Is there any Open Source Pledges or “stamps of approval” for Open Source Projects to join to show they are ethical?

Question

I'm looking for ways to communicate to my users that our project is committed to making the world a better place. That we don't collect or sell the user's privacy. That we are committed to promoting the ideals of Open Source Software and the Open Source Community.

Are there any organizations or Pledges or checklists, that are widely used to communicate good will to our users?

In the business world there are things like Health On the Net the Better Business Beau or B Corp or 1% for the planet.

EDIT: My project is not a free-client-captive-service project. Firefox or Android is open-source but they have done some questionable things regarding data telemetry over the years. Hence the need for a conversation around FOSS that also understands and respects how dangerous new and emerging forms of data collection are.

Answer 1

Open Source projects are generally about making software, and the licence is the usual and only-meaningful pledge of this good faith. If you give the software to the users along with the four freedoms, they will have everything they need to look after themselves; they will also have a much more solid knowledge of your ideals than any manifesto or endorsement could have given them.

Your question seems to suggest that your project is not a free-software project, but a free-client-captive-service project; the issue of how well you look after your users' data only arises if they have to give it to you in the first place. You should be aware that any such model already raises giant red flags in the minds of many free software enthusiasts - for example, F-droid labels such software with the warnings "anti-features", "this app has features you may not like", and "this app promotes non-free network services".

Once you've had such labels slapped on you, no pledge of good faith or stamp of approval will bring many users back round to you. So my advice to you is to free the server-side code as well; let your users operate their own servers if they want to. In this way, those for whom privacy is a salient can look after themselves, and the rest who don't much care can use your server if they want.

Answer 2

The answers already posted are all correct in that the main pledge of open-source software is the license itself. After all, the license is the only thing, legally speaking, that makes sure you abide by your promised terms.

However, there are numerous badges you can use to show that your pledge to open-source. Like these:

You can use these as badges for your project.

Answer 3

If you release Free/Open Source software, anyone can use it regardless of morals. You can't make a guarantee that your software will be used only for good. Evil people will be able to take it and modify and use it for their own purposes.

You can of course run an ethical project. You indicate your support for F/OSS by releasing your software under an appropriate license. You can provide any other assurances you like that your project is ethical, but that's all you can guarantee.

Answer 4

I'm looking for ways to communicate to my users that our project is committed to making the world a better place.

Are you sure it's not committed to making some piece of software? I mean, sure, that software can be used to make the world a better place, but is that what you mean? Or - do you want to talk about what the organization/contributors do other than writing software?

That we don't collect or sell the user's privacy.

Regardless of badges - have a clearly-visible brief statement to that effect on your website / program GUI / social media pages / etc. And - a longer statement going into details on your website.

That we are committed to promoting the ideals of Open Source Software and the Open Source Community.

I don't believe there are set ideals. I'm guessing you have a notion of what these are based on the views or rhetoric of some prominent activists or developers.

Are there any organizations or Pledges or checklists, that are widely used to communicate good will to our users?

Bottom line: This is essentially impossible, since even on the matter of what constitutes good will there are fundamental disagreements.

In the business world there are things like the Better Business Beau or B Corp or 1% for the planet.

Yeah, those are totally bogus. I'll take my Evil Corp., jack up the prices by 1.01% , then donate 1% "for the planet". Look at me, I'm now an ethical and responsible business... you know what I mean?

Forget the badges. Show your users what you actually do to better society. Be transparent about your funding, use of funds, clients/organizational users.

Edit: ... and consider licensing your software under GPL or a similar stricter FOSS license, rather than the permissive ones. That's already somewhat of a sacrifice in terms of propagation of your software in favor of buttressing FOSS-only environments.