Panellists within communities that operate the Verity respondent validation service can each be assigned a global unique identifier, so a single respondent can be identified across multiple panels.

Imperium CEO Marshall Harrison says there is no risk to individual privacy using the system. Verity works by checking a panellist’s self-reported information against public databases to ensure they are who they say they are, but the numerical global ID assigned to each panellist contains no personally identifiable information, Harrison said.

“Verity is basically an anti-fraud measure,” he said. “The existence of a Verity ID will enhance this as well as enable the market research community to do research-on-research to optimise their results for clients.

“To date, companies have been restricted to having insight only into respondent participation within their own control. This service will enable Verity clients to understand how often their respondents participate in all surveys.”