Principle 01 of 8
Honesty
Tell people the truth about prices, products, services, and claims.
Protects
Customers, the public
Why it matters
People can only decide well on accurate information. Deception takes money and trust from people who never agreed to give them.
Covers
Pricing and billing (Category 1), marketing and capability claims (Category 7), sneaking and urgency patterns (3.1–3.2), misleading privacy and authority claims (5.3, 5.5), and AI misrepresentation (6.4).
Practices that break it
41 subsections · 256 practices
1.1Hidden Costs & Drip Pricing6
1.2Surge & Crisis Pricing+ Care5
1.3Bait-and-Switch Pricing7
1.4Markup Concealment & Junk Fees12
1.5Loyalty Penalty & Incumbency Pricing+ Fairness5
1.6Quantity & Quality Manipulation7
1.8Billing Errors & Unauthorized Charges+ Accountability7
1.9Tipping Manipulation+ Autonomy3
2.2Auto-Renewal Manipulation+ Autonomy5
2.3Tier Degradation & Feature Gating+ Autonomy8
3.1Sneaking Patterns+ Autonomy4
3.2Urgency & Scarcity Patterns+ Autonomy5
3.3Misdirection Patterns+ Autonomy4
5.2Disclosure Failures+ Accountability6
5.3Misleading Privacy Claims+ Privacy4
5.5Misleading Authority Claims5
6.4AI Misrepresentation8
7.1Capability & Outcome Misrepresentation5
7.2Health & Safety Claim Misrepresentation+ Safety10
7.3Greenwashing & Sustainability Misrepresentation+ Responsibility10
7.4Cause-Washing & Purpose-Washing6
7.5Origin & Authenticity Fraud6
7.6Astroturfing & Fake Reviews6
7.7Undisclosed Sponsored Content8
7.8Manipulative Imagery & Body Standards+ Care4
7.9Political & Dark-Ad Practices+ Autonomy5
7.10Ad Fraud & Inventory Manipulation5
7.11Vulnerability-Targeting Marketing+ Care5
8.1Recall Delay & Safety Defect Concealment+ Safety8
8.4Service Quality Throttling & Sunsetting+ Safety6
8.7Inspection & Testing Evasion+ Safety6
8.9Crypto-Specific Irreversibility Harms+ Safety4
12.3Self-Preferencing on Owned Platforms+ Responsibility6
13.1Supply Chain Opacity+ Responsibility7
13.4Counterfeit & Sanctioned Goods+ Responsibility4
14.1Emission Underreporting & Concealment+ Responsibility8
14.2Carbon-Offset Greenwashing+ Responsibility5
14.3Pollution Concealment+ Responsibility10
15.2Ethics Theater+ Accountability4
15.6Conflict-of-Interest Concealment+ Accountability8
15.8Transparency Evasion+ Accountability9
The same principle, across industries
Every practice above, as it reads in the catalog. Numbers link to the standard.
1.1 Hidden Costs & Drip Pricing · 6 practices
Honesty
| § | Practice | Description | Seen in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.1.1 | Drip Pricing | Advertising a base price while progressively revealing mandatory fees during checkout, so the final total far exceeds the price the user committed to. | Airlines (baggage, seat fees), hotels (resort fees), event ticketing, e-commerce, travel |
| 1.1.2 | Hidden Mandatory Fees | Adding non-optional service, facility, processing, regulatory, or "amenity" fees not disclosed alongside the headline price. | Hospitality, ride-hailing, telecom, fitness, real estate (junk fees), wedding planning |
| 1.1.3 | Sneak-into-Basket | Auto-adding items, insurance, warranties, donations, or services to a cart that the user must explicitly remove. | E-commerce, travel booking, ticketing, financial services |
| 1.1.4 | Hidden Surcharges & Stacking | Layering numerous small fees (fuel, residential, peak, accessorial) so the final invoice is opaque even to attentive customers. | Shipping & freight, food delivery, logistics, waste management, energy utilities |
| 1.1.5 | Foreign Transaction Opacity | Burying currency-conversion markups or international fees in fine print rather than disclosing at point of sale. | Financial services, travel & tourism |
| 1.1.6 | Dynamic-Currency Conversion Markup | Offering on-the-fly currency conversion at unfavorable rates without disclosing the markup, so users unwittingly pay above-market exchange. | Travel & tourism, payment processing |
1.2 Surge & Crisis Pricing · 5 practices
Honesty+ Care
| § | Practice | Description | Seen in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.2.1 | Crisis-Period Price Gouging | Algorithmically raising prices on essential goods or services during emergencies, weather events, or supply shocks when consumers cannot defer purchase. | Grocery, e-commerce, ride-hailing, food delivery, plumbing/home repair, pest control |
| 1.2.2 | Emergency-Markup Exploitation | Charging premium rates for after-hours, urgent, or emergency service when the customer has no time to compare alternatives. | Plumbing, automotive towing, veterinary, healthcare, funeral services, cybersecurity (ransomware response) |
| 1.2.3 | Last-Minute Price Inflation | Raising prices dramatically as the deadline (travel date, event, deadline) approaches, exploiting urgency. | Travel, ticketing, gambling, betting |
| 1.2.4 | Algorithmic Personalized Pricing | Adjusting prices in real time based on browsing history, device, location, or perceived willingness to pay without disclosure. | Hospitality, e-commerce, ride-hailing, grocery, fashion, ticketing |
| 1.2.5 | Tourist-Targeted Overcharging | Charging higher prices to visibly identifiable visitors who lack local knowledge of fair prices, sometimes refusing meters or quoting opaque flat rates. | Taxi services, retail in tourist zones, hospitality, currency exchange |
1.3 Bait-and-Switch Pricing · 7 practices
Honesty
| § | Practice | Description | Seen in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.3.1 | Bait Pricing | Advertising a price or product that is unavailable, then steering the customer to a more expensive alternative. | Real estate, automotive sales, e-commerce, cleaning services, home services |
| 1.3.2 | Yo-Yo Financing | Letting a customer take possession after a sale, then claiming financing fell through to impose worse terms. | Automotive |
| 1.3.3 | Underbid-and-Inflate | Submitting a low bid to win a contract, then recovering margin through change orders, "unforeseen conditions," or scope creep. | Construction, home services, plumbing, consulting |
| 1.3.4 | Allowance Underspecification | Setting unrealistically low material or service allowances in a quote, knowing the customer will exceed them and pay the difference. | Construction, home services, wedding planning |
| 1.3.5 | Diagnostic-to-Repair Conversion | Advertising free or low-cost diagnostics that convert into expensive repair commitments without re-quoting. | Plumbing, automotive repair, pest control |
| 1.3.6 | Vendor Substitution | Replacing the contracted vendor or specified material with a lower-cost alternative while charging the original rate. | Wedding planning, construction, dental (lab work), beauty (formulation) |
| 1.3.7 | Renewal-Time Feature Downgrade | Removing or restricting features included in the prior term and offering them only at a higher tier upon renewal. | Cloud / SaaS, streaming, mobile carriers, fitness |
1.4 Markup Concealment & Junk Fees · 12 practices
Honesty
