We are Cognitive and Behavioral Decision Research (CBDR), a research group at the Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, Switzerland. The head of CBDR is Prof. Dr. Renato Frey. You can contact us by sending an e-mail to easystudy@cbdr-lab.net. CBDR is responsible for data processing in accordance with this privacy statement.
The easystudy app and website jointly form a platform aimed at conducting scientific studies. At the onset of each study using the easystudy platform, participants are informed about their tasks, responsibilities, and rights, as well as all regarding what data will be collected. The procedures of each study are subject to an ethical review process, and study participants have to provide informed consent prior to starting a study.
Data protection law regulates the way personal data is processed. Personal data means any information which may be associated with a particular individual. This can include data such as contact information (e.g. e-mail address), personal details such as gender, year of birth, age, marital status, or nationality. "Processing" thus means any handling of your personal data. This can include actions such as collection and storage, adaptation and change, use, linking with other data, deletion and destruction.
We may process different kinds of personal data, depending on the occasion and purpose. For instance, when using the easystudy platform we may process information such as IP address, mobile ID, date, time, browser request and general information about the operating system and browser. Also, if provided we may process information such as first name, last name and e-mail address.
Personal data is treated confidentially and used for scientific purposes only. Some data (e.g. answers to survey questions) may be published in anonymous form in an online repository, such that other researchers can use this data and address their own research questions.
If you use the easystudy platform we may use "cookies", which are files stored on your end device, and similar technologies. We may also use some third-party cookies so that these parties can collect the information necessary for their services. We do not provide personal information to such third-party providers. However, the third-party providers collect information about your use of our website in order to provide their services. This primarily involves statistical analyses of the use of our website. Third-party providers may combine the information collected about you with data from other websites you may have visited that collaborate with those third parties and may use that information for their own purposes (e.g. to control advertising on partner sites of those providers). If you have registered with the provider in question, that provider will be able to identify you. The provider is solely responsible for the processing of your personal data in this manner in accordance with its own data privacy policy.
For instance, we use the Google Firebase service and the notification service of Apple Inc., USA, to send push messages. A pseudonymised ID is assigned to your end device, i.e. a unique, non-descriptive connection number by means of which we can address the push messages to you. You can change the notification by push messages at any time in the apps' settings. We also use Google Firebase Crash Reporting to improve our apps and make them more stable. We collect data about the end device you are using as well as the use of our apps (e.g. the time stamp, when the respective app was started and when a malfunction occurred), which enables us to diagnose and fix errors. When using Firebase Crash Report, your data will only be collected in anonymous form, so that neither Google Inc. nor we can draw conclusions about your person. For more information about this and about the privacy practices of Google products, please see Google's privacy policy.
You may reject the use of the above technologies provided they are not required for the proper functioning of the website or app: You can configure your browser to prevent cookies from being accepted and to delete stored cookies (however, we would like to point out that if you do so not all of the functions of this website will then be available), and you can uninstall apps or configure them so that certain (tracking) functions (e.g. the location service) are not used or are rejected.
We store your personal data in identifiable form for as long as it is necessary for the specific purpose for which we have collected it. The data collected for scientific purposes (e.g. answers to survey questions) will be anonymised and published in an an online repository, such that other researchers can use the data to address their own research questions.
In close collaboration with our internal and external hosting providers and other IT service providers, we take appropriate technical (e.g. encryption, pseudonymisation, logging, access restriction, data security, etc.) and organisational (e.g. instructions to our employees, confidentiality agreements, checks, etc.) security measures to safeguard the security of your personal data, to protect it against unauthorised or unlawful processing and to counter the risk of loss, accidental alteration, unintentional disclosure or unauthorised access. However, security risks cannot be completely ruled out; certain residual risks are usually unavoidable.
You can object to data processing by stop using the easystudy platform. As the data collected in specific studies is saved in a pseudonymised format, we may not be able to delete some of the data on a per-user basis.