We take privacy and the maintenance of participant anonymity seriously at Prolific.
We require that our researchers do not attempt to identify participants. This means you should not ask participants for personal data that would directly identify them, even if that data isn't accessible to you. For example, you shouldn’t ask participants to sign in to their Google Account.
Below is a list of personal data (PII) that, in general, you may not collect through Prolific.
Please note that this list is not exhaustive - as a general rule, you cannot ask participants for any information that could risk de-anonymizing them.
You may not collect
❌ First and/or last name
❌ Initials
❌ Date of birth
❌ Phone number
❌ Address
❌ 9 digit ZIP code or full UK, Canadian or Australian postcode
❌ Social media usernames, or links to social media accounts or posts (e.g. X, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok etc.)
❌ Gaming usernames (e.g. PlayStation Network ID, Xbox gamertag, Steam ID etc.)
❌ Email address
❌ Employer name and/or address
❌ Crypto currency wallet IDs
Please also make sure that even if you do not directly ask for the information above, nothing you request includes it, for example if you ask participants to upload documents or screenshots.
You may collect
✅ Location information (partial only)
5 digit ZIP code (US)
First letters of a UK postcode
First 3 characters of a Canadian postcode
First 2 digits of an Australian postcode
For more options, see our geographic prescreeners.
✅ Prolific email address only
This will look something like:
[email protected]
You should not attempt to re-identify any participant using the data provided by Prolific or any other data available to you. In some areas, this may even be a criminal offense. This also applies to people who are not directly taking part in the study. You should not ask for personal information about friends, family, colleagues, or anyone else.
Should you need to contact participants, we have a Prolific messaging and email system in place to protect anonymity. You can read more about this in: How can I contact participants?
Please note that a participant’s Prolific email address does not function like a regular email address, and participants can only be contacted through Prolific. If you need participants to use their personal email address for any reason, such as receiving a calendar invite, this will not be possible. You should also not ask participants for their personal email address to receive future updates about your research or to receive non-monetary compensation, such as vouchers or raffle entries.
We recognize that some specific study types (e.g., deception studies) may request personal information from participants that is not accessible to or used by the research team. We also recognize that some studies may have approval from an IRB or ethics board to collect personally identifiable information. However, we cannot permit this. Our Researcher Terms supersede institutional approval. Participants are aware that collecting personally identifiable information is not permitted, and they often change their behavior or exit the study to contact the researcher or Prolific. As a result, we unfortunately cannot support studies that require collecting this personal data.
If you have any questions about this or would like to discuss your study design with our team, please get in touch with our Support Team.