About the Bracket study

In brief. Bracket studies how the UN climate negotiations proceed inside meetings. This page is for delegates in meetings the team observes and people named in published documents the programme holds. Researchers record delegations and roles under a rule against recording individual delegate names, although context can still identify a person. Access and sharing are restricted, and you can ask about information concerning you. Write to contact@bracketresearch.org with a question or request.

1. The programme and its responsibility

Matthew Winkler runs Bracket independently and is the controller: the person responsible for deciding why and how personal data is used. The controller is based in France and runs the programme personally. Institutional affiliation alone does not make an institution responsible for Bracket.

The research concerns which delegation speaks, which text it addresses, the tactics used and how negotiated wording changes. Researchers observe sessions of the UN climate negotiations, starting with COP31. Researchers using the service receive a separate Privacy notice.

2. Observations in meetings

Researchers take written notes in meetings they attend, subject to access and confidentiality conditions. The rules prohibit audio and video recordings, photographs of delegates and recording individual delegate names. Notes use Parties, negotiating groups and roles, including for chairs. The name check prompts researchers to correct likely names, but can miss names and indirect identifiers. A role or a small delegation can identify someone even without a name.

In Bracket, only the author and project owner can read a note. Authorised programme researchers and named collaborators may receive an agreed research export under written handling conditions. Researchers' identities are normally replaced with labels, which reduces exposure but does not make the data anonymous. Membership alone grants no access to others' notes or the collated dataset. Findings attribute statements to delegations and groups, subject to confidentiality conditions. Public dataset release is outside the current arrangements and requires a separate decision.

3. Published documents

The programme holds official UN climate documents and published reporting, including the Earth Negotiations Bulletin, Third World Network's updates, ECO and Carbon Brief. Those sources may name negotiators, chairs and ministers. They remain their publishers' records, held for reading and citation under the applicable conditions in Source materials.

Published reporting is held outside Bracket. The programme does not build profiles or indexes of people from it, or link names in it to the team's notes. Published participant lists held in the archive are not imported into Bracket's text library or used to identify people behind observations. Third-party reporting is not republished by Bracket.

4. Purpose, safeguards and retention

The lawful basis for these uses is legitimate interests in scientific research: a necessary research purpose balanced against the affected person's rights. Access limits, confidentiality rules and minimisation of identifying details reduce risk. Any processing of sensitive information also requires applicable additional legal conditions. Neither a research purpose nor the absence of names removes that requirement. Bracket makes no automated decisions with legal or similarly significant effects about people observed.

Identifiable or pseudonymised research records are retained for no longer than five years after the relevant study closes data collection, and erased or anonymised earlier when no longer needed. Each study has a defined purpose and a recorded collection closing date. Necessity is reviewed at least annually and at study closure. An extension requires a separate, documented justification, a defined new end date and an updated notice before the existing deadline. Annual review and further publications do not automatically extend retention.

Published documents are retained while needed for the programme's research and citation, within their applicable terms. The Privacy notice explains evidence retention, backups and how deletion decisions apply to other copies.

Application and database hosting are in Ireland; encrypted backups and project email are in Germany. The project owner operates in France. Researchers may work worldwide and hold local copies where they work. Configured server locations do not by themselves establish where every provider support activity occurs. The Privacy notice identifies the providers and explains copies, deletion and rights.

5. Information and rights

This page provides public information about the study. It does not remove any obligation to give information directly where required. People are not individually contacted merely because they are named in a document held by the programme.

You may ask what personal information is held about you, request correction, erasure or restriction, and object to processing based on legitimate interests. Requests are assessed individually; research is not a blanket reason to refuse one. Write to contact@bracketresearch.org. The controller responds within one month or explains a permitted extension within that month.

You may complain to the CNIL, France's data-protection authority, or another competent authority without contacting the controller first. A licence or publication does not remove applicable data-protection rights.