Formulations and necessary contents of surveys at KIT

The survey tool SoSci Survey is made available in particular for conducting anonymous surveys. Anonymity requires that no conclusions can be drawn about individuals from the answers of the survey participants. Avoid personal references when designing the questions and answer options. You can ensure this in particular by only asking for demographic information (e.g. age, gender, nationality, etc.) in categories and explicitly stating that no personal data may be entered in free text fields.

Standard case: Anonymous survey
In the case of an anonymous survey, data protection law does not apply and the following note at the beginning of the survey is sufficient:

Participation in the survey is voluntary. The survey is anonymous. Socio-demographic data such as gender etc. is collected solely for the purpose of evaluating the statements in a heterogeneous group. No attempts will be made to draw conclusions about specific individuals from the information you provide. The evaluation results will only be published in anonymized form (in tables and/or graphs), so that it is not possible to draw conclusions about individuals. Please do not enter any personal data in the free text fields, not even from third parties.

Exception: personal survey
If, by way of exception, you wish to conduct a personal, i.e. non-anonymous, survey, the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation must be observed. In particular, it may be necessary

• obtain the consent of the participants,
• provide data protection information,
• carry out a risk analysis,
• create an eVV entry.

In this case, the Data Protection Office(KIT - Data Protection Office About us - The Data Protection Office | Team) is available to advise you - ideally by e-mail dsb∂kit.edu.