Storage

To learn how to use Storage mode, see here.

I have lost my Secret Keys! What should I do?

If you have lost your secret key, take these steps immediately:

1. If your form is live, duplicate your form immediately, save the new secret key securely and replace the original form’s link with the new form’s link to continue collecting responses.

2. Deactivate the original form as soon as possible to avoid losing further responses. Do note that duplicating your form only copies all the fields but not existing responses.

3. On the computer you used to create the original form, search for ‘Form Secret Key’. Secret keys are downloaded as .txt files with ‘Form Secret Key’ in the filename.

   1. You can also search for your Form ID as it may also included in the filename. You can find your Form ID in the Form URL (ie. http://form.sg/65dd469fc150f58af9eb71b5).

4. If you have created multiple forms with similar titles in the past, it is possible that you have confused the different forms’ secret keys with each other. Try all secret keys with similar filenames on your form.

5. If you remember sending an email to share your secret key with collaborators, search the Sent folder in your email for the keyword ‘secret key’ and your form title.

6. If you are still unable to find your secret key, you will not be able to access your existing response data.

As a best practice, it is highly recommended to convert your form links using go.gov.sg which allows you to quickly swap out form links in the event of secret key loss.

Can FormSG team help me retrieve my secret key?

No. It is not possible for us to recover your lost secret key or response data on your behalf. This is because FormSG team does not retain your secret key or provide other ways to unlock your encrypted data - this is the only way to ensure response data is truly private to agencies only. This is an important security benefit, because that means even if our server were to be compromised, an attacker would never be able to unlock your encrypted responses.

If I transfer ownership, does the secret key auto-transfer to the new owner?

No. You have to pass the secret key to the new owner manually.

Can I delete or edit my responses?

This is currently not possible. However, if you wish to reset your response count to zero after testing your form, you can simply duplicate your test form and create another form. You can then use your new form as your live form instead.

Is there a storage limit?

No. There have been forms with over a million submissions on Storage mode. As a best security practice, do duplicate your forms over time.

What is the storage duration? How long will my responses be stored for?

Form will store your encrypted responses indefinitely, and they will be accessible as long as you have the secret key. If there are changes to this policy, we will inform all form users.

If you no longer need to access your form responses, you can simply discard your secret key. Without your secret key, your form responses cannot be decrypted, and are unreadable.

How does encryption work?

When a respondent submits a response, response data is encrypted in the respondent’s browser before being sent to our servers for storage. This means that by the time Form’s servers receive responses, they have already been scrambled and are stored in this unreadable form. Your response data remains in this encrypted state until you decrypt your responses with your secret key, transforming them into a readable format.

The benefit of encryption is that response data enters and remains in FormSG’s servers in an encrypted state. This ensures that even if our servers are compromised by an attack, attackers will still not be able to decrypt and view your response data, as they do not possess your secret key(s).

I am not receiving responses even though I am a collaborator!

Adding a collaborator does not mean that they receive responses immediately. You need to add them as recipients in the form's settings.

Why do I have an additional quote in some of my responses?

For some context, it is possible to create formulas using +, -, @ or = signs in file types such as Excel. The FormSG team found a security vulnerability where respondents could type a formula into responses which may cause malicious codes to be injected and ran in exports when you open them.

As such, your responses may now have a single quote added to it to prevent this from happening.

	Before	After (Security enhancement)
CSV	=cmd	'=cmd
Excel	[=cmd]	['=cmd]

You may simply remove the quotes from those responses if required.

I am unable to fully download all my attachments on my corporate device!

Please check if you have safe.menlosecurity.com/ included in your URL page. This will cause issues with exporting. Remove it and just download from form.gov.sg without it.

How to convert CSV to Excel properly?

You may have encountered auto modifications of the timestamp or response ID to scientific values. To fix this:

1. Open Excel on a blank document

2. In the data tab, click "Get External Data", "From Text" or equivalent

3. Select the downloaded CSV file from FormSG

More info can be found on Microsoft's support page.