An independent Ethical Technology Assessment of six data collection platforms — evaluated for agricultural research, field monitoring, and community-controlled data infrastructure use.
Framework: ETA v1.0 Dataset Assessment at Tier 2 (Peer-Reviewed) confidence (×1.00). Scores reflect publicly available documentation, privacy policies, source code, and independent audits as of Q1 2025. This cohort applies ETA in data-collection-tool mode, weighting farmer data sovereignty, offline capability, and interoperability with agricultural data standards (XForms, farmOS, FAIR).
Gate structure: All four entry gates (G1–G4) are binary pass/fail, 10 points each. Any gate failure prevents ETA Eligible status regardless of category scores. Google Forms receives a conditional G2 pass because Google Workspace data terms do allow organizational data export — however, consumer use is far more ambiguous. The gate assessment reflects the best-case documented use.
Key differentiators for this cohort: Offline capability is critical for agricultural field use — tools that cannot function offline score lower on Accessibility. Self-hosting determines whether communities truly control their data infrastructure or depend on a third-party cloud. Agricultural interoperability (XForms/XLSForm standard, farmOS integration, FAIR principles) determines fitness for the OpenTEAM ecosystem specifically.
Critical stance: Airtable's broad content license grant and SurveyCTO's proprietary server lock-in are treated as significant flags. Google's vast surveillance infrastructure means Google Forms data sits within an advertising-driven ecosystem, regardless of per-product assurances. These concerns are reflected in scores even when legal terms technically allow data export.
Contribute: Use the "Add Your Review" button on any scorecard to submit an independent assessment. Future versions will connect to a database backend for persistent registry storage and community confidence updates.