonable timeframe and remove SMC or SMR from your SurveyMonkey account and permanently delete your profile data. You will stop receiving invitations to take Audience surveys.
      • Note that leaving SMC or SMR will not delete your main SurveyMonkey account. 
      • Any personal information submitted in the past to Audience surveys will not be deleted - you will need to contact the Panel Buyers who created those surveys to delete that data. 
    • Data retention: We may retain your information for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide you services, comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements. 
  • Information provided to a Panel Buyer:
    • If you have  provided your information to one of our Panel Buyers and would like to correct, access, or delete that information, please contact the Panel Buyer (the data controller) that you interacted with directly. 

Some of these rights may be subject to some exceptions or limitations in local law. Please note your rights and choices vary depending upon your location. We will take reasonable steps to verify your identity and we will respond to your request to exercise these rights within a reasonable time (and in all cases within 30 days of receiving a request. 

1.6 Notice of Financial Incentives 

SurveyMonkey provides certain rewards or incentives for Panelists to provide responses to surveys. You can opt into the rewards or incentives by registering for a SurveyMonkey account and answering Audience surveys using your account credentials. Your participation is completely voluntary, and you have a right to withdraw from Contribute at any time. If you decide you don’t want to participate, you can refrain from submitting responses to Audience surveys, or you can close your SurveyMonkey account. 

The specific reward or incentive offered, if any, is made available to you when you provide responses to available Audience surveys – including completing your profile survey - and may vary based on the length of the Audience survey and other factors identified below. The monetary value of the reward or incentive is a reasonable approximation of the monetary value of your survey responses to us. We have arrived at this estimate based on consideration of multiple factors, including the following: (1) revenue generated by SurveyMonkey in providing aggregated and/or anonymized responses and insights to customers; (2) expenses incurred by SurveyMonkey in operating Contribute; and (3) our reasonable assessment of revenue we may generate as a result of SurveyMonkey providing aggregated and/or anonymized responses and insights to customers. 

2. PRIVACY FOR PANEL BUYERS  

2.1 What information does SurveyMonkey collect from Panel Buyers? 

To provide Panel Buyers with more targeting criteria: We may use your Audience survey data to give you and other Panel Buyers more ways to reach the target demographic you want in your future Audience surveys. For example, if you ask "How high can you jump?" we may give other Panel Buyers the ability to target Panelists who can jump more than, say, 2 feet high (based on the responses your survey respondents gave). Other Panel Buyers have no access to your survey data - they will not be able to determine that the question originated from your Audience survey. We don't use your survey responses for any other purpose.

2.2 Who we disclose your information to and what information we share 

While you allow us to use your survey data and other information in accordance with this privacy notice, you always own all of your survey data and we regard it as information which is confidential to you. Your continuing trust is very important to us, so the only time we will disclose or share that information to a third party is where we have: 

(a) given you notice (e.g. in this privacy notice); 
(b) obtained your consent (e.g. based on your account's opt-in/opt-out settings);
(c) anonymized the information, so that you cannot reasonably be identified by it; or
(d) fulfilled a Panelist’s data access request to include providing their responses to them. 

Our main Privacy Notice describes the categories of personal information we may disclose for business purposes or as required by applicable law. In particular, we disclose your: 

  • Survey questions to other Panel Buyers: To provide Panel Buyers with additional targeting criteria. While Panel Buyers may be able to see your individual questions, they will not be able to determine that they originated from your Audience survey. 
  • Survey responses to no one: Except for a narrow set of reasons set out in the main SurveyMonkey Privacy Notice (e.g. if we are compelled by law). 
  • Anonymized Audience survey information for informational purposes: We may disclose aggregated or anonymized information about Audience surveys. For example, we may post on our blog or otherwise include in our marketing emails interesting statistics like how many surveys were completed in a month, or what the average length of a Audience survey was. We may also use aggregated and anonymized data for Benchmarking. See our Benchmarking Service Specific Terms for more details. Where data has been de-identified, we commit to preventing future re-identification. 
  • Disclosures due to change in business ownership or structure: We may transfer your information, including all profile data, account details, other personal information, and responses to surveys, to a successor entity upon a merger, consolidation or other corporate reorganization in which SurveyMonkey participates or to a purchaser of all or substantially all of SurveyMonkey’s assets related to SMC or SMR. In this event, you will be notified via email and/or a prominent notice on our website, of any change in ownership, uses of your personal information, and choices you may have regarding your personal information. We may also disclose your personal information to any other third party with your prior consent. 
  • Disclosures required by law: We may disclose your information as required or permitted by law, including for purposes of national security and law enforcement, or when we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, protect your safety or the safety of others, investigate fraud, and/or to comply with a judicial proceeding, court order, subpoena, or other legal process served on us. 

3. OTHER IMPORTANT INFORMATION

For information on how to contact us, please see our main Privacy Notice.

Changes to this privacy notice: We may modify this privacy notice at any time, but if we do so, we will notify you by publishing the changes on this website. If we determine the changes are material, we will provide you with additional, prominent notice as is appropriate under the circumstance, such as via email. 

Children under 18: SMC or SMR is not intended for, and may not be used by children under the age of 18. Children under 18 are not permitted to register with SurveyMonkey as a Panelist.