Hi All
Obviously I'm not impartial so I'd like to declare that up-front ;-)
Bristol Online Surveys and Survey Monkey tend to aim at different markets. If you're an individual researcher then Survey Monkey is arguably more cost-effective. If you're running surveys at an institutional or organisational unit level then BOS is potentially more cost effective - since we charge a flat annual fee, give free support and offer unlimited users, surveys and responses (rather than charge on usage).
One key consideration is data storage, BOS uses the University of Bristol's data centre but I think I'm right in saying that Survey Monkey stores data in the US. This has implications under the Data Protection Act. Survey Monkey's privacy policy used to mention that they adhered to Safe Harbor but it's not mentioned now:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/privacypolicy.aspx
However, they are still listed here and this is current until 29th November:
http://safeharbor.export.gov/companyinfo.aspx?id=8229
That said, as I'm sure you know, Safe harbor may not be sufficient:
http://www.out-law.com/default.aspx?page=11060
I only mentioned the above because of where you work and because you plan to use SSL suggesting you may be collecting data that would be covered under the DPA - it may be you are not. Survey Monkey does have an office in Portugal so, depending on the type of data you plan to collect, it's worth confirming the situation with them regarding European data storage/Safe Harbor etc.
Obviously I/we are happy to answer any questions you may have on BOS but it's perhaps best done off-list as I don't want this to be seen as a sales pitch - please accept my apologies if it came across as such.
The support team can be contacted at: [log in to unmask]
Cheers
Kieren
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