Updated 29 May, 2026
 
1. Purpose
 
The Stories of Us Digital Storytelling Platform is designed as civic infrastructure that enables people to share lived experiences in their own voices. Our goal is to expand participation in civic storytelling while ensuring that stories are collected, stewarded, and used in ways that respect dignity, consent, and community trust.
 
Because storytelling is deeply personal and culturally significant, TSOU has adopted the following ethical governance principles to guide how stories are collected, stored, and used.
 
2. Community Voice Comes First
 
The Platform exists to elevate community voice, not to extract stories. Participants are invited to share reflections on their experiences, communities, and aspirations in response to prompts connected to civic life and belonging.

Storytelling is voluntary, participant-driven, and designed to create spaces where people can reflect on their lived experiences in their own words. Stories are treated as expressions of human experience that deserve care, context, and respect.
 
3. Participants Retain Agency Over Their Stories
 
Participants maintain meaningful control over how their stories are shared. Every participant has the opportunity to:
 

• Review their story before publication

• Edit the generated narrative

• Approve or delete their submission

• Provide consent to their story being publicly shared
   

No story is published without explicit participant approval. Participants may request the removal of their stories at any time in accordance with our privacy policy, and such removal requests will apply to future use and platform visibility. TSOU will make reasonable efforts to honor removal across its systems, however, stories that have already been shared through third-party editorial, research, or public contexts may continue to exist in those environments.
 
4. Stories Are Not Used to Train AI Models
 
Stories collected through the Platform are never used to train artificial intelligence models. AI tools are used solely to assist in converting spoken stories into written narratives so participants can review and share them more easily. These tools do not rewrite or generate new stories, and participants review and approve all outputs to ensure accuracy and fidelity to their voice. Participant stories are not used to improve AI products, nor are they used to train machine learning models.
 
5. The Stories of Us Stewardship Model

Participants retain ownership of their stories. TSOU acts as the steward of the storytelling archive. By submitting their story, participants grant TSOU a non-exclusive, revocable license to steward, display, and use stories in alignment with this framework. Stories are used exclusively for charitable, educational, cultural, and civic purposes that align with the mission of the organization.

Individual stories are never sold, licensed as commercial intellectual property, or used in advertising or brand marketing without explicit participant consent.
Stories may appear within civic, cultural, or editorial storytelling environments, including partnerships with nonprofit institutions and media organizations. In these cases, stories remain part of a non-extractive storytelling commons stewarded by TSOU and are not treated as commercial assets.

Trusted nonprofit partner organizations participating in the Platform may access stories and story summaries for their own nonprofit programming, research, education, and community engagement purposes.  Such access provided to nonprofit partners is limited, non-exclusive, and for non-commercial use aligned with their mission. Partners may not sell, repurpose, or redistribute stories outside agreed contexts.

Commercial media partners may host or display stories as part of editorial or cultural storytelling experiences but do not receive direct access to the underlying story archive or narrative datasets.  Stories may  not be sold as commercial assets. Media partners may feature stories within editorial or cultural contexts, but such use is non-exclusive, not tied to advertising or product marketing, and respects participant consent.
 
6. Privacy and Consent Are Core Principles
 
Participation in storytelling is grounded in clear, informed consent. Before submitting a story, participants are informed about:
 

• how their story may be used

• how it may be shared

• what personal information may be collected
   

Stories may be submitted directly through the TSOU storytelling portal or through partner storytelling portals created in collaboration with trusted nonprofit, civic, cultural, or community organizations. These portals may be hosted on TSOU’s website or, in some cases, on a partner organization’s website or digital platforms.

By submitting a story through TSOU or one of these partner experiences, participants acknowledge and agree that their story (voice/video recording and narrative summary) may be used across TSOU’s storytelling, civic engagement, educational, research, exhibition, publishing, and archival initiatives.

This may include inclusion in digital storytelling galleries, public exhibitions, media partnerships, research summaries, community engagement initiatives, and curated printed publications or books that compile selected stories.

When participants submit a story through a partner experience, they also understand that their contact information may be shared with TSOU and the specific partner organization associated with that portal for purposes connected to the storytelling initiative or related follow-up communications.

Stories are never used for advertising, political campaigning, or commercial marketing. If TSOU collaborates with a for-profit organization, participants will always be asked separately for clear, affirmative consent before any story or contact information is shared or used in connection with that collaboration.
 
7. Trusted Institutions as Stewards
 
We work with trusted civic institutions to embed the Platform within their ecosystem. Story capture is embedded within organizations that already hold strong relationships with their communities, including:
 

• public libraries

• youth-serving nonprofits

• community organizations

• cultural institutions
   

These partners help provide context, support, and care during storytelling experiences. Partner institutions participating in the Platform may receive access to relevant stories and anonymized thematic summaries generated through the Platform for use within their nonprofit missions, including community programming, research, education, and public engagement. Commercial partners that host storytelling experiences do not receive equivalent archive access and may only display stories that participants have explicitly approved for public viewing.
 
8. Ethical Use of Technology
 
Technology is used to support storytelling, not to replace it. AI-assisted speech-to-story tools help convert spoken reflections into written narratives, lowering barriers for participation among people who may not wish to write their stories. Participants remain the authors of their own stories.  AI systems are never used to:
 

• generate stories

• reinterpret participant narratives

• make decisions about the meaning of a story

 
9. Responsible Moderation and Safety
 
To ensure respectful participation, stories are reviewed through a moderation process that combines automated screening with human oversight. This moderation process is designed to identify content that may include:
 

• hate speech

• harassment

• threats

• unlawful material

 
Final moderation decisions remain under human review. TSOU and its partners retain full editorial discretion to approve, edit, or remove stories to maintain safe and respectful spaces for community storytelling.
 
10. Narrative Intelligence With Safeguards

Over time, anonymized and thematic insights may be generated from stories submitted to the Platform. These insights are designed to help:
 

• nonprofit organizations better understand community experiences

• community institutions strengthen programs and services

• journalists identify underreported patterns grounded in lived experience

• civic institutions listen more effectively to residents

Nonprofit partner organizations participating in the Platform may receive access to anonymized thematic insights and story summaries to support their missions.
Insights are derived only from aggregated themes and never expose individual participants.

Stories are not mined for behavioral profiling, targeted advertising, or surveillance, and narrative insights are not provided to commercial entities for marketing or advertising purposes.

11. Commitment to Non-Surveillance
 
The Stories of Us Platform is not designed for surveillance, law enforcement, or immigration enforcement purposes. Stories collected through the Platform will never be shared with law enforcement agencies or government entities for surveillance purposes without legal compulsion. The Platform exists to support civic storytelling, not monitoring or tracking individuals.
 
12. Transparency and Accountability
 
TSOU is committed to transparency in how stories are collected and used. We will continue to engage with community partners, journalists, researchers, and civic organizations to ensure that our storytelling practices remain ethical, responsible, and aligned with community expectations.

As the Platform evolves, TSOU will regularly review and update its governance practices to ensure that storytelling remains grounded in dignity, consent, and trust. TSOU will establish an independent advisory council to guide and review the ethical governance of the platform as it evolves.
 
We believe that storytelling is a civic act, and a public good. By stewarding stories with care, transparency, and accountability, we aim to ensure that community voice strengthens civic life rather than being extracted.