How we run WhatDoTheyKnow #

WhatDoTheyKnow is administered by a small team of mySociety staff and dedicated volunteers who have extensive knowledge and experience of Freedom of Information, and who support it. Decisions about the administration of the site are taken by this administration team, with support from mySociety’s Chief Executive and Trustees.

We don't check the information on the site #

Freedom of information law gives people the right to access recorded information that is held by public authorities, even where the information is incorrect. We do not check the information provided by public authorities, or that contained within messages from requesters or annotations posted by users of the site. There may be gaps and errors in the information published on the site. Some of the information may be out of date.

Information you find on the site may be out of date #

Some public bodies will release information that is many years out of date on the site. This can happen if the requester asks for information relating to events that happened a number of years ago. This can also happen if a document has not been updated for some time, and the requester asks for the latest version. This means that some of the information that is published on the site will already be out of date on the day it is published. We never remove material from the site just because it is old or because a newer version of the material exists. This is because we are trying to create a permanent archive.

We don't provide professional advice #

WhatDoTheyKnow contains information on a wide variety of topics. While some of the documents and files published on the site contain recommendations and guidance, it is important to remember that this information may be incorrect or out of date. Even where information is up to date and accurate, it may not be suitable for your specific circumstances or the circumstances of someone you are trying to help. The information on the site is not intended to be used as professional advice by users of the site or anyone else. In addition, the team that runs the site cannot provide financial, medical or legal advice, or any other type of professional advice. See also the help text below relating to medical information on the site.

If you need advice, please consider seeking advice from a qualified professional.

Do not rely on any medical information you find on the site #

WhatDoTheyKnow contains information on a wide variety of topics including information relating to healthcare. The information on the site may be incorrect or out of date. Even if you find information on the site about healthcare that you believe is accurate and up to date, it may not apply to you or someone you are trying to help, even if the symptoms appear to be similar. In addition, the team that runs the site cannot provide medical advice or any other type of professional advice.

If you think that you may need medical advice or treatment, you should contact a qualified medical professional such as a doctor or pharmacist. In the UK, you also have the option to contact the NHS advice service, NHS 111. If you require emergency medical assistance you should contact the emergency services immediately. In the UK, in a medical emergency, you should dial 999 or 112 and ask for the ambulance service.

Please do not delay seeking medical advice or ignore any medical advice you have received based on any information found on this site.

Reactive moderation principle #

It would be impossible for the WhatDoTheyKnow volunteer team to moderate all requests and responses before they appear on the site. We will remove inappropriate material (material that contravenes our House Rules) upon being informed, a process known as reactive moderation.

This policy is in line with the approach used by major publishers such as the BBC and the Guardian. A key reason we take this approach is to reduce the liability we have for the content posted by users on our site; this is something we need to do due to the significant financial risks involved if we were deemed to be publishing libellous material.

When we remove potentially defamatory material from our site we are not taking a view on if it is accurate or not, we don’t have the resources to investigate that.

What happens once a request is reported for attention? #

Policy as a guide, not a rigid set of rules #

Our policies have developed from the consideration and discussion of cases where the right course of action has not been obvious.

These policies are not set in stone. New and unforeseen circumstances occur frequently, and while our body of policy and practice helps guide decisions, any WhatDoTheyKnow volunteer or mySociety staff member/trustee involved is free to suggest that the right thing to do in a specific case is to make an exception and/or establish a new policy.

To discuss how to take action on a particular case that is not straightforward, volunteer administrators start an email discussion amongst the team of other volunteers and specific mySociety staff. Discussion among this group then leads to an agreed course of action.

How do we deal with requests that are not valid? #

When we are made aware of it, we remove any correspondence from our site which is not a request for information that anyone could expect a substantive response to.

The vast majority of invalid “requests” are actually not Freedom of Information requests at all but correspondence relating to people’s personal circumstances.

We point users making requests for their own personal information to guidance on making Subject Access requests under the Data Protection Act and try to help others find more appropriate means of contacting public authorities.

Why do we remove email addresses and mobile phone numbers from responses? #

To guard all parties against spam, and to encourage keeping all correspondence on WhatDoTheyKnow, we automatically remove most email addresses and some mobile numbers from responses to requests.

It is against our House Rules to request email addresses from an authority. Our support team will not provide the unredacted details to you, should you ignore this rule.

How do we deal with requests that are not sent successfully? #

  • The admin team act to re-send requests/messages when we spot failed delivery within a reasonable period of a user submitting the request.
  • A public body or the requestor may ask us to resend a specific message and typically we will do so.
  • We generally don’t resend very old correspondence, for example if there’s been a delivery failure that has gone unnoticed for many months, and the if there’s a clear bounce/error message) the request may be marked “withdrawn” on the basis of abandonment, or marked as still awaiting a response.

Backpaging #

Administrators can "backpage" a request thread, this means the page is accessible to those who have the direct link to it, but it is not included in lists of requests or search results on the site. This is similar to YouTube's "unlisted" or GoogleDoc's "anyone with the link" accessibility settings.

When a request on WhatDoTheyKnow is "backpaged" meta-tags are added to the header of the request page, and linked attachments, to ask external search engines not to index the material. This feature is rarely used, but can help us continue to publish material we might otherwise remove.

Backpaging reduces the impact of our publication, it can, for example, be used to make it more likely that our interests in processing and publishing material outweigh any negative impacts on those whose personal information is involved.

Membership of the admin team #

WhatDoTheyKnow is a project of mySociety run by a small team of staff and dedicated volunteers.

Volunteers are supervised and mentored by the other members of the admin team. As mySociety is a distributed organisation, we keep in touch by email or individual calls as required. Volunteers’ activity running the site, or on email lists, is visible to other members of the admin team, as well as other mySociety staff, and anyone can speak up with suggestions for doing things differently.

We also have regular online team meetings that all volunteers are invited to join, although attendance at these is optional.

When a new volunteer starts, they are asked to agree to the terms of a volunteer agreement. This includes mySociety’s Code of Conduct, password policy, data retention policy and personal data policy.

Depending on the nature of their volunteering, they may have an introductory call with a current member of the WhatDoTheyKnow admin team, generally with one existing volunteer and one member of staff.

Volunteers who will actively administer the site are asked to join a training call in which a member of the admin team will demonstrate the use of the WhatDoTheyKnow admin interface. If everyone concerned is comfortable, they may then be given access to the administration interface.

Joining the admin team is not the only way to help run the site. Read more on how to get involved

User accounts #

If you sign up for an account on WhatDoTheyKnow, a profile listing any requests and annotations you have made will be publicly accessible.

Banning users #

We ban users for persistent misuse of our service (e.g. going against our House Rules). Banning or suspending users is a last resort; if possible the WhatDoTheyKnow volunteer team advise users on how to use our service in an acceptable way. This guidance is provided via email or annotations. If the user continues to abuse the service after such interventions, their account is banned. Bans without a warning can be used in cases where there’s no serious use of the service, e.g. spam accounts, or in cases of serious misuse. After an account has been banned, the WhatDoTheyKnow volunteer team write to the user to explain the reasons that led to this decision.

Changes #

We keep these pages under review, and may make changes from time to time to ensure that they remain up-to-date and accurate. You can find a synopsis of changes we’ve made at our GitHub repository but if you have any questions, please do contact us.