ANONYMITY REALITY CHECK
Most “anonymous” survey tools still track people.
Wellness Pulse doesn’t.
Scan this board like an airport security screen. If a platform collects IPs, cookies, logins, or identifiers, it is not end‑to‑end anonymous—no matter what the marketing page says.
The Ultimate Test: Ask Your Provider This Question
"If tomorrow the government forces you to tell us who responded to what question, can you do it?"
Focus on the red dots and “NO / MIXED” badges—those are the silent identity leaks: IP logs, cookies, login links, and response‑level identifiers.
No Google logins, no cookies, no personal IDs, IPs hashed one‑way.
Nothing to tie a response to a person.
You can’t accidentally turn anonymity off.
Default: IPs & metadata collected unless explicitly disabled.
Unique URLs can reveal exactly who responded.
A single mis‑click in settings breaks anonymity.
Back‑end IP retention and metadata remain.
Creators can match responses back to invitees.
Provider staff can access identifiable logs.
Universities explicitly warn: not truly anonymous.
Most “internal” forms run while logged‑in.
Ad‑driven telemetry and account data remain.
User accounts and HRIS data sit at the core.
“Confidential” ≠ anonymous; manager views depend on identity.
The system is built to know who each response belongs to.
- IP logs + device fingerprints + timestamps are enough to single someone out in a small team.
- Per‑user survey links or SSO mean responses can be tied back to named people—forever.
- “We don’t show you the IP address” is not the same as “we never collect it.”
How We Guarantee Anonymity
Our architecture is designed from the ground up to be truly anonymous. Even if someone tried to trace responses, there's no trail—because we never collect identifying data in the first place.
The Truth: What Each Platform Actually Collects
See exactly what data flows through each system. The difference is stark.
- No IP addresses - We never see them
- No cookies - Zero tracking cookies
- No login required - Anonymous by design
- No device fingerprinting - Can't identify you
- No email addresses - Not collected, not needed
- No Google login - Google tracking avoided entirely
- IP addresses logged - Can identify location
- Tracking cookies - Follows you across sites
- Login often required - Links to your identity
- Device fingerprinting - Unique device ID created
- Email sometimes required - Personal identifier
- Google login often required - Tracks you across Google services
See the Data Flow Difference
Wellness Pulse Data Flow
Other Tools Data Flow
This visual board summarizes how common EX & CX tools handle identifiers like IP addresses, cookies, logins, and survey links, based on their published product behavior and documentation at the time of writing. For a narrative explanation of why Wellness Pulse is architecturally anonymous—no logins, no cookies, no per‑person URLs—read “True Anonymity in Employee Feedback: Why Wellness Pulse Stands Alone.”
For detailed, vendor‑specific behavior, see each platform’s own privacy and security documentation, for example:
- Qualtrics Trust Center and Privacy documentation at qualtrics.com.
- SurveyMonkey Privacy Notice and “Are my surveys anonymous?” help articles at surveymonkey.com.
- Google Workspace privacy & security information, which also governs Google Forms, at policies.google.com.
- Jotform’s security and privacy pages at jotform.com.
Disclaimer: This board reflects our best understanding of how these platforms handle identifiers as of 2025, based on their public documentation and customer reports. Features and practices may change over time. If you see anything that’s out of date or incomplete, please email support@wellpulse.org so we can update it.