This site runs GoatCounter, a cookieless analytics tool, to count how many people visit and which tools get opened. That is the whole of it. There is no account system, no advertising, no third-party tracker, and nothing that follows you to another site. GoatCounter sets no cookies, stores no IP addresses, and builds no profile, so nothing recorded here can be traced back to a person, including by us. What we see is a daily count, which pages were viewed, roughly which country a visit came from, and which browser was used.
If your browser sends a Do Not Track signal, the script does not load at all and nothing is counted. You can also block it with any content blocker, including uBlock Origin, which the Opt Out tool recommends, and the site will work exactly as before. We count because knowing which tools people actually use is how the useless ones get cut and the useful ones get better. It seemed dishonest to recommend blocking trackers without saying plainly what this one does.
This notice covers The Path Forward and every tool on it. It is the complete legal statement for the project, individual tools do not carry separate terms, and nothing in a tool overrides what is set out here. In short: this is an independent educational and journalistic reference documenting publicly available information about institutional power. It is not an organising platform, gives no advice of any kind, and directs no one to do anything. All content is editorial analysis and opinion. Corrections are welcomed and acted on, see section 8.
Read this first. No notice can anticipate every law in every jurisdiction, and this one does not claim to. What follows sets out what this site is, what it is not, the standards it holds itself to, and how to raise a problem. If something here is wrong, the correction process below is genuine and is used.
1. What this site is. The Path Forward is an independent, non-commercial, educational and journalistic reference. It documents publicly available information about institutional power, civic movements, and political economy, and expresses editorial opinion about that information. It is a work of protected expression and press activity.
2. What this site is not. It is not an organising platform, advocacy coalition, political action committee, registered charity, membership organisation, law firm, medical provider, financial adviser, employment agency, or news wire. It does not coordinate, direct, plan, fund, staff, or supervise any action by any person. It accepts no advertising, sells nothing, solicits no donations for itself, and holds no funds on anyone's behalf.
3. No advice of any kind. Nothing here is legal, medical, psychological, financial, investment, tax, immigration, security, or professional advice, and nothing creates an attorney-client, doctor-patient, fiduciary, advisory, or professional relationship. Information is general, may be outdated, and is not tailored to your situation. Consult a qualified professional licensed in your jurisdiction before acting on anything you read here.
4. You decide; you are responsible. Every tool here is an informational reference. What you do with the information is your own independent decision. You are solely responsible for ensuring your conduct is lawful where you are. Laws vary by country, state, province, and municipality, and change without notice. Any real-world activity, protest, boycott, disclosure, organising, travel, financial decisions, carries risk you accept yourself.
5. No incitement, no unlawful instruction. This site does not advocate, encourage, direct, or provide instruction for violence, property destruction, harassment, intimidation, unlawful entry, or any criminal act, and does not intend to incite imminent lawless action. Any content that could be read that way is not intended that way and should not be acted on. Documentation and historical or academic description of a tactic, including Gene Sharp's 198 Methods of Nonviolent Action, taught in university political science curricula worldwide, is scholarship, not instruction. If you believe any passage crosses that line, report it and it will be reviewed promptly.
6. Opinion, not accusation of crime. Assessments in Friend or Foe, Boycott Book, Dono-Dex, Refute the Right and elsewhere are statements of editorial opinion and analysis, based on disclosed, publicly available sources that are linked so readers can evaluate them independently. Characterising conduct as harmful, unethical, or contrary to the public interest is opinion. Where legal outcomes are described, settlements, findings, pleas, penalties, the source is cited and the status stated, including where a matter was appealed, reduced, vacated, dismissed, settled without admission, or remains pending. Nothing here asserts that any person has committed a crime for which they have not been convicted. Allegations are identified as allegations. Absence of a criminal conviction is not treated as proof of wrongdoing, and a settlement without admission is not an admission.
7. Public figures and matters of public concern. Content concerns public figures, public companies, public officials, and matters of legitimate public concern, and is published without knowledge of falsity or reckless disregard for the truth. Sourcing is drawn from court records, regulatory findings, government reports, corporate filings, and established journalism, with links provided. Nothing here is published with malice toward any individual.
8. Corrections. And a genuine right of reply. Errors will occur in any project of this scale. If you are named here, or represent someone named here, and believe any statement is inaccurate, out of date, missing material context, or unfairly framed, you may request a correction, addition, contextual note, right of reply, or removal. Requests are reviewed in good faith and without requiring a lawyer. Substantiated errors are corrected promptly and visibly; disputed characterisations may be annotated with the subject's response. Contact via the Signal link in the top bar. This process is real, is free, and is the fastest route to a fix.
