Terms of Use

These Terms of Use govern participation in surveys operated by the Research Shield™ system.

1. General Provisions

1.1. The Research Shield™ system is operated by TGM Research Pte. Ltd. with registered office at 6001 Beach Road, #22-01 Golden Mile Tower, Singapore 199589 ("Operator").

1.3. If you do not accept these terms, please close the survey page and do not participate. You will not be bound by these Terms if you do not take an affirmative acceptance action.

2. Eligibility and Age Requirements

2.1. Minimum age: To participate in surveys, you must be:

• 16 years or older in the European Union and United Kingdom
• 13 years or older in the United States (subject to COPPA)
• Of legal age to consent to data processing in your jurisdiction

2.2. By participating, you confirm that you meet the applicable age requirement.

3. Participation Requirements

3.1. Survey participants agree to:

• Provide truthful and thoughtful responses
• Complete the survey independently
• Complete the survey within a reasonable time

3.2. The following is prohibited:

• Using bots, scripts, or automation tools
• Providing random or nonsensical answers
• Providing false information to obtain compensation
• Completing the same survey multiple times
• Manipulating the fraud detection system
• Sharing the survey link with unauthorized persons

4. Fraud Detection as Essential Contract Term

4.1. Fraud detection is an essential, non-severable term of this contract. By participating in this survey, you enter into a contract that necessarily includes automated fraud detection. This is not an optional feature — it is integral to the service.

4.2. As part of this contract, you acknowledge and accept that:

• Your behavioral data (typing patterns, mouse movements, interaction timing) will be analyzed
• Your device characteristics will be collected for fraud detection
• Automated systems will assess the authenticity of your responses
• Responses that do not meet quality thresholds may be automatically disqualified

4.3. Why fraud detection cannot be separated from survey participation:

• The core purpose of this service is quality-assured survey data
• Research clients contract for verified, authentic responses
• Without fraud detection, the service cannot fulfill its contractual purpose
• Offering surveys without fraud detection would fundamentally change the nature of the service

4.4. Legal basis:

• Fraud detection processing: Legitimate interest in fraud prevention (GDPR Art. 6(1)(f), Recital 47) — all fraud detection processing (collection, analysis, scoring, retention) is based on our legitimate interest
• Automated decisions (Art. 22): Based on your explicit consent (Art. 22(2)(c)) — you are informed of automated decision-making before the survey and asked to consent. See our Privacy Policy Section 7 for full details
• Survey delivery: Contract performance (GDPR Art. 6(1)(b)) — collecting and transmitting your survey responses to the research client

4.5. Detailed information about data processing is available in our Privacy Policy.

5. Fraud Detection and Automated Decisions

5.1. The Research Shield™ system automatically analyzes survey completion patterns to detect inauthentic responses.

5.2. Analysis includes:

• Response consistency and quality patterns
• Completion time relative to survey complexity
• Form interaction patterns (mouse movements, typing rhythm)
• Device characteristics and fingerprint consistency
• Comparison against known fraud signatures

5.3. Automated decisions: The system automatically evaluates responses based on quality criteria configured by the research client. Responses that do not meet the configured threshold may be disqualified, which may affect your eligibility for compensation.

5.4 Your Rights Regarding Automated Decisions

Under GDPR Art. 22(3) and Art. 15(1)(h), you have the right to:

• Obtain reasons for disqualification: If your response was disqualified, you have the right to know why. We will provide the specific fraud signals and factors that contributed to the decision (see Section 5.6 below)
• Request human review: Request that a qualified human reviewer re-evaluates the automated determination about your response (see Section 5.7 for the process)
• Express your view: Provide additional context or explanation about your survey participation that the automated system may not have considered
• Contest the decision: Challenge a disqualification you believe is incorrect and receive a reasoned response
• Meaningful information: Receive information about the logic involved in the automated decision, the significance of the processing, and its envisaged consequences for you

5.5. How to exercise these rights: Contact privacy@researchshield.com directly. You do not need to go through the research client or panel provider — you may contact us directly at any time. We will acknowledge your request within 7 days and provide a substantive response within 30 days.

5.6 Information We Provide About Disqualification Decisions

When you request information about a disqualification, we will provide:

• The specific fraud flags that were triggered (e.g., response speed anomaly, device inconsistency, behavioral pattern match)
• The categories of data that contributed to the decision (behavioral, device, timing)
• The general logic of the fraud detection system (without revealing proprietary algorithms that would enable circumvention)
• The threshold criteria configured by the research client, to the extent disclosable without compromising the client's research integrity
• The fraud risk score assigned to your response and the threshold it was compared against

This information is necessary for you to meaningfully exercise your right to contest the decision. We will not withhold reasons for disqualification.

