FAQ
mingle, market research and opinion polling
What is mingle?
mingle is an online market research platform. mingle was created in 2005. Today mingle has more than 300,000 members.
mingle is a platform for people in Europe who wish to be involved in the process of opinion making. mingle members take part in projects which are important for both the economy and science.
What can I expect from mingle? What kind of surveys are they?
As a mingle member you take part in market and opinion research projects. We send you invitations either by email, text message and/or push notification; online questionnaires are the most common project form. Sometimes, we may also send mobile projects for you to complete on your mobile phone. Furthermore, we regularly carry out research projects where we invite you to exchange ideas on interesting topics in a closed community. From time to time we may also ask you to test a product at home. Whether it is an online questionnaire, mobile survey, product test or community, your participation is always voluntary. For every project, you can decide whether you wish to take part or not.
How is mingle involved in market and opinion research?
Market research and opinion agencies, academic institutions and brands, amongst others, commissions us to collect responses for research projects. This means that your opinion are used in important projects that actually makes a difference.
You take part in studies which answer urgent and important questions on new products, the economy and society. Therefore, your opinion is always relevant and important.
Industry standard market and opinion research also requires that your data is completely protected. All information which we collect about you and your opinion is handled according to the European General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR).
Your mingle membership
How do I become a member? Do I have to fulfil certain conditions?
Your participation in mingle is free, non-binding and can be cancelled by either party, at any time. Registration in mingle is open to anyone over 16 years of age. However, you may not have more than one mingle account.
The participation in projects does not require any prior knowledge. Your interest in sharing your opinion is all that is important.
You will not be subject to any costs. You are also under no obligation; it is always up to you whether you participate in our projects. You can end your mingle membership at any time.
Will I receive advertising emails or spam?
We will not try to sell you something or annoy you with advertising.
Where will I find the terms and conditions?
The current mingle terms can be found under the “Terms and conditions" link at the bottom of the page.
How can I end my mingle membership?
You can end your mingle membership at any time. Please log in to your personal mingle page with your email address and password. Click the person icon in the top right-hand corner of the page and select “Personal information”. At the bottom of this page you will see a section titled “Close my account”. Click the button and follow the instructions on this page. You will be able to close your account permanently.
Your personal data will be irrevocably deleted when your end your membership. Please note your unredeemed mingle points will also be deleted. If the payout limit has not been reached when you end your membership then you will not be entitled to redeem your collected mingle points.
Your membership ends automatically if you do not react to our invitations for more than 36 months. All accumulated points expire after 12 months of inactivity.
Your personal data, data privacy and anonymity
How can I complete or edit my personal details?
Please log in to your personal mingle page with your email address and password. You can edit or complete your data in the “Personal information” section.
Why does mingle need my personal data?
We invite our members to participate in specific projects. For this purpose, the potential participants are selected based on the information they have provided us with. You can update and amend this information at any time. The more complete and up to date your profile is, the less likely it is that you will be sent an unsuitable project. Your personal data will never be forwarded on to a third party.
What happens with the answers I submit in the projects? Is my personal data secure, even when some invitation links direct me to other companies?
All answers will be evaluated anonymously, which means the answers cannot be matched to you. Your personal data will never be forwarded on to a third party. Only the summarised and anonymous results of all participants will be seen by external companies.
The redirection to another website occurs if we work with an external client. We only work with verified institutes, universities and companies. In this case, your personal data will never be forwarded on to a third party and the answers you submit to them, in the survey, will be anonymous.
Does mingle record any other information of me?
Information is automatically saved when you visit your member area and participate in surveys. Here we record your IP address, the access date, time, browser type and operating system of your device. This information can be used to guarantee that every member is only registered once with mingle and their unique participation in a project.
Furthermore, we use Google Analytics. a service provided by Google, which evaluates the visits of the website visitors. The analysis is made possible by cookies, which are text files. The cookies collect information regarding your use of our website. This information is stored on the server of Google. Your IP address will be anonymized before. However, you have the possibility to prevent Google Analytics from storing cookies on your computer. To do this, you must modify the settings on your internet browser accordingly. This can lead to the fact that you cannot use our website to its full extent.
