January 30, 2026
Wilkening Consulting and its trusted business partners and subcontractors, (collectively, “Wilkening Consulting,” “we”, “us” and “our”) is an audience research firm based in Seattle, Washington. Most research conducted by Wilkening Consulting is on behalf of the museum field, though related fields may sometimes retain Wilkening Consulting. Those who engage Wilkening Consulting for audience research are known herein as the “Client.” Learn more about the work Wilkening Consulting engages in at https://wilkeningconsulting.com/our-services-research/.
This document outlines the data and privacy policies of Wilkening Consulting.
Wilkening Consulting makes every effort to report research findings accurately, and not to misuse the responses of research participants to mislead or defame.
All research conducted by Wilkening Consulting is strictly voluntary and at will. Survey respondents, panelists, and other research participants can withdraw from research at any time. Additionally, research participants may request that their responses be removed or deleted; this request will be honored wherever reasonable and practical.
Personal Data consists of information that directly or indirectly identifies you individually. This may include:
Often this Personal Data is provided via the platforms of External Service Providers (see below) when participating in surveys or communications with us. It is the choice of research participants to opt-in to sharing most identifying information, and we will obtain your consent before we collect or use Personal Data.
IP addresses are often collected by default by the External Service Providers; browser settings can be adjusted to prevent IP addresses from being collected. IP addresses are not used by Wilkening Consulting.
It is the policy of Wilkening Consulting to store your Personal Data for a period of up to two years after the completion of a project. At that time, any identifying Personal Data will be deleted (though nonidentifying data will be retained as part of the data library of Wilkening Consulting). If a research participant wishes for their Personal Data to be deleted prior to that time, they may request Wilkening Consulting to do so via email or our Contact Form.
Personal Data remains confidential, and is not shared by Wilkening Consulting except by permission of the research participant. Notwithstanding the foregoing, if a participation prize is awarded by a Client to a research participant, then the identity of the prize winner(s) will be provided to the Client for purposes of fulfilling the award. All of our employees and contractors who have access to and/or are associated with the processing of Personal Data, are required to maintain the confidentiality of such Personal Data.
Wilkening Consulting’s policy is to neither include children in online surveys or panels, nor conduct any research including children except with the explicit permission of a parent or guardian. The online nature of surveys and panels makes it impossible, however, for Wilkening Consulting to guarantee that children are not participating.
An exception to this policy may occur if research is requested by a Client on high school students 14 or older. This can include surveys and/or online panels that are restricted to high school students only.
At this time, Wilkening Consulting uses External Service Providers as it relates to data collection and data retention, such as:
Third-party vendors are also often used for the fulfillment of prize drawings and thank you gifts (e.g., Visa gift cards) when applicable. While these external service providers do have access to some Personal Data provided by research participants in the work of Wilkening Consulting, they do not have permission to use your data for any purpose, and they are contractually bound by their terms of service to maintain the confidentiality of Wilkening Consulting’s research, intellectual property, and data. Within these rules, however, Ning (our online panel hosting service) may directly contact online panelists to address technical support issues. Wilkening Consulting is not responsible for any breaches of these External Service Providers.
For more information on how Google handles data privacy, please read Google’s privacy policies:
Wilkening Consulting does not use artificial intelligence (AI) in the course of its data collection activities from research participants. All data services, analysis, reporting, and deliverables are conducted by Wilkening Consulting employees and/or subcontractors using established, non-AI tools and methodologies. This human-centered approach ensures that our data and work products remain transparent, secure, and fully under human oversight.
Please note that while we do not use AI ourselves for these purposes, some third-party vendors or External Service Providers whose tools or platforms we may interact with could incorporate AI technologies. We do not control or take responsibility for the design or operation of such third-party systems.
You can reach Susie Wilkening, the principal of Wilkening Consulting, via our Contact page to discuss this document or questions about any research being fielded by Wilkening Consulting. You can learn more about Wilkening Consulting at https://wilkeningconsulting.com/our-services-research/.