This policy distinguishes between two distinct classes of individuals:
PublicPreference™ is designed to maintain an architectural Wall of Separation between Participant research data and User account data.
We may collect account and authentication information, including email address, authentication provider, user ID, login/authentication records, and related technical records. User Data may be linked to a User's hosted studies, images, research prompts, targeting settings, payment status, and corresponding Participant responses. This may constitute Personally Identifying Information (PII). Access to this data is restricted to account management, payment, security, legal, and platform operations.
We may collect vote choices, study IDs, owner IDs, consent timestamps, platform-assigned participant identifiers, age, gender, country of residence, IP addresses, device/browser identifiers, logs, and related technical information. Participant research responses are treated as pseudonymous at the point of collection and are not intended to be linked to directly identifying personal information for User-facing research reporting purposes.
Users have access to Participant selections and associated demographic metadata (Gender, Age, and Country). Participants do not have access to study data beyond the images and prompts provided by Users. While participants may be associated with platform-specific alphanumeric strings for fulfillment, security, fraud prevention, consent-record, or operational purposes, these identifiers are not intended to be linked to personal information in User-facing research outputs.
PublicPreference™ collects and stores images uploaded by Users to facilitate research studies. While these images may depict human subjects, PublicPreference™ does not perform any processing to identify individuals through biological or behavioral characteristics.
No Biometric Processing or Identification Functionality: PublicPreference™ is not designed or intended to be used for biometric identification or verification. We do not intentionally process uploaded images to extract facial geometry, facial landmarks, or other measurable features, nor do we generate or store biometric templates, embeddings, or identifiers that could enable the recognition or identification of individuals.
PublicPreference™ strictly prohibits the use of its platform for identity recognition, biometric identification, or biometric modeling. Any imagery is stored solely as a visual prompt for Participant research and is retained only for the duration specified in our retention policy.
Users conducting studies represent and warrant that:
PublicPreference™ is a tool for objective preference research. While we encourage diverse research questions, all research prompts are subject to the following standards:
We may use data to:
We may share data with service providers and subprocessors that help us operate the Service, including hosting, database, authentication, storage, payment processing, security, fraud prevention, analytics or operational logging, email or support, recruitment, and legal/compliance services.
PublicPreference™ uses Google Firebase for core hosting, authentication, database, and storage infrastructure, and may use Stripe or related payment providers for checkout, payment processing, fraud review, and payment records. Recruitment platforms may receive or provide platform-assigned identifiers, completion codes, demographic or fulfillment information, and related participant-completion records.
We may disclose information where we believe it is reasonably necessary to comply with law, legal process, law enforcement requests, safety obligations, payment disputes, fraud prevention, Terms enforcement, takedown requests, DMCA notices, or protection of rights, property, users, Participants, or the public.
PublicPreference™ utilizes industry-standard encrypted server-side architectures to safeguard User and Participant data. We utilize Google Firebase as our primary data sub-processor for hosting and database management. Data is generally stored and processed on secure servers located within the United States.
We may utilize other third-party subprocessors for essential infrastructure, such as payment processing, email delivery, recruitment support, operational logging, security, or cloud hosting, who are subject to contractual or legal obligations appropriate to their role. By using the Service, Users and Participants acknowledge that information may be transferred to, stored in, or processed in the United States or other jurisdictions where our service providers operate. Where legally required, we rely on appropriate transfer mechanisms.
PublicPreference™ primarily utilizes Essential Technical Cookies and local storage to facilitate account authentication for Users, session integrity for Participants, duplicate-vote prevention, security, fraud prevention, and operational reliability. For example, direct-link studies may use local storage to record that a browser has already completed a particular study. We do not intentionally utilize third-party tracking, advertising, or marketing cookies.
Because the Service loads infrastructure and assets from third parties, including Google Firebase, Google Fonts, and payment or authentication providers where applicable, those providers may receive technical request data such as IP address, browser information, device information, and request metadata.
Users may request account deletion at any time. Upon deletion, Personally Identifying Information (PII) associated with the account is removed from active systems where reasonably feasible. Aggregated, non-attributable research results may be retained for analytical purposes and are not intended to be re-linked to an individual. We do not attempt to re-identify de-identified data.
Deletion, access, or removal requests may be delayed, denied, limited, or partially fulfilled where retention is needed for security incidents, fraud prevention, backups, legal obligations, disputes, payment records, tax/accounting obligations, law enforcement requests, abuse investigation, Terms enforcement, or preservation of evidence.
PublicPreference™ provides applicable rights under relevant data protection laws, which may include access, correction, deletion, portability, objection, restriction, or appeal rights depending on your jurisdiction. Rights vary by location and may be limited where data is pseudonymous, de-identified, legally retained, necessary for security or fraud prevention, or not reasonably linkable to the requester.
To exercise your rights of access, rectification, or erasure, you can delete your data from the history page. To do this, first archive the data, and then delete the archived data. This process is intended to remove the selected data from active systems and may not be reversible. If you would like additional assistance with this, please contact publicpreference.assist@gmail.com.
Participants should respond to study prompts with the understanding that their responses may not be removable later. Participant responses are not intended to be linked to personal identifying information in User-facing outputs, and direct-link responses may not be traceable to an individual after submission. Platform-recruited Participants may contact PublicPreference™ at publicpreference.assist@gmail.com and provide the relevant recruitment-platform identifier, study information, and any available completion information so we can evaluate whether removal is possible. Direct-link Participants may also contact PublicPreference™, but removal may not be possible if the response cannot reasonably be identified.
The Service is not intended for individuals under 18. Users may not upload images of minors or create studies involving minors. If we become aware that minors or images of minors have been submitted in violation of our Terms, we may remove content, suspend accounts, preserve records, and take other action described in our Terms of Service.
We use technical and organizational measures intended to protect User and Participant data, including encrypted server-side infrastructure provided by our service providers. No website, database, storage system, or transmission method can be guaranteed to be completely secure, and Users remain responsible for using appropriate account-security practices.
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we make changes, we may update the version date above and post the revised policy on the Service. Material changes generally apply prospectively where required by law. Continued use of the Service after an updated policy is posted constitutes acceptance where permitted by law.
For privacy, security, deletion, access, or support requests, contact publicpreference.assist@gmail.com.