Consumer Rights Wiki:Conflict of interest policy

This wiki documents how companies take advantage of consumers. To maintain credibility and protect this mission, we require transparency about any conflicts of interest. If you have financial, professional, or personal connections to topics you're editing, you must disclose them.

A conflict of interest exists when your personal, professional, or financial relationships could compromise your ability to edit neutrally. You have a conflict of interest (COI) if you're editing articles about:

• Your employer or client
• Companies you own, invest in, or work for
• Competitors of companies you're affiliated with
• Products or services you sell or promote
• Legal cases you're involved in
• Organizations you represent

Having a COI doesn't mean you're a bad person or that your contributions are unwelcome. It's simply a situation that requires transparency and some restrictions to protect the wiki's integrity.

Transparency is core to our COI policy. If you have any conflict of interest, you must be open about it. This means disclosing:

• Who you work for
• Who's paying you (if anyone)
• Your relationship to the topic

This disclosure should appear in multiple places to ensure other editors and readers are aware of your potential conflicts. You need to disclose:

• On your user page
• On the talk page of any article you wish to edit
• In edit summaries when making changes

Even if you think your connection is minor or unlikely to affect your editing, it's better to disclose it. Let the community decide whether it's significant.

When you have a conflict of interest, certain types of editing become problematic because they can compromise the wiki's mission to protect consumers. These restrictions exist to prevent both actual bias and the appearance of bias.

If you have a COI, you should NOT:

• Create articles about your company or employer
• Remove negative information about entities you're connected to
• Add promotional content
• Edit articles about competitors
• Delete or minimize consumer complaints
• Act as a reviewer for articles where you have a COI

However, having a COI doesn't mean you can't contribute at all. There are still valuable ways you can participate:

You MAY:

• Suggest changes on article talk pages (not in articles directly)
• Fix obvious vandalism
• Correct clear factual errors (with disclosure)
• Provide reliable sources on talk pages

The key principle is that you should not directly edit articles where you have a conflict, but you can help improve accuracy by working through other editors who can review your suggestions neutrally.

The Consumer Rights Wiki exists to protect consumers by documenting corporate misconduct and deceptive practices. This mission makes handling conflicts of interest particularly important for us. When editors with a COI, especially paid representatives, edit without disclosure, several harmful things happen:

• They undermine our credibility as an independent source
• They deceive readers who expect independent information
• They potentially remove important consumer protection information
• They may violate consumer protection laws regarding hidden advertising

Every undisclosed COI edit damages the trust that makes our wiki valuable to consumers. Even well-intentioned edits from conflicted editors can introduce subtle biases that can mislead readers.

If you have a COI but believe an article contains errors, you can still help improve accuracy through the proper channels. Here's how to request changes appropriately:

1. Go to the article's talk page
2. Start with: "COI Disclosure: I work for/represent [organization]"
3. Clearly explain the error and provide independent sources
4. Wait for uninvolved editors to review your request
5. Accept the community's decision

Remember that other editors may decline your request, even if you believe you're correct. The community prioritizes protecting consumers over accommodating requests from conflicted editors. If your request is declined, you must accept that decision rather than repeatedly arguing for the same changes. If there is a particularly egregious error or omission on an article, feel free to email help@consumerrights.wiki or post on the moderators' noticeboard to attract an admin's attention.

Certain editing patterns suggest undisclosed conflicts of interest. The moderation team actively monitors for these behaviors, and accounts showing these patterns may be investigated or blocked:

• Only editing articles about one company or topic
• Consistently removing well-sourced negative information
• Adding promotional language or marketing speak
• Creating multiple accounts to edit the same articles (sockpuppeting)
• Refusing to disclose obvious conflicts of interest

If you see these patterns, you should report them. However, remember that not all focused editing indicates a COI. Some editors simply have specific interests or expertise.

When you suspect someone has an undisclosed conflict of interest, it's important to address it properly. Start by assuming good faith, as many new editors don't understand our COI rules. Follow these steps:

1. Politely raise the issue on their user talk page
2. If unresolved, report to the COI noticeboard
3. Focus on editing patterns; do not make personal attacks
4. Never publicly reveal private information about editors

The goal is to maintain transparency, not to drive away editors who might have valuable contributions to make once they understand and follow our guidelines.

Just because an edit was created by a conflicted individual, does not automatically mean a reversion is warranted. If their edit adds legitimately useful content, context, or corrects real errors present on the page edited, then the edit should be retained, regardless of whether the individual in question did not properly disclose their COI status.

Beyond our wiki's policies, hidden advertising and deceptive editing may violate consumer protection laws in many jurisdictions. These laws treat undisclosed commercial editing as a form of false advertising. Relevant regulations include:

• FTC regulations in the United States
• European Union fair trading laws
• National advertising standards in various countries

Editors are personally responsible for complying with applicable laws. This wiki will cooperate with legal authorities investigating deceptive editing practices. Claiming ignorance of these laws is not a defense.

This section provides a quick overview of the key points:

DO:

• Disclose it immediately
• Suggest changes on talk pages

DON'T:

• Edit articles directly
• Remove negative information
• Create promotional content

• Full disclosure required
• Talk page suggestions only
• No direct article editing
• No hiding your employer/client