The Active Lives survey was hosted using our global Dimensions platform in Google Cloud Platform, a managed hosting facility.
The security features offered by Google Cloud Platform, and Ipsos are listed below:
At Google Cloud Platform
- Encryption at Rest and in Transit: GCP automatically encrypts data before it is stored, ensuring its confidentiality even if physical storage is compromised. GCP safeguards data during transmission between networks using industry-standard encryption protocols, preventing unauthorized interception.
- Physical Security: GCP data centers deploy robust physical security measures including multi-factor authentication, surveillance, and strict access controls.
- Secure Service Deployment: GCP utilizes isolation techniques to separate customer data and applications, preventing potential threats from spreading.
- Compliance Standards: GCP adheres to comprehensive compliance standards, including GDPR, HIPAA, PCI DSS, and others, ensuring compliance with industry regulations.
At Ipsos:
- All access to Dimensions’ questionnaires and data was managed by means of Microsoft Azure Active Directory Single Sign-On (SSO). Only a small number of online survey experts had access.
- Survey data and any respondent personal information were stored in separate databases.
- Penetration testing is carried out annually by a third party.
- Paper questionnaires were stored securely and destroyed at the end of the project.
Survey URL
When deciding on a suitable URL for the survey, we had to strike a balance between several factors.
- Availability: We had to find an address that was not already in use. This ruled out options such as ALS.com, ALS.co.uk and ActiveLives.com;
- Brevity: We had to choose an address that was short enough for people to remember as we thought this would improve accessibility and would help maximise response rate;
- Engagement/appeal: We wanted the URL to give some indication of the content of the survey as well as linking to the overall branding, the theory being that this would help promote engagement with the survey for all types of respondents.
After considering all our options, we opted for http://www.activelivessurvey.org/ as it was the most suitable option based on the criteria listed above.
Based on internal timings we estimated that the questionnaire would take around 15 minutes to complete.
The median actual completion time was 12 minutes 58 seconds for group 1 compared with 14 minutes and 30 seconds for group 2.
The timings data is calculated as the difference between the survey start and finish times. This does not include respondents who exit the survey and return to it at a later time.