OpenGrievance Specification

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OpenGrievance

See the Trends, Tell the Story.

Specification Overview

OpenGrievance is an open-source, privacy-first consumer grievance intelligence platform designed to collect, preserve, structure, verify, and analyze documented complaints involving companies, products, services, contracts, advertising, billing practices, warranties, and other potential consumer protection issues.

The system transforms individual consumer experiences into structured records that can reveal recurring patterns of alleged misconduct. OpenGrievance is designed to support consumers, attorneys, journalists, researchers, consumer advocates, and authorized organizations while maintaining strong privacy, consent, security, and evidence integrity controls.

OpenGrievance is not a court, regulator, law firm, or provider of legal advice. Submitted grievances remain allegations unless independently verified through the platform’s defined verification processes or supported by authoritative evidence.

The platform uses a modular architecture. Core modules provide the essential functionality of the system. Optional plugin modules extend functionality without requiring changes to the core modules.

Design Principles

OpenGrievance shall be designed around the following principles:

Privacy by design
End-to-end encryption
User-controlled data access
Zero-knowledge architecture where technically appropriate
Evidence integrity and provenance
Structured and reproducible data
Modular architecture
Replaceable infrastructure components
Transparent verification processes
Clear separation between allegations, evidence, analysis, and verified findings
Consent-based communication
Human review for consequential decisions
Open-source interoperability
Resistance to spam, manipulation, and coordinated abuse
Accessibility
Data minimization
Least-privilege access
Auditability
Jurisdiction-aware processing

Core Modules

Complaint Intake Module

The Complaint Intake Module provides the primary interface for submitting consumer grievances.

The module shall support:

False advertising claims
Failure to deliver products or services
Contract violations
Warranty violations
Billing disputes
Subscription disputes
Refund disputes
Consumer fraud allegations
Deceptive business practice allegations
Privacy and data-use grievances
Product and service complaints
Other configurable grievance categories

Each submission may include:

Company or organization
Product or service
Date and time of incident
Location or jurisdiction
Description of events
Contractual terms
Advertising claims
Financial loss
Requested resolution
Supporting evidence
Previous attempts to resolve the dispute
Regulatory or legal actions already taken
Consent preferences

The module shall distinguish between required information, optional information, and sensitive information.

Identity and Consent Module

The Identity and Consent Module manages user identity, pseudonymous participation, authentication, authorization, and disclosure preferences.

The module shall support:

Anonymous submissions where permitted
Pseudonymous identities
Optional verified identities
Multi-factor authentication
Role-based access control
User-controlled disclosure
Attorney contact consent
Research participation consent
Media contact consent
Regulatory contact consent
Withdrawal of optional consent
Data access and export requests
Account deletion where legally and technically appropriate

Identity information shall remain separated from publicly accessible grievance information whenever possible.

Encryption and Privacy Module

The Encryption and Privacy Module provides the platform’s primary privacy architecture.

The module shall support:

Client-side encryption
End-to-end encrypted communications
Encrypted data at rest
Encrypted data in transit
Cryptographic key management
User-controlled encryption keys where practical
Secure key recovery mechanisms
Access revocation
Selective disclosure
Data minimization
Privacy-preserving analytics

Sensitive information shall not be exposed to users or services that do not have explicit authorization to access it.

Evidence Vault Module

The Evidence Vault Module securely stores documentation associated with grievances.

Supported evidence may include:

Contracts
Invoices
Receipts
Advertisements
Screenshots
Emails
Messages
Photographs
Audio
Video
Warranty documents
Terms of service
Shipping records
Refund records
Account statements
Other relevant documentation

The module shall support:

Encryption
Cryptographic hashing
Evidence versioning
Timestamping
Evidence metadata
File integrity verification
Access logging
Chain-of-custody records
Evidence classification
Evidence relationships
Secure evidence sharing

Evidence Provenance Module

The Evidence Provenance Module records the history and integrity of evidence.

The module shall track:

Original submission
Submission timestamp
Cryptographic hash
Evidence version
Authorized access
Evidence transfer
Evidence export
Evidence review
Verification activity
Changes to associated metadata

The system shall preserve historical evidence states rather than silently overwriting evidence.

Verification Module

The Verification Module separates unverified allegations from evidence-supported or independently verified information.

The module shall support:

Evidence review
Source verification
Duplicate detection
Cross-reference verification
Human verification
Independent verification
Verification status
Verification confidence
Verification history
Reviewer attribution
Disputed verification status

Verification results shall never be represented as factual findings when the available evidence does not support that conclusion.

Company Profile Module

The Company Profile Module aggregates grievances associated with companies and organizations.