| § | Practice | Description | Seen in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.4.1 | Material/Parts Markup Concealment | Charging retail or inflated prices for materials, parts, or supplies while presenting prices as "at cost" or omitting markup disclosure. | Plumbing, home services, dental (lab work), veterinary, cleaning, automotive repair |
| 1.4.2 | Apprentice-at-Journeyman Rate | Billing senior-level rates while assigning the work to junior, unqualified, or apprentice personnel. | Consulting, legal services, plumbing, accounting & auditing |
| 1.4.3 | Billable-Hour Inflation | Padding hours through unnecessary meetings, redundant research, or rounded entries. | Consulting, legal services, accounting & auditing |
| 1.4.4 | Expense Padding | Inflating travel, accommodation, and operational expenses passed through to clients beyond actual cost. | Consulting, legal services |
| 1.4.5 | Flat-Rate Pricing Opacity | Quoting flat rates that vastly exceed the time-and-materials cost without disclosing the calculation, hiding effective hourly rates. | Plumbing, home services, automotive repair |
| 1.4.6 | Mini-Bar / Incidentals Gouging | Charging extreme markups (often 300–800%) on captive in-room or in-venue items, sometimes with sensor-based auto-billing for items merely moved. | Hotels, event venues, hospitality, pet industry (in-clinic prescriptions) |
| 1.4.7 | Wedding/Occasion Tax | Charging more for identical services when labeled with a high-emotion event (wedding, funeral) than for an ordinary "event." | Wedding planning, funeral services |
| 1.4.8 | MSRP Inflation for Discount Illusion | Setting artificially high "manufacturer suggested retail prices" so retailers can advertise large but illusory discounts. | Home appliances, fashion, e-commerce |
| 1.4.9 | Outlet-Store Deception | Manufacturing lower-quality goods specifically for outlet channels while implying they are excess or overstock from the main line. | Fashion & apparel |
| 1.4.10 | Captive-Venue Concession Markup | Charging extreme markups on essential items (food, water, basic snacks) inside venues where consumers cannot leave and return, often selling commodity items at 5–10× retail. | Theme parks, sports stadiums, concert venues, cinemas, airports (post-security), cruise ships |
| 1.4.11 | Outside-Food / Drink Prohibition | Banning patrons from bringing essential items (water, food, baby formula) into a venue specifically to channel demand into overpriced concessions, sometimes confiscating items at entry. | Theme parks, sports stadiums, concert venues, cinemas |
| 1.4.12 | Cultural-Practice Pricing-Out | Inflating prices on items central to a society's customary rituals (shared meals, gathering venues, holiday foods) well beyond cost basis, making the cultural practice economically inaccessible while continuing to market the venue or product as part of that ritual. | Restaurants (American social-eating culture), event venues, holiday-food retail, "third place" cafes |
1.5 Loyalty Penalty & Incumbency Pricing · 5 practices
Honesty+ Fairness
| § | Practice | Description | Seen in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.5.1 | Price Creep | Gradual, repeated price increases above inflation, exploiting customer inertia and switching costs. | SaaS, streaming, insurance, mobile carriers, cleaning services |
| 1.5.2 | Loyalty Penalty | Charging long-term customers more than new customers for identical coverage or service. | Insurance, mobile carriers, energy utilities |
| 1.5.3 | Teaser-Rate Trap | Offering low introductory pricing that escalates dramatically after the first renewal cycle. | Insurance, mobile carriers, cosmetics (subscription), gym memberships |
| 1.5.4 | Auto-Renewal Price Hike | Renewing a subscription at a higher price than the prior term without explicit consent or prominent advance notice. | Cloud/SaaS, streaming, cybersecurity, fitness, dating, telecom |
| 1.5.5 | Mile / Point Devaluation | Unilaterally reducing the value, redemption availability, or expiration window of accumulated loyalty points or miles. | Airlines, hotels, retail loyalty programs, credit-card rewards |
1.6 Quantity & Quality Manipulation · 7 practices
Honesty
| § | Practice | Description | Seen in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.6.1 | Shrinkflation | Reducing product quantity, weight, or volume while keeping price (and often packaging) the same, without conspicuous disclosure. | Grocery, food/beverage manufacturing, cosmetics, personal care |
| 1.6.2 | Silent Quality Degradation | Reducing fabric weight, material grade, ingredient quality, or build standard while maintaining or increasing price without disclosure. | Fashion, food manufacturing, dental (material grade), home appliances |
| 1.6.3 | Substitute Ingredient Swap | Quietly replacing a higher-quality ingredient with a cheaper alternative without updating packaging or notifying consumers. | Food/beverage manufacturing, beauty, supplements |
| 1.6.4 | Unit-Price Manipulation | Displaying unit prices in inconsistent units (per ounce vs. per pound, per use vs. per package) so cross-product comparison is impractical. | Grocery, e-commerce |
| 1.6.5 | Serving-Size Manipulation | Defining unrealistically small serving sizes so per-serving nutritional or alcohol-content figures appear favorable. | Food/beverage manufacturing, alcohol & spirits |
| 1.6.6 | Glazing / Weight-Padding | Over-glazing frozen products with ice or otherwise inflating sale weight beyond accepted limits. | Seafood/fisheries, food retail |
| 1.6.7 | Checkout-Scanner Discrepancy | Shelf and scanned prices disagree, consistently in the seller's favor. | Grocery, retail |
1.8 Billing Errors & Unauthorized Charges · 7 practices
Honesty+ Accountability
| § | Practice | Description | Seen in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.8.1 | Bill Cramming | Adding unauthorized charges — third-party services, premium SMS, mystery fees — to invoices without explicit consent. | Telecom, utilities, hospitality |
| 1.8.2 | Estimated-Billing Overcharge | Systematically estimating bills on the high side rather than from actual meter or usage data, requiring customers to identify and dispute. | Energy utilities, water utilities |
| 1.8.3 | Damage-Claim Fabrication | Charging customers for pre-existing damage, normal wear, or fabricated incidents after departure without dispute opportunity. | Hospitality, automotive (lease return), real estate (security deposits) |
| 1.8.4 | Inactivity / Maintenance Drain | Charging maintenance or inactivity fees that slowly drain dormant accounts to zero. | Financial services, gift cards, fashion (gift balances) |
| 1.8.5 | Zombie Subscription Charging | Continuing to bill after cancellation or account deletion by retaining payment tokens and citing "billing-cycle completion." | Fitness, dating, cleaning services, cosmetics, financial services |
| 1.8.6 | Coordination-of-Benefits Fraud | Billing multiple insurers for the full allowed amount rather than coordinating, resulting in overpayment or balance billing. | Dental, healthcare |
| 1.8.7 | Insurance Code Upcoding | Coding procedures at higher reimbursement levels than clinically warranted to inflate insurance billing. | Healthcare, dental |
