FARO stands for Frontline Record of Online Harms. Technology-related harm usually reaches the public one case at a time: a school in one country, a family in another, each easy to treat as an exception. This directory puts those cases side by side to help grassroots actors see where others face the same issues they do, and to help governments and regulators see the bigger picture of the harms occurring. The directory describes what its records contain. It does not measure how often these harms occur, and a country with few records may simply have little published about it.
How to use this directory: Topics are filterable for FARO reports that have already been created based on these incidents. The harms and response patterns shown are those featured there. To see the incidents used in a country-specific report, choose that country under Country report. Pick a pattern or evidence type to see on the map which countries have matching records. Click a country on the map or in the list to see its records below. Use the filter to search for keywords or specific sources.
Shaded countries have at least one record. