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Why I Still Fill Out Online Surveys
Is it worth it to get your opinion featured in the news?
Every couple of weeks or so I get an email from YouGov, a market research company with subsidiaries around the world gathering data on all sorts of topics. They send questionnaires asking things like “Do you enjoy being by yourself or spending time with friends?” (now is a fine time to ask that question), “Do you like or dislike this actor?” (followed by a picture of Robert Downey Jr.), and “If there were an election tomorrow, which way would you vote?”
I have mixed feelings about giving away all of this data. “We use the data that you share with us,” YouGov says, “to provide useful research for our clients.” That sounds innocuous enough, but the word “research” hides a multitude of sins. In a post-Cambridge Analytica, Brexit, Donald Trump world, I find myself suspicious of what might be happening with the answers I give. YouGov mentions in passing that “our clients may ask to combine your survey responses with their own data to obtain even greater insights.” Are shady political organizations identifying specific introverts who like Robert Downey Jr. and finding ways to persuade them to vote for right-wing policies?
It’s not just the information I give to YouGov that I need to worry about. YouGov enriches the data by using the “personal data you have shared with us to derive additional information from other sources.” By this they mean they’ll look me up on Experian (the credit checking agency, which holds details of my credit cards, mortgages, and bank accounts), and check with a series of other organizations that sound like fronts for cartoonish villains: Acxiom, Personicx, Mosaic. One company they get data from, CACI, has the slogan “ever vigilant,” and lists customers including the United States federal government, homeland security, and the NSA. And even if you haven’t signed up to join YouGov’s panel, it doesn’t mean they won’t find your details and contact you. According to the company website, “You may still receive invitations to participate in our research activities if you have not joined YouGov.”
Right now, most of the questions YouGov asks are about coronavirus: Have I heard the government advice, do I think they’re doing a good job, am I staying indoors, do I think I’ve had it…
