We got a request from one of our customers, and since I've never encountered such a request before, I don't even know where to start looking.
Our customer is a network of colleges, and we're building them a site. On that site, among other things, will be a form which potential applicants can fill out in order to get more info about the studies in one of the colleges. After a user fills out this form – including giving their email and/or phone number – the relevant college then contacts them with the relevant info.
Now, for legal reasons, the client is asking that this form also have a checkbox that the potential applicant checks to indicate that they agree to get promotional material from these colleges. That's of course no problem. But here comes the weird part of the request:
The details of each filled out form have to be be saved in a reliable method. Apparently, saving the form values in a database – a column indicating if the user agreed or didn't agree – isn't enough, because a DB could be changed after the users has sent the form. Our client claims that other college portals create a screenshot of the filled-out form, and save it somewhere in a dedicated folder, in a manner that is easily found, such as giving the file a name that includes the user's name, and the date and time.
My question is as follows: have you heard of using screenshots as a method of proving a user has actually filled out a form? Are there other methods that are are considered reliable?
Best Answer
I have never heard of something like that, and it would be ridiculous, because a fake screenshot can be produced just as easily as a fake value in a database.
EDIT Besides, I mean, WTF? since you cannot get a screenshot of someone's screen over the web, you will obviously have to reconstruct the page on the server and take a screenshot of that, and then who's to say you did not doctor it?