Profiles may include:

Company identity
Known business names
Products and services
Complaint categories
Complaint volumes
Geographic distribution
Incident timelines
Recurring allegations
Evidence-supported findings
Company responses
Resolution records
Regulatory actions
Litigation references
Trend indicators

Public profiles shall use privacy-preserving aggregation and shall not expose confidential claimant information.

Pattern Detection Module

The Pattern Detection Module identifies recurring characteristics across grievances.

The module shall analyze:

Similar allegations
Similar factual circumstances
Repeated advertising language
Repeated contractual clauses
Repeated warranty language
Similar products or services
Geographic clusters
Temporal clusters
Repeated resolution failures
Recurring financial impacts
Repeated company responses

The module may use statistical analysis, rules-based analysis, semantic analysis, and machine learning.

Pattern detection shall identify potential patterns rather than automatically declaring misconduct.

Legal Structuring Module

The Legal Structuring Module converts grievance information into structured legal analysis data for professional review.

The module shall support classification of potential issues including:

Breach of contract
False advertising
Deceptive trade practices
Unfair business practices
Consumer fraud
Warranty violations
Billing violations
Subscription violations
Refund disputes
Privacy-related claims
Other configurable legal categories

The module shall extract structured information including:

Parties
Dates
Jurisdiction
Contract terms
Advertising representations
Alleged conduct
Damages
Causation indicators
Evidence
Resolution attempts
Potential legal theories
Missing information

The module may identify potentially relevant statutes and legal frameworks but shall clearly distinguish automated analysis from legal advice or attorney conclusions.

Attorney Portal Module

The Attorney Portal Module provides secure professional access to authorized attorneys and legal organizations.

The module shall support:

Attorney verification
Secure authentication
Case discovery
Advanced search
Jurisdiction filtering
Claim classification
Evidence review
Pattern analysis
Complaint clustering
Damages aggregation
Secure claimant contact
Evidence requests
Attorney notes
Case organization
Secure exports
Access auditing

Attorneys shall only receive information that the claimant has authorized them to access or that is otherwise legitimately available through the platform.

Class Action Signal Module

The Class Action Signal Module identifies clusters that may warrant professional legal evaluation.

The module shall analyze:

Number of affected individuals
Common factual circumstances
Common contractual terms
Common advertising claims
Geographic distribution
Time periods
Common damages
Common alleged conduct
Similarity of legal issues
Evidence consistency

The module may generate potential class action signals for attorney review.

It shall not declare that a class action exists or that a claim is legally viable.

Company Response Module

The Company Response Module provides organizations with a controlled mechanism for responding to grievances.

The module may support:

Verified company accounts
Response submissions
Evidence submissions
Dispute of allegations
Resolution updates
Refund confirmations
Corrective action statements
Contractual explanations
Company documentation

Company responses shall remain distinguishable from claimant submissions and independent verification findings.

Analytics Module

The Analytics Module provides aggregated analysis of OpenGrievance data.

It shall support:

Trend analysis
Complaint volume analysis
Geographic analysis
Temporal analysis
Industry analysis
Product analysis
Service analysis
Damages aggregation
Pattern frequency
Verification statistics
Resolution statistics

Public analytics shall use appropriate privacy protections to prevent re-identification.

Search and Discovery Module

The Search and Discovery Module provides structured discovery across authorized information.

Search may include:

Companies
Products
Services
Grievance categories
Legal categories
Jurisdictions
Dates
Evidence classifications
Verification status
Patterns
Resolutions

Access-controlled search shall prevent unauthorized discovery of private information.

Audit and Accountability Module

The Audit and Accountability Module maintains records of important system activity.

Auditable events may include:

Submission
Modification
Verification
Review
Evidence access
Evidence export
Permission changes
Consent changes
Company responses
Administrative actions

Audit records shall be protected against unauthorized modification.

Reporting and Export Module

The Reporting and Export Module generates structured reports for authorized users.

Supported outputs may include:

Complaint reports
Evidence indexes
Case summaries
Pattern reports
Attorney review packages
Timeline reports
Verification reports
Damages summaries
Research datasets
Regulatory reports

Exports shall preserve applicable privacy, access, attribution, and evidence-integrity controls.

Notification Module

The Notification Module manages system notifications and authorized alerts.

Notifications may include:

Verification updates
Evidence requests
Company responses
Attorney contact requests
Pattern alerts
Case updates
Consent events
Security events

Sensitive information shall not be exposed through insecure notification channels.

Administration and Governance Module

The Administration and Governance Module manages platform configuration and authorized administrative operations.

The module shall support:

Role management
Permission management
Verification management
Moderation
Abuse prevention
System configuration
Audit review
Plugin management
Security controls
Data retention policies

Administrative access shall follow least-privilege principles.

Optional Plugin Modules

Optional plugins shall extend OpenGrievance without requiring changes to the core modules.

