Does a Seagit form make a survey anonymous?

It can, if the fields do not ask who is answering. Respondents never sign in, and the form stores only what its fields collect. It does not promise anonymity, though: each response also keeps the submission time and the browser details described above.

Does the form record the respondent’s IP address?

The form itself does not. The viewer sends the browser’s user agent, the page the respondent came from and the page address the form was on, and those are stored with the answers. Network infrastructure can log connections at a level outside the form, so do not describe a survey as untraceable.

Is a password-protected form the same as an anonymous one?

No. A password controls who can open the form, and says nothing about who answers it. Password protection is a separate setting on the paid plans, and an anonymous survey is a choice about which questions you ask.

When should I use a dedicated survey platform instead?

When someone has to be able to rely on anonymity as a guarantee, such as a staff or research survey with a legal or ethical duty of confidentiality. Ask the person responsible for that duty what they need, because a form cannot give that guarantee on its own.

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Anonymous survey: how to run one with a form

An anonymous survey gets honest answers because the person answering cannot be identified from them. A form can do that, but only if you set it up on purpose. This page covers what to leave out, what the form still records, and when you need more than a form.

Start by deciding what you need to know

Most anonymous surveys fail not because the form identifies people but because the questions do. A question about role, department and tenure, asked of a team of six, identifies everyone who answers it, whatever the form stores. Before you build anything, write down the questions you need answered and ask whether each answer could point to one person.

Group answers into bands rather than exact values where you can. “Under five years” identifies fewer people than an exact number of years, and a result reported for a group of at least several people is harder to trace back to any one of them.

Leave out the fields that name someone

A Seagit form only collects what its fields ask for. To keep a survey anonymous, do not add a name field or an email field, and do not ask for anything that identifies a person on its own, such as an employee number or a student ID. A survey with only rating and open-text questions is the simplest version.

Email collection is a separate setting, not a field. In the form settings it is labelled “Collect email addresses”, and it is off by default. Leave it off for an anonymous survey. If you turn it on, the form will ask for an address, and the survey is no longer anonymous.

What a response still records

Each response is stored with its answers and the time it was submitted. The viewer also sends the browser’s user agent, which describes the browser and operating system, the page the respondent came from, and the address of the form page. Those are stored alongside the answers.

That is not a name, but it is more than the answers alone, so describe the survey as confidential rather than as untraceable. If a small team uses one shared device or one network, the details can narrow down who sent a response, even though the form does not record an IP address.

Keep a survey open only as long as you need it

A survey left open for weeks collects responses from people who were not in the group you meant to ask, and it makes the timestamps easier to read as a sequence. Set a closing date or a response limit when you publish, so the survey stops on the day you intended. Every form also has a platform cap on the number of responses it can take, so a very large survey needs more than one form.

Share the link without tying it to a person

Send one link to everyone rather than a personal link for each person, because a personal link is an identifier even when the form has no name field. If you must send individual links to track who has answered, say so in the invitation, and treat the list of links as personal data for as long as you hold it.

Common questions

Does a Seagit form make a survey anonymous?: It can, if the fields do not ask who is answering. Respondents never sign in, and the form stores only what its fields collect. It does not promise anonymity, though: each response also keeps the submission time and the browser details described above.
Does the form record the respondent’s IP address?: The form itself does not. The viewer sends the browser’s user agent, the page the respondent came from and the page address the form was on, and those are stored with the answers. Network infrastructure can log connections at a level outside the form, so do not describe a survey as untraceable.
Is a password-protected form the same as an anonymous one?: No. A password controls who can open the form, and says nothing about who answers it. Password protection is a separate setting on the paid plans, and an anonymous survey is a choice about which questions you ask.
When should I use a dedicated survey platform instead?: When someone has to be able to rely on anonymity as a guarantee, such as a staff or research survey with a legal or ethical duty of confidentiality. Ask the person responsible for that duty what they need, because a form cannot give that guarantee on its own.

Keep reading

Compared with other form buildersGoogle Forms, Typeform, Jotform and Tally, with dated pricing and where each one fits.Anonymous feedback form templateA ready form with the name and email fields left out, to start from.Form featuresClosing dates, response limits and who may answer.Spam protectionBot checks that keep an open survey from being filled with junk.Form field typesChoose field types that gather the answer without gathering the person.Survey response rate calculatorWork out how many people in your group answered the survey.