Most of the issues raised regarding the security of conducting online research revolve around electronic eavesdropping or "data clipping." Data clipping can occur when data from online activity is transmitted from the respondent's "client" computer back to the “host” server, e.g., when information has been submitted at the end of completing a survey form.

With email and form-based surveys, information is transmitted as a single block and can be clipped in its entirety. The stolen information would have meaning in and of itself. It would be similar to making a completed mail-back customer satisfaction survey available to a competitor.
With more interactive approaches to web-based surveying, such as our WSN survey systems, the potential for data clipping is significantly decreased owing to several security measures:

• First, the entire WSN experience is hosted on our secure servers. All activities take place on these servers and no real data is ever exchanged across the Internet.
• Second, all data transferred and stored throughout the research experience are encrypted. Without the proper software to decode the language, the data would have little value.
• Third, the data set and data map are stored in separate areas of our servers. Even if a malicious hacker were to get a hold of and decrypt a data file, without the data map to match up the questions, no usable information would be obtained.