Anonymity Coach in the poll wizard

InviziPoll shows the Anonymity Coach while you build a poll so you can catch anonymity risks before you publish. It never blocks publishing on its own; it explains what locked cohorts, word clouds and written answers mean so you can adjust wording or dimensions deliberately.

#Where it appears

• Demographics step: when your poll has a word cloud or open-text question, or you tag two or more demographic dimensions.
• Review step: repeats the same guidance before you publish, with a reminder that you can go back to Demographics.
• AI flows: questions suggested by AI generate, polish and improve go through the same rules, and their warnings carry an AI Suggested badge.

#Word cloud advisory

If the poll includes a word cloud question, the coach reminds you that answers appear as respondents write them. Privacy still depends on audience size: nothing's readable until your poll's minimum group size has answered (at least 3), and filtered cohorts only appear after the poll closes, each needing at least 5 matching answers, or your minimum group size if higher. For very small polls or sensitive topics, a multiple-choice question may be safer.

#Open-text advisory

If the poll includes an open-text question, the coach warns that written answers carry the most re-identification risk of any question type: a specific incident or a turn of phrase can identify the author to a colleague. You read them word for word, shuffled and undated, only once results unlock, and they never appear on a public results link. Where the poll allows it, anyone who'd rather not be read can send just the topics they pick instead. The coach suggests saying in the question itself that people shouldn't name individuals. See Open text questions.

If the poll lets people send topics instead of their words, which new polls do by default, the coach adds that respondents can choose to send only topics, and that you'll see those as topic counts once five people have done it.

#Demographic dimension warnings

With two tagged demographic dimensions, the coach notes that cohort combinations with fewer than five matching responses stay hidden in reports. Breakdowns only appear once the poll closes.

With three or more dimensions, the coach estimates how many cohort combinations your tags could create and warns that many slices may stay locked. You can go back to Demographics and remove a dimension you don't need.

#Survey checks beside the coach

On the same two steps, a second panel sits next to the coach. It reads your questions for things the coach can't see:

• A question that asks who someone is, like a name, email or employee ID.
• A question that asks which group someone is in but isn't tagged as a demographic, so nothing protects its small groups. The panel links straight to the Demographics step to tag it.
• Group questions that add up to small groups, even untagged ones.
• Free text that invites a story, an example or a name.

It's the same set of checks the import preview and our public anonymous survey checker use, it runs in your browser on every plan, and it never blocks publishing. When the coach is already warning about three or more dimensions, the panel doesn't repeat it. Check a survey for identifying questions explains each finding.

On the Review step, both sit under What your respondents will see, the list your respondents get at the top of the ballot. See The poll protection checklist.

#Related

• Check a survey for identifying questions
• The poll protection checklist
• Demographic cohorts and minimum thresholds
• Aggregate results and anti-inference controls
• AI poll building
• Open text questions