Policy talk:Conflict of interest policy
Significant Relationship: missing entities
There are other significant relationships, notably:
- legal tutors (replace partially or totally the responsability of a Concerned person, e.g. because of illness or incapacity, and taking some decisions for them, including any due payments; full tutorship generally takes years before termination, limited tutorship may take just the time for recovery but that person may be still able to make some decisions, with restricted resources and sometimes only with assistance of their legal tutor or administrator),
- designated legal administrators (e.g. after a condamnation that restricts or prohibits some actions or communications, even if this has nothing to do with affairs with the Foundation),
- professional personal assistants for daily life (important for people with handicaps, that should not be excluded for most positions, this should only limit what assistants can do and if this has an impact, their own interests may generate conflicts with the policy which shoulmd be limited as much as possible, taking into account the primary interest of the disabled Concerned person, possibly by forcing the assistant to sign an agreement and engage their professional responsability),
- an authorized proxy for the Concerned person themselves (e.g. their lawyer),
- legators (e.f. after the death of a significant relative that was a Concerned person),
- legal auditors or experts (that may be designated by a court order, generally professionals with their own commercial interests, and which may be the only reliable and responsible party durint their mandate, to disclose or assert the informations required under the policy, instead of the Concerned person;
- a concerned person may also be restricted or forbidden to do some actions themselves, especially if that Concerned person is held in custody, or in any position making them unable to complete their obligations. E.g. as an hostage, or with strict travel restrictions from remote areas like during the Covid-19 lockdowns or after major natural or industrial disasters, wars or civil conflicts, and left there with limited communications, reduced local resources and absence of a sufficient legal assistance (so that they could designate a proxy or could be forced to accept one without real choice, e.g. coming from their own home government or a designated embassy/consulate in the remote country or region where they are forced to remain for some undetermined time: their first priority and interest is effectively to find a way to get back home and in security). In such situation, that person may even be unable to disclose themselves information about their current state and condition.
Today in modern countries (and probably even more frequently in democratic countries, where it could concern as much as about 30% of the population during their life), many persons need a personal assistance, which they may get from their legal rights, or could be forced to use in many situations, especially if they don't have a supporting closed family (that you've included in the list). Most of these persons should still be allowed to get responsabilities roles even if they are assisted and the WMF should be open to these cases, even if it requires checking the conflicts of interests of all these assitants. As well minors may also take some positions, even if they are supervized by a parent or legal tutor (that just need to sign an agreement if needed to respect the right of the minor and the interests of the Foundation, by revealing their conflicts of interests if these cannot be avoided completely).
More recently, we've also seen the development of assistive technologies: using them should not be prohibited, except that the devices and tools used may need to be revealed to assert that they are safe for use and won't be used unfairly by third parties. The Foundation may help selecting appropriate technologies, and may possibly help finance them fully or partly by a subvention, as much as needed to preserve the autonomy of the Concerned person, and organized legally in democratic countries that have defined strict legal rules on technology providers. This includes translation assistants (e.g. Google Translate), or more recent IA-based tools that are developing now very fast with massive investments (and frequently without fair agreement from the Concerned persons). Most people in the world are in fact exposed to these assistive technologies, and guidance (scrutinized regularly by some ad hoc working group or council, possibly incluiding members of technology teams working at the WMF) about their selection and use in appropriate situations should be documented, because those persons may not be completely aware of their growing impact with conflicts of interests generated by major technology providers (in some cases, this includes Internet service providers whose services may need to be tuned specially with guidance and possibly some reusable toolkits that may need to be developed and supported actively). This is not just a concern for people with responsabilities at the WMF, but generally to all users in the Wikimedia community and reliability of supported projects that may become under influence (just like it already happened in all commercial "social networks" and web search engines) and cause a major threat to the diversity and accessibility of sources and to most minorities (we are all members of some minority).
For all such situation, the Foundation should inspect what is available, proofs (like certified copies of court orders, professional qualifications), check the identity and roles of proxies and their own conflicts of interests, and if it is needed to revoke the role of the Concerned person temporarily or indefinitely by finding or nominating a replacement, even in case of total absence of fault of that person regarding this policy. Later, if possible, that person may be granted back to their role (or another one), after inspecting their new situation and if they still desire to apply for it. And in all cases, the WMF should make all efforts possible to preserve and maximize the autonomy of Concerned persons.