Is there a way to anonymise the alter’s name that the participant adds/nominates? Anonym. feature cannot be found/is not working

Feedback & Feature Requests
1

Basically as said above. I have 8.3.0 version and cannot find the encrypted variables nor the anonymity features in my Architect. Thank you for any suggestions.

2

Hi Hana - welcome to the community! :waving_hand:

Thanks for raising this, and sorry for the confusion. Our documentation told you to use an Experimental Features page without saying how to get there, and Architect has no menu link to that page. We’ve corrected the documentation.

To encrypt the names participants give for the people they nominate:

  1. Open your protocol in Architect.
  2. Add /protocol/experiments to the end of the address in your browser’s address bar. For example: https://architect.networkcanvas.com/protocol/experiments
  3. Switch on Encrypted Attributes. This setting is saved in the protocol file, so it only affects this protocol.
  4. Go back to your timeline and add a stage. Anonymisation will now be available as a stage type. When participants reach this stage, they create a passphrase.
  5. In that stage’s Encrypted attributes section, switch on the node type for the people participants nominate. Then tick the attributes you want encrypted, such as the name. Only text attributes can be encrypted.

To see a complete working example, the latest version of Architect has a new built-in template called Help-Seeking After Intimate Partner Violence. It encrypts the names and private notes participants record. Other details stay readable for analysis, such as relationship types and the services participants use. You can find it on the Templates tab of the home screen. If you’re still on 8.3.0, reload Architect to get the update.

Some things to know before you use it in a study:

  • Encryption protects the data that is saved and exported, not what is on screen. During the interview, names are shown as normal, so an interviewer sitting with the participant can still see them.
  • Exports don’t include the encrypted values. In CSV and GraphML files, each one is replaced with a placeholder.
  • The passphrase is never stored. If the participant reloads the page or comes back to the interview later, they have to enter it again. If they forget it, there is no way for it to be recovered.

The full details are in the Anonymisation interface documentation.

This feature is still experimental, so we’d really welcome your feedback. Please tell us whether it works for your study, and about anything that’s confusing or that you’d need before you could use it.