What was the primary ethical violation in the Harvard "Tastes, Ties, and Time (T3)" study?

The primary ethical violation in the Harvard "Tastes, Ties, and Time (T3)" study involved the failure to protect subjects from deductive disclosure. This means that the research did not adequately safeguard participants' identities and sensitive information, potentially leading to situations where individuals could be identified based on the information disclosed in the study.

In research involving sensitive data, it is crucial to ensure that participants are not put at risk of being identified or having their private information revealed, particularly in contexts where participants might belong to vulnerable populations or might suffer harm if their identities were exposed. Protecting against deductive disclosure is an important aspect of maintaining confidentiality and ensuring the ethical treatment of research subjects.

The other options, while they represent various ethical considerations in research, do not directly relate to the specific ethical breach identified in the T3 study. Informed consent, exploitation of data, and funding disclosure are all significant ethical concerns; however, in this case, the specific issue at hand was the potential for deducing the identities of participants from the provided data.