Food Lion Customer Panel: Privacy

Food Lion, in conjunction with its research partner, Digital Research, Inc., conducts a variety of online research surveys and studies through its Web site, www.foodlionpanel.com. Sweepstakes incentives in the form of cash or merchandise are frequently offered to those who participate in our studies. Membership in our Panel is free and open to all US residents aged 18 or older.

Protecting your privacy is essential to our research. We report our survey results in the aggregate, and never provide individual information to anyone without your prior consent.

Digital Research, Inc., research partner of our supermarkets (Food Lion, Bloom, Bottom Dollar Food, Harveys, and Reid's) is a member of the Council of American Survey Research Organizations (CASRO) and subscribes to the CASRO Code of Standards and Ethics for Survey Research. CASRO is a professional organization whose members' common goal is to promote professional standards in research and to enhance the quality of survey research.

About The Information We Gather

Personal Information and Demographic Information
As part of our recruitment process, we may ask you to provide personal information such as your name, address, ages of members of your household and your customer reward card number(s) for Food Lion, Bloom, Bottom Dollar Food, Harveys and/or Reid's Supermarkets ("Personal Information"). In addition, Food Lion frequently asks Panel Members for characteristics (such as consumer habits), attributes, and Demographic Information (such as age, income, gender).

You are in control of the Personal Information and Demographic Information that you provide to us. We rely on you to provide accurate information and to update your Personal and Demographic Information when requested. You can:

Ask for a copy (verification) of your Personal Information and/or Demographic Information;
Ask for your Personal Information and/or Demographic Information to be corrected or updated; and
Ask us to remove your Personal Information and Demographic Information from our database.

To do this, please see the "Access to Your Information and Filing Complaints" section provided later in this statement. Food Lion will use all reasonable efforts to comply with your request.

Operating Information
Food Lion may, in the course of interacting with Panel Members, gather other types of information from its Panel Members ("Operating Information"). For example, as a Food Lion Customer Panel member, you will receive surveys from us on a regular basis. These surveys will ask questions about your interests, needs and attitudes. We receive your responses to these surveys with your full knowledge and participation. Similarly, if we offer other features, services or programs in which you explicitly agree to participate, then Food Lion will also receive Personal Information, Demographic Information and/or Operating Information from these features, services or programs with your full knowledge and consent.

We may also record anonymous site statistics, such as your Internet Provider address, to help diagnose problems with our server and maintain our database. We may place a "cookie" on your computer, which saves your Panel ID and allows for a more user-friendly interface on some of our survey forms. Cookies may also occasionally be used in our online surveys to prevent duplicate responses. A "cookie", by itself, cannot be used to find out the identity of any user. If you do not wish to accept "cookies", you can turn this feature off in the options menu of your browser. If you choose to turn off this feature, we may not be able to include you in some of our research projects.

How We Use Your Information

Personal Information and Demographic Information
Any Personal and Demographic Information collected by Food Lion is used exclusively to support our research efforts. The Personal Information you provide is used to communicate with you and your household members, and to assist you with questions you may have about your participation in the Food Lion Customer Panel. It may also be used for sweepstakes entry processing and delivery of incentives to Panel Members. Personal Information concerning location or address is also used by us to ensure that our Panel accurately represents the US/International population as a whole.

A panel members' Demographic Information is used to pre-qualify or identify prospective respondents for research, based on specific member characteristics (such as men/women of a certain age range or occupation). This Demographic Information may also be combined with your survey responses ("Operating Information") and reported in aggregate to our clients. At no time will any Personal Information be transmitted to anyone outside of Food Lion and Digital Research, Inc. without your express permission.

Operating Information
Food Lion and Digital Research, Inc. use the Operating Information collected from you solely in the conduct of its research business. The Operating Information you provide while completing our online surveys is maintained in independent internal databases and is not Personal Information or Demographic Information. Operating Information may be combined with select Demographic Information and reported in aggregate to our clients. At no time will any Personal Information be transmitted to anyone outside of Food Lion and Digital Research, Inc. without your express permission.

Data Sharing and Transfer
Personal Information about panel members will never be shared with any third parties without your permission, except that we may disclose your Personal Information or Demographic Information if we believe we are required to do so by law or subpoena, if we must do so to protect someone's safety or our rights or property, or in order to comply with this policy or other policies that may be applicable. If at any time Food Lion or Digital Research, Inc. are required to share Personal Information and/or Demographic Information (for the purpose of fulfilling sweepstakes awards or for other research-related services), the entity with which this Personal Information or Demographic Information is shared will be required to sign a Data Transfer Agreement that protects this Personal Information and/or Demographic Information. These partners agree not to sell or otherwise share this data and they are contractually obligated not to use any Personal Information except for the purpose of providing the services for which Food Lion and Digital Research, Inc. have contracted, unless you enter into a relationship with them that would directly allow them to do so.

Food Lion and Digital Research, Inc. collect and share Demographic Information and Operating Information with its research clients in anonymous form. Our research clients will never receive Personal Information about panel members without your express permission, nor will our clients be able to identify panel members from the Demographic Information or Operating Information we provide.

Food Lion is an expanding business, and like other companies, we sometimes acquire or divest business units. As part of such transfers, we may convey the business assets of the particular business unit, including Personal Information, Demographic Information or Operating Information of panel members.

