Terms and Conditions

Effective Date: May 1, 2026

Advanced Focus welcomes your participation in providing opinions which will help shape the services, products, or advertising of our clients. By clicking the "Yes, I am up for paid surveys" button, you signify your consent to the terms and uses of this website and your participation in Advanced Focus's surveys.

1. Advanced Focus's website is not intended for or directed to persons under the age of 18 years old. Any person who submits information on Advanced Focus's website or agrees to this Agreement represents to Advanced Focus that they are 18 years of age or older.
2. At this time, membership is available only to residents within the United States and Canada.
3. Incentives for full participation may be paid by reward card, check, cash, digital payment, third-party payment provider, or another method specified for the particular study. Unless otherwise stated when you are scheduled, compensation will generally be issued within 48 hours after full completion of your participation in the interview, focus group, survey, or study. The timing and method of payment may vary by project.
4. After completing the registration process, you will receive an email confirming your desire to participate. By responding to that email, you will complete the registration process. Your membership will not be complete until you respond to our confirmation.
5. Your eligibility to participate in focus groups or other studies will vary depending on the objectives and requirements of Advanced Focus's clients. Advanced Focus's clients are manufacturers, product developers, service providers, restaurants, advertising agencies, and a myriad other companies that want to conduct research to find out consumers' opinions to understand or make a product, service, idea, design, ad, etc. better. Advanced Focus reviews information provided by its members to identify individuals who may meet the criteria or profile required for a specific study conducted by its clients. For example, a study may require survey participants who are of a specific gender, age, profession, income, or culture. If you do not fall into a specific category of individuals required by the survey or study, you will not be selected to participate.
6. You understand and agree that Advanced Focus has no obligation to provide you with survey opportunities or to allow you to participate in any study, focus group, survey, etc.
7. By agreeing to register and become a member, you agree to receive emails, SMS/text messages, and phone calls from Advanced Focus for purposes of inviting you to participate, screening you for research studies, scheduling participation, sending reminders, providing project information, and communicating about incentives or participation.
8. You do not have to participate in every invitation we extend or contact we make.
9. You may opt out of text messages at any time by replying STOP to any text message, by updating your account preferences, by emailing us, or by calling us. Message and data rates may apply. We will process opt-out requests within a reasonable time and in accordance with applicable law. Opting out of text messages may limit our ability to contact you about certain studies, but you may still update your communication preferences or terminate your membership at any time.
10. Because Advanced Focus uses email and/or telephone communication to screen, schedule, and administer research participation, a valid email address and/or telephone number is required to maintain an active membership.
11. You can decide at any time not to be a member and opt out by calling us, emailing us, or updating your account preferences if available. We will honor communication opt-out requests in accordance with applicable law.
12. Advanced Focus shall have the right to immediately terminate your membership and cease payment to you for all studies if it determines that: (a) you have abused, altered, or otherwise misused its website; (b) you have provided Advanced Focus with any false information about yourself; (c) you have allowed a third party to use your user name and password on your behalf; and (d) you have failed to safeguard your user name and password.
13. Privacy.

Advanced Focus LLC uses the information that you provide for the purposes of identifying candidates for future paid research projects.

In order to become a participant, you must provide us with certain personal information about yourself. 'Personal Information' includes information that may be used to identify you, which includes information such as: your first and last name; gender; ethnicity; home address; email address; phone or contact information; your occupation; your income. We use the Personal Information to help us determine your eligibility for different surveys, focus groups, taste tests, panel discussions, and product tests.

We do not sell your Personal Information. We use the information you provide to identify potential candidates for paid research projects and to contact, screen, schedule, and compensate participants. We may share limited information with our clients, service providers, subcontractors, payment providers, or research technology providers when reasonably necessary to screen, schedule, conduct, verify, or compensate participation in a research project. We seek to limit the information shared to what is reasonably necessary for the project or service.

If you are contacted by Advanced Focus by phone, email, or SMS/text message regarding your potential eligibility for a study, your responses to a screening questionnaire and limited information reasonably necessary to screen, schedule, conduct, verify, or compensate your participation may be shared with the client or service providers involved in the research project. Your participation in any screening questionnaire is entirely voluntary.

Advanced Focus believes you should be in control of your Personal Information. If you want to change the information you have provided to us at any time, you may do so by logging into your account and deleting and changing certain information by simply logging in at the "Member's Login" at the homepage of our website. You can review your Personal Information anytime. You may also discontinue your membership if you no longer wish to be contacted for survey participation. You may opt out at any time by contacting us at the telephone number provided at the bottom of each webpage and contained within every email we send you; or at the "Member's Login" section of our website.

