Our Ethical Principles

Emiliano LópezJuly 16, 2025

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People on parole are often treading carefully in the shadows. But, the community deserves to know our experiences with state-funded supervision. Project Protocol was born out of a gap in access to information about the parole experience. There’s a lack of data around the experiences of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals. Right now, we rely on California’s law enforcement agencies to provide limited data about recidivism rates, parole violations, and types of violations. 

California's law enforcement agencies make it really challenging to access any data on incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals. On top of that, there's a real imbalance in where this data comes from. People’s experiences with their parole officers often go unheard or are not heard in a meaningful way, and that’s a big problem. Without this crucial info, it’s harder to hold the system accountable, improve support services, create better policies, and challenge harmful stereotypes.

When we allow systems to operate behind closed doors, we see a lack of transparency and accountability in them. This can harm people and the community. From the start, I knew Project Protocol would need to break new ground when it came to data ownership, sharing, collection, and privacy.

I teamed up with our lead designer and product manager, Yindi, to create our Ethical Principles. We took inspiration from three works: Consentful Tech, Data Feminism by Catherine D'Ignazio and Lauren Klein, and Anti-Eviction Mapping Project. They led us to adopt a more human-centered approach to data on our platform. Simply put, our goal is to use data to help and empower people, not to harm them.

In 2023, we decided to move away from mobile apps that operate on systems with questionable data practices. We focused on creating a web-based platform that allows us to follow our Ethical Principles. These principles help us build a community rooted in trust, safety, freedom and transparency. When you rate a PO, suggest, or comment on a community resource, you help us get one step closer to addressing the data gap for people on parole. 

Join us in building a community-driven model that uses data and technology to empower people. Drop a comment in our Resource Directory or share a PO rating today. Your experience helps someone else navigate tomorrow.