1. The Black-Diamond.co.za website and research panel is owned and managed by TNS-Research Surveys (Pty) Ltd, hereafter referred to as TNS.  TNS respects your privacy and is committed to protecting it.

2. We recognise your need for appropriate protection and management of personally identifiable information that you may share with us.

3. For the purposes of this Data Protection Statement, “personal information” shall be defined as detailed in the Promotion of Access to Information Act 2 of 2000.

2. How does TNS obtain my personal information via Black-Diamond.co.za?

1. registration of a Black-Diamond.co.za member;
2. completion of questionnaires;
3. internal research; and
4. subsequent correspondence between Black-Diamond.co.za and its members.

3. How does TNS and Black-Diamond.co.za use my information?

1. TNS is commissioned to carry out surveys via Black-Diamond.co.za by its clients (these may include manufacturers, ad agencies and retailers). The information obtained in such surveys is handled in the strictest of confidence, and transmitted to our clients in aggregate form.  Aggregate information will never identify you. It only identifies the member population in general terms (for example, 53% of the population are under the age of 30).

2. Member identification is replaced by unique identifying codes and only TNS has access to the corresponding members’ names.

3. Furthermore, TNS carries out research into the demography, interests and behaviour of our Black-Diamond.co.za. We do this in order to understand our members better and to be able to offer you a better service. This research is also assembled and analysed in aggregate form. 

You may update your Black-Diamond.co.za account information, at any time, by using your Black-Diamond.co.za username and password. Furthermore, you may delete or deactivate your Black-Diamond.co.za account, by going to “Edit My Account” and clicking on the “Edit Membership”. However, after such deletion or deactivation, you will be denied access to any part of the Black-Diamond.co.za website which is reserved for Black-Diamond.co.za members. 

TNS protects Black-Diamond.co.za member information from outside parties by storing it in a fully-secured database using a state-of-the-art Intrusion Detection System. 

1. TNS will not publish any of your personal information unless you have given us your prior written approval.

2. Your Black-Diamond.co.za account information and Black-Diamond.co.za profile are password-protected in order to ensure that only you have access to your personal information.

3. You are further required to agree that your username and password shall be used for your personal use only and may not be disclosed to any third party.

4. It is a prerequisite for registration as a member that you agree that all information provided by you, for the purpose of submission of market research to a client of Black-Diamond.co.za, will be in anonymous form.

5. TNS will not release information about any specific Black-Diamond.co.za member, other than as may be required in response to a court or government order. To the extent practical, TNS will attempt to notify a member of such an order.

1. TNS and Black-Diamond.co.za maintains a strict “No-Spam” policy, which means that we do not intend to sell, rent, or otherwise give your email address to a third-party, without your consent.

2. TNS and Black-Diamond.co.za undertakes that it shall use all reasonable endeavours to prevent your email address from being “harvested” by web “crawlers” or “spiders”. Should you believe that your email address has been harvested in any way, you are requested to inform our technical support team immediately.

3. Should a member be found to be spamming in order to generate referrals, his/her membership will be revoked and such member will be disqualified from receiving any payments or incentives from Black-Diamond.co.za.  

7. Does Black-Diamond.co.za use cookies?

Like many other websites we do use cookies as they enable us to identify you when you visit the website.  Cookies are small text files that are sent to your browser when you visit the website and are stored on your hard disc. By identifying your previous visits, they enable you to use the site more effectively and enable us to track who is accessing various surveys.

8. Additional information