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Security report for scorecardresearch.com

Full Circle Studies, Inc. · Technology · N/a

Medium risk. 4 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, SSL/TLS and 1 other check.

Security score

68/100

Risk levelMedium

0–100, higher is better. How it is calculated

ScorecardResearch, operated by Full Circle Studies, Inc. and part of Comscore, Inc., is a market research platform focused on collecting anonymous internet usage data through voluntary surveys and web tagging on partner websites. The website serves as an informational portal for participants and partners, offering multilingual support and clear privacy and terms of service documentation. The business model centers on data collection to analyze internet trends and user behavior, positioning itself as a reputable player within the global market research industry. Technically, the website employs a traditional tech stack including C#, JavaScript, jQuery, and integrates Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics for tracking and analytics. The site is served over HTTPS, ensuring secure communications, but lacks visible advanced security headers. Performance and mobile optimization are moderate, with room for improvement in accessibility and SEO practices. The site uses cookie consent mechanisms aligning with privacy regulations. From a security perspective, the site demonstrates good baseline practices such as HTTPS and anonymized data collection, but lacks explicit security policies, incident response contacts, and visible security headers. The absence of WHOIS data for the domain introduces some uncertainty regarding domain registration transparency, although the affiliation with Comscore supports legitimacy. No critical vulnerabilities or adult content were detected, and privacy compliance appears robust. Overall, the website is professional and trustworthy with moderate technical maturity and security posture. Strategic improvements in security headers, contact transparency, and technical modernization would enhance trust and compliance.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of scorecardresearch.com. View the latest report

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
58/ 100 · Medium
Checks completed
7of 7

NIS2 Art. 21(2)

  1. (a) Risk analysis and security policies: Not visible from outside
  2. (b) Incident handling: One indicator
  3. (c) Business continuity, backups and crisis management: Not visible from outside
  4. (d) Supply chain security: Not visible from outside
  5. (e) Secure acquisition, development and maintenance, including vulnerability handling: Partly checked
  6. (f) Assessing the effectiveness of security measures: Not visible from outside
  7. (g) Cyber hygiene and security training: Not visible from outside
  8. (h) Cryptography and encryption: Partly checked
  9. (i) HR security, access control and asset management: One indicator
  10. (j) Multi-factor authentication and secured communications: Not visible from outside

This scan rated NIS2 with an earlier keyword method that is no longer shown; rescan for the per-article view. Risk management, continuity, supply chain, training, MFA, management oversight (Art. 20) and incident reporting (Art. 23) need internal evidence, and Guard cannot tell whether NIS2 applies to this organisation.

GDPR is indicative only, based on publicly visible signals: Articles 7, 12, 13 and 32 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and Article 5(3) of the ePrivacy Directive. Not a certification or legal assessment.

Priority findings

4 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. GDPR outside view

    These are the privacy signals visitors and data protection authorities look for under GDPR.

    • High

      No Cookie Policy found

      GDPR requires clear information about cookie usage

      What to do: Add a dedicated cookie policy explaining cookie usage and purposes

    • High

      No Cookie Consent Banner found

      GDPR requires explicit consent for non-essential cookies

      What to do: Implement a cookie consent banner that appears on first visit

  2. SSL/TLS

    TLS encrypts the connection and proves the site is really yours. Weak or expiring certificates trigger browser warnings and put traffic at risk.

    • High

      Weak Protocols Supported

      Server supports weak protocols: TLSv1.1

      What to do: Disable TLS 1.0, TLS 1.1, and all SSL versions

      • CWE-327
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • ASVS V12.1.1

  3. DNS health

    DNS sends visitors and email to the right servers. Misconfigured records can cause outages or let someone redirect your traffic.

    • High

      Potential Subdomain Takeover

      Subdomain api.scorecardresearch.com points to unregistered service ivt-service-505396678.us-east-1.elb.amazonaws.com

      What to do: Remove or fix CNAME record to prevent subdomain takeover

      • WSTG-CONF-10
      • NIS2 21(2)(i)
      • IR 2024/2690 12.4: Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690, Annex point 12.4: Asset inventory
      • NIST CM-8: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 CM-8: System Component Inventory

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  • TLS certificates and expiry
  • DNS records
  • SPF, DKIM and DMARC
  • Security headers
  • GDPR and NIS2 posture
  • Exposed services
  • Third-party trackers
  • Security score drift

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Results by check

Each check with its score, findings and the evidence it collected.

How this score is calculated

The security score runs 0–100, higher is better. It is the plain average of the security checks that completed in this scan, each counted equally. A check that could not run is left out: it counts neither as a pass nor as a fail.

Counted in this score

SSL/TLS
72
Security headers
60
Email security
60
DNS health
60
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
58
Average
68

Not counted

  • NIS2 outside view: Re-weights evidence from the TLS, email, DNS, network and hygiene checks, so counting it would count that evidence twice. Shown on its own.
  • OffSeq Observations: An AI reading of the site, useful context but not reproducible evidence. Shown on its own.

