Terms of Service

Who we are and scope

PandaOpinion Limited is a market research company that operates the PandaOpinion website, panel and research platform. We are registered in Hong Kong and our registered office is Room A5, 7/F, Astoria Building, 34 Ashley Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong.

These Terms of Service govern your access to pandaopinion.com, your use of a panel account, your participation in surveys and studies, and the research services we provide to clients. They apply to panel members, prospective members, research clients and business contacts, and visitors to our website.

For panel members, these terms form the agreement between you and PandaOpinion. For research clients, these terms apply together with the proposal, order form or statement of work for a project. If an order form conflicts with these terms, the order form prevails for that project.

Our Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use and share personal information. It is a separate notice. If there is any conflict about how personal information is processed, the Privacy Policy prevails.

Acceptance and eligibility

By accessing the website, creating an account, taking part in a survey, or engaging our research services, you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, do not use the service. If you accept these terms on behalf of an organisation, you confirm that you have authority to bind that organisation.

Panel membership is available only to people aged 18 or over who can enter into a binding contract and who are not barred from using the service by applicable law. You must provide accurate, current information and you may hold only one panel account. We may merge duplicate accounts and freeze rewards connected to them.

Research clients must be authorised business users. We may ask for evidence of identity, authority or business information before providing access or services.

Accounts and security

You are responsible for keeping your login details confidential and for all activity under your account, except to the extent caused by our negligence or wilful misconduct. Tell us promptly if you believe your account has been accessed without permission.

We verify email addresses and may use additional checks to protect the service. We may refuse, suspend or restrict an account if we believe it is compromised, duplicated, fraudulent, automated, or used in breach of these terms.

Panel participation

Invitations are based on your profile, the needs of a study and available quotas. Participation is voluntary. You may skip optional questions, decline an invitation, or stop a survey at any time. Some studies include screening questions, and you may not qualify for every study.

Where a study states a reward, it is payable only for a valid complete unless the study page says otherwise. The reward and expected length are shown before you start, but they may change if the study changes. We may modify, suspend or withdraw a study, and we do not guarantee that any particular study will remain available.

Do not use a VPN, proxy or false location data to misrepresent where you live, create more than one account, share survey links, use automation, or take a study on someone else's behalf. These actions can result in disqualification, withheld rewards and account closure.

Survey conduct and quality

Please answer honestly, attentively and in good faith. We use quality checks that may include attention checks, response timing, open-ended answer review, consistency checks, device and IP signals, and duplicate detection. A response that fails these checks may be rejected, and the related reward may be withheld.

If a quality decision affects your account or reward, you may contact us to request a human review. We will explain the outcome where we can do so without compromising the integrity of a study or the privacy of others.

Do not submit unlawful, defamatory, harassing, obscene, infringing or misleading content. Do not provide another person's personal information without their permission.

Rewards, payouts and taxes

Rewards are incentives for valid research participation. They are not wages, salary, commission or a guarantee of income, and these terms do not create an employment, agency or partnership relationship.

The reward shown on a study page applies to a valid complete. We may withhold or reverse a reward if a response is incomplete, invalid, duplicated, fraudulent, or does not comply with these terms. If we make a payment error, we may correct it and recover an overpayment.

Payouts are available from the threshold shown in your account, currently $5.00, using the methods we make available, such as PayPal or gift cards. You must verify your account before a payout. Processing times depend on the payout method and may be affected by checks required to prevent fraud or comply with law.

You are responsible for any taxes due on rewards you receive. We may collect tax information where required by law. Rewards do not earn interest. We may apply inactivity or expiry rules if we disclose them to you before they take effect.

No guarantee of invitations or earnings

The number, frequency and value of invitations depend on your profile, study quotas, client requirements and availability. We do not guarantee that you will receive invitations, qualify for a particular study, or earn any particular amount. Any example reward or earnings range on the website is an estimate, not a promise.

We do not guarantee that the website or panel will be available uninterrupted or error-free.

Your content and survey responses

You keep ownership of the content you submit, including profile answers and survey responses. To operate the panel and deliver research, you grant us a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive, transferable and sublicensable licence to use, process, reproduce, analyse, aggregate, de-identify and share your responses with research clients as described in our Privacy Policy.

We may create aggregated or de-identified research results and share them with clients. We do not disclose your name, email address, phone number or identity document to a client unless you separately consent or the law requires it.

If you send us feedback or suggestions about the service, you allow us to use them without compensation. You confirm that you have the rights and permissions needed to submit your content.

