In
conducting this census, it is essential that student privacy is protected,
and all data is anonymous. We are very pleased to have contracted the
support of goVote, who specialise in conducting Web based voting, ballots
and surveys, with state of the art encryption and other critical security
and privacy features that will ensure the whole process is up to the most
intense scrutiny. Any questions pertaining to this area of the project
should be directed to Anthony Harradine.
Once
collected, the data will not be onsold or used in any way other than for
educational purposes.
Some
of the security and privacy features of the goVote system are listed below.
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Each
student will have an individual session with the secure goVote
server.
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No
data will be sent via e-mail.
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No
student particulars are sent to govote, and none of the questions
in the survey require students to identify themselves. Students authenticate
themselves by using individual PIN numbers.
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Only
students who present a valid PIN will be able to download the survey,
and each PIN will only allow one completed survey form to be submitted.
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Sessions
will automatically time out after a pre-determined period and students
will have to re enter their PIN.
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From
the moment the student presses the 'submit' button, their responses
will be anonymous.
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All
responses are cleared from the student's screen immediately after they
submit, so that nobody can see what they submitted.
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Responses
are immediately cleared from the cache of the student's browser, so
that nobody can use the 'back' button to see what they submitted.
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The
goVote system processes PINs separately from the responses, and
it is impossible to correlate these two sets of data.
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The
goVote system does not record the IP address of the sending machine.
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Each
student will receive an individual receipt on line, to confirm that
their submission has been received, and all receipts will be published
after the census, so that students can verify that their submission
has been counted.
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