The Loss Prevention Officer of a Large Department Store Chain

The loss prevention officer of a large department store chain is interested in finding out how prevalent employee theft is. She sends a questionnaire to 1000 randomly chosen employees and receives 700 replies. Those asked to fill out the questionnaire are told not to put their names on either the questionnaire or on the return envelope. Thus, no one in the officer's office has any idea who sent in which response. After the replies are processed, statistics describing the entire sample are published, but no one outside the officer's office is allowed to see individual questionnaires. This survey is

A) both anonymous and confidential.
B) anonymous but not necessarily confidential.
C) confidential but not necessarily anonymous.
D) neither anonymous nor confidential.