- Digital Fingerprinting
- Online Forms
- Discrete Choice/Conjoint
- Concept Highlighter
- Drag and Drop
- Complex Quotas
- Build Your Own
- Max Diff
- Store Shelf Exercises
- Interactive Sliders
- Images/Pop-Ups
- Magazine Page Turner
- Timed Exposures
- Video/Audio/Flash
- Paired Comparisons
- Segmentation Algorithms
- Low-Score Alerts
- Recruiter Freedom
- Multi-Lingual Studies
- Emailing Services
- Self Service Edit Tool
Digital Fingerprinting
Digital Fingerprinting is the process of storing a unique identifier for each machine (computer) used to take an online survey. It is not a unique respondent identifier; it is a unique machine identifier. With various settings and controls, it's an important extra layer that can be used in the identification and removal of fraudulent respondents.
Don't my recruiters already do their own Digital Fingerprinting?
Yes, many of them do. But what if you're using multiple recruiters and the same person is a panelist with each? Or what if you're sending emails to a client-provided list: might the same person be on the list multiple times with different email addresses? It's therefore important that the company programming and hosting your research study has their own layer of Digital Fingerprinting.
How does Critical Mix implement Digital Fingerprinting?
Critical Mix has implemented three levels of fraudulent respondent identification and elimination:
- Country Block
- Technology Block
- Machine Block
Country Block
Every computer used to access the Internet is assigned an identification number, or IP address. The geographic location of the company who has registered that IP address (typically an Internet Service Provider) can be determined. Critical Mix can control which countries are and are not allowed to participate in your online survey.
But be careful: did you know that Blackberry devices are developed by a Canadian company called RIM, and Blackberry users may have a Canadian-registered IP address when accessing web pages (even in the US)? And what if you're trying to survey high-level executives or frequent travelers: might they want to take the survey from their hotel room while on an overseas trip?
Technology Block
Most Internet browsers allow scripting languages, such as JavaScript, to achieve special effects on web sites. JavaScript is used for running totals in 100-point allocation questions and to make images and definitions "pop-up". Also, many online surveys present complex grid questions, images, attitudinal batteries, etc., which require a reasonable screen resolution to display correctly.
Critical Mix can detect JavaScript, screen resolution, and other technical settings to make sure that only respondents with appropriately configured computers can participate in your online survey.
Machine Block
Critical Mix saves a machine ID for each respondent. Critical Mix can either block duplicate machine IDs from participating in your online survey at all, or can set a time interval during which duplicate machine IDs will be blocked. The machine ID is not perfect, and therefore this time interval is important: set it too restrictively, and you'll risk blocking an occasional valid and unique respondent; set it too loosely, and you'll risk letting an occasional fraudulent respondent into your survey.
For the vast majority of studies, the machine ID and time interval combination is an important layer of security. But it may not be appropriate for the following types of studies:
- Mall-intercept studies
- Home Use Tests (HUTs)
- Hard-to-reach physician specialties sharing the same office
Tracking and Metrics
When Digital Fingerprinting is turned on, the Critical Mix online control panel will display how many respondents were denied access to your online survey due to each of the three blocks described above. For studies with multiple recruiters or recruitment methods, Critical Mix can provide a report breaking out this information for each. And, for those respondents turned away due to a matching machine ID, Critical Mix will flag the original respondent who had already been allowed into the survey, so that you can identify them and decide whether or not to remove them from the data set as well.
This product includes GeoLite data created by MaxMind, available from http://www.maxmind.com/.