Qualtrics Security Guide

Qualtrics Security anonymous responses

Overview

As a Qualtrics user at the University of Pittsburgh, you are responsible for protecting your survey data and ensuring appropriate security measures are in place. This guide walks you through the security settings available in Qualtrics and explains when and how to use them effectively.

Accessing Qualtrics: Go to my.pitt.edu and search for "Qualtrics" in the search bar.

Getting to Security Settings

Navigate to Your Survey's Security Options

Open your project list: Click the three-line menu icon in the top left corner and select Projects.
Select your survey: Click on the name of the project you want to secure. This opens the survey editor.
Access Survey Options: In the left sidebar, click the Survey Options icon (looks like a widget with slider controls).
Go to Security: From the Survey Options menu, select the Security tab.

Survey Security Settings

1. Survey Access

Control whether anyone with the link can take your survey, or only people you specifically invite.

Options:

Public: Anyone with the survey link can access and complete it
Invitation Only: Only people who receive a personalized invite can take the survey

Best Practice: If your survey collects any sensitive or confidential information, set this to "Invitation Only."

2. Password Protection

Require respondents to enter a password before they can access your survey.

Toggle this option On and set a password that you'll share with authorized respondents separately from the survey link.

Best Practice: Use password protection for surveys containing sensitive data, especially when combined with public link distribution.

3. Referrer Website URL

Restrict survey access to people who click the link from a specific website.

When enabled, only visitors coming from the URL you specify can access the survey. This prevents the link from being shared or copied to other locations.

Important: The URL must match exactly, including http:// or https:// and any specific page paths.

Example use case: Your survey link is posted on a password-protected department website, and you want to ensure only people who can access that page can take the survey.

4. Prevent Multiple Submissions

Stop respondents from taking your survey more than once by using browser cookies to identify returning visitors.

Toggle On to prevent ballot box stuffing and ensure each person only responds once.

Note: This uses cookies, so respondents can still submit multiple times if they use different browsers or devices, or if they clear their cookies.

5. Bot Detection

Automatically detect and flag responses that are likely from bots rather than real people.

When enabled, Qualtrics adds a Q_RecaptchaScore field to each response indicating the probability that the respondent was a bot.

Important: This must be turned on before you start collecting responses. It cannot retroactively score existing responses.

6. Security Scan Monitor

Prevent email security scanners from accidentally starting survey sessions when they check links for safety.

Many organizations use email security software that automatically clicks links to scan them for threats. When these scanners click your survey link, they can create false response sessions.

Toggle On to enable detection and filtering of these automated clicks.

7. Prevent Indexing

Block search engines like Google from including your survey in search results.

This setting is typically enabled by default and should remain On for most surveys.

Best Practice: Keep this enabled unless you specifically want your survey to be discoverable through search engines (rare).

8. Require Permission to View Uploaded Files

Control whether project collaborators can view files that respondents upload through your survey.

When set to On, only collaborators with explicit permission can access uploaded files. This adds an extra layer of protection for sensitive documents submitted by respondents.

9. Anonymize Responses

Prevent Qualtrics from collecting identifying information about your respondents.

When enabled, Qualtrics will not capture:

IP addresses
Location data
Contact information (for anonymous link distributions)

Best Practice: Enable this unless you have a specific need for location or IP address data. It provides extra protection for respondent privacy.

Managing Project Collaboration

Control Who Can Access Your Project

The project owner is responsible for managing who has access to the project and what permissions they have.

Important: Users must log into Qualtrics at least once before they can be added as collaborators. If you cannot find someone when searching to add them, ask them to access Qualtrics through my.pitt.edu first.

Access collaboration settings: From the Projects list, click the three-dot menu icon next to your project and select Collaborate.
Manage permissions: In the Collaborate window:
1. Use the search bar to add new collaborators by entering their Pitt email address or First and Last name
2. Toggle checkboxes to grant or revoke specific permissions for existing collaborators
3. Click the red icon next to a user to completely remove their access
4. Click Save before closing the window