1.9 Tipping Manipulation · 3 practices
Honesty+ Autonomy
| § | Practice | Description | Seen in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.9.1 | Pre-Selected Default Tip Percentages | POS terminals defaulting to high tip percentages (often 18–30%), placing the no-tip option in a smaller, lower-contrast, or extra-tap location, or pre-highlighting the largest amount. | Counter-service food, retail, mobile POS systems, ride-hailing apps |
| 1.9.2 | Tip Solicitation Outside Service Contexts | Soliciting tips in transactions historically not tipped — self-checkout, take-out, retail, automated kiosks — exploiting social pressure and unfamiliarity to extract gratuities for services that involve no traditional service component. | Retail, self-checkout, automated kiosks, take-out food, airport concessions |
| 1.9.3 | Tip-on-Tax / Tip-on-Pre-Discount Total | Calculating suggested tip percentages on the tax-inclusive total or pre-discount price, inflating the displayed "suggested" amount above the cost of the underlying service. | Restaurants, food delivery, hospitality |
2.2 Auto-Renewal Manipulation · 5 practices
Honesty+ Autonomy
| § | Practice | Description | Seen in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2.2.1 | Hidden Renewal | Auto-renewing subscriptions or contracts without prominent advance notice, banking on user inattention. | Streaming, telecom, fitness, dating, supplements, pest control, waste management |
| 2.2.2 | Free-Trial Conversion Trap | Collecting payment information for "free" trials and silently converting to paid at the end of the trial without notification. | Streaming, cosmetics, supplements, software, dating |
| 2.2.3 | Auto-Renewal with Escalation | Automatically renewing into a new long-term commitment at a higher price or expanded scope without affirmative consent. | Cleaning services, waste management, fitness, telecom |
| 2.2.4 | Renewal Pressure Tactics | Using urgency, fear messaging, or artificial deadlines at renewal to upgrade or rebind. | Insurance, cybersecurity, supplements |
| 2.2.5 | Silent Coverage Erosion | Renewing policies or contracts with reduced coverage at the same or higher price without highlighting the changes. | Insurance, cloud/SaaS, telecom |
2.3 Tier Degradation & Feature Gating · 8 practices
Honesty+ Autonomy
| § | Practice | Description | Seen in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2.3.1 | Tier Degradation | Moving features previously included in a tier to a higher-priced tier (or removing them altogether). | Streaming, SaaS, gaming, home appliances |
| 2.3.2 | Feature Gating of Existing Hardware | Software-disabling capabilities present in already-purchased hardware to justify a premium tier. | Home appliances, automotive (over-the-air feature removal), connected devices |
| 2.3.3 | Subscription Requirements for Core Functions | Requiring ongoing payment for features that were one-time purchases or that cost nothing to deliver. | Home appliances, automotive (heated seats subscription), gaming (always-online DRM) |
| 2.3.4 | Ad Injection into Paid Tiers | Adding advertising to previously ad-free tiers, then offering ad removal at a higher price. | Streaming, gaming, smart-TV manufacturers |
| 2.3.5 | Ad-Tier Bait-and-Switch | Introducing a low-cost ad-supported tier whose ad load progressively increases over time. | Streaming, podcasting |
| 2.3.6 | Quality Throttling of Free Tier | Deliberately degrading the free or low-tier experience to manufacture urgency for upgrade. | Dating (match visibility), gaming, e-commerce search, social media reach |
| 2.3.7 | Microtransaction Fatigue | Requiring per-action payments (super likes, boosts, premium reactions) that accumulate beyond the advertised subscription cost. | Dating, gaming (loot boxes), social media |
| 2.3.8 | Grind-or-Pay Design | Intentionally slowing free progression to push players or users toward paid shortcuts. | Gaming, dating |
3.1 Sneaking Patterns · 4 practices
Honesty+ Autonomy
| § | Practice | Description | Seen in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3.1.1 | Hidden Costs at Checkout | Revealing fees only on the final step of checkout, after the user has invested time in the flow. | E-commerce, hospitality, ticketing, food delivery |
| 3.1.2 | Sneak into Basket | Pre-selecting or auto-adding items, insurance, donations, or services to a cart. | E-commerce, travel, financial services |
| 3.1.3 | Disguised Ads | Designing ads to look like content, navigation, or organic recommendations. | Search engines, e-commerce, social media, news |
| 3.1.4 | Bait & Switch (Outcome) | Promising one outcome (free download, simple signup) and delivering a different one (subscription, account creation). | Software, dating, e-commerce, fitness |
3.2 Urgency & Scarcity Patterns · 5 practices
Honesty+ Autonomy
| § | Practice | Description | Seen in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3.2.1 | Fake Countdown Timer | Displaying a countdown that resets, has no real consequence, or is decorative. | E-commerce, ticketing, education enrollment funnels |
| 3.2.2 | False Scarcity | Showing inventory levels ("only 2 left") or claims of scarcity ("limited release") that are fabricated or manufactured. | Hospitality, e-commerce, ticketing, fashion |
| 3.2.3 | Fake Social Proof | Showing "47 people viewing this" or similar figures that are randomized or fabricated. | Hospitality, e-commerce, dating |
| 3.2.4 | Manufactured Emotional Urgency | Notifications like "Someone special is waiting" or "Your match expires soon" designed to provoke immediate action. | Dating, gambling |
| 3.2.5 | In-Play Bet Time-Pressure | Countdown windows on in-play betting that rush bettors into rapid wagers without deliberation. | Gambling |
3.3 Misdirection Patterns · 4 practices
Honesty+ Autonomy
| § | Practice | Description | Seen in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3.3.1 | Confirmshaming | Using guilt-inducing or self-deprecating language for the opt-out option ("No thanks, I don't want to save money"). | E-commerce, fitness, nonprofits, supplements |
| 3.3.2 | Visual Interference | Using contrast, size, or position to obscure the option that disadvantages the platform (tiny gray "decline" links, prominent "Yes" buttons). | E-commerce, cookie banners, software installers |
| 3.3.3 | Trick Questions | Confusing double negatives or unclear toggle states ("Uncheck to not receive newsletters"). | E-commerce, account settings, advertising preferences |
| 3.3.4 | Pre-Checked Boxes | Defaulting to opt-in for marketing, data sharing, or ancillary purchases. | E-commerce, nonprofits, financial services, advertising |
5.2 Disclosure Failures · 6 practices
Honesty+ Accountability
| § | Practice | Description | Seen in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5.2.1 | Hidden Policies in Long Documents | Burying material terms, data uses, or surveillance practices in long EULAs or terms of service. | Internal company ethics, social media, software, gaming |
