Anonymous contains two Latin roots: a/an meaning without, and nym meaning name. Anonymous therefore means without a name. Merriam-Webster defines the word this way:

"Not named or identified; lacking individuality, distinction, or recognizably."

Often we receive requests that go something like this: "I want to have an anonymous link, but if someone answers negatively, I want to know who they are so that I can contact them." Obviously, the ability to contact someone due to their responses violates the definition of anonymous.

It might then be helpful to go over what anonymous links can and can't do.

• Anonymous links can be sent through the mailer – this is located under advanced options >> link type

• Anonymous links do record an IP address

• Anonymous links cannot track who has answered – the best way to ensure anonymity is to not record any personal information. Therefore, even if a link is distributed to a panel using the mailer, Qualtrics does not record who has and who hasn't completed, started, or clicked on the survey. As such, Reminders and Thank you messages are impossible to send as the system has no idea who to send them to.

• Anonymous links cannot pull embedded data into the survey. Once again, Qualtrics isn't recording who is answering the survey, and cannot therefore attach embedded data associated with a respondent to the response. John Does do not have addresses, regions, sales reps, countries, etc.

• Anonymous links cannot save and continue across multiple computers. With mailing links, if you start a survey at one computer, you can then finish at another. However, the anonymous link, will only save to that particular survey (as long as the save and continue feature is enabled) to the computer that started the survey. When the system isn't recording who is responding, any new computer will start a new survey.

• Anonymous surveys cannot guarantee one response per link. When the system doesn't know who is responding, it has no control over respondents forwarding their links to their friends. As long as it's a new computer, it's a new response.

Perhaps this feels restrictive, but one thing to keep in mind is that the links are designed to be anonymous and not capture identifying information. All of these features are possible within Qualtrics, but have been removed in order to ensure anonymity of responses. Use these links wisely.