Data use & reuse.

01. Ownership and licensing

Contributors retain full ownership of their stories. When a contributor submits, they grant MindBank a limited-use license — bounded by their consent settings — for specific projects or anonymized data pools. Reuse beyond the original license requires renewed consent or participation in the Data Dividend Program. Contributors can withdraw at any time, and withdrawal applies retroactively across all active uses.

02. Story reuse and Experience Libraries

Stories contribute to thematic Experience Libraries — aggregated datasets organized by lived-experience themes (e.g., post-housing-instability, navigating mental health systems, post-DV court involvement). Organizations access these anonymized libraries rather than individual stories.

• Most organizational use happens at the library level — themes and aggregated insights, never identifiable individuals
• Direct reuse of a specific story (for example, an anonymized quote in a research publication) triggers new consent and a new compensation event
• Contributors are notified each time their story is added to a new project beyond its original license

03. Regional tagging and anonymity zones

Geographic context can be valuable — but in small communities, even a region tag can identify someone. MindBank uses region-based anonymization that scales with community size:

• Data is tagged by region size category (urban metro, mid-size urban, rural cluster, regional cluster) rather than exact location
• Contributors in smaller communities can opt for "National / Global Use Only," which prevents their data from being matched against any local query
• The Ethics Council reviews region-tagging thresholds annually to prevent re-identification risk

04. Smart data matching

When organizations request insights, MindBank's matching system works on themes, not identities. A request such as "30 perspectives on accessing mental health services after a hospital discharge" yields aggregated summaries from many contributors — the system never returns an individual's identity.

Organizations can refine queries by theme, region size, time period, and consent type — but never by identifying attributes that would narrow toward a specific person.

05. Ethical reuse equals residual income

Verified contributors can earn micro-compensation or royalties when their anonymized insights are reused in funded projects. The Data Dividend Model redistributes a percentage of dataset revenue to contributors whose work is included.

How the Data Dividend works

• A defined percentage of revenue from each commercial dataset use is allocated to a Contributor Pool
• Contributions are weighted by how recently and how prominently a contributor's insights informed the specific dataset
• Distribution happens quarterly, with a transparent breakdown visible to each contributor
• Contributors can opt to receive payments via e-transfer, or direct them to a chosen non-profit
• Contributors who have withdrawn their data still receive compensation for past uses up to the withdrawal date

06. Governance and transparency

Every access or reuse event is logged. Contributors can view a complete history of how their story has been accessed:

• Which organizations accessed which insights
• The stated purpose of each access
• Compensation generated for the contributor
• Any consent changes or withdrawals processed

The Ethics Council audits these records quarterly. Findings are summarized in the annual public transparency report.

07. What organizations agree to

Every organization accessing MindBank data signs an ethical use agreement that includes:

• Use only within the scope of the originating consent
• No re-identification attempts, ever
• No sublicensing, resale, or repackaging of MindBank data
• Mandatory impact reporting back to MindBank
• Submission to Ethics Council audit on request
• Acceptance of suspended access or termination if obligations are breached

08. Quick reference