Regulatory Reporting Plugin

Provides configurable workflows for preparing reports for government agencies and regulatory organizations.

The plugin may support:

Regulatory report generation
Jurisdiction-specific templates
Evidence references
Complaint aggregation
Secure submission workflows
Submission tracking

Journalist Investigation Plugin

Provides investigative tools for journalists and researchers.

Features may include:

Anonymous source management
Trend discovery
Pattern visualization
Secure document review
Investigation workspaces
Source consent management
Research exports

Consumer Advocacy Plugin

Provides tools for nonprofit organizations and consumer advocacy groups.

Features may include:

Campaign tracking
Community outreach
Complaint aggregation
Educational resources
Public reports
Advocacy dashboards

Mediation and Resolution Plugin

Provides optional dispute resolution tracking.

Features may include:

Resolution requests
Mediation records
Settlement status
Refund tracking
Corrective action tracking
Resolution documentation

Legal Research Plugin

Provides optional integration with external legal research resources.

Features may include:

Statutory references
Regulatory references
Case law references
Legal issue mapping
Jurisdiction-specific research
Citation management

External legal research services shall remain optional and replaceable.

Evidence Capture Plugin

Provides enhanced tools for capturing online evidence.

Features may include:

Webpage preservation
Advertisement capture
Document snapshots
Metadata preservation
Timestamping
Cryptographic hashing

Public Transparency Plugin

Provides configurable public dashboards.

Features may include:

Aggregate complaint statistics
Industry trends
Company trend indicators
Geographic trends
Verification statistics
Resolution statistics

The plugin shall apply privacy thresholds before publishing aggregated information.

Advanced AI Analysis Plugin

Provides optional AI-assisted analysis.

Features may include:

Semantic clustering
Claim classification
Contract comparison
Advertising comparison
Evidence summarization
Pattern detection
Anomaly detection
Legal issue extraction

AI-generated analysis shall remain clearly identified as machine-generated and shall not replace human legal judgment.

Secure Collaboration Plugin

Provides secure collaboration environments for authorized legal teams, investigators, researchers, and advocacy organizations.

Features may include:

Shared workspaces
Secure annotations
Evidence review
Internal notes
Task assignment
Role-based collaboration
Activity tracking

External Identity Verification Plugin

Provides optional integrations for verifying professional identities.

Potential verification targets include:

Attorneys
Law firms
Journalists
Researchers
Advocacy organizations
Regulatory organizations

Verification providers shall remain replaceable and shall not become mandatory dependencies of the core platform.

Decentralized Storage Plugin

Provides optional support for decentralized or distributed evidence storage.

Potential technologies may include:

IPFS
Distributed object storage
Content-addressed storage
External timestamp networks

Decentralized storage shall remain optional and shall not be required for core operation.

Immutable Timestamp Plugin

Provides optional external timestamp anchoring for evidence and audit records.

The plugin may support:

Trusted timestamp authorities
Cryptographic timestamp records
Merkle tree anchoring
Public verification records

Notification Integration Plugin

Provides optional integrations with external communication systems.

Potential integrations may include:

Email
Secure messaging
Webhooks
Notification services

No external notification provider shall receive sensitive information without explicit authorization.

Modular Requirements

Each module shall have a defined responsibility and interface.

Modules should communicate through documented interfaces rather than direct dependencies on internal implementation details.

Modules shall be independently replaceable where practical.

Optional plugins shall not require modifications to unrelated core modules.

Core modules shall not depend on optional plugins.

Plugins shall declare:

Required interfaces
Required permissions
Required data access
Configuration requirements
External dependencies
Security requirements
Privacy implications

Plugin failures shall not compromise unrelated core functionality.

Data Classification

OpenGrievance shall distinguish between different classes of information.

Public Data

Information intentionally made available through public interfaces.

Aggregated Data

Information processed into statistical or analytical results that do not expose individual claimants.

Restricted Data

Information available only to authorized users.

Confidential Data

Sensitive claimant, evidence, legal, or investigative information requiring enhanced access controls.

Encrypted Evidence

Sensitive evidence that remains encrypted and accessible only to explicitly authorized parties.

Verification States

Every grievance should have an explicit status.

Possible states include:

Submitted
Pending Review
Evidence Requested
Evidence Received
Under Verification
Evidence Supported
Independently Verified
Disputed
Resolved
Withdrawn
Rejected
Archived

Status changes shall be recorded in the audit system.

Legal and Evidentiary Requirements

OpenGrievance shall maintain a clear distinction between:

User allegations
Submitted evidence
Automated analysis
Community review
Professional review
Independent verification
Company responses
Regulatory findings
Judicial findings

The platform shall not automatically represent an allegation as established fact.

Evidence records shall maintain provenance and integrity information.

Attorney-facing exports shall preserve relevant metadata and evidence relationships.

