Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Local Market Index, doing business as Local Market Index, collects, uses, discloses, retains, and protects personal information. It applies to this website, applications for research engagements, client relationships, surveys, interviews, and other primary market research conducted across all fifty states and the District of Columbia.

This policy does not replace a research-specific consent notice or a client engagement agreement. Where a collection instrument supplies additional terms, those terms apply to that collection together with this policy.

Local Market Index is a United States market research company operated by Local Market Index. We study local consumer demand, competitive positioning, and acquisition pathways for established local businesses.

Our designated privacy contact is support@localmarketindex.com. Direct privacy questions, rights requests, and concerns about research participation to that address.

Website visitors

We collect information a visitor chooses to provide, such as correspondence sent to our email address, together with limited technical information described below. Simply reading the site does not require an account.

Applicants and clients

Applications and engagement work may include business and contact details, role and authority, markets served, service categories, research objectives, budget and timing information, customer or prospect records supplied under an engagement, communications, contracts, invoices, payment status, meeting notes, and research deliverables. We ask clients not to provide information that is unnecessary for the approved design.

Research participants

For survey respondents and interviewees, we may collect contact and screening information, location at the level required to confirm market eligibility, category purchase history, stated needs, preferences, decision criteria, search and discovery behaviour, experience with named providers, demographic attributes needed for sampling or analysis, open-text responses, and interview audio or transcripts where separately disclosed. We also record consent, incentive status, instrument version, completion time, and quality-control signals. We do not seek sensitive personal information unless it is necessary to the approved design and specifically disclosed before collection.

Our hosting and security systems may process IP address, browser and device type, operating system, referring URL, requested pages, timestamps, approximate location derived from IP, and diagnostic log data. We may use first-party analytics to understand aggregate site use and maintain reliability.

We do not use advertising cookies, behavioural advertising pixels, or cookies designed to track people across unrelated websites. Essential cookies may be used for security or site operation. If our practices change materially, this policy and any required consent controls will be updated before those technologies are deployed.

For research purposes, we use information to design samples, determine eligibility, field surveys and interviews, validate response quality, analyse local demand and competitive conditions, compare segments, prepare client-specific findings, and create anonymised or aggregated benchmarks.

For commercial and operational purposes, we use information to assess applications, scope and administer engagements, communicate with applicants and clients, invoice and collect payment, secure our systems, comply with law, resolve disputes, and improve our instruments and services. Commercial contact information is not repurposed as participant research data, and participant responses are not used to market unrelated products or services to that participant.

Where applicable law requires a legal basis, we process information to perform or prepare an engagement contract, with consent, for legitimate interests in conducting accurate and secure research, and to satisfy legal obligations. We balance legitimate interests against the rights and expectations of the person concerned.

Research participation is voluntary. The invitation or instrument explains the purpose of the study, expected activity, material recording practices, and how to withdraw before participation begins. A participant may skip optional questions or stop participating. Withdrawal does not affect processing already lawfully completed or findings that have already been irreversibly anonymised.

We may share information with vetted service providers and processors that support hosting, security, communications, survey administration, transcription, analysis, document delivery, accounting, and payment administration. They receive only the information needed for their role and are contractually restricted from using it for independent purposes.

Research panel partners may recruit or screen participants and may assign a panel identifier. We limit the response data returned to a partner and do not provide client-confidential findings unless necessary and agreed. We may also disclose information when required by law, valid legal process, or to protect rights, safety, and system integrity.

Local Market Index does not sell personal information.

Client deliverables may contain attributed statements only when the research design, participant notice, and engagement scope permit them. Otherwise, participant findings are reported in aggregate or with identifiers removed. We use suppression, grouping, minimum-cell rules, and contextual review to reduce re-identification risk.

Industry benchmarks combine data across engagements only after the data has been anonymised or aggregated so that no individual participant or client is reasonably identifiable. We do not attempt to re-identify anonymised data and require processors handling it to observe the same restriction.

• Routine website and security logs are generally retained for up to 90 days unless an incident requires longer preservation.
• Unsuccessful application records are generally retained for 24 months so we can answer follow-up questions and avoid asking an applicant to repeat context.
• Client contracts, invoices, and core engagement records are retained for seven years after the engagement closes for legal, tax, and audit purposes.
• Identifiable participant contact and incentive records are generally deleted or de-identified within 12 months after fieldwork closes.
• Recordings are generally deleted within 90 days after final delivery; working transcripts and response-level research data are generally retained for no more than 24 months.
• Anonymised aggregate findings and benchmarks may be retained indefinitely because they no longer identify a person.

We use measures proportionate to the sensitivity of the research, including access limited by role, multi-factor authentication where available, encryption in transit, managed hosting controls, vendor review, contractual confidentiality, separation of contact data from response data where practical, secure deletion workflows, incident response procedures, and periodic review of access. No system can be guaranteed completely secure, but we maintain safeguards designed to prevent unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure, and loss.

Depending on residence and applicable exemptions, you may have rights to confirm processing; access, correct, or delete personal information; obtain a portable copy; opt out of sale, targeted advertising, or certain profiling; limit specified uses of sensitive information; withdraw consent; and receive equal service without unlawful discrimination.

California residents may hold rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act, including rights to know, access, correct, delete, and opt out of sale or sharing. Residents of Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, Texas, Oregon, Montana, and other states with comprehensive privacy laws in force may hold rights to access, correct, delete, port, and opt out, subject to the scope, exceptions, and effective dates of their state law.

Email support@localmarketindex.com with the subject “Privacy Request,” state your residence, describe the right you wish to exercise, and identify your relationship with us. An authorised agent may submit a request where state law permits, subject to proof of authority.

We will acknowledge and respond within the timeframe required by applicable law, generally within 45 days, and will notify you if a permitted extension is necessary. We verify identity using information reasonably matched to our records and will not request more information than verification requires. If we deny a request, residents entitled to appeal may reply within 60 days with the subject “Privacy Appeal.” We will review the appeal and provide a written decision within the period required by the applicable state statute, including information about contacting the relevant attorney general where required.

We do not sell personal information and do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising. We therefore do not require a separate sale opt-out transaction for our current practices.

We recognise Global Privacy Control browser signals where they are legally required and technically detectable. Because we do not use cross-site advertising trackers, receiving a signal should not materially change the site experience. You may also contact our privacy address to record an opt-out request.

The site and services are not directed to individuals under 16, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. Research instruments use age screening appropriate to the design. If we learn that information from an individual under 16 was collected without valid authorisation, we will delete it.

This site and research communications may link to third-party services. Their privacy practices are governed by their own notices, not this policy. A link does not mean that we control or endorse the third party’s handling of information.

We may revise this policy to reflect changes in law, technology, vendors, or research practice. We will post the revised version here and update the effective and last-updated dates. If a change materially affects information already collected, we will provide additional notice or obtain consent where required.

Direct privacy questions and requests to Local Market Index at support@localmarketindex.com.