Nielsen Mobile Panel Review: My Honest Review

I’m always on my phone – at work, in the subway, in the bathroom. If I got real money for everything I ever harvested on Farmville, I’d be rich by now.

But there is one app that actually pays me with real money for the time I spent on my phone: the Nielsen Mobile Panel. A friend of mine recommended it to me, and though I normally review gaming apps, I thought it was worth a try. I had nothing to lose, and dollars to gain.

So here’s my honest Nielson Mobile Panel Review.

What is the Nielson Mobile Panel?

Nielson’s a research group that studies how people use media. They’re the same people behind the Nielson ratings, which used to measure what TV shows people would watch. Except now, they’re trying to figure out how people use the Internet – the sites we use, what kind of ads we’ll click.

So they developed this app, the Nielson Mobile Panel, that will quietly track what you surf with your phone. Now, before you start freaking out, let’s be realistic: a lot of websites and apps do that already, which is why you get the “customized content” or product recommendations. The only difference is that 1) the Nielson Mobile Panel asks for your permission to participate in the survey, and 2) you get paid $50 to be part of the panel.

You might say $50 isn’t a lot, but it’s basically free cash for doing nothing except download an app that takes less than 2 minutes… yeah, that’s right can you can get it here if you’re interested.

And you’re contributing to important research questions on how people live, learn and buy in the digital age. Nielson’s been doing this for decades, and I must admit, that’s a big factor in why I agreed to sign up. I can trust this company – it’s not a fly-by-night operation that’s just out to get my data.

What kind of information will they need?

From the moment you sign up, Nielson tells you what data they’ll get and how they keep that information private. Yes, full legal disclosure – I like that level of transparency. So some info includes GPS and IP address, the URLs you visit and the names of the files you download (but they won’t actually read the content), info on your phone hardware and software and your device settings, etc. You have to fill in a general survey but it doesn’t involve any private or sensitive information (you probably tell more about yourself to a total stranger on a first date).

Will my privacy and security be protected?

Yes. Nielson guarantees that the data is encrypted and it is never sold to third parties or used for anything except the purpose of the survey. You’re also listed as an anonymous user – you’re just a number in their analyzed demographics. That’s a lot more protection you get from some Android applications or even those stupid Facebook quizzes.

Is the app stable and easy to use?

Some Nielsen Mobile Panel Review will complain that the app crashed or slowed down the phone, but honestly, I had absolutely no problems with it. In my experience with apps, sometimes you’re the unlucky user and you just happen to have a bad download. The negative reviews tend to get all the attention, but the majority of people who get the app are absolutely fine with it – they just don’t bother to make a Nielson Mobile Panel Review.

But I can vouch that the whole download process was painless and did not affect my phone speed or battery use. It just sits in the background, and frankly, I sometimes forget it’s there. And for doing nothing at all, I get cash. I wish the rest of adulting were this easy. If you wanted to get easy cash for basically downloading an app, you can download the Nielsen app here.

If you have some free time then have you considered using apps that pay you real money through PayPal?

Or if you wanted to learn about another app that pays, you should check out my review on Swag IQ here.