How to record form fillers location?

Hello!

I am hoping you can help me with a form I have created. A little background so my question is clear...

I am a member of a citizen committee in my county where I live that is working to affect change around a new proposed Land Use Ordinance that will affect the residents negatively. We are looking to conduct a survey to capture data that reflects what the citizens in the unincorporated rural areas (outside of the cities) want, which is who the changes affect, and such data has never actually been solicited or taken into consideration. We need to be sure that the submission data is not tainted by city residents, who don't actually live in the unincorporated areas outside the city.

I am aware that I can make conditional questions, and I do have one on my form that asks the user if they live in a city/town, or unincorporated county, and if the latter is chosen, they are able to submit their results. I also have the unique submissions setting at the strictest level. However, how can I stop users from simply selecting that they live in unincorporated county, and then filling out the form fraudulently as a city citizen? I want a way to verify WHERE exactly the form is being completed at, so that we can weed out such responses from city addresses that are not reflective of the actual citizens we are targeting.

I did see that there are geo location widgets but I am unfamiliar with how to them, or with how to obtain and use a Google Maps API key... I also want to keep the form as anonymous as possible. Please help!

Hi Sarah,

Thanks for reaching out to Jotform Support. I understand your requirement, but I’ll need a bit of time to work out a solution. I’ll get back to you shortly.

Thanks for your patience, we appreciate it.

Hi Sarah,

You can add the Geolocation widget to verify the location of the form filler. Note that it will still not prevent the user from submitting the form. It's a way for you to cross-check if they are really indeed from the town/city or unincorporated county they selected. You can check this guide from Google on how to get an API Key. After getting the API key, here are the steps on how to set the widget:

1. In Form Builder, click on Add Element +.
2. On the left panel, click on Widgets and select Geolocation.
3. Click on the widget and click on the Wand icon.
4. On the right panel, scroll down and enter the Google Maps API Key.
5. Finally, click on Save

Give it a try and let us know how it goes.