Advanced Focus operates secure data networks protected by industry standard firewall and password protection systems. We review our security practices and privacy policies, and enhance them as necessary. Advanced Focus only allows authorized personnel at our company to have access to the Personal Information. We do our best in ensuring that the Personal Information you provide is secure and protected.

Any person who submits Personal Information on Advanced Focus's website or agrees to the Terms of Agreement represents to Advanced Focus that they are 18 years of age or older. This age requirement exceeds the age requirement mandated by the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998. It is Advanced Focus's policy to endorse and to use our best efforts to comply with that Act.

There are limited circumstances where Advanced Focus may disclose Personal Information. These are: to comply with the law; to comply with legal process served on Advanced Focus or its website; to protect and defend the rights of Advanced Focus; to transfer our database or related business assets if we file for bankruptcy, merge with another entity, or are involved in a sale, reorganization, or other business transfer; or to act in urgent circumstances to protect the personal safety of members, users of our website, or the general public. In the event of a transfer of ownership or control of this database for any reason, your consent to receive SMS/text messages will not transfer to the new controlling entity unless permitted by applicable law and/or you provide any required consent.

14. Updates. We may update this Privacy Policy and Terms of Agreement from time to time. We will change the “Effective Date” at the top of this Agreement to reflect the most recent update. For material or substantive changes, we will notify you by direct notification, by placing a prominent notice on our website, or by another reasonable method.
15. Advanced Focus's website and materials on it, including without limitation, all forms, databases, graphics, trademarks, and logos are protected by copyright and other proprietary rights and laws. You agree that you shall not use the website, or material on the site, in any manner which contravenes proprietary rights and laws.
16. All legal issues arising from or related to the use of this website shall be construed in accordance with the laws of the State of New York. Advanced Focus's failure to enforce any right or provision in this Agreement shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision or of any other rights or provisions in this Agreement. If a court should find that one or more rights or provisions set forth in this Agreement are invalid, you agree that the remainder of this Agreement shall be enforceable and that the invalid provision shall be enforceable to the fullest extent permitted by law.
17. Advanced Focus is not responsible for and disclaims all liability for any events beyond our direct control.
18. Your continued use of our website and/or membership constitutes your agreement to this Terms of Agreement, Privacy Policy, and any updates.

If you have any questions regarding the Terms of this Agreement and the Privacy Policy, any information you provide to us, or membership participation please contact us at: the telephone number or email address provided at the bottom of each webpage and contained within every email we send you.

Privacy Notice

Effective Date: May 15, 2026
 Notice Version: 1.0

Privacy Contact Information:

Advanced Focus, LLC

520 White Plains Road, Suite 115

Tarrytown, NY 10591

privacy@advancedfocus.com

914-372-9733

This privacy notice applies to the information that we collect from you when you use our websites, including https://ow.advancedfocus.com and https://ow.advancedfocus.com/pro, and any related participant registration, screening, scheduling, email, SMS/text message, telephone, or research management systems that we use, collectively referred to as the “Platform.”

Our privacy notice tells you what personal data (PD) and nonpersonal data (NPD) we may collect from you, how we collect it, how we protect it, how we share it, how you can access and change it, and how you can limit our sharing of it. Our privacy notice also explains certain legal rights that you have with respect to your personal data.

Definitions

‘NONPERSONAL DATA’ (NPD) is information that is in no way personally identifiable.

‘PERSONAL DATA’ (PD) means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (‘data subject’); an identifiable natural person is one who can be identified directly or indirectly by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier, or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural, or social identity of that natural person. PD is in many ways the same as Personally Identifiable Information (PII). However, PD is broader in scope and covers more data. (GDPR) means General Data Protection Regulation.

Topics Covered in Our Privacy Notice

YOUR RIGHTS

If you want to exercise any of your rights included in this privacy notice, contact us by using the information at the top of this privacy notice.
 

You Have the Right to Opt Out of Sale or Sharing of Personal Information, Where Applicable

 Advanced Focus does not sell personal information for money. We may disclose or make available limited personal information to clients, research sponsors, vendors, subcontractors, payment providers, or research technology providers as reasonably necessary to recruit, screen, schedule, conduct, verify, or compensate participation in research projects. We do not share participant personal information for third-party behavioral advertising or lookalike audience marketing unless we specifically disclose that practice and provide any required opt-out rights. 

Personal information for this section means a natural person’s first name or first initial and last name in combination with any one or more of data elements you provide during registration and survey responses online, and over the phone.

