We use our phones for a lot of things. For most of us, they’re our bank, our camera, our encyclopedia, our news source, our pocket television set, or even our private dispatcher when we need a lift somewhere. Sometimes — shocker! — we even use them to make or receive telephone calls.
Unfortunately, a lot of those calls come from marketing companies, pollsters, fundraisers, and, of course, scammers. One such prolific caller is a survey/market research company called Dynata. If you’ve fielded one of those calls and wondered “what is Dynata?” or “is Dynata a scam?” we have the answers you’re looking for.
What is Dynata?
Dynata is in the information business. It’s the world’s largest first-party data company, which means they collect their own data directly rather than relying primarily on public sources or buying and recycling other companies’ research (as many other data brokerages do). Over the past couple of decades, it’s become a commonplace observation that we now live in an information- and data-driven economy. Dynata’s business model revolves around supplying their thousands of clients with the data and analytics they need to make well-grounded projections and business decisions.
They do this mostly by reaching out directly to millions of consumers and business people, and asking them to answer questions. It’s a more straightforward and ethical approach than (for example) surreptitiously hoovering up data from your social media accounts, or loading up your browser with tracking cookies and following you around the internet, both of which are common practices in the digital marketing industry. Dynata’s Privacy Policy is also concise and easy to understand, in a rare display of transparency in the industry.
Why is Dynata Research Calling?
Dynata might reach out to you either in your work capacity, as someone who’s active in your specific industry, or in your private capacity as a consumer. Its customers cut across pretty much every niche you can imagine, from political organizations to news outlets to not-for-profits to manufacturers and service providers. At the time of writing, for example, recent case studies on the company’s website included Air France, Virgin Media, and numerous marketing companies.
So the short version is that they’re calling because somebody out there will pay them for your opinion on just about anything. You might be asked for your level of optimism or dread about the coming year, which candidate you favor in an upcoming election, or which features you consider make-or-break in your next major purchase. Whatever the client wants, they’ll keep on plugging until they’ve accumulated enough responses to provide reliable information.
Should I Participate in Dynata Surveys?
There’s no single answer to that question, because it’s really up to you. The surveys can range from just a few minutes in length to as much as an hour, and most campaigns don’t offer any incentive for participation. If you never have enough hours in your day, or just plain resent telemarketers with a burning passion, you’ll probably want to pass.
On the other hand, most of us don’t get a lot of opportunities to make ourselves heard directly by the companies we deal with. Getting the opportunity to sound off about our hopes and fears, what we like or dislike, and the things that would ensure our loyalty (or, on the flip side, an enduring grudge) isn’t something that comes along every day. You’ll also have the option of skipping any questions you’re not comfortable answering.
The upside/downside here is that if you’ve answered one survey, you’re more likely to be contacted in the future. It takes a lot of calls to find someone who’s willing to talk, so of course, companies like Dynata cherish their internal lists of those who are likely to help out (it’s more cost-effective). The added calls will be an annoyance — most of us already get lots — but on the other hand, it means you may have the opportunity to have a disproportionate impact on companies’ decisions.
Beware of Scammers Posing as Dynata Representatives
Although Dynata itself is a completely legitimate company, that doesn’t necessarily mean every call that claims to come from Dynata is legitimate. After all, scammers cheerfully impersonate callers from Amazon, Apple, and even the IRS, so it’s no great leap for them to pretend to be calling from Dynata. In fact, it makes great sense: a lot of us would be deeply suspicious of an unsolicited call from Apple or the IRS, but Dynata’s in the business of making unsolicited calls.
If you’re the one taking the call, there are some fairly obvious ways to know if it’s legitimate or not. Remember, Dynata is interested in your opinions, while scammers want your money or private information. In practice, it’s not hard to figure out which is which. For example:
- Dynata might ask your opinion of your health coverage, but wouldn’t ask for your actual plan number and contract numbers.
- Dynata might ask about your savings or investments, but wouldn’t ask you to provide account numbers or PINs (not even to “verify” the information you’ve given).
- Dynata might ask you about the devices you use, or your internet or telephone provider, but wouldn’t ask you to give them remote access to your devices (not even to “verify” the information you’ve given).
Those are all hypothetical examples, and we could come up with more, but you’ve probably gotten the picture by now. A caller that’s probing you for passwords, PINs, private, sensitive information (driver’s license, SSN, etc), access to your devices, account numbers, or anything similar will always be a scammer, not a caller from Dynata or any other legitimate survey firm.
If you want to double down, you can always use Spokeo’s Reverse Phone Number search to see if that incoming number really is owned by Dynata or a legitimate subcontractor. This isn’t bulletproof, because scammers can easily “spoof” the call to make a legitimate number show up on your Caller ID, but you can at least screen out scammers too lazy or non-technical to do that.
Spokeo’s search results will also have a section labeled Phone Reputation Score, where you can see whether a number has been reported for sketchy activity. If so, and it’s an otherwise legitimate number, that can mean it’s being actively spoofed by scammers.
How to Stop Calls From Dynata
Knowing that Dynata is a legitimate company, and that legitimate companies are subject to the terms of the Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR), you might think you could stop their calls by simply signing up for the National Do Not Call Registry. Unfortunately, that’s not the case, because some classes of business — including survey companies — are explicitly exempted from the DNC list.
There’s always the option of blocking any number Dyanata uses to reach you, but call blocking isn’t really practical in this case. Dynata calls can come from a lot of different call centers, so you could block individual numbers for years without making any headway. You might also use the Spokeo app (or a similar call screening/blocking app) to screen incoming calls in real time, so you can simply ignore the surveys.
The most practical way to stop getting calls from Dynata is just to ask. As a reputable company in an admittedly annoying business, they’ve settled on an easy opt-out process. You’ll find a toll-free number on the company’s site that you can use to opt out of future calls (there are actually two, one for North America and one for the rest of the world), and there are additional numbers you can use if you have a question or complaint about a call you’ve received.
The Bottom Line on Dynata Calls
Americans receive literally billions of robocalls and other nuisance calls in the run of a year (robocalls alone account for about 4 billion calls each month, according to the FCC). While Dynata is a fairly prolific caller, it still accounts for a rather small drop in the very large bucket of overall calls.
Their method of data collection is ethical and straightforward — compared to many of the companies slurping up your information online — and it’s easy to understand and recognize the difference between a legitimate Dynata call and one from a scammer. And if you really object to being called, all you need to do is ask them to stop.
Just remember, if someone claiming to be a Dynata representative starts to ask you for any information that goes beyond your opinions, that person is not a legitimate employee. In that case, the best thing you can do is hang up, and report the scam to Dynata (as well as log the number as a spam caller on tools like Spokeo)!
Sources
Dynata: The World’s Largest First-Party Data Company
Dynata: Privacy Policy
Dynata: Insights Hub: Case Studies
US Federal Trade Commission: Amazon Impersonators: What You Need to Know
Apple Support: Recognize and Avoid Phishing Messages, Phony Support Calls, and Other Scams
US Federal Trade Commission: National Do Not Call Registry
US Federal Trade Commission: Q&A for Telemarketers & Sellers About DNC Provisions in TSR
Dynata: Called by Dynata? Opt Out of Survey Phone Calls
US Federal Communications Commission: Robocall Response Team: Combating Scam Robocalls and Robotexts