How this survey protects you
Somebody has asked you to answer a survey and told you it's anonymous. You've probably been told that before. Here's exactly what's true this time, in plain terms, so you can decide for yourself.
What they'll see
Counts and charts: how many people picked each option and the average scores. They also see written comments word for word, in a shuffled list with no name, time or order attached. If the survey lets you, you can send just the topics you pick instead of your words. If they've asked which department or how long you've been here, they'll see the numbers broken down that way too, as groups and never as a list of people.
What they can't see
Who said what. Your answers are scrambled by your own browser before they're sent, and only the company running the survey holds the key that opens them. Their key backup is locked in their browser before it reaches us, with their password or their recovery key, and nothing we store can open it, so we have no readable answers to hand over. Nothing attaches your name, your email address or a fingerprint of your device to what you write.
One honest caveat
In a very small group, numbers can point at people. If four people answer and three of them are on your team, arithmetic starts doing work that encryption can't undo. That's why nothing unlocks until the survey's minimum group has answered. That number is never below 3, and whoever set this survey up can raise it. While most surveys are open, a few answers are held back so no single new answer can be picked out. A speak-up channel with replies shows each report on its own. The survey page normally shows the number before you start. If it doesn't, ask.
Two things that help, whatever tool you're using
- Answer on a personal device over a personal network if you can. A work laptop on a work network doesn't leak your answers, but it does make a record that you opened the page.
- Write free text the way you'd write it to a stranger. Don't include the one detail only you would mention. That advice holds for every survey tool there is, not just this one. And if the detail is the point, send just the topics where the survey offers it.
If you want the longer version, including how to check a survey's claims for yourself, it's at invizipoll.com/for-employees/stay-anonymous.
Printed by whoever is running your survey. InviziPoll built the tool, and nothing it stores can open your answers.