| 5.2.2 | Fragrance / Trade-Secret Loophole Abuse | Using fragrance, formulation, or trade-secret labels to hide chemical identities from consumers. | Beauty, personal care, chemical manufacturing |
| 5.2.3 | Ingredient / Component Opacity | Listing additives, ingredients, or components under unfamiliar names or omitting them from packaging. | Food/beverage manufacturing, cannabis/CBD, supplements, alcohol, tobacco/vaping |
| 5.2.4 | Undisclosed Subprocessors | Engaging third-party subprocessors to access or process customer data without transparent disclosure or right to object. | Cloud/SaaS, legal services |
| 5.2.5 | Undisclosed Offshore Processing | Sending sensitive data (tax returns, medical records) to offshore operations without informing the user. | Tax preparation, healthcare |
| 5.2.6 | Conflict-of-Interest Concealment | Failing to disclose financial interests, referral fees, kickbacks, or vendor relationships when recommending products or services. | Legal services, consulting, financial services, healthcare, accounting, wedding planning |
5.3 Misleading Privacy Claims · 4 practices
Honesty+ Privacy
| § | Practice | Description | Seen in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5.3.1 | Deceptive De-Identification Claims | Claiming telemetry or shared data is "anonymous," "aggregated," or "crash-only" when it is sufficient to identify or re-identify individuals. | Internal company ethics, healthcare |
| 5.3.2 | Re-Identifiable Anonymized Sharing | Sharing supposedly anonymized datasets that can be cross-referenced to re-identify subjects. | Prison/corrections, healthcare |
| 5.3.3 | Selective Transparency Reporting | Publishing transparency or data-request reports that omit proprietary surveillance, internal monitoring, or shadow profiling volumes. | Internal company ethics, social media |
| 5.3.4 | Security-Veiled Surveillance | Justifying invasive tracking under the pretense of "security," "fraud prevention," or "integrity" when the primary use is behavioral analytics. | Internal company ethics, financial services |
5.5 Misleading Authority Claims · 5 practices
Honesty
| § | Practice | Description | Seen in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5.5.1 | Doctor-Endorsement Purchase | Paying licensed professionals to endorse products without disclosing the financial relationship. | Supplements, beauty, pharma |
| 5.5.2 | Key-Opinion-Leader Capture | Cultivating and compensating influential physicians as de facto spokespeople while obscuring financial relationships. | Pharma/biotech |
| 5.5.3 | Ghostwritten Studies | Commissioning ghostwritten clinical or review articles attributed to academic authors to lend credibility. | Pharma/biotech, supplements |
| 5.5.4 | Third-Party Endorsement Laundering | Securing endorsements, certifications, or rankings from organizations the company funds or controls. | PR/marketing, supplements |
| 5.5.5 | Fake Compliance Certification | Offering or promoting compliance certifications, badges, or attestations that require minimal verification, creating false security signals. | Cybersecurity |
6.4 AI Misrepresentation · 8 practices
Honesty
| § | Practice | Description | Seen in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6.4.1 | AI Capability Misrepresentation | Marketing AI as more capable, reliable, or autonomous than evidence supports, including claiming general intelligence for narrow systems. | AI |
| 6.4.2 | Benchmark Gaming | Optimizing models for public benchmarks while degrading real-world performance. | AI |
| 6.4.3 | AI Hallucination Without Uncertainty Indicators | Presenting AI-generated answers with unwarranted confidence even when fabricated, without indicators of uncertainty or verification. | AI, search engines |
| 6.4.4 | Synthetic-Data Provenance Fraud | Training successive models on AI-generated outputs without disclosure, creating quality degradation while claiming improvements. | AI |
| 6.4.5 | Autonomy Marketing for Driver-Required Systems | Marketing vehicles as "self-driving" while burying disclaimers requiring full driver attention. | Automotive |
| 6.4.6 | AI Diagnostic Opacity | Deploying AI diagnostic tools without explainability or physician oversight in life-critical decisions. | Healthcare, mental health |
| 6.4.7 | Red-Teaming Avoidance | Releasing models without rigorous adversarial testing or with only superficial safety evaluations. | AI |
| 6.4.8 | Emergency-Override Suppression | Building autonomous systems without kill switches, human override mechanisms, or fail-safe defaults. | AI, robotics, automotive |
7.1 Capability & Outcome Misrepresentation · 5 practices
Honesty
| § | Practice | Description | Seen in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7.1.1 | Outcome Misrepresentation | Advertising inflated job placement, success rates, or salary outcomes without disclosing methodology or sample bias. | Education, legal services, fitness |
| 7.1.2 | Coverage Map Overstatement | Publishing coverage maps based on aspirational rather than actual measurement data. | Mobile carriers, internet service providers |
| 7.1.3 | Service-Level Optimism | Marketing service speeds or reliability achievable only under ideal conditions that do not reflect typical experience. | Mobile carriers, cloud/SaaS |
| 7.1.4 | Accreditation Ambiguity | Failing to clearly disclose accreditation status or presenting unaccredited programs as equivalent to accredited ones. | Education |
| 7.1.5 | Comparative-Advertising Inaccuracy | Comparative claims about firm capabilities, results, or qualifications that are not verifiable. | Legal services, professional services |
7.2 Health & Safety Claim Misrepresentation · 10 practices
Honesty+ Safety
| § | Practice | Description | Seen in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7.2.1 | Disease-Cure Claims Without Approval | Marketing supplements, products, or services as treatments, cures, or preventatives without FDA-equivalent evidence. | Supplements, cannabis/CBD, beauty, baby products |
| 7.2.2 | Structure-Function Stretching | Exaggerating legitimate structure-function claims to imply disease treatment through implication, imagery, or context. | Supplements, beauty |
| 7.2.3 | Reduced-Risk Without Authorization | Marketing products as reduced-risk or modified-risk without regulatory authorization. | Tobacco/vaping |
| 7.2.4 | Cessation / Quit Claims Without Evidence | Implying products help users quit (smoking, drinking) without clinical evidence. | Tobacco/vaping, supplements |
| 7.2.5 | Direct-to-Consumer Disease Awareness | Running ads that medicalize normal conditions to drive demand for branded treatments. | Pharma/biotech, healthcare |
| 7.2.6 | Pet Health Halo Claims | Unverified therapeutic or developmental claims on pet supplements, baby products, or food. | Pet industry, baby/children's products, food |
| 7.2.7 | Health Halo on Junk Food | Highlighting a single positive attribute ("whole grains," "no artificial flavors") on otherwise nutritionally poor products. | Food/beverage manufacturing |
| 7.2.8 | Anti-Aging Fear Marketing | Positioning normal aging as a problem to be solved with fear-based messaging. | Beauty, cosmetics |
