Collect survey data without capturing date and time information.

Question

I am trying to create a survey with which to collect anonymous data from clients in the field. Data would be collected by an employee using a tablet or smartphone while visiting a client's site. I have found that it is possible to not collect location data, but the CreationDate and EditDate fields are automatically created and collect the date and time that survey results were submitted.

Is it possible to delete the Date fields somewhere in the design or the xls form of the survey so those data are not collected? If not, would there be any way to fill those fields with an ambiguous date (e.g. 1/1/1900)?

For backgroud, at my organization we have open records rules which could allow people to obtain employees calendar records along with survey response records that could then be synced up to tie responses to individual clients. We also have certain rules for retaining records once they are created, so exporting the records and stripping out the date and time information after the fact is not necessarily an option.

DanielSulak · Answer

With editor tracking disabled the created and last edited fields are still populated with the date and time a survey was submitted. I tried this with "Keep track of created and updated features" unchecked, and with "Enable Editing" both checked and unchecked. I set my survey to public and entered survey responses from a browser that was not signed into an ArcGIS account. In all cases the EditDate field is still populated by the date and time the survey response was submitted. The CreatedDate field is also populated that way if it exists, but as Alfred mentioned above that field can be deleted.

DanielSulak · Answer

The location collection is not technically off, but as long as there are no location questions and a browser is used to submit a survey response the location is recorded at coordinates 0, 0. If the survey123 app is used then the location will be automatically collected from the device.

The fields do still seem to appear when creating a survey from a feature class.

IsmaelChivite · Answer

To prevent Survey123 from collecting location tracking data (Creator, LastEditor, CreationTime, LastEditTime), simply disable Editor Tracking from your survey feature layer.

Steps:

* In ArcGIS.com or your portal app, go into the details page of your surveys feature layer.
* Go into Settings
* Uncheck the option: Keep track of who created and last updated features.

* Save changes.  From this point on, any records submitted from Survey123 will not have editor tracking information. No changes needed to your survey.