Our ethical principles

Information about data ownership, sharing, collection, and privacy

Definitions

  • "The data" are the ratings and resources that show up in the app.
  • "The community" are people who have experienced state violence through the parole system. This includes incarcerated people, formerly-incarcerated people, and their family and friends.

People on parole have rights

People deserve to know more about their assigned parole officers. They should be able to share their parole and probation experiences with others. They should not have to fear retaliation.

All Project Protocol data is public

Our main goal with this data is to share information about parole and parole officers. The data we collect may also help abolition advocacy groups with their movements. Contact us if you want to use the data for your organization or research.

The data belongs to the community

  • The data should not harm but instead, heal and empower the community.
  • We use community needs and suggestions to determine how to improve the app.
  • Any research we do also belongs to the community.
  • We follow the consent model outlined by The Consentful Tech Project

People on parole have a right to data privacy

  • All ratings are anonymous.
  • We do not collect and store personal information other than what users submit in the app.
  • Anyone can delete their account and associated data from the app at any time by emailing us.
  • We will never share or display email addresses to the public.
  • We will never sell, trade, or seek to give data to police, parole, probation, or any government agency.

The data should not harm the community

We review the data and will try our best to remove:

  • Anything we determine to be inappropriate.
  • Any information that might reveal the identity of a rater.
  • Any bad actors trying to provide inaccurate rater.

If we determine that the app is causing more harm than good, we will hit a kill switch to delete all app databases.

References

Learn more and help out