If you wish to make this request, you may use the contact link on https://ow.advancedfocus.com or email us at privacy@advancedfocus.com and tell us that you do not want your personal information sold or shared where opt-out rights apply. Please include enough personal information so that we can reasonably verify your identity. We will respond to your request within the time required by applicable law. Please note that this request is equivalent to being removed from our program and you will no longer receive paid survey opportunities.

Your Rights Under the GDPR

When using our Platform and submitting PD to us, you may have certain rights under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) where applicable, and to the extent required by law or by our contractual obligations to clients. Depending on the legal basis for processing your PD you may have some or all of the following rights:

• The Right to Be Informed - You have the right to be informed about the PD that we collect from you and how we process it.
• The Right of Access - You have the right to get confirmation that your PD is retained in our system and you have the ability to access your PD.
• The Right to Rectification - You have the right to correct your PD yourself, where available, or to request that we correct PD that is inaccurate or incomplete.
• The Right to Erasure (Right to Be Forgotten) - You have the right to request the removal or deletion of your PD if there is no compelling reason or legal basis for us to continue retaining your PD.
• The Right to Restrict Use - You have the right to ‘block’ or restrict the use of your PD. When your PD are restricted, we are permitted to store your data, but not to use it further. This means you will no longer be solicited for paid survey opportunities.
• The Right to Data Portability - You have the right to request your PD that you provided to us and use it for your own purposes. We will provide your data to you within 30 days of your request. Request should be sent using the Contact Us link on our website https://ow.advancedfocus.com or at the email address at the top of this privacy notice to request your PD.
• The Right to Object - You have the right to object to us retaining your PD for any reason. However we will retain basic identification information which will be used to prevent future re-registration in our program. Retained identity information will not be used, sold, or shared.
• Automated Individual Decision-Making and Profiling - You have the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing, including profiling, which produces legal effects regarding you or similarly significantly affects you.
• Filing a Complaint with Authorities - You have the right to file a complaint with supervisory authorities if your information has not been processed in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation. If the supervisory authorities fail to address your complaint properly, you may have the right to a judicial remedy.

Your California Privacy Rights 

If you are a California resident, and to the extent Advanced Focus is subject to the CCPA, you may have certain rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act, and related regulations, collectively referred to in this Privacy Notice as the “CCPA.” These rights may include:

• The right to know the categories of personal information we collect, use, disclose, sell, or share;
• The right to know the categories of sources from which personal information is collected;
• The right to know the business or commercial purposes for collecting, using, disclosing, selling, or sharing personal information;
• The right to know the categories of third parties to whom we disclose personal information;
• The right to access specific pieces of personal information we maintain about you;
• The right to request correction of inaccurate personal information;
• The right to request deletion of personal information, subject to legal and operational exceptions;
• The right to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information, if applicable;
• The right to limit the use and disclosure of sensitive personal information, if applicable; and
• The right not to be discriminated against for exercising your privacy rights.

Advanced Focus does not sell personal information for money. We may share limited participant information with clients, research sponsors, service providers, subcontractors, payment providers, or research technology providers when reasonably necessary to recruit, screen, schedule, conduct, verify, or compensate participation in a research project. We do not share participant personal information for third-party behavioral advertising or lookalike audience marketing unless we specifically disclose that practice and provide any required opt-out rights.

To exercise California privacy rights, you may contact us using the contact information listed at the top of this Privacy Notice. We may need to verify your identity before processing your request. You may also authorize another person to submit a request on your behalf, and we may require information reasonably necessary to verify the request and the authorized agent’s authority.

Depending on the nature of your request, certain information may need to be retained for legal, accounting, fraud prevention, security, research integrity, suppression-list, or operational purposes. For example, if you ask us to delete your participant profile or opt out of certain uses, we may retain limited information necessary to honor your request and prevent future unwanted contact.

INFORMATION WE COLLECT AND HOW WE COLLECT IT

Generally, you control the amount and type of information that you provide to us when using our Platform.

Our Legal Basis for Collecting and Processing PD

Where a legal basis is required, Advanced Focus may collect and process PD based on one or more of the following: your consent; the need to take steps at your request before entering into a participation arrangement; the performance of an agreement, such as your agreement to take part in research in exchange for compensation; our legitimate business interests in recruiting, screening, scheduling, conducting, verifying, and compensating research participation; compliance with legal obligations; and, where applicable, our contractual obligations to clients.

For information collected directly from individuals who register with Advanced Focus, Advanced Focus generally determines the purposes and means of processing and may act as an independent business/controller. For information provided to Advanced Focus by a client for a specific research project, Advanced Focus may act as a service provider/processor and process the information according to the client’s instructions and applicable contractual requirements.