Privacy Requirements

The platform shall minimize collection of personally identifiable information.

Users shall have control over information they voluntarily disclose.

Public interfaces shall not expose private claimant information.

Aggregated datasets shall use privacy-preserving thresholds and techniques where necessary.

Access to sensitive information shall be logged.

The system shall support configurable retention and deletion policies subject to legitimate evidentiary, legal, and regulatory requirements.

Security Requirements

OpenGrievance shall implement security controls appropriate to the sensitivity of the information processed.

Security requirements include:

Strong encryption
Secure authentication
Role-based authorization
Least-privilege access
Secure key management
Input validation
Secure file handling
Rate limiting
Abuse detection
Audit logging
Dependency security
Secure software development practices
Regular security review

Abuse Prevention

The platform shall include mechanisms to reduce:

Spam
Automated submissions
Fabricated complaints
Duplicate submissions
Coordinated manipulation
Harassment
Doxxing
Malicious evidence
Fraudulent verification
Attempts to manipulate complaint rankings

Abuse controls shall avoid unnecessarily exposing legitimate anonymous users.

Transparency Requirements

The platform should publish documentation describing:

Verification methodology
Data handling practices
Privacy practices
Moderation standards
Pattern detection methodology
AI usage
Data retention
Company response procedures
Public reporting methodology

Automated analysis shall be distinguishable from human review.

Interoperability

OpenGrievance should support documented APIs and standardized data formats.

Interoperability may include:

JSON
CSV
Structured evidence metadata
Public APIs
Secure APIs
Webhooks
Import and export interfaces

External integrations shall remain optional whenever practical.

Human Oversight

OpenGrievance shall maintain human oversight for consequential decisions.

Automated systems shall not independently determine:

Whether a company committed misconduct
Whether a person is liable
Whether a legal claim is valid
Whether a class action should be filed
Whether evidence is admissible
Whether an individual is entitled to damages

Automated analysis may identify signals for qualified human review.

Class Action Intelligence

The platform may identify patterns potentially relevant to class action evaluation.

Signals may include:

Common factual circumstances
Common contractual language
Common advertising representations
Common products or services
Common alleged conduct
Similar damages
Large numbers of affected individuals
Geographic distribution
Temporal clustering
Consistent evidence

These signals are intended to assist qualified attorneys and shall not constitute a determination that a class action is legally appropriate.

Specification Branding License (SBL)

Standard

Fully AGPL-3.0+ compliant system
Copyleft enforced for network deployments
Required attribution:
- Roxanne Ardary
- roxanneardary.com

Optional

Specification Branding License (SBL)
Attribution-free commercial deployment
Pricing based on scale, usage, and deployment scope
https://roxanneardary.com/opengrievance/

License & Notice Requirements

OpenGrievance is released under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 or later (AGPL-3.0+).
By contributing to this project, you agree that your contributions will also be released under this license.

Please note the following:

All contributions must comply with the AGPL-3.0+ terms.
Under Section 7 of the license, all redistributions, forks, and derivative works must preserve attribution to:
Roxanne Ardary and roxanneardary.com.
OpenGrievance specifications are free to use with attribution. A Specification Branding License can be negotiated upon request.
The project’s notice.md file tracks attribution requirements and contributor acknowledgments.
Any update that adds new contributors or modifies attribution should also update notice.md.
When submitting a pull request, ensure that any new files maintain the attribution headers where applicable.
Network-deployed versions of this software must also remain fully AGPL-3.0+ compliant, including exposure of source code modifications when applicable under the license.

For full legal details, please refer to the AGPL-3.0+ license and the project’s notice.md file.

Notice – OpenGrievance

Attribution Requirement: Under Section 7 of the AGPL 3.0+ license, all redistributions, forks, and derivative works, including network-deployed versions of this project, must provide attribution to Roxanne Ardary and roxanneardary.com.

Contributors

This file tracks contributors and their specific contributions to the project.

Roxanne Ardary, roxanneardary.com – March 12, 2026
Created the repository for OpenGrievance. Developed the open-source, privacy-first platform for collecting, verifying, and analyzing consumer complaints against companies using end-to-end encryption, evidence preservation, and AI-assisted pattern detection to empower consumers, attorneys, and journalists.
[Add other contributors here] – [Date]
[Describe contribution in one sentence]

License – OpenGrievance

This repository is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 or later (AGPL-3.0+).

Key Points:

You are free to use, modify, and distribute the code.
All redistributions, forks, and derivative works or network-deployed versions must also be licensed under AGPL-3.0+ and provide attribution to Roxanne Ardary and roxanneardary.com as required under Section 7 of the license.
The software is provided “as is,” without warranty of any kind.

For the full license text, see GNU AGPL-3.0 License.