Forum Discussion

tmurlin's avatar
tmurlin
Copper Contributor
Jan 15, 2021

Anonymous Answers in Forms

I work for a State Agency and we are required by the Feds to submit a list of people who complete a Form. I tested the form/survey and my name appeared on the spreadsheet. However, now that 150+ people have completed the Survey, every other name shows "anonymous". Is there anyway someone can find this data so it doesn't show anonymous so we can submit it to the Feds so we don't get an audit finding? 

 

Thank you. 

  • RobElliott's avatar
    RobElliott
    Silver Contributor

    tmurlin if you have set your form so that only people in your organisation can respond then Forms knows who they are and will record their email address. However, if you have set your form so that anyone with a link can respond then the only way you can identify who has submitted a response is by asking them their name and email address as questions in the form. I assume you haven't done that and that external people have submitted a response which is therefore shown as anonymous. There is no way to find out who they are. If you could and the responder thought it was anonymous it would be a compliance and regulatory nightmare, at least here in the EU.

     

    Rob
    Los Gallardos
    Microsoft Power Automate Community Super User

    • Tom_Hawkins's avatar
      Tom_Hawkins
      Copper Contributor

      RobElliott Thanks for your above response but, in my case, I HAVE included a name and email question. All of the responses include that but the scroll through list still has every response as anonymous.  The name and address columns on the excel spreadsheet are empty.  I asked the question in French (votre NOM, votre adresse mail, etc).  

      Thanks

      • RobElliott's avatar
        RobElliott
        Silver Contributor

        Tom_Hawkins If you've set the settings to "any with a link can respond" then Forms will always record it as anonymous, but the spreadsheet should still be showing their names in the votre nom and votre adresse columns if the user has entered them - make sure they are mandatory questions.

         

        Rob
        Los Gallardos
        Intranet, SharePoint and Power Platform Manager (and classic 1967 Morris Traveller driver)

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