Automatic Information

We automatically receive information from your web browser or mobile device. This information may include the name of the website from which you entered our Platform, if any, as well as the name of the website you’ll visit when you leave our Platform. This information may also include the IP address of your computer/the proxy server you use to access the Internet, your Internet service provider’s name, your web browser type, the type of mobile device, and your computer’s operating system when using our Platform. We use all this information to analyze trends among our users to help improve our Platform.

When Entering and Using Our Platform

When you enter and use our Platform and agree to accept cookies, some of these cookies may contain your PD. You may opt-out of some or all cookies without affecting your use of our platform.

Our Use of Cookies

Some parts of our Platform may use cookies or similar technologies. A cookie is a small text file that is placed on your computer or mobile device when you access certain websites. Certain cookies may be necessary for the Platform to function properly, while others may be used for analytics, user preferences, or related purposes. You may configure your browser or cookie settings to limit certain cookies, but some features may not function properly without necessary cookies.

Web Beacons

We may also use a technology called web beacons to collect general information about your use of our Platform and your use of special promotions or newsletters. The information we collect by web beacons allows us to statistically monitor the number of people who open our emails. Web beacons also help us to understand the behavior of our customers and users.

When Using Our Services

When using our services, we collect some or all of the following information: your first name, last name, birth date, gender, email address, phone number, physical address, password to the account, income, homeownership, education, work status, occupation, company information, ethnicity, political preference, healthcare issues, activities, product ownership, use, and consumption, vehicle ownership, information about those in your household, including limited household information about children or other household members that an adult participant voluntarily provides, such as age range, gender, or product usage information.

Google Analytics

Some Advanced Focus websites or Platform pages may use Google Analytics to collect information about the use of our Platform. Google Analytics collects information from users such as age, gender, interests, demographics, how often they visit our Platform, what pages they visit, and what other websites they have used before coming to our Platform. We use the information we get from Google Analytics to analyze traffic, improve our marketing, advertising, and Platform. Google Analytics collects only the IP address assigned to you on the date you visit our Platform, not your name or other identifying information. We do not combine the information collected using Google Analytics with PD. Although Google Analytics plants a permanent cookie on your web browser to identify you as a unique user the next time you use our Platform, the cookie cannot be used by anyone but Google. Google also uses specific identifiers to help collect information about the use of our Platform.

• You can prevent Google Analytics from using your information by opting out at this link: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout

What Happens If You Don’t Give Us Your PD

If you do not give us enough PD, you will not receive any survey opportunities and may be deleted from the Platform.

HOW YOUR INFORMATION IS USED AND SHARED
 We use the information we receive from you to:

• personalize and customize survey opportunities you receive.
• make improvements to our Platform
• contact you with updates to our Platform and services
• help us provide services to our clients and business partners

Communications and Emails

Advanced Focus may communicate with you using the email address and telephone number provided when registering. You can expect to receive research opportunities, screening communications, scheduling communications, reminders, account maintenance messages, and information related to incentives or participation. If you do not wish to receive these communications, you may opt out by emailing us, contacting us by phone, updating your account preferences if available, or deactivating your account. We will honor communication opt-out requests in accordance with applicable law.

Sharing Information with Other Third Parties and Business Partners

We may share your PD with third-party service providers whom we hire to provide services to us. These third-party service providers may include, but are not limited to, web analytics companies, call centers, data management services, help desk providers, accountants, law firms, email service providers, SMS/text messaging providers, payment providers, scheduling tools, and research technology providers.
 
 We may provide your PD, screening responses, study feedback, participation information, and other information you provide to us to clients, research sponsors, and their research partners when reasonably necessary to recruit, screen, schedule, conduct, verify, compensate, or report on a research project. Most information is provided in anonymous or aggregated form; however, some projects may require limited personally identifiable information.
 
 When you take part in our services, you authorize us to provide limited PD and research-related information to the client, research sponsor, and service providers involved in that research project. When your PD is shared with a client, research sponsor, or third-party service provider, that information may also become subject to their privacy notices, policies, and legal obligations.

Text Messaging and Push Notifications

If you provide a mobile telephone number and opt in to receive SMS/text messages, you authorize Advanced Focus or its service providers to send you text messages related to research opportunities, screening, scheduling, reminders, account maintenance, incentives, or participation. Message and data rates may apply. You are not required to consent to text messages as a condition of registering, but declining or withdrawing text consent may limit our ability to contact you about certain studies. You may opt out of text messages at any time by replying STOP to any text message, updating your account preferences if available, emailing us, or calling us. We will process opt-out requests within a reasonable time and in accordance with applicable law.