9. Availability worldwide, targeted nowhere. This site is operated from the United States for a general audience and is not directed at, marketed to, or tailored for any particular country. Accessibility from a jurisdiction does not imply the operator has established a presence there or submitted to its courts. If any content is unlawful where you are, do not access or rely on it. Applicable local law is your responsibility to observe.
10. Minors. This site is not directed to children under 13 and knowingly collects no information from anyone. Some content addresses political violence, state repression, and other difficult subject matter, and may be unsuitable for younger readers. Parents and guardians should exercise their own judgement.
11. Donations and money. This project solicits and accepts no donations for itself and holds no funds. Where tools identify organisations receiving support, that is informational: this project is not a fundraiser, agent, intermediary, or fiscal sponsor for any of them, receives nothing from them, and makes no representation about their tax status, deductibility, solvency, governance, or compliance with sanctions or charity law. Give directly, verify independently, and know your own jurisdiction's rules.
12. Safety, crisis, and wellbeing. Nothing here substitutes for emergency services or professional care. If you are in immediate danger, contact local emergency services. If you are in crisis in the US, call or text 988. Content addressing surveillance, detention, protest, and whistleblowing describes general considerations only and cannot account for your specific circumstances, which may carry serious consequences including criminal liability. Seek qualified legal counsel before acting where risk exists.
13. Accuracy and no warranty. Information is provided “as is” and “as available”, without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, completeness, currency, or non-infringement. Data is compiled by a very small volunteer effort, may contain errors, and ages. Nothing is guaranteed to be current. Verify independently before acting.
14. Limitation of liability. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, this project and anyone associated with it shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, special, exemplary, or punitive damages, or any loss of profits, data, goodwill, or opportunity, arising from use of or reliance on this site, its content, or any linked resource, whether in contract, tort, negligence, strict liability, or otherwise, and whether or not advised of the possibility of such damages. Some jurisdictions do not permit certain exclusions; where that is so, this limitation applies only to the extent permitted, and nothing here excludes liability that cannot lawfully be excluded.
15. Independent project. No affiliation. This is an independent personal editorial project. It does not represent the views, positions, or endorsement of any employer, university, client, funder, institutional partner, or affiliated organisation, past or present. No employer or institutional resources, facilities, equipment, data, or time were used in its creation or operation. No content should be attributed to any organisation with which any contributor is or has been associated.
16. Use of AI tools. Automated tools assist with drafting, formatting, and consistency across the site. Editorial judgement, source selection, and factual claims are reviewed by a person before publication. Errors remain human responsibility, and are corrected under the process in section 8.
17. Licence and reuse. Original content is licensed CC BY-NC-SA 4.0: copy it, adapt it, run your own version, for non-commercial and community purposes, with credit, under the same licence. The name “The Path Forward”, its mark, and its domain are excluded from that grant. Reusers are responsible for their own compliance in their own jurisdiction, and this project makes no warranty regarding third-party rights in any material.
18. Changes, severability, and no waiver. This notice may be updated at any time, and continued use follows the current version. If any provision is held unenforceable, the remainder stays in force and the provision is limited to the minimum extent necessary. Failure to enforce any provision is not a waiver of it. Headings are for convenience and do not limit the text.
19. Assumption of risk and release. You use this site voluntarily and at your own risk. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, you release the operator from claims arising out of your use of the site or any action you take after reading it. Nothing here waives any right that cannot lawfully be waived in your jurisdiction, and nothing limits liability for fraud, wilful misconduct, death or personal injury caused by negligence, or any other liability that cannot be excluded by law.
20. Indemnity. If your use of this site or its licensed material causes a third party to bring a claim against the operator, you agree to be responsible for that claim to the extent it arises from your own conduct rather than the operator's. This does not apply where you are a consumer and applicable consumer law says otherwise.
21. Governing law, forum, and time limit. This notice is governed by the laws of the State of California and the United States, without regard to conflict-of-laws rules, and any dispute is to be brought in the state or federal courts located in California. Where mandatory local consumer or data-protection law gives you rights or a forum that cannot be contracted away, including within the EU, EEA, UK, and various other jurisdictions, that law prevails over this paragraph to the extent of the conflict. Any claim relating to this site should be brought within one year of the event giving rise to it, except where a longer period is required by law.
