Anonymous feedback: Conduct a survey anonymously with QuestionPro assuring anonymity for survey participants

We guarantee survey participants that when “RAA” is activated, user metadata will not reach the initiator of the online survey and the feedback will therefore be recorded anonymously. Conduct anonymous surveys with a guarantee!

Online surveys provide interesting metadata

For initiators of online surveys, there is often a great interest in collecting personal or personally identifiable information from survey participants, if only for the purpose of finding out who actually took part in the online survey and who did not, for example to send reminders . Or, for example, the end devices used and the operating systems with which survey participants filled out their online questionnaire are automatically recorded, or location data to record which region survey participants come from. QuestionPro offers the opportunity to collect and evaluate all of this participant-specific and personal data. This can be very useful, for example to optimize questionnaires and examine the target group. There is often a conflict of interest here because survey participants prefer to provide anonymous feedback. QuestionPro therefore offers the collection of anonymous feedback. Initiators of surveys can decide whether they want to collect metadata or whether they want to ensure anonymous feedback.

Anonymous feedback can significantly increase response rates to online surveys

There are a number of situations where you can conduct anonymous surveys and thus collect anonymous feedback and forego the generation of any personal user data, such as the IP address, the device used or geolocation data. Possible scenarios for the strict recording of anonymous feedback can be found, for example, in a patient survey or in citizen surveys. But in order to increase acceptance among survey participants in customer surveys or employee surveys and thus to increase the feedback response, initiators of online surveys often advertise with reference to an anonymous survey. However, potential survey participants often lack confidence in the promise that anonymous feedback will actually be collected and often refrain from taking part in the online survey.

Conduct online surveys anonymously: Respondent Anonymity Assurance (RAA) – create trust by assuring anonymity through third parties

QuestionPro offers initiators of online surveys the opportunity to only collect pure survey data from the online questionnaire, i.e. to carry out the online survey anonymously and collect anonymous feedback in which all personal data that is not explicitly asked for is included arrive at the initiator of the online survey. As already described above, personal data refers to the IP address, the device used, the operating system, the email address, etc. In order to create a high level of credibility on the part of survey participants, QuestionPro marks anonymous online surveys with a note in the footnote. For surveys where the RAA function is activated, a link to the details of the QuestionPro explanation is inserted in the bottom right of the survey. This link cannot be removed, changed or added by the survey initiator. The document behind this link guarantees that anonymous feedback is collected.

The “Respondent Anonymity Assurance” note indicates that this survey does not collect any personal information that is not explicitly asked for. This allows you to conduct truly anonymous surveys

TRULY anonymous feedback:
The survey anonymity check

Participants in an anonymous survey who follow the link above will be taken to a page with the QuestionPro anonymity declaration. Here, survey participants who have doubts about the lawful use of the anonymity assurance by the survey initiator can carry out a survey anonymity check. The URL of the survey can be entered using a form, which will then be checked by QuestionPro. Confirmation will be made within a very short time that only anonymous feedback will be collected.

Activation is carried out exclusively by QuestionPro employees

Only QuestionPro employees can activate the Respondent Anonymity Assurance function for anonymous surveys at the request of the survey initiators. Once an online survey has been created anonymously, this process cannot be reversed! QuestionPro acts as an arbitration authority, so to speak, to guarantee an actual separation between survey data and metadata. This is the only way that advertising that a survey is carried out anonymously really makes sense!

Example of a data set from an anonymous survey with personal data that has been obscured so that it is no longer recognizable to initiators of online surveys. Anonymous feedback can significantly increase the response rate to surveys.

Activation of Respondent Anonymity Assurance for anonymous surveys to obtain anonymous feedback

The Respondent Anonymity Assurance function for anonymous surveys can only be activated if no data has been collected previously. All personal data of survey participants is overlaid with text in the database. QuestionPro guarantees survey participants that their personal data will not be included and therefore cannot be evaluated. This creates trust among both the initiators of online surveys and the survey participants.

Summary: How does QuestionPro ensure that a survey is actually carried out anonymously and that only anonymous feedback is collected?

• Only QuestionPro itself can activate Respondent Anonymity Assurance (RAA) for anonymous surveys. The survey initiator must explicitly request the RAA to be changed.
• Once the RAA is activated for an anonymous survey, the process can no longer be reversed. There is no function within the QuestionPro user interface that can deactivate this anonymization function.
• The QuestionPro survey software, in the event of RAA activation, will never display a respondent's email address associated with the response data in any of the analysis tools, reports and data downloads unless it is within the questionnaire explicitly asked about it and survey participants make the appropriate entries.
• In the exceptionally unlikely event that a breach occurs for any technical or other reason, QuestionPro will immediately notify survey participants and the survey initiator of the problem. If respondents request that their response data be removed from the servers due to the violation, QuestionPro will comply with the request, even if the survey initiator does not agree.

From which license model can initiators of online surveys use the RAA function and thus be guaranteed to collect anonymous feedback?

The activation of Respondent Anonymity Assurance (RAA) for conducting anonymous surveys is available to our customers from the TEAM EDITION onwards.

1:1 live online presentation: capture anonymous feedback

If you let your survey participants know that you are conducting an anonymous online survey and only collecting anonymous feedback, they know that their identity will remain confidential. This is particularly important if you need to collect feedback on sensitive information such as misconduct, security procedures and staffing changes during employee surveys or customer feedback, for example. Nonetheless, offering anonymity is generally a solid best practice for any survey plan.

As part of a 1:1 live online demo, we will show you how you can carry out anonymous surveys with QuestionPro and thus only collect anonymous feedback.

Try the survey software for free and collect anonymous feedback if you wish

If you have any questions about anonymity in online surveys, please feel free to contact us.  We look forward to talking to you and showing you how you can carry out online surveys anonymously! Or try QuestionPro for 10 days free of charge and without automatic extension!

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