Some online surveys require confidentiality to be guaranteed to the participants. This applies, inter alia, to research targeted at employees (e.g. employee satisfaction surveys, commitment surveys, benefit satisfaction survey, 360 Peer review) questionnaires sent to residents, participants of training or conferences or opinion polls.
Why is anonymity so important? Thanks to it, the respondent can share honest opinions comfortably. In some cases, the anonymity of the survey is a requirement for the survey to be conducted at all. Such events may occur, for example, if the questionnaire asks questions about health (for statistical purposes), finances or illegal activities (e.g. drug use among adolescents).
By using Startquestion you can ensure 100% confidentiality to your respondents. All you need to do is change the survey settings in the right way - we will explain how to do it in this article.
How to create an anonymous online survey?
It's really simple. After logging in to the platform, just go to Settings (main menu on the left), and then select: Survey settings. In the access section, select the option: One link for everyone.
Only a person who in any way who received a direct link to the survey (e.g. via SMS, Messenger, Slack messenger) can take part in the survey. Due to the above it will not be possible to identify the person filling out the survey. The person conducting the study can still view individual survey answers (from the Results tab -> Responses), but cannot associate them with a specific person.
Can an anonymous survey be sent to an email address?
Yes, it is possible - the link to the survey may be sent to the respondents' email address. Contrary to the non-anonymous questionnaires, the link does not contain information about who is filling it out. The survey link is the same for everyone - it is not possible to generate tokens, i.e. individual access codes.
From the technical point of view: Now let's move on to an equally important guarantor of the survey's anonymity - the content of the questions asked in the survey.
To ensure confidentiality of the survey, you should not ask any questions that identify a given person. Such questions, apart from the obvious question about the first name and surname, may include:
place of residence (province, city and even country),
place of employment (also: department, role, supervisor's name),
age,
gender,
education,
health condition,
income,
information about the family.
Metrics questions - samples
In the case of forms for the survey, i.e. questions about data and personal information, be especially careful. Depending on the size or type of the research sample, the question about the province for example, may be considered as ensuring anonymity or identifying (e.g. if only a few people from different parts of Poland participate in the survey).
Create anonymous surveys on ready-made patterns
Our experts have prepared ready-made examples of online surveys, including customer, employee and market research, on the basis of which you can create anonymous and traditional questionnaires in just a few minutes.
If the studies you plan also require to identify the person who participates in them, check out our guide and find out how to conduct a survey with the possibility of identifying respondents.