Prohibited conduct

You must not, and must not allow anyone else to:

• use the service in breach of any law, regulation or third-party right;
• impersonate another person or misrepresent your identity, location, age or affiliation;
• create multiple accounts, use bots or automation, or take surveys on behalf of someone else;
• scrape, crawl, harvest or copy data, or reverse engineer, decompile or attempt to extract source code;
• interfere with the service, introduce malware, overload our systems or bypass security or access controls;
• send spam, unauthorised advertising or chain messages through the service;
• share survey links, access codes or study materials with people who were not invited;
• submit false, fabricated, duplicated or low-quality responses;
• infringe intellectual property, privacy or other rights, or attempt to re-identify a research participant;
• use the service to build or benchmark a competing product without our written permission; or
• harass, threaten, defame or discriminate against any person.

We may investigate suspected breaches, suspend or terminate access, withhold rewards connected to prohibited conduct, and report unlawful activity to the relevant authorities.

Intellectual property

The website, platform, brand, software, questionnaires, reports, methodologies and content we provide are owned by us or our licensors and are protected by intellectual-property laws. These terms grant you a limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to use the service for your personal panel participation or, for clients, for your internal business purposes under the relevant order form.

You may not copy, modify, distribute, sell, sublicense, frame, mirror or reverse engineer any part of the service, or remove proprietary notices, without our written permission. All rights not expressly granted are reserved.

Third-party links and services

The service may link to third-party websites, survey partners or payout providers. We do not control those services and are not responsible for their content, availability or privacy practices. Their terms and privacy notices apply to your use of them. You use third-party services at your own risk.

Research client engagement

We provide research services that may include sample access, fielding, survey programming, quality control, data processing and delivery. A project begins when you accept a proposal or order form, or when a self-serve project is configured and launched. The order form sets out the scope, sample requirements, timeline, pricing and deliverables.

Feasibility estimates are based on the information available when we prepare a proposal. They are not a guarantee that a particular sample size, incidence or response distribution will be achieved. Changes to specifications after launch may affect timing, feasibility and cost.

You must not use the services for an unlawful purpose or in a way that breaches research industry standards.

Client responsibilities

As a research client, you are responsible for:

• providing accurate project information, questionnaire materials and timely approvals;
• ensuring your research purpose, questionnaire and use of results comply with applicable law and industry codes;
• providing any required privacy notices and obtaining any required consents from respondents;
• not requesting or collecting respondent personal information without our written approval;
• not attempting to re-identify a respondent or combine research data with other data to identify them;
• not contacting respondents directly unless we agree in writing; and
• using deliverables only for your internal business purposes and not reselling or redistributing them.

Where you provide personal information to us for a project, you are the controller of that information and we act as your processor on your documented instructions. Where we collect information directly from panel members, we act as controller as described in our Privacy Policy.

Fees, invoicing and payment

Standard engagements are billed per valid complete, with no minimums, seat fees or platform fees unless an order form says otherwise. Prices are set out in the proposal or order form and are quoted in the stated currency. Where an order form differs from these terms, the order form prevails.

Invoices are due within 30 days unless the order form states different terms. You are responsible for applicable taxes. We may charge interest on overdue amounts at 1% per month or the maximum rate permitted by law, whichever is lower, and may suspend services while an invoice remains unpaid. You are responsible for reasonable collection costs where permitted by law.

Fees for services already delivered are not refundable except where these terms or the order form expressly provide otherwise. If you believe an invoice is incorrect, tell us promptly so we can review it.

Sample quality, quotas and delivery

Collected responses pass through our quality-control process, which may include timing, consistency, attention, device, IP and open-ended review. Completes that fail quality control are rejected and are not billed. Quotas and incidence estimates are based on available information and are not a guarantee of a specific response distribution.

You must close a study promptly once the target number of completes is reached. Overquota, duplicate, fraudulent or invalid responses may be removed. Deliverables may be provided in SPSS, Excel, CSV or through an API as stated in the order form. Please review deliverables promptly and tell us about any material error so we can investigate.

Research data and privacy

Our Privacy Policyapplies to personal information processed through the service. Where we process personal information on behalf of a client, we do so under the client's documented instructions and applicable data-processing terms.

Where the GDPR applies and a client determines how personal data is used, the client is the controller and we are the processor. The applicable order form will incorporate a data processing agreement that sets out the subject matter, duration, nature and purpose of processing, the types of personal data and categories of data subjects, our security measures, subprocessor controls, breach notification, international transfer safeguards and deletion or return of data on termination. We will assist the client with data subject requests and data-protection impact assessments as required by law.

