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Introduction

Research Desk supports the ability to securely receive survey respondents from survey platforms and redirect them back to the supplier. An encrypted hashed key is added to the redirect link so you can confirm the values within the URL have not been altered.

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Survey Respondent Transactions

There are four distinct redirect transactions in the survey respondent experience:
  1. Respondent entry to Research Desk from the supplier platform.
  2. Respondent entry to the researcher survey (e.g. Decipher, Qualtrics, SurveyMonkey) from Research Desk.
  3. Respondent exit with a survey disposition (complete, term, over-quota) from the researcher survey to Research Desk.
  4. Respondent exit with a survey disposition from Research Desk to the supplier platform.
Steps 3 and 4 use encryption technology for enhanced security.
The scope of this page is limited to item 4 — respondent exit with a survey disposition from Research Desk to the supplier platform. Please contact supply@repdata.com with questions and support requests.

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Encryption

Research Desk uses a hashed key based on SHA-256 to return post-survey respondents back to suppliers with a survey disposition code (e.g. complete, term, OQ). The hashed key is based on the entire URL redirect combined with the supplier’s secret key. Your secret key is the same value as your Supply API key, available through Rep Data’s supplier registration process. SHA-256 hashed keys can be validated with this online tool: https://emn178.github.io/online-tools/sha256.html.
Keep your secret key secure. Do not share it with any third party, and use it as your sole means of validating secure URL redirects. Rep Data reserves the right to revoke your secret key at any time.

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Example

The example below uses a fictitious supplier, XYZ Sample, whose fictitious secret key is 5bf1ae0d-148b-4160-ad0c-fa3ad96b90c5. URL before encryption — the respondent “complete” (status=1) link, showing the underlying URL prior to encryption. This URL, including the supplier key, is never visible to the respondent:
  • Respondent ID (rid): abc123
  • Supplier Secret Key (sk): 5bf1ae0d-148b-4160-ad0c-fa3ad96b90c5
URL after encryption — the value used to send the respondent back to the supplier. This URL is fully visible to the respondent:
  • Respondent ID (rid): abc123
  • SHA-256 Hashed Key (hk): 817e313f1f9ab2d47a388a27d4394f7d8afa9c296364e94caf5b364f765f0326

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Converting the URL

To convert the URL before encryption to the URL after encryption:
  1. Use the entire link before encryption (including https through the end of the supplier key value) as the input to SHA-256 encryption.
  2. Replace the supplier key (sk) in the link with the resulting SHA-256 hashed key (hk).
The hashed key for the example above can be confirmed using the SHA-256 online tool. The screenshot below shows the input (entire URL before encryption) and output (hashed key):