Viewer Panel privacy policy
Effective October 21, 2026. Version 2026.10.21.
Viewer Panel is a paid research panel. You download the data export TikTok gives you. Your phone keeps back the parts listed below, and you upload the rest. We pay you $30 for each approved export. Companies that buy research receive results for groups of 50 people or more.
We use your data to run research studies. We haven't sold personal data. In the future we may sell or share it with businesses that buy research, and deidentified or aggregated data may be used, shared or sold for any purpose. We may use or share data from the panel, including in research for businesses. Data we share always leaves out your name, email address, phone number and other contact details. You can opt out of any sale or sharing now, as described below.
Who we are
Viewer Panel is a research service operated by Virtue, a Colorado limited liability company, Boulder, Colorado. Our contracts use the legal name Virtue. Questions go to privacy@viewerpanel.com.
TikTok is a trademark of its owner. Viewer Panel is independent of TikTok, which neither sponsors nor endorses it.
What we collect
When you sign up, to check that you qualify and to prevent fraud:
- Your ZIP code and city
When you sign up and each time you upload, we read your IP address to estimate your approximate location (city and state). We use it to confirm you're in the study area and to prevent fraud and duplicate accounts. We keep only a scrambled (hashed) form of the IP for 90 days and the city and state; we don't store your full IP address or your precise location.
From your TikTok export:
- The videos you watched, the time each one started, and how long you watched (worked out from the gap to the next video)
- Likes, favorites, shares and reposts
- Searches
- Accounts you follow
- The ad interest labels TikTok lists for you, minus any in the sensitive categories below
Two facts are worked out on your phone and sent as a yes or a count: whether your birth date makes you 18 or older (21 or older for alcohol studies), and how many devices your login history shows.
Only if you choose to share them:
- Instagram: ads you saw, videos watched, posts seen, likes and follows
- Amazon orders: the date of each order that matches a brand in your study, and the matched name
- App history from Apple or Google: the install date of apps that match your study
- Check in answers, such as which of a few products you bought
- Scout screenshots you send us
- A payout email, and a separate reminder email
What stays on your phone
The member portal reads the export in your browser and sends only the list it shows you before you press Send. These parts stay on your phone:
- Direct messages
- Comments
- Contacts
- Precise location (we use only the ZIP code you enter and the city and state from your IP address)
- Login and device history (we receive a device count only)
- Your birth date and profile details (we receive an age yes or no only)
- Payment information
- Every Amazon order and app that has no match to your study
We keep no copy of the export file itself.
Why we collect it
We combine your data with other members' data to show companies how groups of people watch, follow, search and buy. You agree to these uses in the member portal before each upload:
- Audience studies for brands, apps, tech companies and insurers. Insurers use them for marketing and product decisions only, and results stay out of pricing or underwriting any person.
- Group trends for investment firms, such as attention to a company or product over time.
- Group level datasets licensed to companies and refreshed over time.
We also use signup location to check eligibility and prevent fraud, and your payout email to pay you.
Who receives what
Companies that buy research from us receive group results only. Every result covers 50 people or more. Your rows, your TikTok handle and your contact details stay with us. One export can serve several studies, each for a company in a different market.
Service providers that run the panel for us also handle data: our database host, Whop, which sends your payments, and an AI model provider that reads the creator and topic from scout screenshots you send.
Sensitive categories
Viewer Panel builds, reports and sells nothing in these categories, and our software drops them from every study and result:
- Health and medical conditions, including mental health, reproductive health and addiction
- Sexual orientation and sex life
- Religion and beliefs
- Political views and affiliations
- Race and ethnicity
- Union membership
- Immigration status
- Criminal history
- Precise location
- Financial hardship
A study that tries to target one of them is refused, and ad interest labels in these categories are dropped before they are stored.
Selling and sharing personal data
We haven't sold personal data. In the future we may sell or share it with businesses that buy research. Under state privacy laws, including California's, that would count as a sale or sharing of personal information. We may use or share data from the panel, including in research for businesses. Data we share always leaves out your name, email address, phone number and other contact details.
You can opt out of any sale or sharing now, and your choice covers any future sale. Use the member portal at viewerpanel.com/login or email privacy@viewerpanel.com.
