I work in HR. The exit interviews at my company are basically so we can provide reasons for attrition to the board of directors at fiscal year end reporting time. You don’t have to answer anything if you don’t want to, in fact, I’d say at least 30% don’t even respond to us lol. We actually say “if you’re comfortable sharing” before any questions and there’s been a handful of times where people said no. No biggie, next question. In my previous job, we had one company come up a number of times as the place people were going, so we knew they were our biggest competitor for talent and so we had to keep an eye on what they offered their employees to stay competitive. If you’re not comfortable answering, just say you don’t want to discuss it. If they’re even a half decent company, they should listen. If they do try to retaliate, keep it all via email and follow up any phone call or meeting with an email summarizing the points that were covered. Send them with read receipts.