"This set of questions offers a framework for buyers to use when evaluating the offerings of different online sample providers. It updates and replaces the 2012 ESOMAR publication, 28 Questions to Help Buyers of Online Samples. The questions identify the key issues to consider, introduce consistent terminology, explain why each question should be asked, and note the issues buyers should expect to be covered in an answer. The intended use of these questions is that they form a basis for a conversation between buyer and sample provider, rather than simply being used as a checklist to compare offerings across providers. The questions do not cover B2B samples, nor do they attempt to cover specific requirements for different types of research such as pricing, new product development, ad testing etc. When online access panels were first introduced in the 1990s, the model was relatively simple: a buyer provided sampling specifications to a panel owner who drew a sample (from that panel). Over the intervening 25 years, online sample selection has changed in two fundamental ways. First, buyers can now access a a broader set of sources that now includes participants in loyalty programmes and rewards communities within “Get Paid To’ sites, customer lists, intercepts from offer walls, affiliate networks, social media, and other platforms, as well as traditional panels that may or may not be owned by the provider. Second, buyers have the option to access these sources directly via self-service tools, rather than relying on a sample provider to generate the sample on their behalf. There have been other important changes as well. Online research has become truly global and mobile devices have become a common data collection platform. The use of online samples has broadened beyond surveys to include qual/quant applications, communities, passive data collection, and so on. Concerns about privacy and data protection have led to a much-changed regulatory environment that imposes new requirements on both sample buyers and sample providers. Quality assurance techniques have become increasingly sophisticated. As a consequence, the number of issues that buyers must consider when choosing a sample provider has increased substantially." (Purpose and scope, page 3)