What is Webtools?
Webtools is a continually developing suite of online tools designed to help University of Illinois faculty and staff accomplish their web and communication responsibilities quickly and easily. Webtools allows university professionals to focus on the information they are gathering or sharing and not on the technology needed to accomplish the task. Webtools is currently comprised of Blogs, Calendars, Email+, Eweek, File Manager, Forms, Group Manager, Massmail, Short URL, Skin Designer, Surveys, and Transfer Privileges, with several more web tools in development.
Where is the data stored?
All data gathered using Webtools is stored on servers located at Amazon Web Services. These servers have been reviewed by Technology Services.
Who has access to the responses once a survey is submitted?
Data collected using the Surveys or Forms tool is accessible only by the owner of the Survey or Form. Owners may assign privileges to others who may then access the data also. No one besides the owner or owner's delegates has access to any data.
How are backups handled?
All database backups are stored via Amazon Web Services RDS services. They are backed up continuously. All files are backed up three times a day to an Amazon S3 bucket.
At what point is the data removed from the servers?
Only owners and delegates have access to the data. The data will remain on the OWS server until it is deleted by the owner or delegates. No data will ever be removed by OWS.
How is anonymity maintained?
ALL responses in the Survey tool are ANONYMOUS. There is no link between a user and a response. For surveys that allow "only one response per person", information is stored about who took the survey. The Survey software stores this "person" information separately from the survey response information. Thus, allowing a person to take a survey only once, yet having no way to link a user to a response (guaranteeing complete anonymity). User submission information is not accessible by anyone but OWS staff and will NOT be provided upon request.
How is the data accessed?
Data is accessed through Webtools via the web by the owner or delegates. Data is presented in either Microsoft Excel (CSV) or a PDF. Data can be accessed only by authorized users (bluestem ID and password) and all data accessed through Webtools is secure using the encryption of the https protocol. Surveys also have the option of sending an email when a subject submits a response. OWS cannot guarantee the security of a response being emailed since email is sometimes transferred using the unsecured http protocol.
How is the data collected?
All data collected using Webtools is through a web interface. All communication between the web browser and server is encrypted using the https protocol.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is included on every Webtools page and widget for application tracking.
