Ethics & Governance

The ethics framework is not a compliance checkbox — it is the product. Trust is our moat.

Core Ethical Principles

Data Sovereignty

The participant (or their Legacy Steward) retains ultimate authority over their archive at all times. The Foundation is a custodian, not an owner.

Informed Consent

Participants must fully understand what they are consenting to. Consent must be ongoing, granular, revocable, and never assumed.

Dignity Preservation

No data may be used to degrade, mock, exploit, or misrepresent the participant. All uses must honor the participant’s self-expressed identity and values.

Transparency

All governance decisions, data handling practices, licensing agreements, and third-party access are publicly documented and auditable.

Non-Commercialization of Identity

Individual identities are never sold. Only anonymized, aggregated patterns are licensed. A participant’s identity may never be used for advertising or commercial gain without explicit additional consent.

Temporal Ethics

Ethical standards must evolve with technology. The Foundation commits to periodic ethical review and adaptation while maintaining core principles as inviolable.

Universal Access

A free tier ensures that economic status is never a barrier to preserving your legacy.

Consent Architecture

1

Enrollment Consent

The initial agreement to participate in the archive, covering baseline data contribution and preservation authorization.

2

Granular Data Consent

Specific permissions for each category of data preserved (e.g., voice recordings may be consented while financial data is excluded).

3

Usage Scope Consent

Separate permissions for family access vs. anonymized AI data licensing. You control exactly how your data is used — and these are two independent decisions.

4

Post-Mortem Consent Delegation

Detailed instructions for how consent should be managed after death, including Legacy Steward authority, time-locked permissions, and default fallback policies.

5

Revocation and Sunset Clauses

Mechanisms for participants (or their stewards) to revoke consent, request data deletion, or set automatic expiration dates on their contributions.

AI Data Licensing Ethics

The commercial subsidiary operates under strict ethical guardrails.

  • ✓No individual is identifiable in any licensed dataset. Differential privacy and k-anonymity techniques applied before data leaves the Foundation.
  • ✓Every data point in a licensed dataset traces back to a specific, auditable consent grant. Licensing customers receive consent provenance certificates.
  • ✓Licensed data may never be used for surveillance, manipulation, political targeting, discriminatory profiling, or any purpose that violates participants’ dignity.
  • ✓When a participant revokes AI licensing consent, their data is removed from all future dataset releases within 30 days.
  • ✓Health and DNA data are never included in AI licensing unless the participant provides explicit, separate consent beyond the standard opt-in.
  • ✓The Foundation publishes annual reports on all data licensing revenue and how it funds preservation operations.

Legal Structure

The Sim-I-Am Foundation is organized as a perpetual, non-profit trust:

  • ✓Incorporated in a jurisdiction with strong data protection laws and perpetual trust recognition.
  • ✓An independent, rotating Governance Board of ethicists, technologists, legal scholars, and participant representatives.
  • ✓Endowment-funded operations designed to sustain the Foundation indefinitely, with contingency protocols for institutional failure.
  • ✓Full compliance with GDPR, CCPA, and HIPAA from day one, proactively exceeding minimum requirements.
  • ✓An independent arbitration panel for participant grievances, with binding authority over the Foundation’s operations.
  • ✓25-year Century Protocol reviews of mission alignment, technology, and consent frameworks.

The Ethics Council

A permanent, independent Ethics Council oversees all Foundation activities.

  • 1

    Reviewing and approving all data licensing agreements before execution.

  • 2

    Conducting annual audits of data handling, anonymization, and consent practices.

  • 3

    Publishing a yearly Ethical Status Report, made publicly available.

  • 4

    Maintaining veto power over any Foundation activity that conflicts with core ethical principles.

  • 5

    Evolving ethical guidelines as technology advances, with full transparency around changes.