Anonymize Responses not really anonymous

The response ID will show up as anonymous on the distribution history if you have anonymise response enabled in your survey option.

If you use quota or end of survey element in survey flow, you should also remember to enable the “Do NOT record any personal information and remove panel association (not recommended)” option since both quota and end of survey element in survey flow overwrites a portion of survey option settings.

Do you have any quota set up, or any end of survey element set up in survey flow?

Hello! Thank you for this reply and providing the screenshot. 

So, we do have Anonymize response enabled in our survey options and have checked “Do NOT record any personal information and remove panel association (not recommended)” in the end of survey element. However, when we download the distribution history, the Response ID is NOT anonymized. 

I’m guessing I should submit a support ticket if you’re saying this should show as Anonymous instead of the actual Response ID…?

​@megan.clawson The responseID represents a unique identifier of the actual response, but if you aren’t collecting PII from the respondent, it’s not going to tie the response back to the individual. 

Hi ​@jmborzick. Thanks for the reply. We are not collecting PII in the survey, but we are using Email distribution. The distribution history has this: 

While Data & Analysis has this: 

The responses can be linked.

Is there a setting somewhere that we’re missing? Seems like our distribution history should say Anonymous in the Response ID column, as mentioned in the previous comment. But this is not the case.

​@megan.clawson Yes, you are missing a setting. You want to make sure that “Anonymize Responses” is marked “On.” Once you do that it will not collect the users’ contact information nor their IP addresses. 

​@jmborzick We have Anonymize response enabled in our survey options and have checked “Do NOT record any personal information and remove panel association (not recommended)” in the end of survey element. 

It’s not collecting IP addresses or contact information. It’s the Response ID that is being collected and is the problem. 

​@megan.clawson My apologies. I saw “Last name” in your screenshot so I assumed that you were accidentally collecting directory data. If you are already anonymizing the data, and aren’t pulling any directory data into your responses, then even though you have a responseID then that responseID cannot be connected back to an individual. The responseID references an individual response, not an individual person. If there isn’t any data PII collected in the survey, and you’ve anonymized responses, then there shouldn’t be anything for the responseID to reference. 

​@jmborzick I understand what you are saying and you are correct in that there is nothing in the survey Data & Analysis that connects the Response ID to an individual. However, the problem is with the distribution history. The screenshot with the Last name is from the distribution history, so the Response ID in the distribution history IS connected with an individual person, and the same Response ID is in Data & Analysis. As mentioned, I think the Response ID should not be showing in the distribution history, but it is which means the individual and their response can be connected. 

Did you re-publish the survey after turning on the Anonymize setting?

​@Tom_1842 The Anonymize setting has been on since we created and initially published the survey. It was on before it was distributed via email. 

Hmm, if Anonymize has been enabled the entire time, it may be worth having Support take a closer look.

Here's what I'm seeing on my end:

• With Anonymize disabled, I can collect a response via an individual email link and the Response Id appears in Distribution History
• After enabling Anonymize and republishing the survey, that response still shows its Response Id in Distribution History.
• When I collect a new response via an individual email link after Anonymize is enabled, the Response Id is no longer visible in Distribution History, instead displaying as "Anonymous."

The support page says:

Attention: If responses have been recorded prior to you turning on the Anonymize responses option, those respondents’ information will remain in the platform but will be hidden in certain views. Any responses recorded after turning on the Anonymize responses option will not include the information.

So in my testing, responses collected before Anonymize is enabled continue to show their Response ID in Distribution History, while responses collected afterward display as Anonymous. If Anonymize has been enabled since the survey was first published and before those responses were collected, there may be something else going on.

Unrelated/related on truly anonymous surveys - I ran into an issue with admins being able to see information on the back end.  Not that I was accessing it, but that and having a small sample size where it could be possible to tie an answer back to someone or identifying information being left in an open ended response field.  Just a couple of other things to keep in mind.