Nielsen Digital Voice Review
We reveal how much can you earn from working for Nielsen's Digital Voice program, who they're looking for and what's involved.
Updated 24 July 2024
As of July 2024, this program is on hold, but we will add joining instructions when it opens back up. For now, we suggest considering iSay.
Our guide covers:
Know This First - How Much Can I Earn Per Year?
Advertising Disclaimer - Our list below is comprised of trusted and reliable companies that help New Zealanders to make money online. MoneyHub may be paid if you click or sign up to an offer, but this does not influence the ordering or reporting below.
As of July 2024, this program is on hold, but we will add joining instructions when it opens back up. For now, we suggest considering iSay.
Our guide covers:
- What is Nielsen Digital Voice?
- How do I Join Nielsen Digital Voice?
- What Do I Get? How Much Can I Earn with Nielsen Digital Voice?
- Nielsen Digital Voice - Pros and Cons
Know This First - How Much Can I Earn Per Year?
- One registered device could earn around 2,500 points a year, so that would give you $115 in PayPal Cash or $125 in gift cards.
- While that's not a huge amount, on the other hand, you are not required to do anything to earn it other than make the initial installation.
- The thought of letting someone see everything you look at online might raise some hackles, but if you are reading this on an Android phone with Facebook or WhatsApp installed, or on a PC while logged in to a Google account, you're already giving all that information away for free anyway.
Advertising Disclaimer - Our list below is comprised of trusted and reliable companies that help New Zealanders to make money online. MoneyHub may be paid if you click or sign up to an offer, but this does not influence the ordering or reporting below.
|
MoneyHub's Top Reliable Picks - Quick Registration, Guaranteed Rewards
We've identified three outstanding survey websites renowned for their reliability and consistent rewards for New Zealanders.
Why choose these platforms?
Know this: Signups take around 30 seconds to a couple of minutes, and the rewards offered are long-term, making them more attractive than one-off survey opportunities. |
Christopher Walsh
MoneyHub Founder and Head of Research |
What is Nielsen Digital Voice?
As a background to the company, Nielsen is a major international market researcher; if you've heard the term "market share", they were the ones who came up with it.
Nielsen Digital Voice is a division that researches internet trends by tracking how people use the Internet. The process is very simple, you install a browser extension on your device, and it tells them which websites you visit and how long you spend streaming video and music or playing games.
Nielsen Digital Voice is a division that researches internet trends by tracking how people use the Internet. The process is very simple, you install a browser extension on your device, and it tells them which websites you visit and how long you spend streaming video and music or playing games.
Is it safe?
The installed software tracks all your online activity, so you need to consider your privacy. The Digital Voice documentation states that it does not access or record things like passwords, payment services or online banking, but it does track your purchases and that all information is completely anonymised. Whether you believe in full anonymisation is up to you, a number of big tech companies with businesses focused on selling user data have been caught misleading consumers in this area. However, Nielsen is in the business of selling its analysis of your data, not your data.
As far as security goes, Nielsen is highly rated by UpGuard and does not appear to have been involved in any user data leaks.
As far as security goes, Nielsen is highly rated by UpGuard and does not appear to have been involved in any user data leaks.
How do I Join Nielsen Digital Voice?
The Digital Voice panels work on the same principle as opinion surveys and other studies – they try to put together a sample that is demographically representative of wider society. So, you will start by filling out an online questionnaire that asks you about your household – income, homeownership, the number of residents, relationships, age, and ethnicity – as well as questions related to internet use – number and type of devices and users, broadband and mobile internet access, whether they are used for work or leisure and similar factors.
The questionnaire is reviewed by Nielsen, and if you match the profile of the users they are recruiting, they will send you an invitation to register and download their extension.
The questionnaire is reviewed by Nielsen, and if you match the profile of the users they are recruiting, they will send you an invitation to register and download their extension.
How does it work, and what are the minimum requirements?
Once you have registered, you download and install an app called Nielsen and a browser extension for each browser that you use on your device. They have extensions for all the main browsers on Windows, Mac, Android and iOS. The extension is installed and then runs in the background, logging the websites you visit, shows you watch and games you play. It is completely transparent, and you will not be aware that it is there.
The extension is not compatible with the modern privacy protections built into operating systems. If you have cross-site tracking prevention enabled, or if you are using a VPN, you will not even be able to log into Nielsen to download the program. These must all be disabled to enable Nielsen's tracking to function.
The extension periodically stops working due to software updates or bugs. You will find out about this when Nielsen sends you an email saying they have not received data from you for a week. A restart should be sufficient to solve this.
The extension is not compatible with the modern privacy protections built into operating systems. If you have cross-site tracking prevention enabled, or if you are using a VPN, you will not even be able to log into Nielsen to download the program. These must all be disabled to enable Nielsen's tracking to function.
The extension periodically stops working due to software updates or bugs. You will find out about this when Nielsen sends you an email saying they have not received data from you for a week. A restart should be sufficient to solve this.
Is there anything else I need to know?
Nielsen may send occasional short surveys relating to your experience with Digital Voice. These are rather unreliable – across two months of use as part of our research for this review, three out of five surveys would not open in any browser.
What Do I Get? How Much Can I Earn with Digital Voice?
- Points are awarded for participation. The basic reward is 40 points a week per connected device. There are also bonuses of 100-200 points available for joining, adding a device on your birthday, and staying enrolled long term.
- These points can be traded in for Paypal Cash or gift cards. Paypal Cash ranges from 123 points for $5 to 523 points for $25. Gift cards range from 200 points for $10 to 2,000 points for $100. Gift cards are available for the Apple App Store and iTunes, Xbox, a couple of online travel booking services, and high street brands like Kathmandu, MacPac, David Jones and JB Hifi.
- One registered device could earn around 2,500 points a year, so that would give you $115 in PayPal Cash or $125 in gift cards. Obviously, that's not a huge amount, but on the other hand, you are not required to do anything to earn it other than make the initial installation. The thought of letting someone see everything you look at online might raise some hackles, but if you are reading this on an Android phone with Facebook or WhatsApp installed, or on a PC while logged in to a Google account, you're already giving all that information away for free anyway.
Nielsen Digital Voice's Points and Rewards
Nielsen Homescan - Pros and Cons
Pros
Cons
- Nielsen is a legitimate market researcher
- Zero effort after initial installation
Cons
- You are giving someone access to everything you do online
- Requires disabling tracking protections that may reduce your online security
