Your account. Your choices.

What we store and why

We store your name, email, password hash, session and verification records to operate your account. Optional passport demographics, participation preferences, allocations, completion records and credits support study matching. Survey studio stores question definitions, consent records and submitted answers. Draft participant answers are not saved.

Hosting and email

The website runs on Netlify. Account and study data is stored in a Neon PostgreSQL database in Sydney, Australia. Microsoft 365 sends account verification and password-reset emails. These providers process data needed to operate the service, including connection and operational logs. Some processing may occur outside Australia. We use an essential session cookie to keep you signed in. If you begin a survey before signing in, choosing to save temporarily keeps that draft in your browser tab so it can be restored after sign-in. That temporary copy is removed when restored or when the tab session ends.

Who can access study data

Researchers can access records and pseudonymous participant snapshots for their own studies and download their Survey studio responses. Survey exports use response identifiers, but the platform can link submissions to accounts. This is not anonymous collection. Authorised platform administrators can access stored data for operations and support. Do not submit identity documents or highly sensitive information in the beta.

Your research choices

Passport participation and eligible-study notices are optional. Notices appear in My account when you visit; email study alerts are not currently provided. Pausing participation prevents new matches but does not delete past records. Each researcher must provide appropriate study information, consent and contact details and obtain any required ethics approval before recruitment. Information and debrief templates do not establish ethics compliance. External surveys have their own privacy and withdrawal arrangements.

Community and messages

Published profiles, posts, comments and groups are public. Your passport, email and study history are not published on your community profile. ORCID and LinkedIn links are self-supplied and unverified. Direct messages are limited to conversation participants through the app, but are not end-to-end encrypted. Blocking does not make public content private. Moderators can review reports; a report does not automatically include private message content.

Verification and quality

Email verification confirms access to an inbox, not identity. Demographics are self-reported. The beta does not perform identity verification, independent bot detection or VPN detection. Completion evidence and exclusion decisions are researcher-reported. Credits have no cash value, and neither sample size nor response quality is guaranteed.

Deletion, exports and retention

Account data remains until you delete your account. Deletion removes your active account, passport, participation snapshots, community content and conversations, owned studies and Survey studio documents, and your Survey studio responses. Other participants retain earned credits. Researchers may already have downloaded responses; contact the researcher about withdrawal from those copies. Deleted data may remain temporarily in provider backups or operational logs. The current Neon restore history is six hours. We cannot promise removal from copies held by other people.

Community standards and support

Use one account per person. Do not falsify eligibility, automate participation, harass others, share confidential participant data, or post unlawful content. Use the report controls or contact info@surveysynergy.com for moderation, abandoned study places, completion disputes, access or correction requests. SurveySynergy is an early beta and may be unavailable while issues are fixed.