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Every respondent entering a Research Desk project passes through Research Defender fraud and quality checks before reaching your survey. This happens automatically for Buy Sample, Manual, and Automated sources — no separate integration required.

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Respondent flow

Legitimate respondents experience minimal friction. Fraudulent respondents are detected, terminated, and blocked from your survey instrument. For API-level integration details, see the Research Defender API documentation.

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SEARCH — Digital fingerprinting

SEARCH runs in the background as respondents travel from their supply source into Research Desk. It combines proprietary technology and third-party anti-fraud services to identify e-commerce and ad-tech fraud patterns.

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Thresholds

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Common termination reasons

SEARCH evaluates dozens of fraud signals in real time. Termination codes appear in your traffic report and Defender export. Elevated Defender terms during soft launch may indicate targeting that attracts professional survey takers, or specs (LOI/IR) that do not match the actual survey experience.

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ACTIVITY — Ecosystem activity tracking

ACTIVITY measures a respondent’s survey-taking rate across the market research ecosystem. High volume correlates with poor data quality.

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REVIEW — Open-end quality check

REVIEW presents a standalone web page with an open-end question before your survey. It uses:
  1. AI response detection — Flags patterns consistent with AI-generated text
  2. Contextual analysis — Flags answers irrelevant to the question asked
  3. Text analytics — Scores grammar, length, profanity, copy/paste, and engagement
  4. Honeypot — Hidden field visible only to bots
  5. DevTools detection — Flags respondents with inspector panels open
Open-end questions used in REVIEW are maintained in the Quality library in Research Desk navigation. Do not modify library content.

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Monitoring Defender outcomes

During fieldwork, watch Defender terms (security outcomes) alongside completes and terminates: See Managing Fieldwork and Troubleshooting.

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Adjusting thresholds

Defender thresholds are configured at the account level by Rep Data. Contact clientsuccess@repdata.com if you need threshold adjustments for a specific study design.