Consumer Protection Format (Unofficial)

⚠️ UNOFFICIAL DRAFT DOCUMENTATION ⚠️

This page is currently an unofficial draft under discussion with the admin team. It has not been approved for use.

• For official mission and guidelines, please see: Mission statement
• For information about contributing, please see: How to help

Please do not treat this as authoritative documentation until officially approved.

The intent of this page is to outline a format I plan to standardize across the pages I maintain. This is not a official format for this site.

Additionally:

1. I do not expect anyone else to follow or maintain this format.
2. I do not claim ownership of this format.
3. If you like this format, or the idea of one, please collaborate with me to make it better.

Please see Consumer Protection Profile for criteria by which to judge statuses. It needs to be noted that the idea of statuses (assuming they're not strictly categorized) is pending common approval since it's a form of opinion.

The following format should be used for Products and Companies:

Title of Page

Name

Basic Information
Release Year	2000
Product Type	Example
In Production	Yes
Official Website	https://www.example.com

• Brief description (2-3 sentences)
• Industry sector and main product/service lines
• Parent company/subsidiaries (if applicable)

Consumer Protection Profile

Privacy

Status: [No, Minor, Moderate, Significant] Concerns

• This is intended to be a summary of everything relevant to a consumer's privacy
• It will mostly contain things about the Privacy Policy
• It may also include relevant Terms of Service or other agreements that impact privacy
• It may also briefly reference a previous privacy incident

Transparency

Status: [No, Minor, Moderate, Significant] Concerns

• This is intended to be a summary of the company's track record of transparency
• It will mainly reference instances where the company isn't directly clear or honest

Freedom

Status: [No, Minor, Moderate, Significant] Concerns

• This is intended to be a summary of everything relevant to a consumer's freedom using the product
• It will mostly contain things from the terms of service and any usage agreements/contracts
• It may also include relevant snippets from the Privacy Policy that impact freedom
• It may also briefly reference a previous incident where the company chose to restrict user freedom

Consumer Protection Incidents

Example Incident (Jan. 2025)

In January 2025, ExampleCorp implemented significant changes to their privacy policy without direct notification to users. The changes included expanded data sharing with third parties and modified retention policies. Continued...

Example Incident #2 (Sep. 2023)

Note that incidents are sorted in reverse chronological order.

References

Please see MediaWiki's documentation on how to use references. All references should be in CMOS format. Additionally, ensure that you inline the link to the source with the publication title and include the date accessed.

Example:

Smith, John (July 9, 2024). "Citing sources is easy!". Website Name. Retrieved January 17, 2025.

The following format should be used for Individuals:

Incomplete. Contribute!