Governance & Editorial Independence

The Baldwinson Ethical Technologies (BET) Index evaluates corporate behavior in domains where influence, pressure, and reputational incentives commonly shape outcomes. Governance is therefore treated as a foundational element of the project, defining how decisions are made, constrained, and disclosed.

Editorial Independence

The BET Index operates as an independent evaluative research initiative.

  • No technology provider, vendor, or third party has editorial control over BET Index methodology, scoring, weighting, or publication timing.
  • Providers do not receive advance notice of rankings beyond the formal right-of-reply process described below.
  • Scores are computed using a deterministic, published methodology and are released only as versioned snapshots.
  • Changes to scores occur only in future releases and are never applied retroactively.
  • The integrity of the index depends on maintaining structural independence from external pressure that could influence methodology, scoring, or publication outcomes.

Conflicts of Interest

The BET Index maintains a strict conflict-of-interest posture.

Financial Relationships

  • The BET Index does not accept payment, sponsorship, or compensation from entities that are scored or evaluated.
  • Rankings cannot be purchased, influenced, or expedited.
  • The project does not offer consulting services tied to score improvement.

Infrastructure Disclosure

  • The BET Index website and API may be hosted on commercial infrastructure providers.
  • Infrastructure services are purchased at standard, publicly available pricing.
  • Infrastructure providers have no access to unpublished data, draft scores, internal deliberations, or release materials.
  • The BET Index necessarily relies on commercial infrastructure services to operate. These dependencies are disclosed as part of the project’s governance. Infrastructure providers are evaluated under the same ethical framework as others, but operational use is managed to prevent such dependencies from influencing methodology, scoring, or publication decisions. Usage does not imply endorsement.

Personal Interests

Any material personal or financial interests that could reasonably be perceived as influencing the work will be disclosed on this page.

Authorship & Positionality

The BET Index was developed by Curtis Baldwinson, a software engineer and researcher.

The author identifies as a gay man and has longstanding personal and professional interest in how technology companies affect LGBTQ+ people and other marginalized groups.

In 2011, the author was a recipient of the Courage to Come Back Award (Youth Category), recognizing resilience following significant personal adversity, including experiences related to coming out. This background informs the author's interest in dignity, inclusion, and recovery-oriented accountability.

To mitigate the influence of personal perspective, the BET Index relies on:

  • A published, deterministic scoring methodology
  • Versioned releases
  • A public ethical ledger with cited sources
  • Uniform penalty rules that apply regardless of provider preference or ranking outcome

Scores reflect documented evidence and defined parameters, not personal endorsement or opposition.

Methodology Governance

The BET Index methodology is versioned and publicly documented.

  • Each release specifies the methodology version used.
  • Changes to pillar definitions, weights, or penalty parameters are explicitly disclosed in release notes.
  • Historical releases remain accessible and are not altered.

This approach ensures that results are reproducible and that changes over time are attributable to defined methodological evolution rather than ad hoc judgment.

Historical Record of Severe Harm

In addition to numerical scoring, the BET Index maintains a Historical Record for certain providers.

This record documents substantiated historical involvement or complicity in large-scale harm with lasting societal impact, where such involvement is well-established in the historical record.

Entries in this record are preserved without decay and are maintained separately from present-day numerical scores.

The purpose of this record is to preserve historical context, support informed interpretation, and prevent institutional erasure — not to impose perpetual numerical penalties.

Where present-day conduct reflects denial, minimization, obstruction of historical accountability, or repetition of materially similar patterns, historical entries may regain relevance in contemporary scoring.

The existence of a historical record entry does not imply present-day culpability absent current conduct that reactivates its relevance.

Transparency & Auditability

The BET Index is designed to be auditable.

  • Scoring inputs, parameters, and outputs are exposed via documentation and API endpoints.
  • Each score can be traced to contributing pillars and ledger events.
  • Releases are timestamped, versioned, and immutable.

Transparency is treated as a safeguard, not a marketing feature.

Accessibility Standard

For materials published within the Ethics section of the Baldwinson website—including governance documents, methodological explanations, registries, and evaluative scores—Baldwinson applies a heightened accessibility standard as a matter of governance.

Such materials are designed and reviewed to meet or exceed Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Level AAA text contrast requirements, with the express purpose of preventing visual obfuscation, selective legibility, or perceptual minimization of ethical, legal, or evaluative content.

This standard functions as a constraint on Ethics-related publications and is intended to ensure that readers, regardless of visual ability, encounter these materials with consistent clarity and semantic prominence.

This requirement is specific to the Ethics section of the Baldwinson website. Other Baldwinson-affiliated projects—particularly independent commercial, marketing, or retail endeavors—may employ stylistic, artistic, or thematic design choices that prioritize expressive or brand considerations and may not adhere to WCAG Level AAA contrast thresholds.

Accessibility conformance within the Ethics section is treated as an ongoing obligation and is evaluated in connection with material changes to ensure continued alignment with this standard over time.

Right of Reply & Corrections

The BET Index recognizes that ethical evaluation benefits from factual accuracy, procedural fairness, and good-faith engagement.

Submissions

Individuals, organizations, or authorized representatives may submit factual corrections, clarifications, or remediation evidence relevant to published content by contacting:

Submissions must include verifiable sources or documentation. Opinion statements or normative objections without supporting evidence are not sufficient grounds for score changes.

Handling of Submissions

Submissions are reviewed against the published methodology and governance criteria.

Accepted corrections or updates are incorporated only in subsequent releases and are never applied retroactively. Disputes or unresolved disagreements may be noted publicly to preserve transparency and historical context.

The existence of a right of reply does not guarantee a revision, response, or change in score.

Submissions intended to challenge the normative scope, weighting, or existence of the BET Index fall outside the scope of this process and are not evaluated through the corrections and submissions mechanism.

Future Governance

As the BET Index evolves, additional governance mechanisms may be introduced, including:

  • Independent advisory review
  • External methodology audits
  • Expanded public APIs for third-party verification

Any such changes will be disclosed on this page.