Re: [phpesp-general] re: anonymous surveys

[Jack C. <ja...@is...>]

On Thu, 28 Oct 2004, Kent Villard wrote:

> Hi folks-
>
> Many thanks to Matthew and Roman for answering so quickly. I really
> appreciate it. I can't believe the answer is so simple. I'm not use to
> things just working :) I used a testing tool called TestPilot previously
> and you had to jump through hoop after hoop just to have an anonymous
> survey.
>
> This is great
>
> thanks very much
> Kent
>

One thing that should be pointed out, because there might be a time where
you have to demonstrate that surveying is truly anonymous (for example, we
have a department of ethics and research here that cares about such things for
research surveys)-

The IP address gets logged automatically, and this can potentially be used
to identify the respondent (if they are submitting the survey from a fixed
IP address.)  However, this shouldn't be a major concern because

	a) - Many submissions are made from public or wireless terminals
without fixed IP's, and

	b) - The survey designer that hasn't been granted priveleges to
export the results will not have access to the IP addresses.

In fact, virtually all survey software has this as an issue, because
routinely IP addresses are logged and available to the web
or system administrator.

	Jack Cooper - IST, University of Waterloo