Is Tell Frances really anonymous?

As part of our Tell Frances listening exercise, a few colleagues have asked important questions about how anonymity works, especially as we’re using a platform run by Clever Together to collect responses.

These questions are welcome. When you’re being asked to share your honest views, it’s natural to want clarity and reassurance about how your input is handled.

So, is Tell Frances anonymous? The answer is yes and here’s what that means in practice.

Psychological safety, not total invisibility

Clever Together, the organisation running the platform, designs their system to provide psychological safety. That means you can share openly, without fear that your name or identity will ever be attached to your comments.

They guarantee that:

• No names will ever be shown next to contributions or responses.
• No names will ever be shared with the University or with any client they work with.
• No one can be identified from their comments, even when datasets are analysed.
• The only exception would be in extremely rare circumstances, such as a credible threat of harm or illegal activity. Even then, identification is very rare.

In more than 15 years and over a million participants, Clever Together has identified just 9 individuals: three who were at risk of imminent self-harm (and are thankfully still alive today), and one who was later convicted of stalking a co-worker. No one has ever been identified simply for expressing a strong opinion, raising concerns, or even being critical.

Why unique links are used

You’ll have noticed that each person received a unique link to access Tell Frances. This might feel like it undermines anonymity but in fact, it helps to protect the process.

Here’s why:

To ensure fairness and representation

The system tracks which departments or staff groups have responded. This helps us understand whose voices are being heard and where we need to encourage more participation – but we don’t get to see who said what. Your responses are not linked to any sensitive information unless you choose to share it.

To prevent misuse

Unique links stop people from submitting multiple entries or spamming the survey, something that’s especially important when free text responses are involved.

To safeguard wellbeing

If someone used the platform to issue a credible threat of violence or harm, Clever Together would be able to step in and only in those very specific situations.

Anonymous to us by design

For the University, your contributions are fully anonymous. We will never see your name, nor will we be given any data that lets us piece together your identity. Clever Together acts as a trusted intermediary to make sure that remains the case.

Your honest views – whether they’re supportive, challenging, hopeful, frustrated, or uncertain – are an essential part of shaping Essex’s future. And we want you to feel confident that you can speak freely.

We hope this provides reassurance. If you have any further questions about Tell Frances, or the platform it uses, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.