5.7 Human Review Process

If you request human review of an automated disqualification:

1. Acknowledgment (within 7 days): We confirm receipt of your request and provide a reference number
2. Review (within 21 days): A qualified human reviewer — not the original automated system — re-evaluates your response. The reviewer considers:
   • The automated system's fraud signals and score
   • Any additional context or explanation you have provided
   • Whether the automated flags could have alternative, legitimate explanations
   • The proportionality of the decision given your specific circumstances
3. Decision (within 30 days total): We notify you of the outcome with a reasoned explanation. If the original decision is upheld, we explain why. If overturned, see Section 5.8

5.8 Remedy If Decision Is Overturned

If human review determines that your response was incorrectly disqualified:

• Your response will be reinstated in the research dataset (where still possible)
• We will notify the research client of the reversal and instruct them to process any compensation you were entitled to
• If the research client cannot or does not restore compensation, we will use reasonable efforts to resolve the compensation issue, including escalation to the client under our contractual arrangements
• We will review the automated system's parameters to determine whether adjustments are needed to prevent similar false positives

6. Compensation

6.1. Any compensation for survey participation is determined by the research client, not the Research Shield™ Operator.

6.2. Compensation terms are governed by the agreement between the participant and the client or panel provider.

6.3. The Operator is not responsible for compensation payments.

7. Intellectual Property

7.1. Survey content ownership: The intellectual property rights in survey responses (the content of your answers) are assigned to the research client upon submission.

7.2. Copyright: Participants do not retain copyright to their responses. This applies to the creative/expressive content of responses only.

7.3. System IP: The Research Shield™ system, its software, algorithms, and documentation are the property of the Operator.

8. Liability

8.1. The system is provided "as-is".

8.2. The Operator is not liable for:

• System interruptions
• Technical issues on the participant's side
• Decisions made by clients based on research results

8.3. Disqualification and compensation: If your response is disqualified by the automated system and you do not contest the decision (see Section 5.7–5.8), the Operator is not liable for loss of compensation. However, if you exercise your right to human review and the disqualification is overturned, the Operator will use reasonable efforts to ensure your compensation is restored, as described in Section 5.8.

8.4. To the maximum extent permitted by law, the Operator's liability is limited to the amount of any compensation for the specific survey.

9. Data Protection and Right to Object

9.1. Personal data processing is governed by the Privacy Policy.

9.2. Participants acknowledge that their behavioral data is analyzed for fraud detection purposes.

9.3. Right to object (Art. 21): You have a genuine right to object to processing based on legitimate interest. We assess each objection individually based on your specific situation.

• Real-time analysis: If you object to real-time fraud analysis during participation, we cannot disable it mid-session, but you retain full post-session rights
• Post-session retention: You can object to continued storage of your data after session scoring — this objection can be honored
• Cross-session profiling: You can object to device fingerprint retention for duplicate detection — this objection can be honored
• ML training: You can object to use of your data for model improvement — this objection can be honored

9.4. Practical consequences: If you object to all fraud detection processing before participation, participation may not be possible as fraud detection is integral to the service. This is stated as a consequence, not a pre-determined rejection of your objection.

9.5. To exercise your rights (objection, access, deletion, correction), contact privacy@researchshield.com. See Privacy Policy Section 7.4 for detailed objection procedures.

10. Changes to Terms

10.1. The Operator may change these Terms at any time.

10.2. Continued use of the service after Terms changes constitutes acceptance of the new terms.

11. Governing Law and Jurisdiction

11.1 Default Governing Law

Subject to the exceptions below, these Terms are governed by the laws of Singapore, and disputes shall be resolved by the courts of Singapore.

11.2 EU/EEA Consumer Protection Carve-Out

If you are a consumer habitually resident in the European Union or European Economic Area:

• Applicable law: Nothing in these Terms deprives you of the protection of mandatory provisions of the law of your country of habitual residence that cannot be derogated from by agreement, in accordance with Article 6(2) of Regulation (EC) 593/2008 (Rome I).
• Jurisdiction: You may bring proceedings against us in the courts of your Member State of domicile, in accordance with Article 18(1) of Regulation (EU) 1215/2012 (Brussels I Recast). We may only bring proceedings against you in the courts of your Member State of domicile.
• Consumer protection: These Terms do not limit any rights you have under Directive 93/13/EEC (Unfair Contract Terms) as implemented in your country of residence. Any term found to be unfair under that Directive shall be non-binding.
• Data protection: GDPR and national implementing laws of your country of residence apply to all processing of your personal data, regardless of choice of law provisions in these Terms.

11.3 UK Consumer Protection Carve-Out

If you are a consumer habitually resident in the United Kingdom:

• You retain rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and UK GDPR.
• You may bring proceedings in the courts of England and Wales, Scotland, or Northern Ireland.
• Any term found to be unfair under Part 2 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 shall be non-binding.

11.4 California Consumer Rights

If you are a resident of California:

• Your rights under CCPA/CPRA are not affected by this choice of law clause.
• You may bring CCPA/CPRA-related claims in California courts.

11.5 Precedence

In case of conflict between Singapore law and the mandatory consumer or data protection laws of your jurisdiction, the latter shall prevail to the extent required by applicable law.

12. Final Provisions

12.1. Invalidity of individual provisions does not affect the validity of the remaining provisions.

12.2. These Terms enter into force on January 1, 2026.

13. Contact

For questions regarding these Terms, please contact:

Email: privacy@researchshield.com
Address: TGM Research Pte. Ltd., 6001 Beach Road, #22-01 Golden Mile Tower, Singapore 199589

Last updated: February 6, 2026