Neil Phillips, head of global panel services at Harris Interactive, said: “This relationship supports Harris Interactive’s commitment to panel integrity and complements our existing internal measures. With millions of panellists, it is paramount that we stay at the forefront of delivering dependable and accurate global panel resources to our clients.”

Digital fingerprinting tools use algorithms based on information that computers routinely make available to online applications – such as details of hardware and software configuration – to come up with a unique ‘fingerprint’. Bad respondents, and those who try to join a panel or take a survey more than once, can then be identified and blocked.

RelevantView’s RelevantID tool is already used by firms including Ipsos, Globalpark and Authentic Response, and other digital fingerprinting tools have been marketed by firms including MarketTools and Peanut Labs.