Children's Guidelines

Occasionally, our work focuses on the attitudes, opinions and preferences of young people. Respondents under the age of 18 may participate in our surveys only with the consent of an adult member of the household in which they live. Food Lion and Digital Research, Inc. comply with all applicable national and international children's privacy regulations.

We comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998. We do not permit children who are under 18 years of age to become Food Lion Customer Panel members. As part of our panel registration process, we may request the number and ages of children under the age 18 in the panel members' household. Occasionally, we may send a survey invitation to the parent or guardian to request permission for their child under the age of 18 to answer our survey. We take reasonable steps to ensure parental consent by sending our invitation to the parent or guardian's password-protected e-mail address (if available). The Operating Information collected in response to such surveys is not combined with Personal Information about the child. In every case such survey does not collect Personal Information about the child. If an applicant to the Panel indicates that he/she is under the age of 18, we do not process the application.

If you would like to contact us about you or your child's Personal Information, or to find out how you can have your child's Personal Information removed from our database, please see the "Access to Your Information and Complaints" section later in this document.

These policies are consistent with those recommended by the Children's Advertising Review Unit of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, Inc., the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and the Council of American Survey Research Organizations (CASRO).

Security

Food Lion and Digital Research, Inc. are committed to keeping the data you provide us secure and will take reasonable precautions to protect your Personal Information from loss, misuse or alteration. Vendors, contractors, or partners of Food Lion who may have access to your Personal Information in connection with providing services to Food Lion are contractually required to keep the Personal Information confidential and are not permitted to use this data for any other purpose than to carry out the services they are performing for Food Lion.

Food Lion also safeguards Personal Information, Demographic Information and Operating Information from unauthorized access. Only authorized Food Lion employees or agents carrying out permitted business functions are allowed access. In addition, each employee of Food Lion is required to sign a confidentiality/non-disclosure agreement requiring him or her to keep confidential all Personal Information of panel members. Employees who violate this agreement are subject to disciplinary actions, including termination of employment. Food Lion does not maintain any Personal Information online. All data is stored at our offices, on our internal office computing network. At no time is your Personal Information available to anyone else, or used for anything other than market research purposes. You will never be asked to purchase any products or services as a result of your membership in our Customer Panel or participation in any studies.

Access To Your Information and Filing Complaints

If you have submitted Personal Information or Demographic information to Food Lion through our Food Lion Customer Panel or otherwise, or if someone else has submitted your Personal Information or Demographic Information to Food Lion, you can:

1) Access, Correct or Update your Personal Information or Demographic Information -- by visiting the Edit My Profile area of our website, by e-mailing your request to our Panel administrator, or by sending a letter to the address listed below. Food Lion and Digital Research, Inc. will use reasonable efforts to comply with your request for access or to correct any inaccuracies in your Personal Information or Demographic Information.

2) Prevent Further Use of Your Personal Information or Demographic Information -- by visiting the Remove area of our website, by e-mailing your request to our Panel administrator, or by sending us a letter to the address listed below. Food Lion and Digital Research, Inc. will use reasonable efforts to prevent further use of the Personal Information or Demographic Information in our files.

3) Notify Us of Comments or Complaints
Food Lion and Digital Research, Inc. are committed to working with our panel members and web site visitors to obtain a fair and rapid resolution of any complaints or disputes about privacy. Please send us your questions or comments regarding our privacy practices by visiting the Contact area of our website, by e-mailing your request to our Panel administrator, or you may send a letter to:

Privacy Compliance Coordinator
Food Lion Customer Panel
201 Lafayette Center
Kennebunk, ME 04043

Food Lion and Digital Research, Inc. are happy to respond to all questions and comments.

Opting-Out - Removal from our Panel
At any time, you may discontinue your participation in the Food Lion Customer Panel by visiting the Remove area of our website, by e-mailing your request to our Panel administrator, or by sending a letter to the address listed above. Parents or legal guardians of any panel member who is under the age of 18 may discontinue the participation of such child in the same manner. Please note that opting-out of the Food Lion Customer Panel will not result in our deleting Operating Information (survey responses) previously collected from your household.

Research Participation Incentive Policy

Our studies may offer incentives to participants in the form of cash or merchandise sweepstakes prizes. Each study will have the rules and regulations for the sweepstakes attached to the invitation to participate in that study. All prize winners will be notified via e-mail and will be required to complete a prize winner Affidavit of Eligibility, to be returned to Digital Research, Inc. by US mail (or equivalent).

Other Sites
Food Lion is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of other web sites. We recommend that you carefully read the privacy policies of each site you visit.

Contacting Us

If you have questions about Food Lion's Privacy Policy or the practices of the Food Lion Customer Panel Web site, please visit the Frequently Asked Questions area of our website, by e-mailing your request to our Panel administrator or contact:

Food Lion Customer Panel Director
c/o Digital Research, Inc.
201 Lafayette Center
Kennebunk, Maine 04043
E-mail

Your Acceptance of our Privacy Practices
By agreeing to become a member of the Food Lion Customer Panel (signified by supplying Personal Information and/or Demographic Information) or participating in a Food Lion survey, service or program, you signify your acceptance of the terms and conditions of this Privacy Policy. Food Lion will make changes to this privacy statement from time to time, and will post these changes to our web site. We encourage you to periodically review our Privacy Policy. A notice of any significant changes will be provided to panel members via written, electronic, or other notice from Food Lion.