Findings that cap the score at 49

Each of these is serious on its own, so while any is present the site cannot rate better than high risk, however good the other checks are.

  • The certificate is not trusted by browsers
  • The website is not served over HTTPS
  • A database, remote desktop, file-sharing or Telnet service is reachable from the internet
  • The page loads a script from a compromised source
  • The domain registration has expired
  • SPF authorises every server to send mail as the domain

Partial scans

When the site blocks Guard or most checks cannot run, the score covers only the checks that ran (usually DNS and email), is capped at 75 and is shown as partial, without a risk level.

Risk levels

  • Critical0–25
  • High26–49
  • Medium50–75
  • Low76–100

Technical appendix

Business context, site observations and technical notes gathered during the scan, and the standards behind each reference.

Business context

Business profile

ScorecardResearch operates within the technology sector, specializing in market research data collection and analysis. Its competitive advantage lies in its affiliation with Comscore, a recognized leader in internet analytics. The business model leverages voluntary user participation and web tagging on partner sites to gather anonymized data, supporting a broad range of internet trend analyses. The target audience includes internet users willing to participate in surveys and partner websites deploying tracking tags. The company demonstrates a medium organizational size with a focus on data-driven insights. Partnerships with Full Circle Studies and Comscore strengthen its market position. Growth indicators include multilingual support and ongoing data collection efforts. The ecosystem includes analytics providers and market research clients, with strategic emphasis on privacy and compliance.

Security posture

The website maintains a baseline security posture with HTTPS encryption and anonymized data collection methods, reducing risks related to personal data exposure. However, the lack of visible security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options suggests potential areas for hardening against common web attacks. No explicit incident response or security policy pages were found, indicating limited transparency in security governance. Privacy compliance is strong, with clear privacy and cookie policies and consent mechanisms. The absence of WHOIS data for the domain is a concern for transparency but does not directly impact operational security. Overall, the security maturity is moderate, with recommendations to enhance header implementation, incident response readiness, and contact availability.

Recommendations

  1. Implement comprehensive security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to mitigate common web vulnerabilities.
  2. Publish explicit security policy and incident response information to improve transparency and readiness.
  3. Enhance mobile optimization and accessibility to improve user experience and compliance with accessibility standards.
  4. Increase visibility of contact information, including security and privacy contacts, to build trust and facilitate communication.
  5. Regularly audit and update third-party scripts and tracking technologies to minimize vulnerabilities and ensure privacy compliance.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Full Circle Studies, Inc.
Description
ScorecardResearch, a service of Full Circle Studies, Inc., is part of Comscore, Inc. market research community that collects anonymous internet usage data via surveys and web tagging to analyze internet trends and behavior.
Key services
Internet usage data collection, Market research surveys, Web tagging analytics
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
C#, JavaScript, jQuery 3.6.0, jQuery UI 1.13.0, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics
Performance
moderate
Mobile
basic
Accessibility
basic
SEO
basic

Security

Observed score
75/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enabled
  • No personal data collected via forms
  • Cookie consent mechanism implemented

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, comScore beacon
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
comScore beacon
Transparency
basic

Site quality

Design
basic
User experience
basic
Content relevance
good
Navigation
good
Professionalism
good
Trustworthiness
high

Key observations

  1. Website is accessible with no blocking or WAF challenges.
  2. WHOIS data is missing, which is unusual and reduces transparency.
  3. Website uses HTTPS and standard tracking technologies.
  4. Privacy and terms of service pages are present and comprehensive.
  5. No direct contact emails or phone numbers found on the homepage.
  6. Content is professional and focused on market research.
  7. No adult or questionable content detected.
  8. Use of multiple languages supported via URL parameters.
  9. No visible security headers detected in provided data.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a traditional Microsoft technology stack using C# and JavaScript, supplemented by jQuery and jQuery UI libraries. It integrates Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics for marketing and analytics purposes, and uses comScore beacon scripts for tracking. The site is served over HTTPS, ensuring encrypted communication. Performance is moderate with basic mobile responsiveness and accessibility features. SEO is basic with standard meta tags but lacks advanced structured data or Open Graph tags. The site does not appear to use a modern CMS or advanced frameworks. There is opportunity to modernize the tech stack, improve performance, and enhance SEO and accessibility compliance to reduce technical debt and improve operational resilience.
Standards and sources

Reference chips under each finding point to the standard, regulation or specification the finding relates to. They are taken from the official datasets below and mapped conservatively: a finding with no defensible link shows none. NIS2 and GDPR references mark where a finding is relevant evidence, not a compliance verdict. Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690 binds digital infrastructure and digital service providers; for other entities it is the most detailed public reading of the Article 21 measures. WCAG, EN 301 549, European Accessibility Act and Web Accessibility Directive references name the requirement an automated accessibility rule relates to; they are not a conformance verdict.

Retrieved 2026-10-25

Earlier scans of this domain

  1. 71/100 +3Medium29 findingsView report
  2. 68/100 −1Medium31 findingsView report
  3. 69/100Medium29 findingsView report
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