Deidentified and aggregated data
We may use, share and sell deidentified or aggregated data for any purpose. Deidentified data is data that can't reasonably be linked to you. For it, we:
- Take reasonable technical and organizational measures so it can't be linked to a person or household
- Commit publicly, in this policy, to keep it in deidentified form and to make no attempt to reidentify it
- Require by contract that everyone who receives it makes no attempt to reidentify it
Group results already delivered stay with the companies that received them, since they hold no rows of yours and cover 50 people or more.
Notice at collection
This table lists, for California residents and everyone else, what we collect, why, whether it may be sold or shared, and how long we keep it.
| Category | Examples | Purpose | May be sold or shared | Kept for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Identifiers | Anonymous member id, payout email, reminder email, hashed IP address, hashed name fingerprint from Whop | Running the panel, paying you, reminders, fraud checks | Yes, in the future, unless you opt out | Hashed IP address 90 days; others until you delete; payment records 7 years |
| Approximate location | ZIP code, city, city and state estimated from IP address | Eligibility and fraud checks, study groups | Yes, in the future, unless you opt out | 24 months, or until you delete |
| Internet activity | TikTok and Instagram viewing, likes, shares, searches, follows | Research studies | Yes, in the future, unless you opt out | 24 months, or until you delete |
| Inferences | Ad interest labels, age status, device count | Research studies, eligibility, quality checks | Yes, in the future, unless you opt out | 24 months, or until you delete |
| Commercial information | Matched Amazon order dates, matched app installs, check in answers | Research studies | Yes, in the future, unless you opt out | 24 months, or until you delete |
| Images | Scout screenshots | Scout rewards and research | Yes, in the future, unless you opt out | 24 months, or until you delete |
Your rights
Wherever you live, you can use these rights. California residents have them under the California Consumer Privacy Act:
- Know and access. Ask what personal data we collect, use and disclose, and get a copy.
- Portability. Download a copy of everything we hold about you from the member portal at any time with Download my data.
- Delete. Press Delete my data in the portal. Deleting removes your viewing rows, check ins, scout finds, payout and reminder emails, and your membership right away. Your data is left out of every result made after that.
- Correct. Ask us to fix data that's wrong.
- Opt out of sale or sharing. Opt out now in the portal or by email.
- Limit use of sensitive data. Ask us to limit any sensitive personal information to what's needed to run the panel and pay you.
- Equal treatment. We won't discriminate against you for using any of these rights. Using them costs nothing and leaves your pay for exports already approved unchanged.
Nevada residents can opt out of the sale of covered information the same way.
To use any right, go to the member portal at viewerpanel.com/login or email privacy@viewerpanel.com from any address with your member portal link. We may ask you to confirm the request comes from you. You can appeal a decision about your request by replying to our answer, and a second person reviews it. We answer requests within 45 days.
How long we keep it
- Viewing rows, check ins, signup location and scout screenshots: 24 months after we receive them, or until you delete, whichever comes first.
- Hashed IP address: 90 days.
- Payment records: 7 years, for tax.
- Consent record: at least 7 years, as proof (see below).
The consent record
Each time you share, we log the date, the terms version and the uses you agreed to. When you delete, we log that you left. When Whop checks your ID before your first payment, we log that the check happened. The log holds your anonymous member id and these events, with no viewing data, and it stays after you delete as proof of what you agreed to and when you left.
Who can join, and identity
Viewer Panel is for people 18 and older (21 and older for alcohol studies) who live in the United States and own the TikTok account they export.
Whop, our payment provider, checks your ID and legal name before your first payout under Whop's own privacy policy. Viewer Panel receives whether the check passed, plus a scrambled fingerprint of your name that lets us stop duplicate accounts. We don't receive or store your ID images, date of birth or address.
We hold your payout email apart from your viewing data and use it only to pay you.
Pay
Members earn $5 for submitting an export and finishing the survey, and $25 more when the file passes our checks, for $30 for each approved export, with bonuses and referral rewards in some studies. The terms and the value we place on your data are in our notice of financial incentive.
Security
Data travels over encrypted connections and is stored with our database host. Member level data can be read only with the operator's key, and payout emails sit in a separate table from viewing rows.
Changes and contact
When this policy changes, we email members before the change takes effect, the version number changes, and the member portal asks you to agree again before your next upload.
Privacy questions and requests: privacy@viewerpanel.com. Virtue, a Colorado limited liability company, Boulder, Colorado.