22. Protected expression. Everything here is speech on matters of public concern, published openly for anyone to read and check. Documenting and criticising how powerful institutions behave is exactly the kind of expression that legal systems in free societies exist to protect. Many jurisdictions also have specific protections against lawsuits brought mainly to silence public-interest speech rather than to remedy a real harm. Any action brought against this project to suppress its reporting rather than correct an error will be described publicly as what it is.
23. Sourcing standard and opinion basis. Factual assertions here are drawn from primary and public records, court filings, regulatory findings, agency data, securities disclosures, and established journalism, and each is linked to its source so it can be checked independently. Where this site characterises, interprets, or draws conclusions from those facts, that is stated opinion based on disclosed facts, not an assertion of undisclosed defamatory fact. Where a matter is contested, appealed, unresolved, settled without admission, or alleged rather than proven, the text says so. Nothing here should be read as asserting that any named person or entity has been convicted of a crime unless the entry expressly says a conviction occurred and cites it.
24. Data protection and your rights over your information. This site sets no cookies, runs no analytics, has no accounts, and collects no personal information from visitors. Standard server logs held by the host (including IP address) exist for the technical purpose of delivering pages and preventing abuse. Where personal data about public figures appears in editorial content, it is published for journalistic, research, and public-interest reasons, which most data protection regimes treat as a legitimate basis for processing information about public conduct. Data protection frameworks in the EU, UK, and elsewhere generally recognise exemptions for journalism and research; this project relies on those. If you want to see what is held about you, request a correction, object to processing, or ask for removal, use the contact route below. Requests are handled on their merits and weighed against the public interest in the reporting, and you will get a real answer either way.
25. Copyright and takedown requests. If you hold rights in material reproduced here and believe it is used unlawfully, send a notice identifying the work, the specific page it appears on, how to reach you, and confirmation that you are authorised to act for the rights holder. Valid requests are acted on promptly and without argument. If you believe material was removed in error, say so and it will be reconsidered on the same terms. Where material is quoted for criticism, comment, reporting, teaching, or research, this project relies on the exceptions for those purposes that exist in most copyright regimes.
26. Trademarks and nominative use. All third-party names, marks, and logos remain the property of their owners and appear here solely to identify the entities being discussed, under nominative fair use and comparable doctrines. No sponsorship, affiliation, endorsement, or partnership is claimed or implied in any direction.
27. Third-party links are references, not endorsements. This is the most important paragraph in this section, so it is set out at length.
Every outbound link on this site is a pointer to something that existed, at a specific address, at the moment it was added. That is the entire claim being made. It is not an endorsement, a recommendation, a partnership, a vouching for anyone's character or competence, or a statement that the destination is safe, lawful, accurate, or still what it was.
28. No ongoing monitoring is performed or possible. This site has no capacity to continuously audit thousands of external destinations, and does not attempt to. A linked site may change hands, be sold, expire and be re-registered by someone else, be hacked, quietly change its content or purpose, begin collecting data it did not previously collect, start charging for something that was free, become subject to legal action, lose its nonprofit status, be taken over by people with entirely different aims, or begin doing something objectionable or unlawful, all without any notice to this project and often without any outward sign. If any of that happens, the link here is stale, not an approval of what the destination has become.
29. Nothing here directs, requires, or encourages you to visit any external site. Following a link is a decision you make. Everything that happens after you leave this site, including what you read, what you download, what you agree to, what you disclose, what you pay, and any consequence of any kind, is between you and that destination and outside this project's knowledge or control. No responsibility is accepted for it.
30. Listing is not vetting. Inclusion of an organisation does not mean it has been investigated, audited, verified as currently operating, confirmed as financially sound, or checked for legal standing. Where a description of an organisation appears, it reflects publicly available information at the time of writing, which may since have been superseded. Where a link points to a directory, database, hotline, or aggregator, this project does not control and is not responsible for whatever that third party in turn lists, links to, or tells you.
31. Verify before you rely. Confirm an organisation still exists and still does what you expect before contacting it, relying on it, giving it money, giving it personal information, or acting on anything it tells you. This applies with particular force to anything involving money, legal exposure, personal safety, health, or immigration status.
32. Tell us and it gets fixed. If a link is dead, has been taken over, or now points at something objectionable, say so through the contact route below and it will be removed or corrected promptly. Prompt correction on notice is the standard this project holds itself to; guaranteeing the ongoing conduct of independent third parties is not something any publisher can do, and this one does not claim to.
