How Viva Glint protects your privacy

Data privacy and trust are key priorities for Microsoft Viva Glint. Individual privacy is a core Viva Glint value. When survey respondents feel confident that their privacy is protected, they're more likely to participate in surveys and provide honest and constructive feedback. This enables you to get the most from your Glint programs.

Glint offers two types of surveys: confidential and identifiable.

Confidential surveys

For confidential surveys, Glint aggregates (group averages) responses before reporting results. It's easier to guess a survey taker's identity when there are just a few responses. For this reason, confidential survey responses are reported only when an item meets the confidentiality threshold for responses. Your organization chooses this number and it might differ for survey items versus comments.

For a survey to be confidential, the minimum number of responses is three (3).

Identifiable surveys

In identifiable (non‑confidential) surveys, respondents can be directly or indirectly identified in reporting. These surveys use a minimum response threshold of less than three responses. A common example is an exit survey, where access to individual responses is required for each departing employee.

Confidentiality Statement on Surveys

In Microsoft Viva Glint, the confidentiality statement is displayed at the start of each survey. It informs employees whether their responses are confidential or identifiable and explains how data is aggregated to help protect individual privacy.

Default behavior

By default, Glint displays a confidentiality statement that explains:

• Survey responses are confidential or identifiable, depending on how your organization has configured its survey program.
• That the scores and results are aggregated to protect individual identities.
• That certain groups may not be shown in reports if they don’t meet the confidentiality threshold (default: 5 responses for rated items).

Customization options

Your organization has the option of customizing the confidentiality statement. This allows your organization to:

• Turn off the default statement.
• Replace it with a tailored statement that matches your organization’s communication style and program settings.
• Adjust wording to reflect your organization's survey program configurations, including confidentiality thresholds.

Why customize?

A custom statement can:

• Align with your company’s culture and HR policies.
• Clarify exactly how confidentiality is enforced (for example, "Scores are only shown when at least five responses are available").
• Provide more control over the tone and detail of the message shown to respondents.
• Translate your customized statements into your desired languages in alignment with your survey languages.

Reporting implications

Confidentiality thresholds (for example, Rated Confidentiality Threshold, Suppression Threshold) still apply—groups with fewer responses than the threshold have their scores suppressed to protect privacy. The statement is the front-end communication to employees about these protections.

Next steps for Viva Glint service admins

If you want to use the custom statement:

1. Ensure your Glint program is configured with the correct confidentiality settings.
2. Use the admin portal to enter or edit the custom confidentiality statement text. For more information, see Manage general settings.
3. Ensure your customized statements are translated into all survey languages.
4. Test the statement in preview before survey launch.

The ability to enter custom confidentiality statements gives organizations more flexibility to communicate privacy expectations while maintaining the same underlying data protection mechanisms.

Default Viva Glint confidentiality statements

If your organization decides not to customize the confidentiality statement and the Show default Microsoft statements is toggled to On, one of the following default statements will appear, depending on how your organization has configured its survey program.

Default confidential survey statement: surveys that don't support raw survey responses export

If your organization restricts the export of raw survey responses for confidential surveys, this statement is applied to surveys:

Your responses are confidential and reported to [Organization Name] in aggregate groups of five or more respondents. Write-in comments are reported verbatim if at least 10 people respond to a question. Take care not to identify yourself in the comments. Microsoft Viva Glint Reporting and Confidentiality describes other ways your data might be accessed and your organization's privacy policy also has more information.

Default confidential survey statement: surveys that do support raw survey responses export

If your organization approves making raw survey responses available, survey takers are informed in this statement:

Your responses are confidential and reported to [Organization Name] in aggregate groups of five or more respondents. Write-in comments are reported verbatim if at least 10 people respond to a question. Take care not to identify yourself in the comments. A limited number of people at [Organization Name] will have access to your identifiable survey responses. See Microsoft Viva Glint Reporting and Confidentiality, which describes other ways your data may be accessed and your organization's privacy policy.

Default survey statement: identifiable surveys

If your organization opts to create an identifiable survey, this statement is applied:

Note that this is an identifiable survey, which means [Organization Name] will be able to see that your survey responses came from you. For more information, see your organization's Privacy Policy. Learn how Glint handles survey responses in Microsoft Viva Glint Reporting and Confidentiality.