How can I change my password?
After you have logged in to your personal mingle page, you can change your password under the menu point “Personal information”.
What do I do, if I have forgotten my password?
On the start page of the mingle website you will find the link “Forgotten password”. You can create a new password here.
Project invitations, topics and results
How do mingle projects work? How often will I be invited? How long does it take to complete a project?
You will receive invitations to the projects via email, text message and/or push notification. In the invitation mail, we will inform you how long approximately the project will take to complete and how many mingle points you will receive for your participation. In the invitation, you will also find a personal link for your participation.
Generally, our projects remain active for several days. However, it is possible that a project closes shortly after going online, as sufficient people have already participated.
You will generally be invited to participate in a project once a week. The frequency of invitations can vary. On average, the projects last between 5 and 20 minutes.
Is it possible to stop a project and carry on the participation later or restart it? Can I change my answers later?
Unfortunately, due to technical reasons it is generally not possible. If you start a project, then you should ensure you take the time to complete the survey.
Why do you have to answer the same questions, for example about age and residence? Why do you need information about my income?
This information is important for methodical reasons. Further information about you is also important for our clients when they evaluate the results. In this way, we can determine whether younger participants have a different opinion to older people on certain topics for example. In addition, we can also ensure your information is up to date and accurate.
Whether we ask you about your age, residence or income, your answers will never be used in connection with your name or your address.
Why are some questions complicated and long?
We phrase the questions as precisely as possible due to methodical reasons, this can mean they sometimes sound complicated and are longer than usual. In this way, we try to avoid any misunderstanding.
What do the following messages mean “You do not fit the required demographic” or “Sorry, we already have enough participants who have similar profiles (e.g. age, gender or also education) for this project.”?
Some of our projects require a very specific target group. In these cases, we need to ask a certain number of people with certain characteristics. If you do not belong to this group, we wish to save you the time and effort.
Furthermore, it is also possible you are the 101st person who wants to take part in a project which requires only 100 participants for example.
In this case, the survey will be automatically closed with one of the above messages.
How can I make a comment, or ask a question about a project? Can I make a suggestion on the same topic?
Send us an email with your query using the contact form on our website . We are always pleased to receive your comments and suggestions for projects. In that way, we learn directly from our members what they are interested in.
Bonus points, prize draws, donations, gift vouchers and payouts
How is my participation rewarded?
You receive mingle points for your participation. mingle points are the currency of our programme. The number of mingle points awarded depends on the content and duration of the survey. The points are always credited to your account after participation in the project.
If you are invited but still do not belong to the group of participants we are looking for, we will credit you with 2 mingle points. If there is no reward for a particular project, we will inform you on the invitation mail.
What can I redeem my points for and how does it work?
Once you have reached the payout limit for mingle, you can redeem the mingle points for either a bank transfer, a gift voucher, or you can donate the equivalent in cash to a charity.
On your personal mingle page, under the “Rewards” section you can find out more about how you can redeem your points.
Can I make a bank transfer to a credit card or pre-paid account?
Unfortunately not. Bank transfers cannot be made to a credit card or pre-paid account.
Can my mingle points expire?
The mingle points credited on your account do not expire so long as you receive at least 1 point per year. All accumulated points expire after 12 months of inactivity.
If you do not react to any of our invitation mails or do not update your profile for longer than 36 months, i.e. if you do not take part in any projects, your mingle account will be deactivated.
Your points will also expire, if you end your membership.
Can I earn a monthly wage through my participation in mingle?
No. The mingle points are a small reward for your participation
Can I earn mingle points by referring a friend?
Absolutely! You can earn up to 150 mingle points per referred friend who collects 150 points by completing surveys after joining us using your personal referral link. You can find out more details about this on the “Tell a friend” page under your account section.