Governance

Published policies

Each policy is a downloadable PDF. Version and effective date are in every document.

Standard v0.9 (Universal)
The full specification. Nine dimensions, scoring rubric, evidence requirements.
Governance & Compliance Statement
How EII is organized, who governs it, how decisions are made.
Conflict of Interest Policy
Reviewer financial-interest disclosures, recusal, board conflicts.
Complaints & Appeals Policy
How to contest a score, timeline, independence of the appeals panel.
Revocation Policy
When certifications are revoked, how the revocation log is maintained.
Badge Usage Guidelines
How a certified product may display the EII mark. Misuse revokes the mark.
Procurement Pack
For buyers: how to require EII conformance in RFPs and vendor assessments.
Annex — Finance (v0.1)
Sector-specific requirements for financial services products.
Annex — Health (v0.1)
Sector-specific requirements for health and wellness products.
Annex — EdTech (v0.1)
Sector-specific requirements for education technology products.

Funding

EII is funded through certification review fees. Disclosed in the annual report. No sponsorships, consulting engagements, or advisory arrangements with reviewed organizations. Charter Cohort fees are subsidized and published in the first annual report.

Reviewers

Two reviewers per review. Neither may hold a financial interest in the product. Reviewer identities disclosed to the product owner, not publicly; methodology and findings public. Selection, training, and recusal in the Conflict of Interest Policy.

The marks

Three marks, each a specific state. Misuse — altered typography, altered colors, added effects, or implied certification not granted — is grounds for revocation. Full permitted uses in the Badge Usage Guidelines.

How to earn a mark. Marks are issued after independent review of a product against the EII standard. Not self-asserted.

Run the self-assessment to locate gaps.
Remediate the lowest-scoring dimensions using the Pattern Library.
Apply for Charter Cohort review.
Two independent reviewers (no financial interest) evaluate your evidence.
On pass: the Certified mark is issued. On partial-pass: specific remediation is documented and a second review scheduled.

Charter Cohort applications are open through Q3 2026. Apply now →

Certified

Issued after independent review confirms conformance across all nine dimensions.

Charter Member

Issued to the ten founding organizations. Listed in perpetuity.

In Review

Issued to products whose assessment is active. Not a certification.

Revocation

Certifications are revoked when: a product falls below thresholds on re-review and fails to remediate within SLA; a material change introduces a failing condition and is not addressed; the EII mark is misused; or a material misrepresentation is discovered in original evidence. Revocations listed in the Directory.

Appeals

Organizations can appeal within 30 days. Heard by a panel that did not conduct the original review. Panel decision final within EII; external legal rights unaffected.

Our own conduct — self-audit

EII asks products to meet the standard. It would be incoherent not to meet it ourselves. Here's how the site applies the standard to itself.

Dimension	EII website & operations — current state
01 Manipulation & Dark Patterns	No urgency mechanics, countdowns, scarcity claims, or confirmshaming. Call-to-action copy is neutral.
02 Consent & Autonomy	No analytics, no tracking, no cookies beyond essential. No email capture required to read any page or use any tool. Self-assessment and calculator run in the browser with no transmission.
03 Attention & Engagement Ethics	No notifications. No engagement loops. No retention mechanics. The site is a reference; we want you to use it and leave.
04 Data Ethics	We collect email addresses only from organizations that email us directly (application or contact). We delete them if we do not proceed. No mailing list beyond transactional correspondence.
05 Neurodivergent & Accessibility	Site targets WCAG 2.2 AA. Semantic HTML, keyboard navigation, visible focus, `prefers-reduced-motion` respected, skip link present. No autoplay, no flashing, no time-pressure modals. Known gaps published when identified.
06 Protection of Vulnerable Users	Incident Log opens with a content warning and 988 / global crisis resources before any case text. We do not target children with this site.
07 Transparency & Honesty	Directory is empty because certifications have not yet been issued. We do not claim "trusted by" or show fictional logos. Fees are not published publicly because they are case-specific, but are disclosed on request and in the annual report.
08 AI Behavioral Safety	The site uses no LLMs in user-facing flows. Self-assessment scoring is deterministic rule logic. Risk Calculator is a transparent formula. If we add AI features, we will apply the same dimension to ourselves.
09 Redress & Remediation	Contact is a single email, replied to within five business days. Public comment period on the standard is open. Appeals process for any scored organization is documented.

Known gaps. We are not yet independently audited against our own standard. The first independent self-audit will be conducted in 2026 and published in full, including any failing dimensions. If we fail, we will publish the failure, the remediation plan, and the date we complete it.