Privacy and Security

uSPEQ takes privacy and data security very seriously. All surveys are private and confidential; respondents’ identities will never be disclosed. Privacy protections include:

• uSPEQ surveys do not collect any personally identifying information, such as name, social security number, or contact information.
• If respondents do choose to provide identifying information, such as signing their name at the end of a comment, this information is redacted from reports provided to the organization.
• If an organization requests raw data, uSPEQ takes steps to modify the data provided to the organization to prevent identification of individual respondents.

The privacy of subscriber organizations is also protected. uSPEQ does not provide any data or summary reports to third parties, including CARF International. uSPEQ operates as a separate division of CARF and has its own staff. CARF staff and surveyors are not made aware that an organization is a uSPEQ subscriber, and they cannot access an organization’s uSPEQ data. Being a uSPEQ subscriber does not affect an organization’s final accreditation decision.

uSPEQ data are stored in a database that adheres to data-security best practices. Paper surveys are kept in secure storage and are periodically destroyed via secure shredding.