Why does my survey force people to give an email address?

What the Final step is

The Survey element has two parts: the questions themselves, and a Final step where the visitor's contact information is collected. Click Final step in the survey's settings to see it.

By default, that step includes an Email input field, and systeme.io calls it strictly required.

Why it cannot just be an anonymous poll

The order matters: a visitor answers the questions first, then gives an email address on the final step. systeme.io's own reasoning is that this is the only way the system can record their answers and link them to a contact profile.

No article on the survey element describes a way to remove that field, make it optional, or collect answers without it.

What that buys you afterward

Because every response is tied to an email address, answers become part of that contact's own record. Go to CRM, then Contacts, click the contact's email address, and scroll to the Surveys section to see what they picked.

Each answer can also carry its own tag, assigned separately per answer rather than per question, which is what lets an automation rule react to a specific choice rather than to the fact that the survey was completed at all.

The one answer type that cannot be tagged

Open-ended answers, where Open-ended answer is ticked and the visitor types their own response instead of picking one, cannot have a tag assigned. Tagging only works on the fixed answers written in beforehand.

Where a survey can be used

systeme.io limits the element to two places: a sales funnel page, or a blog. For a course, the documented route is to build the survey on a funnel page and link to it from inside the course, rather than adding the element to a lecture directly.