33. Financial and charitable information. Where this site references organisations' finances, filings, ratings, or programme spending, that information is drawn from public filings that may be dated, incomplete, or superseded. It is not financial, tax, investment, or charitable-giving advice, is not a solicitation on behalf of any organisation, and is not a representation about the tax treatment of any gift you make. This site holds no funds, processes no donations, and takes no share of anything you give to anyone.
34. Health and crisis information. Health, harm-reduction, and crisis resources are listed for informational purposes only, are not medical or psychological advice, and are not a substitute for professional care or emergency services. If you are in immediate danger, contact your local emergency number. In the US, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is available by call or text at any hour.
35. Legal-information tools specifically. Rights, readiness, and whistleblower material summarises general principles that vary enormously by jurisdiction and change frequently. It is legal information, not legal advice, creates no attorney-client relationship, and cannot account for your circumstances, your status, or the law where you are. Consequences for protest, disclosure, and reporting can include criminal liability, immigration consequences, employment loss, and civil suit. Speak to a qualified lawyer in your jurisdiction before acting, and treat anything here as a starting point for that conversation rather than a substitute for it.
36. Boycotts, divestment, and consumer choice. Information about where money goes is presented so readers can make their own lawful purchasing and giving decisions. Individual consumer choice about where to spend one's own money is lawful expression in the United States and in most jurisdictions. Some jurisdictions nonetheless regulate certain organised boycott activity, particularly for government contractors and public employees. Nothing here instructs, coordinates, or organises any boycott, and you are responsible for knowing the rules that apply to you.
37. Export, sanctions, and jurisdictional reach. This site is published from the United States and is not targeted at, marketed in, or specifically directed toward any other country. It makes no representation that its content is lawful or appropriate elsewhere, and those accessing it from other jurisdictions do so on their own initiative and are responsible for compliance with local law. Nothing here is intended to facilitate any transaction prohibited by sanctions or export control law.
38. Accessibility. This site is built and tested to be usable with a keyboard, readable at normal contrast levels, and functional on a phone, following widely used accessibility guidance. If any part of it is inaccessible to you, say so through the contact route below and it will be treated as a defect to fix rather than a request to decline.
39. Security research. Good-faith reporting of security or privacy defects is welcome and will not be met with legal action. Report through the contact route below rather than through public disclosure in the first instance.
40. Entire notice. This section, together with the licence, is the complete statement of terms for this site and supersedes any prior statement. Individual tools carry no separate terms; where a tool includes a short explanatory note, it is descriptive only and this notice governs. No representation outside this notice is binding.
41. Contact. For corrections, removals, rights requests, data-subject requests, takedown notices, security reports, accessibility problems, or legal notices, use the Signal link in the top bar. Good-faith requests receive a good-faith response, and you do not need a lawyer to make one.
Copyright & license. All original writing, tool design, curation, and code on this site is © The Path Forward, licensed under
Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0. In short: copy it, adapt it, build your own version, for free, with credit, for non-commercial and community/nonprofit purposes, and any fork has to carry the same license forward. Selling this, or a product substantially built on it, isn't permitted. “The Path Forward,” its mark, and pathfwd.netlify.app are not covered by this license and aren't included in the grant. You can build with the data and code, not present your project as this one. Third-party names, logos, and trademarks referenced on this site are used for descriptive or editorial purposes under nominative fair use; no affiliation with or endorsement by referenced organisations is implied. If you believe something requires correction, contact us.
This project doesn't make money, on purpose. No ads, no premium tier, no account, no data sold, ever. The goal is to be freely, easily spreadable: a contagious good, not a product. Sharing it and using it are both the point.
42. No defamation. All statements about named individuals and organisations are based on publicly available information including SEC filings, court records, investigative journalism, regulatory findings, and credible NGO research. Characterisations, framings, and editorial conclusions are protected opinion. If you believe a specific statement is factually inaccurate, contact us. Errors of fact will be corrected.
43. Editorial opinion only. All content on The Path Forward, including entity descriptions, ratings, connections, tier assignments, and categorisations, represents the editorial opinion of the publisher and is intended as protected expression. No statement is presented as fact unless expressly cited to a primary source. Reasonable people may disagree.
44. Outbound links. This site links to third-party websites, tools, and organizations for reference and convenience. Linking to a site is not an endorsement or affirmation of its content, accuracy, ownership, or conduct, at the time of linking or afterward. Third-party sites can change ownership, content, or behavior at any time, including after being linked here; The Path Forward has no ongoing relationship with and exercises no control over any site it links to, whether the link is direct or a redirect. The Path Forward is not liable for anything that occurs on or through a linked site. Use outbound links at your own discretion.
