Survey Types

Friend or… Friend? How to Choose Between Anonymity and Confidentiality

You’ve set up your survey. You’ve personalized your thank you page and email invitations. All of your logic works and you’re ready to go, right? Well… …if your survey is anonymous, you’d better double and triple check that you’ve covered your bases! Maybe you’ve learned about our fantastic anonymity feature already. Maybe you’ve heard the terms “anonymous” and “confidential” thrown about, too. But when is it appropriate to use each, and what do they really mean? Let’s take a closer look at both anonymity and confidentiality: What’s the difference and why does it matter? Anonymous surveys Anonymity means that there’s no way to connect information back to a specific person. At Sogolytics, that means that none of the data that you collect through an anonymous survey can be connected to a specific email or IP address. Simple enough, right? Even the process itself is simple. Within your settings, you need to toggle on the option to set a survey as anonymous — before you launch (obviously!). Simply proclaiming that a survey is anonymous or even adding an introduction saying it’s anonymous does not make it so. Turn on the feature, though, and you’ll see an automatic footer message explaining to your participants what Sogolytics’ anonymity guarantee is all about. Anonymous surveys are perfect when you’re asking for candid answers about sensitive topics. Anyone who’s nervous that their answer can be traced back to them will be less likely to share the full truth. Numerous employee studies, like employee engagement surveys […]