Market Research Ethics: Participant Confidentiality

This is the first of two eTips! examining market research ethics and its role in planning and executing successful research programs. Next month's issue will assess client confidentiality standards expected from research providers.

Participant confidentiality has always been of paramount concern in market research. Success in this discipline relies on participants' willingness to answer questions honestly with the implicit guarantee that their responses and identity will be held with the strictest confidence. This trust becomes even more important as the "information age" has provided easy access to previously confidential records.

The Council of American Survey Research Organizations (CASRO)*, an organization formed "to communicate, to educate, to protect, and to represent" the market research industry, has clearly defined standards for the ethical collection, reporting and dissemination of participant information. These standards* include:

• Protection from disclosure of individual participant information unless informed participant consent is obtained;
• Allowance of minimal participant information disclosure to allow for participation validation and/or additional relevant information for analytical purposes only (e.g. database segmentation and modeling);
• Written confirmation from clients that any re-contact of participants will be limited to validation/verification or to respond to complaints as requested by the participant, and that these contacts will be handled in a respectful, professional manner-with written confirmation received prior to information release; and
• Prohibition of employing participant-specific research information as part of individual marketing initiatives.

Other professional organizations, such as the Marketing Research Association (MRA) and the American Marketing Association (AMA), maintain similar participant confidentiality standards to insure the integrity of market research and facilitate the trust and cooperation of all participants.

Qualitative research illustrates the need for participant confidentiality, as participants can easily be identified by observers who may or may not be familiar with confidentiality standards. The market research professional should clearly explain the need to maintain participant confidentiality and to restrict the amount of background or screening information accessible to observers. Also, access to video and audiotapes must be carefully controlled to alleviate any potentially incorrect usage or dissemination, such as using identified quotations or "sound bites" in reports.

Given the potential short-term and long-term damage that participant confidentiality violations can create, the research professional should carefully assess potential vendors for adherence to participant confidentiality standards, including any professional organization memberships and established internal standards.

*CASRO Code of Standards and Ethics for Survey Research is available at www.casro.org