1. Source Selection
Civic Sonar exclusively aggregates content from verified official government and institutional sources. We do not accept user submissions, paid placements, or sponsored content.
Sources must be:
- Official government agencies or recognized international organizations
- Authorized to issue the type of alerts they publish
- Providing machine-readable public feeds
2. Content Processing
We aggregate and display official alerts with minimal modification:
- Preservation: Original alert content is preserved as published by the source
- Categorization: Alerts are automatically categorized by type (weather, infrastructure, safety, etc.)
- Deduplication: Duplicate alerts from the same source are filtered
- Metadata: We add standardized metadata for searchability (country, region, severity)
3. What We Do NOT Do
- We do not edit, interpret, or add commentary to alert content
- We do not verify the accuracy of individual alerts (that is the issuing authority's responsibility)
- We do not prioritize alerts based on commercial interests
- We do not accept payment for alert placement or visibility
4. Attribution
Every alert clearly displays its source authority. Links to original sources are provided when available. We encourage users to visit official sources for complete information.
5. Data Freshness
Alerts are fetched from sources on regular schedules:
- Weather alerts: Every 30 minutes
- Infrastructure alerts: Every 30 minutes
- Safety alerts: Every 30 minutes
- Statements and policy: Every 3-10 hours
Alerts are automatically archived after their relevance period expires.
6. Corrections
If an alert is updated or corrected at the source, we will reflect those changes on our next fetch cycle. If you believe an alert is being incorrectly displayed, please check the original source first.
7. Independence
Civic Sonar operates independently and is not affiliated with any government agency. We are an aggregator and distributor of public information, not an official alert authority.