Contributor ethics

1. Safety — yours first, then everyone else's

Nothing you find is worth your physical safety, your legal exposure, or your digital security.

Never trespass, break into an account, impersonate someone, or access anything you don't have a legitimate right to see. If a document, database, or system requires bypassing a login, a paywall, or a lock to reach — stop. That's not research, and it's not something this project will use even if you get it.

If following a lead would put you in a physically risky situation (confronting someone in person, entering a restricted space, engaging with anyone who might react with hostility), don't. Report what you know and let the project decide whether professional follow-up is warranted.

Protect your own identity if you have any reason to want to: use a pseudonym when submitting if you prefer, and know that this project's own identity-firewall discipline means we won't pressure you to reveal who you are.

If your research touches anyone who could be put at risk by your inquiry becoming visible to them — a whistleblower, a vulnerable person, someone in an unequal power relationship with the subject of your research — think about their safety before yours, not after.

2. Legality — know the line, and stay well back from it

Only collect what's genuinely public or what you have clear legal right to access. Public social media posts, published records, government filings, court documents that are a matter of public record — yes. Anything obtained by hacking, social engineering, deception to gain access, or violating a platform's terms of service in a way that could expose you or this project to legal liability — no.

If you're not sure whether something is legally accessible, treat it as off-limits and ask before you act, not after you've already gathered it.

Screenshots, downloads, and captures of public material are fine and encouraged — that's exactly the kind of contribution this project can use, and our own archiving pipeline (hash, timestamp, redundant capture) exists to make sure it survives and stays checkable.

3. Verification — a claim without a source is not a contribution

Every fact you submit needs a source: a URL, a document, a screenshot with context, something another person could independently check. "I heard" or "everyone knows" doesn't clear this bar, no matter how confident you are.

If you're not certain something is true, say so when you submit it. Mark your own uncertainty honestly — this project would rather receive "I think this is true but haven't confirmed X" than a confident claim that turns out to be wrong. Overclaiming to seem more useful actively hurts the project; it does not help it.

Cross-check where you can. If a claim seems too clean, too convenient, or too perfectly timed to support a conclusion you already wanted to reach, that's exactly when to slow down and verify harder, not less.

Understand that everything you submit goes through this project's own independent review before it's trusted or published — your submission is a lead and a source, not a finished verdict, and it will be checked.

4. Dignity — the people in your research are people

Investigate power, not vulnerability. This project's focus is institutions, officials, and entities exercising public power — not private individuals' personal lives, medical histories, family matters, or anything unrelated to their public conduct.

If a document or record incidentally contains private information about someone not relevant to the investigation (a bystander's personal details, an unrelated person's contact information), don't include it in your submission, and don't spread it further.

Consider proportionality: does what you're gathering actually serve public accountability, or is it satisfying curiosity at someone's expense? If you can't answer that clearly, don't submit it.

Never use anything you find to harass, intimidate, or publicly shame anyone outside of what the verified facts themselves support — the project's job is to publish checkable claims, not to punish people through exposure.