Is it safe to collect credit card information from donors using a fillable emailable form?

[Former Community Member]

I work for a nonprofit and would like to create a fillable pledge form that we would email to current donors.  Our pledge form (which is currently sent and recieved by mail) gives them the opportunity to say how much they'd like to donate and exactly how it should be done (check, credit card, installments, payroll deduction etc).   I know how to create the form and how to put an email / print button on the form.  What I can't seem to find on any threads is an answer regarding how safe the collected information that is EMAILED back to us would be.   Would we be putting our donors at risk by collecting that kind of data via email?  If so is there a way to make it safe - and that doesn't make it complicated for our less tech-savvy friends? Would there be any safety difference between creating the form using LiveCycle vs using the pdf form wizard?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

[Former Community Member]

As you are using email as the vehichle for delivery the question isn't how safe is the form ...it is how safe is the email system that is being used.

The form itself will be a PDF so by virtue of that anyone can open it (unless you employ an encryption strategy but that woudl be a nuisance to your clients). You coudl employ a password to open the PDF but again that is a nuisance for your clients. So secure email might be the easiest way.

Normally this is done by posting the form to a web server using https protocols (secure and encypted) and not through email.

Paul