Is the individual link work if it was forwarded?

Hello, I have a question similar to this one - when another person answers the individual link of the initial recipient, Qualtrics records the answer & all the metadata under the initial recipient, which makes sense.

What is best practice in order to keep track of the correct respondents? Should I update the contact info (email, contact ID, etc.) in the survey project and in the contact directory? How should this be handled properly?

Thank you

Hello @Iolanda!

One workaround to this scenario would be using authenticators. Preferably Single Sign On authenticators. That way you could just send an anonymous link that authenticates based on the directory and everyone will register their responses. Also, whoever is not allowed to take the survey (is not in the directory/list you are using to authenticate) will not be able to authenticate. 

thanks @Ricmarug. I actually use individual links with embedded data that comes with it (company name, region, etc.) So each link is unique for each individual, but when they forward their link to somebody else, Qualtrics doesn’t know the wrong person is answering the survey

When you say “individual links with embedded data that comes with it” you mean that you are using query string to embed the embedded data in the URL? If so, since this is static info, there’s no way to identify the correct person. 

On the other hand, if the individual links takes the info from the embedded / transaction data stored in the contact list, the authenticator would help you with that because when you authenticate you are technically asking the survey to get your information, so you would still be able to get the embedded data from your list for the authenticated contacts. It may add one step on your survey but the data would be more reliable. 

Thanks @Ricmarug.