SMILE trial data to be released

JohnTheJack

Moderator
Staff member
EA/2018/ 0142
John Peters v the ICO and University of Bristol.
The First Tier Tribunal finds for the Appellant. And orders the release of the SMILE trial data. Unanimous decision. Date: 11 March 2019 Promulgated: 12 March 2019

The Tribunal’s decision
The Tribunal substitutes a fresh decision notice to the effect that the University of
Bristol (the University) was not entitled to rely on section 40(2) Freedom of
Information Act 2000 and should therefore disclose the requested information to Mr
Peters within the later of 35 days or the outcome of any appeal to the Upper Tribunal
(see below as to the scope of the request).

Decision here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1vms66ic4vh1tpp/014 100319 Final Decision EA.2018.0142.pdf?dl=0
 
I've just read the decision (only skimmed through the discussion) - well done! :balloons::balloons: The idea that a 'motivated intruder' could publicly identify children who participated in the trial from the data wasn't accepted by the judge. I think that's helpful for other FOI requests for data that might be made so that's great. Thanks for your persistence @JohnTheJack .
 
The idea that a 'motivated intruder' could publicly identify children who participated in the trial from the data
I have no idea how that's supposed to work. Then what? Plenty of participants to some of those trials have spoken out. That's the end of it. They speak out, we appreciate the contribution to the conversation and add it to the pile of evidence. That's what happens when participants in those trials are identified. They're anecdotes, not much more can be done, the trial data is much more useful.

It's a really bad idea to make strawman arguments like that. It works within the circlejerk, but it makes them look very unprofessional to independent observers. They may as well have been arguing that alien invasion was a likely consequence of releasing the data for all that that argument was grounded in reality.
 
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