The Upper Tribunal has recently revisited an issue commonly experienced by controllers about the anonymity of small datasets, which can result in data subjects being identifiable when added to other publicly available information. The case involves an FOI request for a list of dispensaries where a particular drug had been prescribed fewer than five times, leading to the NHS refusing to provide some of the data under section 40(2) FOIA as patients could potentially be identified. The First-tier Tribunal disagreed, and the case was appealed to the Upper Tribunal. The question before Judge Jacobs under the definition of personal data in the GDPR and the DPA 2018 was whether a living individual could be identified, directly or indirectly or not.
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