The legal/reputational risk of this business is concentrated in **publishing
negative-sounding facts about real, often small, businesses.** This policy exists
to contain that risk and is binding on the ingestion/publishing pipeline.
1. Verbatim, sourced public records only. Every published data point originates
from an official government open-data source (currently Texas HHSC CCR via
data.texas.gov). We do not editorialize, infer wrongdoing, or characterize a
facility beyond what the record states. *Truth + official-record sourcing is the
primary defamation defense — the same posture ProPublica and state .gov sites
operate under.*
2. Source link on every record. Each facility carries source_url pointing to
the official public compliance history. Users are always one click from the
primary source. (Implemented: ingest.py sets source_url per row.)
3. Freshness stamps. Every record shows last_synced. Stale data is flagged.
No record is presented as current beyond its sync timestamp.
4. Neutral language. Severity labels mirror the state's own categories
(high / medium-high / … / low). The computed risk_score is documented as a
transparent weighted sum, labeled as ClosureRadar's metric, not an official one.
5. Correction / takedown intake. A monitored channel accepts correction
requests; demonstrated data errors are fixed or removed promptly and re-synced.
6. No "name and shame" framing. Positioning is monitoring, due diligence, and
factual lookup — never a campaign against any operator.
authentication. Data goes to paying buyers who have their own use, not broadcast.
after ToS/Privacy/this policy are signed off and accuracy guardrails are proven on
real data. The state already publishes this data publicly "so parents can make
informed decisions," which supports — but does not by itself authorize — republication.
Both source datasets (bc5r-88dy, m5q4-3y3d) are tagged **CC0 1.0 Universal
(public domain)** in data.texas.gov's own metadata. CC0 explicitly permits
commercial use, normalization, derivatives, redistribution, and resale, with
no attribution required. The Socrata/Tyler platform ToS defers the public-use
license to the data owner (HHSC), who chose CC0. → Commercial operation is
authorized. (Verified against the portal's .json metadata + the CC0 deed.)
Mitigations adopted from the license review:
licenseId stays CC0_10 on a monthly cadence; alert if it changes.HHSC's public compliance history notes that violations/adverse actions do not
post until the operation has had due process or waived it. Implication: our data
already reflects post-due-process records, but we must (a) never present scores as
official findings, (b) keep freshness stamps so stale states are visible, and
(c) carry a clear "not an official source / not a consumer report" disclaimer.
[BRACKETED] placeholders).GO_LIVE.md).