01. Guiding principles
MindBank will never require proof of pain — only proof of honesty. Ethical innovation means paying people for truth, not trauma.
Every choice MindBank makes — about platform design, partnerships, verification, compensation, and consent — is tested against five principles:
- Survivor authority. The contributor is the expert on their own experience. Platform decisions defer to survivor voice wherever possible.
- Dignity over disclosure. No one is required to share more than they choose. Minimum necessary information, always.
- Consent as continuous. Consent is not a checkbox at the start. It is reviewable, revocable, and granular at every stage.
- Compensation as standard. Where insights are used commercially or in funded research, contributors share in the value.
- Transparency by default. Contributors can see how their data has been accessed. The public can see how the platform performs.
02. Trauma-informed design
MindBank follows Canadian trauma-informed care principles, the ethics of lived-experience storytelling, and digital confidentiality protocols. These shape every interaction on the platform.
Design commitments
- Anonymity as the default in every form, every flow
- Grounding pop-ups and "check in with yourself" micro-prompts at sensitive moments
- Visible "stop, pause, exit" buttons on every screen where stories are entered
- Sensitive content warnings before any survivor reads another contributor's story
- Emergency crisis-contact buttons accessible from any page
- No graphic-detail prompts. The platform asks about insight, need, and gap — not about reliving trauma
- No forced timelines, no required completion of any flow
- Privacy-by-design architecture reviewed before any feature ships
Survivors never have to explain or defend their experiences to use this platform.
03. Tiered verification (without invasive proof)
MindBank uses a three-tier verification structure that balances inclusivity with integrity. Each level earns a credibility badge visible to organizations. None of these tiers require survivors to prove the details of what they experienced.
Basic entry level for all contributors. Confirms identity and consent only.
Method: Secure digital identity verification, or phone/email verification.
Confirms the contributor's declared experience aligns with plausible indicators, without ever requiring proof of trauma.
Method: Optional submission of supportive context — community involvement, participation in relevant groups.
Highest level, used for research or policy contracts where institutional credibility is required.
Method: Verification by trusted organizations or institutional partners, with the contributor's explicit consent.
04. AI plus human oversight
MindBank combines AI pattern detection with trauma-informed human moderation. AI handles what AI is good at — flagging inconsistencies, identifying potential fraud signals, screening for distress markers. Human moderators handle what humans are good at — assessing context with sensitivity and fairness.
AI is never the final decision-maker on contributor accounts, story acceptance, or account flags. Trained human moderators review every flagged interaction.
05. Anonymous proof-of-experience
MindBank is piloting an anonymized credentialing system that verifies broad experience categories through trusted partners — without revealing individual identities to organizations. This creates a privacy-preserving trust layer: organizations gain confidence in the source of insights, contributors retain full anonymity.
06. Two-way trust metrics
Trust runs in both directions on this platform.
- Contributors earn trust points after verified engagements, building visible credibility over time
- Partner organizations also receive ethical-conduct ratings based on how they use insights, whether they honour consent, and whether they engage in ongoing partnership rather than extraction
- Contributors can see organization ratings before deciding whether to consent to specific uses
07. Ethics & Verification Council
An independent council governs MindBank's ethical standards. The council includes:
- Survivor advocates with lived experience leadership
- Researchers in trauma-informed practice and lived-experience methodology
- Data privacy and digital ethics experts
- Community representatives from the populations MindBank serves
The council reviews verification standards, hears appeals, audits access logs quarterly, and has authority to require changes to the platform. Council recommendations are published in MindBank's annual transparency report.
08. Organizational obligations
Organizations accessing MindBank insights agree to a binding ethical use agreement. The core obligations:
- Use insights to inform decisions, not to identify individuals
- Honour the consent terms attached to every story or theme accessed
- Compensate fairly for any direct lived-experience consultation
- Provide MindBank with periodic reports on how insights informed organizational decisions
- Refuse any commercial resale, sublicensing, or repackaging of MindBank data
- Submit to ethical-conduct review by the Ethics Council
Violations result in suspended access, public disclosure where appropriate, and termination of partnership.
09. Transparency reporting
MindBank publishes an annual transparency report covering:
- Contributor and organization participation metrics
- Active partnerships and their stated purposes
- Ethics Council reviews, findings, and any required platform changes
- Privacy incidents, breach reports, and remediation steps
- Compensation distributed to contributors via the Data Dividend Model
- Year-over-year changes to the verification framework
10. Contact the Ethics Council
Ethics inquiries
Email: ethics@mindbank.ca
Appeals are reviewed within 14 business days. Formal complaints trigger an Ethics Council session within 30 days.