| 7.2.9 | Developmental-Milestone Claims | Unsubstantiated claims that products accelerate cognitive or physical development in children. | Baby products, education |
| 7.2.10 | Lifestyle Health Branding | Associating addictive products with fitness, wellness, or self-care to recast addiction as health. | Tobacco/vaping, alcohol |
7.3 Greenwashing & Sustainability Misrepresentation · 10 practices
Honesty+ Responsibility
| § | Practice | Description | Seen in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7.3.1 | Vague Eco Claims | Marketing products as "natural," "clean," "eco-friendly," "sustainable," or "non-toxic" without standardized definitions or verification. | Beauty, food, fashion, baby products, cleaning, personal care |
| 7.3.2 | Carbon-Offset Greenwashing | Claiming carbon neutrality through low-quality, non-additional, or unverifiable offsets while absolute emissions continue to rise. | AI, crypto, airlines, oil/gas, logistics, shipping, travel |
| 7.3.3 | REC / Renewable Double-Counting | Counting the same renewable certificates toward both regulatory compliance and voluntary customer claims. | Energy utilities, renewable energy, crypto |
| 7.3.4 | Greenhouse-Pledge Without Plan | Announcing distant net-zero or sustainability targets without interim milestones, accountability, or capital allocation. | Renewable energy, oil/gas, food manufacturing |
| 7.3.5 | Deadstock Destruction | Incinerating or landfilling unsold inventory to protect brand prestige, while marketing sustainability. | Fashion, luxury goods |
| 7.3.6 | Recycling Program Greenwashing | Promoting take-back, refill, or recycling programs that divert minimal waste while claiming environmental leadership. | Beauty, home appliances, e-commerce, waste management |
| 7.3.7 | Process-Claim Inflation | Marketing as "artisanal," "small-batch," or "handcrafted" without defined standards or third-party verification. | Food, alcohol, beauty |
| 7.3.8 | Certification Logo Misuse | Displaying certifications (organic, non-GMO, humane, fair-trade) that have lapsed, are scoped narrowly, or come from shell certifiers. | Food, agriculture, beauty |
| 7.3.9 | Energy-Rating Manipulation | Configuring devices for testing conditions that do not reflect real-world energy consumption. | Home appliances, automotive |
| 7.3.10 | Cruelty-Free Misrepresentation | Using cruelty-free claims without independent verification, or selling in markets that require animal testing while claiming cruelty-free elsewhere. | Beauty, personal care |
7.4 Cause-Washing & Purpose-Washing · 6 practices
Honesty
| § | Practice | Description | Seen in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7.4.1 | Purpose-Washing | Aligning brands with social causes through campaigns while core business practices contradict those values. | PR/marketing, fashion, food |
| 7.4.2 | Charity-Markup Capture | Marketing tickets or products with charity add-ons while directing the majority of inflated prices to platform or promoter fees. | Event ticketing, e-commerce |
| 7.4.3 | Virtue Signaling Without Action | Awareness campaigns or public commitments not backed by measurable, time-bound operational changes. | PR/marketing |
| 7.4.4 | Selective Impact Reporting | Disclosing favorable sustainability or diversity metrics while withholding unfavorable ones. | PR/marketing, nonprofits |
| 7.4.5 | Diversity Quota Theater | Implementing superficial diversity in background or minor roles while reserving lead and creative positions for dominant groups. | Film/television, hiring |
| 7.4.6 | Savior-Complex Marketing | Portraying communities as helpless and the organization as sole rescuer rather than amplifying community agency. | Nonprofits |
7.5 Origin & Authenticity Fraud · 6 practices
Honesty
| § | Practice | Description | Seen in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7.5.1 | Geographic-Origin Misrepresentation | Implying products originate from a specific region, distillery, or tradition when they do not. | Alcohol, food, fashion, cannabis |
| 7.5.2 | Wild-vs.-Farmed Misrepresentation | Marketing farmed seafood as wild-caught to command price premiums. | Seafood/fisheries |
| 7.5.3 | Country-of-Origin Fraud | Falsifying country of origin to bypass tariffs, avoid health-inspection flags, or command premium pricing. | Seafood, fashion, food |
| 7.5.4 | Synthetic-as-Natural | Marketing synthetic or lab-derived products as "natural" or "full-spectrum." | Cannabis/CBD, beauty |
| 7.5.5 | Heritage Distortion at Tourist Sites | Revising historical narratives at heritage sites to satisfy tourist expectations over accuracy. | Travel/tourism |
| 7.5.6 | Cultural Appropriation in Branding | Co-opting traditional practices, designs, or aesthetics from marginalized communities without attribution, compensation, or collaboration. | Beauty, fashion, film/television, travel |
7.6 Astroturfing & Fake Reviews · 6 practices
Honesty
| § | Practice | Description | Seen in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7.6.1 | Astroturfing | Creating fake grassroots campaigns, front groups, or paid "independent" voices to simulate public support. | PR/marketing, lobbying |
| 7.6.2 | Fake-Review Generation | Coordinating, incentivizing, or fabricating reviews, testimonials, or endorsements. | E-commerce, podcasting, mental health, dental, fitness |
| 7.6.3 | Review Suppression | Selective follow-up, review-gating, or legal threats to suppress negative reviews. | Hospitality, dental, mental health |
| 7.6.4 | Wash Trading / Volume Fabrication | Executing trades between controlled accounts to create artificial volume on exchanges. | Crypto, financial markets |
| 7.6.5 | Stream-Count Manipulation | Allowing or failing to detect inflated stream counts via bots or play farms that distort royalty pools. | Music industry |
| 7.6.6 | Ghost-Profile Inflation | Creating or maintaining fake user profiles to simulate platform activity and inflate match rates. | Dating |
7.7 Undisclosed Sponsored Content · 8 practices
Honesty
| § | Practice | Description | Seen in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7.7.1 | Undisclosed Influencer Promotion | Paying influencers without requiring clear, FTC-compliant disclosure (#ad, #sponsored). | Beauty, fashion, supplements, cannabis, alcohol, tobacco, gambling |
| 7.7.2 | Native Ads Mimicking Editorial | Producing advertising segments or articles that mimic editorial format without clear labeling. | Podcasting, media/journalism |
| 7.7.3 | Host-Read Ad Disclosure Failure | Failing to clearly distinguish host-read advertisements from organic editorial content. | Podcasting, radio |
| 7.7.4 | Dynamic Ad Insertion Without Disclosure | Inserting or replacing ads in archived episodes without disclosing that content has been altered. | Podcasting |
| 7.7.5 | Sponsored Episode Concealment | Producing entire episodes funded by a brand or interest group without disclosing the financial relationship. | Podcasting, media |