We use appropriate confidentiality and security measures, limit access to authorised personnel and service providers, and apply contractual safeguards to international transfers, including the European Commission Standard Contractual Clauses where required. We will notify the client without undue delay if we become aware of a personal-data breach affecting client data, to the extent required by law or the applicable data-processing terms.

Research results provided to clients are aggregated or de-identified unless a separate consent or agreement permits otherwise. Clients must not attempt to re-identify respondents or use research data for marketing, advertising or any purpose outside the agreed project.

Confidentiality

Each party must protect the other party's confidential information using at least reasonable care and may use it only to perform the agreement. Confidential information includes project specifications, pricing, questionnaires, response data, business plans and technical information.

This obligation does not apply to information that is public through no fault of the receiving party, independently developed without use of the confidential information, or lawfully received from a third party without a duty of confidence. If we are required by law to disclose confidential information, we will notify the other party where permitted so they can seek protection. Confidentiality obligations survive termination.

Disclaimers

The website and services are provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we disclaim all express and implied warranties, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, accuracy and uninterrupted availability.

We do not warrant that the service will be free of errors, viruses or interruptions, that sample will always be available, or that research results will meet a particular expectation. Nothing in these terms excludes rights that cannot lawfully be excluded, including mandatory consumer rights.

Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, neither party is liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for loss of profits, revenue, business, goodwill or data, arising from these terms or the service, even if the party was advised of the possibility of such loss.

Our total aggregate liability under these terms is limited to: (a) for a panel member, the greater of the rewards earned by you in the 12 months before the claim or $100; and (b) for a research client, the fees paid by the client for the affected services in the 12 months before the claim.

These limits do not apply to fraud, wilful misconduct, death or personal injury caused by negligence, gross negligence, breach of confidentiality, infringement of intellectual property, payment obligations, or any liability that cannot be limited by law.

Indemnity

To the fullest extent permitted by law, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless PandaOpinion Limited and its directors, officers, employees and service providers from claims, losses, liabilities, damages, costs and reasonable legal fees arising from your breach of these terms, your misuse of the service, your content, your violation of law, or, for clients, the research materials or instructions you provide.

This indemnity does not apply to the extent a claim is caused by our negligence, wilful misconduct or breach of these terms.

Suspension and termination

We may suspend or terminate your access if you breach these terms, engage in fraud or duplicate-account activity, misuse the service, fail to pay amounts due, or if we are required to do so by law. We may also discontinue a service or feature with reasonable notice where practicable.

You may close your panel account at any time or stop using the service. Client engagements may be terminated as set out in the order form. On termination, access ends, accrued fees remain payable, and rewards connected to fraud or a material breach may be forfeited. Provisions that by their nature should survive termination, including confidentiality, intellectual property, disclaimers, liability, indemnity and governing law, will continue to apply.

Changes to the service and terms

We may update these terms to reflect changes in our services, technology or legal requirements. We will post the updated terms on this page and update the effective date. If a change is material, we will provide reasonable notice by email or through the service. Continued use after the effective date means you accept the updated terms. If you do not agree, stop using the service.

We may change, suspend or discontinue a feature or service. Where a client order form is in effect, the order form governs the affected project.

Governing law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, without regard to conflict-of-law principles. Nothing in these terms limits any rights you have under mandatory consumer or data-protection laws, including the GDPR. If you are a consumer in the EU/EEA, you may bring proceedings in the courts of your country of residence where the law gives you that right. Subject to those rights, the courts of Hong Kong have exclusive jurisdiction over disputes arising from these terms or the service.

Before starting a claim, we encourage you to contact us so we can try to resolve the matter in good faith. Nothing in this section prevents either party from seeking urgent injunctive relief or from bringing a claim in a court that has mandatory jurisdiction over the matter.

General provisions

These terms and any applicable order form form the entire agreement between us on their subject matter. If a provision is found unenforceable, the remaining provisions continue in effect. A failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of it.

You may not assign these terms without our written consent. We may assign them to an affiliate or a successor in connection with a merger, acquisition or sale of assets. The parties are independent contractors. Neither party is liable for delay or failure caused by events beyond its reasonable control. Notices to us must be sent to the contact details below. Headings are for convenience only and do not affect interpretation.

Contact

For questions about these terms, email support@pandaopinion.com, or write to PandaOpinion Limited, Room A5, 7/F, Astoria Building, 34 Ashley Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong.

For privacy questions or requests, please use the contact details in our Privacy Policy. We aim to respond to questions within a reasonable time.