How can you tell whether a survey is anonymous?
All LamaPoll features can be used for both anonymous and non-anonymous surveys. The following sections explain how you, as a participant, can tell whether a survey is anonymous.
Would you like to create an anonymous survey yourself? Our Helpdesk explains what you need to consider when setting up an anonymous survey and which factors are relevant to anonymity.
Table of Contents
Anonymous surveys can still...
- ...address participants personally (Dear Ms Sample, welcome to the survey...). This is done using placeholders, and these placeholders are not stored with the results.
- ...send targeted reminders (Dear Mr Miller, you have not yet completed the survey. We would like to remind you...). The survey creator does not know which participants receive these reminders.
- ...send individual survey links. Individual links are simply a public survey link combined with an individual password, which does not have to be entered manually because it is already included in the link. If the survey is configured as anonymous, this password is not included in the results, so anonymity is preserved. Why use individual links at all? They offer several advantages unrelated to anonymity: participants cannot take part more than once, they can pause at any time and continue the questionnaire later from anywhere, only authorised people can take part, and targeted reminders can be sent.
- ...reuse previous responses in subsequent questions. This process, known as piping, uses placeholders and cannot be used to identify the participant.
- ...show individual content to each participant. This may include images, videos, questions, pages or response options. It is controlled using attributes or questionnaire logic and does not mean that the questionnaire is non-anonymous.
- ...ask for personal data, provided that these data are analysed separately from the survey results. The survey creator must activate the additional option “Separate analysis” for the relevant question. The responses to that question can then no longer be linked to the remaining questionnaire results.
The questionnaire is definitely not anonymous if...
- ...the invitation or questionnaire states that the survey is not anonymous, or
- ...you can be identified through a combination of questions, for example if you are asked about your age, length of service, gender, department and similar details in a way that makes it possible to identify you.
The questionnaire is very likely to be anonymous if...
- ...you received a general survey link rather than an individual one and
- ...the questionnaire does not ask you for personal data, either directly or indirectly and
- ...you are confident that no combination of questions and responses makes it possible to identify you.
We do not say “100% anonymous” here: the survey creator may have configured the survey so that your IP address is processed. In that case, it is hashed (one-way encrypted) and is not disclosed to the survey creator. In theory, however, someone with a great deal of time, expertise, patience and luck could circumvent our security mechanisms, obtain your IP address, decrypt it, link it to your results and then use the IP address to obtain your name from the relevant authority or internet service provider. This is highly unlikely. But we only say 100% when it really is 100%.
Still unsure? What can you do?
- Contact us. We will ask the survey creator for permission to provide information about the survey. We can then advise you free of charge as an independent party and, to the best of our knowledge, determine whether the questionnaire is anonymous.
- Ask a trusted person, your works council or your data protection officer for help. They can request a user account and inspect the results themselves or otherwise verify the anonymity of the survey.
