The General Data Protection Regulation came into effect on 25 May, 2018, giving individuals more rights and insights about the use of their data. The legislation applies to anyone in the EU that collects or handles personal data, and also to organisations outside of the EU where they collect or handle the personal data of individuals in the EU. It includes substantial fines for non-compliance.
If the GDPR applies you are collecting, you will need to ensure that your survey practices are GDPR compliant. There are a number of ways in which the GDPR affects data collection, surveys, and research projects, including:
Snap Survey Software offers features and functionality to help create GDPR compliant surveys. We are ISO 27001 certified, and have built on our ISO and Data Protection Act compliance frameworks to meet the new GDPR requirements.
Snap Surveys Limited is a UK based company, with servers located in the UK, and the option to use a wholly ring fenced UK solution where survey data will not leave the UK.
All data stored by Snap Surveys is treated with the highest levels of security, and there is also the option to run surveys on your own servers to have complete control over the data.
Snap Surveys provides several methods of anonymising surveys. It’s possible to run completely anonymous surveys that don’t collect any personal data. Alternatively, survey responses can be anonymised after collection.
The first page of a survey can be set up to obtain a respondent’s consent before they can proceed with the survey. The consent question can be used as a record of consent, and when it was given.
Relevant information regarding the survey, and how a respondent’s data will be handled and processed, can be provided in a survey invitation email, or at the beginning of a survey.
It’s possible to download and export an individual’s survey data and provide a copy. Respondent information and survey responses can also be edited or deleted if an organisation receives a request from an individual to do so.
A marker can be placed against a potential respondent so that they no longer receive survey invitations or reminders. Markers can also be used to exclude individual survey responses from further processing or reporting.