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Protect the Confidentiality of Form Responses with Encrypted Email

FormSmarts Encrypted Email (S/MIME) allows you to protect the confidentiality of the data submitted through your forms, while keeping the convenience of receiving form responses by email.

FormSmarts encrypted email uses asymmetric encryption (also known as public-key cryptography) to encrypt a message before it is sent in such a way that only the form recipient can decrypt it. The email message itself is encrypted, not just the connection used to deliver it to its destination.

With encrypted email, a form response is encrypted in FormSmarts' backend and only decrypted by the email app on your computer or phone.

FormSmarts secure email is based on the Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (S/MIME), an Internet standard that is supported by most desktop and mobile email apps.

Should I Use Encrypted Email for My Forms?

Any form that collects personal identifiable information (PII) like Social Security Numbers, health or financial data should be a prime candidate for being delivered by encrypted email.

S/MIME encrypted email is often an alternative to Secure Access, which requires form recipients to log in to FormSmarts to access form responses.

How Does Encrypted Email Compare with Standard Email?

How Can I Start Using S/MIME Email?

All you need to start receiving form submissions by secure email are:

1. An email software or app that supports S/MIME (most do)
2. A S/MIME certificate from a Certificate Authority (CA), which you can get free from the CA listed here after verifying your email address

You then need to install the S/MIME certificate and register it with FormSmarts:

1. Install the certificate on the devices where you want to access encrypted messages
2. Send an email digitally signed with the certificate to FormSmarts from one of the devices where you've installed the certificate.
3. Edit each of the forms you want to protect and toggle on Send by secure email (S/MIME) in the Submit Actions tab, as shown on the screenshot above.

Posted by FormSmarts on Jun 2, 2021 at 9:54 am in online form.
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Tags: email notification, form results, privacy, secure form

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