What is the difference between anonymity and confidentiality in surveys?

Anonymity means that there’s no way to connect survey responses back to a specific person, while confidentiality means that personal information is collected but kept secure and only accessed by a limited few who will complete the analysis or follow-up.

When should I use an anonymous survey?

Anonymous surveys are ideal when asking for candid answers about sensitive topics, such as employee engagement surveys or pulse checks. Anonymity encourages more honest and direct feedback, often resulting in higher response rates.

Can I include identifying questions in an anonymous survey?

Including identifying questions in an anonymous survey is not recommended as it compromises anonymity. However, if you need some identifying information, you can consider using optional questions or confidentiality instead.

How can I ensure confidentiality in a survey?

To ensure confidentiality, include a confidentiality notice at the beginning of your survey. This notice should inform participants about what information is being collected, why it is being collected, and how it will be used. Confidentiality is maintained by controlling who has access to the data and how it is shared.

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

Q: Is it possible to follow up with respondents in an anonymous survey?

Yes, you can ask participants if they would like to continue the conversation later by giving them the option to enter their contact information at the end of the survey. This option should be voluntary and not mandatory to maintain anonymity.

Q: What is Semi-Anonymous functionality in Sogolytics?

Sogolytics offers a Semi-Anonymous functionality, which allows you to receive a list of respondents while maintaining complete anonymity in the survey and results. This is useful if you need a list of participants but still want to ensure the anonymity of their responses.

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 and employee pulse checks, are generally run anonymously to encourage more direct feedback — and more feedback in general! Anonymous surveys are often shown to result in higher response rates.

However, what if you set up a survey as anonymous and then include questions requiring participants to submit information that could potentially pinpoint exactly who they are, what department they’re in, and where they work…? Not exactly anonymous, clearly.

Not-exactly-anonymous surveys?

Okay, while setting identifying questions as mandatory on an anonymous survey is obviously not a best practice, I can hear the protests already! We often connect with clients who want to both maintain anonymity and also know at least a little bit about who’s responding.

There are definitely some use cases here to consider. Maybe you need to be able to reach out to people directly to address a concern, or verify that responses came from a specific department. Maybe you’d like to segment results by location to ensure the insights you collect are actionable. Maybe you’re exploring how to run an employee 360 feedback project and you need to connect a lot of dots to make it work.

Hello, confidentiality!

Confidential surveys

If the data you collect is truly going to be utilized in a narrow scope and accessed by only the limited few who will complete the analysis and/or follow-up, consider including a confidentiality notice. This can easily be done by adding Descriptive Text on the opening page of your survey.

A confidentiality notice notifies your participants of what information you are collecting, why you are collecting it, and how you will utilize this information. We suggest adding this at the beginning of your survey to make sure that you’re as transparent as possible.

Note that “confidential” is not a survey-level setting parallel to “anonymous” options. While the Sogolytics platform controls anonymity, it’s really your actions that determine whether a survey qualifies as confidential. How you treat the data and follow up with the results is up to you.

Is it possible to include a confidentiality notice on a “normal” (non-anonymous) survey? Of course! If your data is only staying with the relevant team members for your specified research purposes and will not be shared with any other groups or the public in general, you can identify your survey as confidential up front and let participants know what to expect.

A few notes to consider

If survey participation is optional, or if you need to be absolutely certain that your results have been collected voluntarily (as is the case with research panel projects), place a qualifying question at the beginning of the survey and make use of one of our various logic options to either excuse participants opting out or directing those opting in to the right follow-up page.

Wish you had a little extra information, but could get by without it? Consider adding a single identifying question, like location, but leaving it as optional. As long as you have more than one person per location, they can feel a little more secure that you won’t be able to match them up to their response. This is a great one for pulse checks if you’re collecting feedback from multiple locations or departments, but be careful to remind participants that this information is not mandatory.

Have an anonymous survey, but still want to follow up directly if possible? Ask participants if they would like to continue the conversation later and give them the option to enter their contact information at the end of the survey. Remember that this is a voluntary option, so don’t make this mandatory!

Want a full list of everyone who participated but need to ensure anonymity? Learn more about our advanced Semi-Anonymous functionality, which enables the Sogolytics team to deliver you a list of respondents while maintaining complete anonymity in the survey and results.

What’s next?

So, before you send out that supposedly anonymous survey, check your requirements! Let your participants know what you are collecting and why. If you need to collect personal information, remember that it’s no longer completely anonymous. If you need the details, you need to be transparent: Confidential is the way to go!

Want to learn more about anonymity and confidentiality? Book a support call from within your Sogolytics account! Not a Sogolytics client? Sign up for a free Premium trial to see anonymity for yourself!