Why are the forms now encrypted by default?

I just created a form yesterday and noticed that it defaults to being encrypted. However, this seems to prevent people from submitting it. 

Is there a reason why this changed? is there a way to set it to where it does not set the default as encrypted? is there also a reason why people cannot submit the form because it is encrypted? 

In a related question, can this help with the HIPAA security? We are a hospital, and even though these forms are secure, up til now it has not been secure enough to convince our IT team that they can prevent HIPAA violations when it comes to protecting private health information for patients. For this reason, we are actually looking into other form options. 

 

 

Update (April 19, 2018) HIPAA is available for our Gold and Silver plans.

https://www.jotform.com/hipaa/ 

On the Data page of your account Encryption 'Create new forms as encrypted forms.' option is checked and because of that a new form that you created was encrypted by default. 

You have to un-check this option if you do not want that the newly created forms are encrypted by default. 

I also inspected the form that was created today and it is no longer encrypted. Please encrypt your form again and test it to see if you will be able to submit it. 

If the encrypted form still cannot be submitted, leave it encrypted or provide us a cloned encrypted form that we can test. 

My encrypted cloned form is working properly. 

https://form.jotformpro.com/72364965749978 

Feel free to test it. 

yes, the encryption can help with HIPAA security. Jotform is not HIPPA compliant, but you can use JotForm in a HIPPA compliant way. For more details, please check this thread:

https://www.jotform.com/answers/333046-Is-JotForm-HIPAA-Compliant 

Hope this will help. Let us know if you need further assistance. 

I tried your copy and it worked. But then I made another test form and it did not. Can you tell me if this one submits the form or does it say “ please wait” when you try to submit it? https://form.jotformpro.com/72366714216961
Mark Hannah
Internal Communications Coordinator
Public Relations
706.509.3253 phone | 770.905.9172 cell
mhannah@floyd.org| www.floyd.org
Corporate Support Center
420 E. 2nd Ave.
Rome, GA 30161
...

I tried making a test submission on the form you shared with us and I have encountered the same issue you described.

Does this issue only happen to encrypted forms in your account? Or, to non-encrypted ones also?

Can you try disabling the Encrypt Form Data of the form from its settings and see if you will be able to submit the form? With any result, try enabling the Encrypt Form Data again and make a test submission after. Make sure that the encryption key is uploaded properly when you do this.

We will wait for your response.

When I encrypted the form it did not work.
But then I un encrypted it and re-encrypted it and I got the popup about the encryption key. I have never seen this before In fact, I did not know what you were talking about. So, I had it create a key for me and then I downloaded it, then I un encrypted an re-encrypted it and now the form works.
I created another form and even though it encrypts it by default, it works. So, I guess it had something to do with the key.
All is well. Thank you!
Mark Hannah
Internal Communications Coordinator
Public Relations
706.509.3253 phone | 770.905.9172 cell
mhannah@floyd.org| www.floyd.org
Corporate Support Center
420 E. 2nd Ave.
Rome, GA 30161
...

I am glad to hear that the issue is now solved and that the form can be submitted. 

I am not sure if the issue was related to the key.

However, it is strange that you never saw the popup about the encryption key. You should saw the popup when you encrypted the form for the first time on the settings page of the form. Or did you maybe check the Encryption on the Data page before you created the form? 

Also, please check if you are able to decrypt all of your data of the submission page of the encrypted form.

More about the Encrypted Forms, you can find here:

Encrypted Forms and How to Use Them

I decided to remove the encryption functionality from all the forms we create. This is because the people who receive submissions are often not the same ones who create the form and they have no access to Jotform. So, when they click to unlock the content, which is an extra step in the process, they will not be able to see it.
Most of these people use the Excel spreadsheet any way to review submission content. But just in case they want to receive emails for every submission, I want them to access the information.
It’s ok. I am just glad we figured out what was causing the problem and created a key in case we ever need to encrypt a form.
Mark Hannah
Internal Communications Coordinator
Public Relations
706.509.3253 phone | 770.905.9172 cell
mhannah@floyd.org| www.floyd.org
Corporate Support Center
420 E. 2nd Ave.
Rome, GA 30161
...

Thank you for the update. 

I would just like to mention that you will not be able to see previously submitted encrypted data if the form is not encrypted. 

Also, please note that an Excel and other report are not available for encrypted form, so if your users are using Excel to view submitted that you shown not encrypt your forms. Some of the features that are not available for Encrypted Forms are:

1. PDF Downloads.

2. Reports (this includes downloading Excel and CSV files from within the Submissions Page).

3. Emails: Email Notifications and Autoresponder (usually emailed to the form submitters).

All server side gathered and processed data, can not be retrieved in encrypted forms because your private key is never sent to our servers.

Feel free to contact us if you have any other questions or issues. 

Great news! JotForm now offers HIPAA compliance. This means users in the healthcare industry can use JotForm to collect sensitive patient information through consent and onboarding forms, medical history updates, online bill payments, and prescription refill requests.

HIPAA-compliant forms require a Gold pricing plan, which is only $99 a month or a Silver pricing plan, which is $39 a month. A business associate agreement (BAA) is also available upon request.

For more information about our HIPAA-compliant forms, visit www.jotform.com/hipaa.