| 7.7.6 | Product Placement in Narrative Content | Integrating branded products or messaging into narrative content without clear disclosure. | Film/television, gaming |
| 7.7.7 | Editorial Compromise from Advertiser Pressure | Allowing advertiser, government, or owner pressure to influence content recommendations, visibility, or commissioning decisions. | Streaming, podcasting, media/journalism |
| 7.7.8 | Paid Playlist Placement (Payola) | Accepting payment or favors for playlist placement, editorial positioning, or algorithmic boosting without disclosure to listeners. | Music industry |
7.8 Manipulative Imagery & Body Standards · 4 practices
Honesty+ Care
| § | Practice | Description | Seen in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7.8.1 | Photoshopped Results Without Disclosure | Displaying digitally altered before/after images or retouched model photography to exaggerate effectiveness. | Beauty, cosmetics, fitness |
| 7.8.2 | Unrealistic Beauty Standards | Promoting unattainable appearance ideals through filters, editing, or selective casting. | Beauty, fashion |
| 7.8.3 | Body-Shaming Hygiene Marketing | Implying natural body features (odor, texture, appearance) are shameful and require correction. | Personal care, hygiene products |
| 7.8.4 | Survivor / Cherry-Picked Testimonials | Showcasing only exceptional results while suppressing typical outcomes. | Fitness, supplements, education |
7.9 Political & Dark-Ad Practices · 5 practices
Honesty+ Autonomy
| § | Practice | Description | Seen in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7.9.1 | Dark Ads Without Public Archive | Running political, issue, or commercial ads visible only to narrow audience segments with no public record of content or targeting. | Digital advertising |
| 7.9.2 | Political Ad Origin Concealment | Allowing political ads to run without disclosing the true funder, using shell organizations to mask origin. | Digital advertising |
| 7.9.3 | Political Microtargeting Opacity | Enabling granular political targeting without disclosing criteria, audience size, or demographic basis. | Digital advertising |
| 7.9.4 | Ad Library Inaccessibility | Maintaining ad transparency libraries that are incomplete, delayed, unsearchable, or omit targeting data. | Digital advertising |
| 7.9.5 | Psychographic Manipulation Targeting | Using personality modeling to deliver messages designed to exploit individual psychological vulnerabilities. | PR/marketing, advertising |
7.10 Ad Fraud & Inventory Manipulation · 5 practices
Honesty
| § | Practice | Description | Seen in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7.10.1 | Bot-Traffic Selling | Selling impressions or clicks generated by bots, botnets, or scripts as if they represent genuine human audiences. | Digital advertising, social media |
| 7.10.2 | Made-for-Advertising Sites | Creating low-quality websites designed solely to generate ad revenue with no editorial value. | Digital advertising |
| 7.10.3 | Viewability Manipulation | Stacked ads, auto-scroll, or 1×1 pixels that register impressions as "viewable" when never actually seen. | Digital advertising |
| 7.10.4 | Domain Spoofing | Misrepresenting the domain or app where an ad will appear, selling premium inventory that runs on low-value placements. | Digital advertising |
| 7.10.5 | Attribution Fabrication | Manipulating last-click or view-through attribution to claim credit for conversions that occurred through other channels. | Digital advertising |
7.11 Vulnerability-Targeting Marketing · 5 practices
Honesty+ Care
| § | Practice | Description | Seen in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7.11.1 | Targeting Self-Excluded Users | Sending promotions, free bets, or outreach to individuals who have registered on self-exclusion lists. | Gambling |
| 7.11.2 | Loss-Chasing Identification & Exploitation | Identifying players who increase bets after losses and targeting them with reinforcement offers. | Gambling |
| 7.11.3 | Mental-Health Distress Targeting | Targeting users showing signs of depression, anxiety, or distress with predatory loans, gambling, or exploitative services. | Digital advertising, financial services |
| 7.11.4 | Vulnerable-Patient Symptom Upselling | Online symptom assessments that invariably recommend the company's products regardless of symptoms. | Supplements, telehealth |
| 7.11.5 | Cessation-Sabotage Marketing | Using data indicating a user is attempting to quit (smoking, gambling) to target them with re-engagement offers. | Tobacco/vaping, gambling |
8.1 Recall Delay & Safety Defect Concealment · 8 practices
Honesty+ Safety
| § | Practice | Description | Seen in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8.1.1 | Recall Delay | Delaying recalls of known-defective products to avoid financial impact, even when defects are known to cause harm. | Automotive, baby/children's products, firearms, food/beverage manufacturing, pet industry, pharma, home appliances |
| 8.1.2 | Defect Concealment via Settlement | Settling individual defect claims under NDA rather than issuing broader warnings. | Automotive, consumer products |
| 8.1.3 | Crash / Incident Data Opacity | Collecting detailed safety data but not sharing it with safety researchers or regulators. | Automotive, ride-hailing, airlines |
| 8.1.4 | Emissions Defeat Devices | Using software or hardware to circumvent emissions or safety testing. | Automotive |
| 8.1.5 | Sleep-Product Misrepresentation | Marketing inclined sleepers, soft bedding, or bumper pads as safe despite contraindication from pediatric guidelines. | Baby/children's products |
| 8.1.6 | Maintenance Deferral for Schedule | Postponing required maintenance to preserve on-time performance metrics. | Airlines, public transit |
| 8.1.7 | Safety Defect NDA Settlement | Settling individual defect claims under NDAs that prevent broader public warnings. | Automotive, healthcare, consumer products |
| 8.1.8 | Test-Result Suppression | Suppressing internal test results that indicate safety failures (microbiological, chemical, contamination). | Food manufacturing, pharma, automotive, beauty |
8.4 Service Quality Throttling & Sunsetting · 6 practices
Honesty+ Safety
| § | Practice | Description | Seen in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8.4.1 | Sunsetting Without Refund | Shutting down online-only games or services and making purchased content permanently inaccessible without refund or offline mode. | Gaming, IoT devices |
| 8.4.2 | Update Sabotage | Updates that slow or break older versions to force hardware purchases. | Home appliances, smartphones |
| 8.4.3 | Always-Online DRM | Requiring persistent internet connectivity for single-player or local-use products. | Gaming, software |
| 8.4.4 | Anti-Cheat Kernel Access | Installing kernel-level anti-cheat with system-wide access to processes, files, and traffic. | Gaming |
| 8.4.5 | Deferred Infrastructure Maintenance | Postponing track, signal, vehicle, or grid maintenance to balance budgets, increasing risk of outages or accidents. | Public transit, energy utilities, water utilities |
