Data security and online surveys

SLAB’s research team sometimes undertakes online surveys of organisations or individuals. We use the online platform ‘SurveyMonkey’ to do this.

Data privacy is something we take very seriously. The reasons we chose SurveyMonkey included their approach to data security. Our Data Processing Agreement (DPA) with SurveyMonkey specifies the use of the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (DPF) and the UK Extension to the EU-U.S. DPF. This means that the collection, use, transfer, and retention of personal data complies with UK GDPR*.

SLAB’s researchers only ask for information that is useful to the research we are doing. SurveyMonkey helps us do this by allowing us some control over what information we collect. For example, keeping responses anonymous by not linking contact lists with individual responses.

Most of the surveys we use SurveyMonkey for are anonymous. If we ask someone to take part in a survey, we will tell them what information we are collecting and how we will use it.

We almost always contract out larger surveys of named individuals, such as our applicant surveys. We perform due diligence on the contractors we use to ensure that they comply with UK GDPR.

If you want more information on SurveyMonkey and data privacy, visit their website: https://help.surveymonkey.com/categories/Privacy_Legal.

* UK GDPR is a legal framework that sets guidelines for the collection and processing of personal information from individuals who live in the United Kingdom (UK).