Privacy of public surveys

[KelliW]

I have a question about protecting information in a public survey. For a survey that is shared publicly, is the only way to access it is by having the link or QR code? Is there anywhere that all the public surveys are available on ArcGIS online? Basically, by making a survey public, is it only public for those I share the link with or is it out there for anyone to see and use? I have been looking for this answer everywhere and can't seem to find it. 

Here is my situation... I have several survey123 forms that are shared publicly but the data is only shared with my organization. I would like to use the Inbox for my field supervisors to QAQC forms when they are submitted. My field supervisors will have ArcGIS logins while those submitting the forms will not. I understand right now that only my field supervisors with ArcGIS logins will be able to use the Inbox, and those without logins will not. That is preferable to me. I want the survey to be public, but only my organization to be able to view the inbox. Assuming I don't send the link of the survey to anyone else, would anyone have access to the inbox? 

[Alber_Verster]

Hi Kelli,

In the attached document, securing of the layer while still allowing users to submit surveys is discussed.

Hope it helps.

Regards

Alber

[KelliW]

This is something I haven't seen before, so it is interesting, thank you. But I already have my data only shared with my organization and it doesn't really answer my question. My question is whether other people can find my survey just by searching for it somewhere. Is there a repository where all surveys go? So basically, can I google "Survey 123 Trees in California" and find a random persons publicly shared survey? Or would they have to actively share a link for others to find their public survey?

[DavidColey · Accepted solution]

Yes @KelliW if you google "Survey 123 Trees in California", random publicly shared survey 123 apps will show up, and if the survey is open or accepting submissions, you can access it. I just did that myself.

Or, if just going to arcgis.com and performing a search using the same terms you will see some survey forms in the results.  There are webhook ways to be notified when someone submits a record, but I am not sure if there is a webhhook method that will notify you if someone simply opens the survey in a browser.

https://doc.arcgis.com/en/survey123/browser/create-surveys/webhooks.htm

From the Survey123 website>Collaborate>Survey status, you can set web-based surveys to be Open or Closed or set to only accept results during a set time window, but that method is not available to the field app.

[KelliW]

Thank you! That is good to know.