| 8.4.6 | Safety Investment Deferment | Postponing infrastructure or operational safety upgrades to protect short-term financial returns. | Energy utilities, mining, oil/gas |
8.7 Inspection & Testing Evasion · 6 practices
Honesty+ Safety
| § | Practice | Description | Seen in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8.7.1 | Inspection Bribery | Offering payments, gifts, or favors to inspectors to overlook deficiencies. | Construction |
| 8.7.2 | Lab Shopping for Favorable Results | Sending products to multiple labs and selecting the most favorable certificate of analysis. | Cannabis/CBD |
| 8.7.3 | Code Compliance Shortcuts | Performing work that fails building or safety code, relying on overburdened inspectors or post-insulation concealment. | Construction, plumbing |
| 8.7.4 | Inspection-Schedule Evasion | Using scheduling tactics, shell entities, or jurisdictional loopholes to evade inspections; providing advance notice that enables temporary compliance. | Food manufacturing, prison/corrections, mining |
| 8.7.5 | Audit Theater | Conducting pre-announced factory audits that allow temporary remediation, without follow-up. | Fashion, food, beauty |
| 8.7.6 | Threshold Gaming | Formulating products to test just below regulatory contaminant or compositional limits. | Food manufacturing, chemicals |
8.9 Crypto-Specific Irreversibility Harms · 4 practices
Honesty+ Safety
| § | Practice | Description | Seen in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8.9.1 | Wallet-UX Loss Through Negligent Design | Wallet interfaces so unforgiving that ordinary user errors result in irrecoverable losses. | Crypto/blockchain |
| 8.9.2 | Irreversible-Transaction Refusal | Refusing refunds, reversals, or corrections in cases of clear fraud, error, or theft, citing chain finality. | Crypto/blockchain |
| 8.9.3 | Smart-Contract Risk Opacity | Offering yield or lending products without disclosing audit status, known vulnerabilities, or possibility of total loss. | Crypto/blockchain |
| 8.9.4 | Recovery Impossibility for Lost Keys | No mechanism for account recovery when keys are lost, with no escalation path. | Crypto/blockchain |
12.3 Self-Preferencing on Owned Platforms · 6 practices
Honesty+ Responsibility
| § | Practice | Description | Seen in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12.3.1 | Buy-Box / Listing Self-Preferencing | Designing buy-box or marketplace algorithms to favor private-label products over identical or superior third-party offerings. | E-commerce |
| 12.3.2 | Cloud Self-Preferencing | Designing cloud platforms to give the provider's own SaaS or PaaS products performance, cost, or integration advantages competitors cannot replicate. | Cloud/SaaS |
| 12.3.3 | Ghost-Kitchen Data Cloning | Analyzing restaurant order data to launch competing ghost kitchens that replicate successful menu concepts. | Food delivery |
| 12.3.4 | Search Self-Preferencing | Ranking the platform's own products, services, or AI assistant content above superior third-party alternatives. | Search engines, AI platforms |
| 12.3.5 | Music Catalog Self-Preferencing | Algorithmically promoting catalog owned or controlled by the platform's parent company. | Music industry |
| 12.3.6 | Bandwidth Throttling of Competitors | Deprioritizing or degrading network traffic from competing services while favoring owned content. | Streaming, telecom |
13.1 Supply Chain Opacity · 7 practices
Honesty+ Responsibility
| § | Practice | Description | Seen in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 13.1.1 | Supply Chain Opacity | Constructing complex multi-tier supply chains with insufficient documentation, making it impossible to trace inputs from origin to consumer. | Seafood, fashion, agriculture, beauty, cannabis, food/beverage manufacturing |
| 13.1.2 | Subcontractor Concealment | Hiding unauthorized subcontracting where workers face the worst conditions, claiming visibility only to Tier 1 suppliers. | Fashion |
| 13.1.3 | Audit Theater | Conducting pre-announced audits that allow temporary remediation, without follow-up or worker-driven monitoring. | Fashion, food, beauty |
| 13.1.4 | Unannounced Carrier Substitution | Handing shipments to undisclosed subcontractors with different service or liability standards. | Shipping/freight |
| 13.1.5 | Transshipment Concealment | Transferring catch or goods at sea between vessels to mix legal and illegal sources, obscuring origins. | Seafood |
| 13.1.6 | Vessel-Tracking Avoidance | Disabling, tampering with, or failing to install AIS or VMS tracking to evade monitoring. | Seafood |
| 13.1.7 | Quota Shell Games | Transferring quotas between vessels, regions, or corporate entities to obscure true catch and evade limits. | Seafood |
13.4 Counterfeit & Sanctioned Goods · 4 practices
Honesty+ Responsibility
| § | Practice | Description | Seen in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 13.4.1 | Counterfeit Goods Tolerance | Failing to police third-party listings for counterfeits while profiting from listing fees and traffic. | E-commerce, fashion |
| 13.4.2 | Sanctions Circumvention | Providing services to individuals, entities, or jurisdictions under sanctions, exploiting pseudonymity to bypass compliance. | Crypto/blockchain |
| 13.4.3 | Mixing Service Money Laundering | Operating or promoting mixing services that obscure transaction origins to facilitate laundering. | Crypto/blockchain |
| 13.4.4 | Restricted-Substance Export to Weak-Regulation Markets | Exporting chemicals banned in producing nations to countries with weaker frameworks. | Chemical manufacturing, tobacco |
14.1 Emission Underreporting & Concealment · 8 practices
Honesty+ Responsibility
| § | Practice | Description | Seen in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14.1.1 | Emission Underreporting | Understating Scope 1, 2, or 3 emissions through selective measurement, offset double-counting, or excluded segments. | Logistics, shipping, oil/gas, mining, energy utilities, waste management |
| 14.1.2 | Methane Emission Underreporting | Systematically underreporting methane through selective measurement or accounting. | Oil/gas, waste management |
| 14.1.3 | Toxic Release Underreporting | Systematically underreporting toxic releases to TRI or equivalent reporting systems. | Chemical manufacturing |
| 14.1.4 | Air Quality Monitoring Avoidance | Locating fenceline monitors to avoid detection or disabling monitors during peak release periods. | Chemical manufacturing |
| 14.1.5 | Compute Energy Concealment | Failing to disclose energy, water, or carbon costs of training and operating large AI models. | AI |
| 14.1.6 | Programmatic Ad Carbon Footprint | Operating massive computational infrastructure for real-time bidding without accounting for the resulting energy waste. | Digital advertising |
| 14.1.7 | Launch Emission Non-Disclosure | Failing to measure, report, or disclose atmospheric impact of launch emissions, including alumina, soot, and ozone-depleting compounds. | Space/aerospace |
| 14.1.8 | Reentry Risk to Populated Areas | Planning uncontrolled or marginally controlled reentry trajectories without adequate notification. | Space/aerospace |