Legally Required Releases of Information

We may be legally required to disclose your PD if such disclosure is (a) required by subpoena, law, or other legal process; (b) necessary to assist law enforcement officials or government enforcement agencies; (c) necessary to investigate violations of or otherwise enforce our terms and conditions; (d) necessary to protect us from legal action or claims from third parties, including you and/or other users; or (e) necessary to protect the legal rights, personal/real property, or personal safety of our company, users, employees, and affiliates.

Disclosures to Successors

If our business is sold, merged, reorganized, or transferred in whole or in part to another business, we may transfer PD to the new business or controlling entity as part of that transaction. The new business or controlling entity may use PD in accordance with this Privacy Notice, any applicable changes to this Privacy Notice, and applicable law. We may also transfer PD if our company files for bankruptcy and some or all of our assets are sold to another individual or business. Consent to receive SMS/text messages will not transfer to a new controlling entity unless permitted by applicable law or unless any required consent is obtained.

RETAINING AND DESTROYING YOUR PD
 We retain electronic information that we collect from you (including PD) until a removal request is received or your account is deemed dormant, at which time it is purged. Paper information other than accounting documents are destroyed within 6 months.

UPDATING YOUR PD
 You can update your PD at any time from the Platform login page or by contacting us using the contact information found at the top of this Privacy Notice, and we will help you.

DO NOT TRACK SETTINGS

Some web browsers have settings that enable you to request that we do not track your movement within our Platform. Our system will present a cookie setting banner the first time you visit. You can configure the settings as you wish; however, some cookies are required to use our system.

LINKS TO OTHER WEBSITES

Our Platform may occasionally contain links to other survey websites. These websites are not under our control and are not subject to our privacy notice. These websites will have their own privacy notices. We provide links to these websites to accommodate the needs of some survey sponsors. You acknowledge that your use of and access to these websites are solely at your risk. It is your responsibility to check the privacy notices of these websites to see how they treat your PD.

PROTECTING CHILDREN’S PRIVACY

Even though our Platform is not designed for use by anyone under the age of 18, we realize that a child may attempt to access our Platform. Our Platform is not intended for or directed to individuals under 18 years old, and individuals under 18 may not register as members. We do not knowingly collect registration information from individuals under 18. In some screening questionnaires, adult participants may voluntarily provide limited household information, which may include information about children or other household members, when relevant to a research study. If we learn that an individual under 18 has registered without proper authorization, we will delete or deactivate the account within a reasonable period of time.

OUR EMAIL POLICY
 You can always opt-out of receiving email correspondence from us. We will not sell, rent, or trade your email address to any third party without your permission except in the sale or transfer of our business, or if our company files for bankruptcy.

OUR SECURITY POLICY
 We have built our Platform using industry-standard security measures and authentication tools to protect the security of your PD. We and the third parties who provide services to us also maintain technical and physical safeguards to protect your PD. Unfortunately, we cannot guarantee prevention of loss or misuse of your PD or secure data transmission over the Internet because of its nature. We strongly urge you to protect any password you have for our Platform.

TRANSFERRING PD FROM THE EUROPEAN UNION

PD that we collect from you may be stored, processed, and transferred among any countries in which we operate. The European Union has not found the United States and some other countries to have an adequate level of protection of PD under Article 45 of the GDPR. Our company relies on derogations for specific situations as defined in Article 49 of the GDPR. If you are a European Union customer or user, with your consent your PD will be transferred to the United States. When you use our services, we will use your PD for the performance of a contract or to take steps to enter into a contract. Wherever we transfer, process, or store your PD, we will take reasonable steps to protect it. We will use the information we collect from you in accordance with our privacy notice. By using our Platform, services, or products you agree to the transfers of your PD described within this section.

CHANGES TO OUR PRIVACY NOTICE

We reserve the right to change this privacy notice at any time. If our company decides to change this privacy notice, we will post those changes on our Platform so that our users and customers are always aware of what information we collect, use, and disclose. If at any time we decide to disclose or use your PD in a method different from that specified at the time it was collected, we will provide advance notice by email sent to the email address on file in your account. Otherwise, we will use and disclose our users’ and customers’ PD in agreement with the privacy notice in effect when the information was collected. In all cases, your continued use of our Platform, services, and products after any change to this privacy notice will constitute your acceptance of such change. If you have questions about our privacy notice, please contact us through the information at the top of this privacy notice.

 Copyright © Advanced Focus, LLC. All rights reserved.