US Patent for Lightspeed's 'Honesty Detector'

WPP-owned digital data collection specialist Lightspeed has been granted a US patent for its 'Honesty Detector' online respondent validation product.

Available in 30 markets, the tool analyzes respondents' answers to identify dishonesty, and ensure that only engaged individuals enter studies. Honesty Detector is deployed at the panel level and is also used at the study level to further extend quality control to all sample. All panelists are validated every 60 days as part of Lightspeed's internal controls, and those respondents deemed to be 'dishonest' are blocked from participating in surveys.

The new patent (Patent No. 9,639,816), entitled Identifying People Likely to Respond Accurately to Survey Questions, was awarded to Chief Scientist Mitch Eggers (pictured) and statistician Eli Drake. Commenting on the news, Eggers said: 'In 2016 alone, we removed 644k individual respondents for failing Honesty Detector, a proof of its effectiveness and Lightspeed's commitment to superior quality'.

Web site: www.lightspeedresearch.com .