14.2 Carbon-Offset Greenwashing · 5 practices
Honesty+ Responsibility
| § | Practice | Description | Seen in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14.2.1 | Carbon-Offset Greenwashing | Claiming carbon neutrality through low-quality, non-additional, or unverifiable offsets while absolute emissions rise. | AI, crypto, airlines, oil/gas, logistics, shipping, travel, renewable energy |
| 14.2.2 | REC Double-Counting | Counting the same renewable certificates toward both regulatory compliance and voluntary customer claims. | Renewable energy, energy utilities, crypto |
| 14.2.3 | Renewable Without Additionality | Claiming renewable operations while purchasing existing renewable credits rather than funding new capacity. | Crypto/blockchain |
| 14.2.4 | Carbon-Credit Misrepresentation | Selling carbon credits from landfill gas or other capture that does not represent genuine additional reduction. | Waste management |
| 14.2.5 | Curtailment Concealment | Failing to disclose when renewable generation is curtailed, overstating actual clean energy delivered. | Renewable energy |
14.3 Pollution Concealment · 10 practices
Honesty+ Responsibility
| § | Practice | Description | Seen in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14.3.1 | Groundwater Contamination Concealment | Detecting but not disclosing chemical migration into groundwater used for drinking, agriculture, or ecosystems. | Chemical manufacturing, oil/gas, agriculture, mining |
| 14.3.2 | Sewer/Water Overflow Concealment | Failing to report combined sewer overflows that release raw sewage into waterways. | Water utilities |
| 14.3.3 | Acid Mine Drainage Neglect | Failing to prevent or treat acid drainage that contaminates waterways for decades. | Mining |
| 14.3.4 | Pesticide Drift onto Communities | Applying broad-acre or aerial pesticides in conditions causing drift onto neighboring communities, schools, or organic farms. | Agriculture, pest control |
| 14.3.5 | Fertilizer-Runoff Concealment | Concealing the extent of nutrient pollution (dead zones, algal blooms, groundwater contamination). | Agriculture |
| 14.3.6 | Spill Response Delay | Delaying containment, cleanup, or notification after spills to minimize perceived liability. | Oil/gas, chemical manufacturing |
| 14.3.7 | Test-Frequency Reduction | Reducing water-quality testing frequency to cut costs, particularly in low-income service areas. | Water utilities |
| 14.3.8 | PFAS Concealment | Failing to test for or disclose PFAS in drinking water or in products. | Water utilities, personal care, chemical manufacturing |
| 14.3.9 | Contamination Notice Delay | Delaying public notification of water-quality violations. | Water utilities |
| 14.3.10 | Ground Water Contamination From Testing | Allowing propellant, solvent, or chemical runoff to contaminate aquifers without remediation. | Space/aerospace |
15.2 Ethics Theater · 4 practices
Honesty+ Accountability
| § | Practice | Description | Seen in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15.2.1 | Ethics Theater | Establishing internal AI ethics boards, privacy councils, or review teams with no decision-making authority and routinely overridden recommendations. | Internal company ethics |
| 15.2.2 | Performative Audit Findings | Accepting audit recommendations publicly but failing to implement corrective actions, track progress, or report on remediation. | Government services |
| 15.2.3 | Internal Report Suppression | Classifying internal security audits, privacy impact assessments, or ethical review findings as confidential to prevent scrutiny. | Internal company ethics |
| 15.2.4 | Selective Transparency Reporting | Publishing transparency or sustainability reports that omit unfavorable categories (proprietary surveillance, internal monitoring, fenceline emissions). | Internal company ethics, PR/marketing |
15.6 Conflict-of-Interest Concealment · 8 practices
Honesty+ Accountability
| § | Practice | Description | Seen in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15.6.1 | Simultaneous Adverse Representation | Representing parties with adverse interests in related matters without disclosure or consent. | Legal services, PR/marketing |
| 15.6.2 | Recommending Own Implementation Services | Designing recommendations that require the firm's own implementation services. | Consulting |
| 15.6.3 | Equity Stakes in Recommended Vendors | Holding undisclosed financial interests in vendors recommended to clients. | Consulting |
| 15.6.4 | Vendor Kickback Concealment | Receiving undisclosed commissions from recommended vendors while presenting recommendations as impartial. | Wedding planning, financial services |
| 15.6.5 | Preferred-Lender Kickbacks | Institutions receiving payments from lenders for steering students toward less favorable loan terms. | Education |
| 15.6.6 | Class-Action Settlement Skimming | Skimming disproportionate attorney fees while class members receive minimal compensation. | Legal services |
| 15.6.7 | Investor / Portfolio Conflicts | Recommending strategic actions that benefit the firm's investment arm or portfolio companies. | Consulting |
| 15.6.8 | Sportsbook Sponsorship Conflict | Accepting sponsorship from sportsbooks while controlling integrity enforcement. | Sports/athletics |
15.8 Transparency Evasion · 9 practices
Honesty+ Accountability
| § | Practice | Description | Seen in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15.8.1 | FOIA Delay Tactics | Using excessive redactions, inflated fee estimates, endless extensions, or "search and review" backlogs to deny FOIA requests. | Government services |
| 15.8.2 | FOIA Exemption Overuse | Applying broad exemption claims to withhold information that would cause political embarrassment rather than genuine harm. | Government services |
| 15.8.3 | Records Evasion via Private Channels | Conducting substantive decision-making in private email or messaging apps to avoid public records requirements. | Government services |
| 15.8.4 | Trade-Secret Overclaiming | Classifying chemical identities, formulations, or health studies as trade secrets to prevent mandatory disclosure. | Chemical manufacturing |
| 15.8.5 | Facility Inspection / Condition Concealment | Blocking independent inspection access, classifying condition reports, or suppressing evidence of overcrowding or neglect. | Prison/corrections |
| 15.8.6 | Recidivism / Outcome Data Manipulation | Reporting selective metrics or redefining measurement windows to present favorable outcomes. | Prison/corrections, education |
| 15.8.7 | Audit-Trail Prevention | Designing systems that prevent independent auditing, logging, or forensic review of surveillance operations. | Surveillance technology |
| 15.8.8 | Contract Opacity for Public Services | Shielding private prison contracts, per-diem rates, and performance metrics from public disclosure. | Prison/corrections |
| 15.8.9 | AI Algorithmic Bias Non-Disclosure | Failing to publish or disclose known bias, error rates, or demographic disparities in surveillance algorithms. | Surveillance technology |