Procedure for getting an email address given a SERIAL No in a multi-wave pseudonym study

Question

I am running a multi-wave survey which generates an anonymous voucher at the end. The voucher contains the SERIAL number so that it can be tied to the data. Participants are paid based on this voucher and also receive course credit.

I received two vouchers with the same SERIAL number meaning a person may have fraudulently masqueraded as a participant. I would like to contact the legitimate participant to see how someone else may have gotten a copy of his/her voucher. Is it possible to get the email address based on the SERIAL number. Given that the privacy is pseudonym, this is not possible for me.

Answer 1

Is it possible to get the email address based on the SERIAL number. Given that the privacy is pseudonym, this is not possible for me.

We are able to de-pseudomize address enries upon request.

Please send an email to info@soscisurvey.de, stating the survey's URL and the SERIAL, you would like to de-pseudomize. But before doing so, please ask your data protection officer, if there are any restrictions that may disallow the identification of the person.

Comments

Thank you very much for the quick reply as always.  I consulted with the Institutional Review Board at the university where I conducted the study and they instructed me not to seek this information.  Thank you for the reminder to check.