Ethics Guideline

correlaidx-manual/ethics-guide.md

@@ -1,4 +1,80 @@
 # Ethics guide
 
-It is also possible to carry out projects at the local level via CorrelAid. However, it is important to us that the organizations you work with on a local level in the name of CorrelAid meet our ethical requirements. CorrelAid is an independent, non-partisan and inclusive network. Through our projects we want to enable digital participation for civil society organizations and thus help them to strengthen their social impact. We fight against racism, sexism and discrimination and pay attention to equal rights within our teams and transparency in our work. We expect potential partners to share these values. When choosing cooperation partners, you should therefore attach importance to a social orientation of the partner organizations and a social added value of the projects. If you have received an interesting inquiry, please contact the project administration in the Core Team. The request will be discussed by us in the subsequent conference call and we will give you detailed feedback. For example, when working with parties, suggestions for customizing the project focus may be made to meet our standards.
+### general goals
 
+CorrelAid aims to be
+
+ * independent
+ * non-partisan
+ * inclusive
+
+We fight for
+
+ * equal rights
+ * transparency
+ * digital participation
+
+We fight against
+
+ * racism
+ * sexism
+ * discrimination
+
+It is important to us that the organizations you work with in the name of CorrelAid meet our ethical requirements. We expect potential partners to share these values. When choosing cooperation partners, you should therefore attach importance to a social orientation of the partner organizations and a social added value of the projects.
+
+If you have received an interesting inquiry, please contact the project administration in the Core Team. The request will be discussed by us in the subsequent conference call and we will give you detailed feedback. For example, when working with parties, suggestions for customizing the project focus may be made to meet our standards.
+
+### operational test questions
+
+Not all of these have to be answered at all or answered in the positive. Life is a grey zone.
+
+Just remember that Heisenberg didn't think of bad applications, he thought to further human understanding of the world.
+
+This is about trying to not accidentally become Heisenberg, or worse.
+
+#### about the partner organization (PO)
+ * could partnering with the PO create a dependency, formal or informal?
+ * has the PO proven itself to share our goals?
+    if they claim they do, is it independently verifiable?
+ * or has the PO supported something we oppose in the past?
+    e.g. negative examples from http://neveragain.tech/
+ * is the same true for the social graph of the PO's, it's supporters, sponsors, etc.?
+
+#### about the project
+
+ * does the project directly impact human lives or decision making?
+ * is the project political?
+
+ I.e. does it or the organization that is running it, have a stated goal and can we agree with it?
+
+ * in relation to correlaids non-partisanship, could the project be misrepresented to appear partisan?
+
+#### about the input data
+
+Judging input data isn't just about what *you* or the project do with the data. It's also about if the data could be abused in a way that opposes the general goals at any point in the future. If so, it doesn't necessarily mean the project shouldn't be done, it just means there have to be appropriate safeguards against the abuse.
+
+ * does it allow personal identification?
+ * does it allow anonymous grouping?
+
+Sensitive attributes to look out for:
+
+ * location
+ * political association
+ * ethnicity
+ * language preferences
+ * profession or job title
+ * etc.
+
+#### about the output data
+
+ * does it allow easy misinterpretation?
+ * how would you deal with output if/when its end's up contradicting our goals or your personal beliefs or the goals of the PO?
+
+#### about donating operational services
+
+e.g. https://foldingathome.org/
+
+ * how verifiable is it that what you're donating is used for the stated purpose and no other?
+ * how hard would it be to transform the donated capability into something that would oppose our goals?
+
+Think of past examples how organizations were "commandeered" and changed course. Could this happen in this case?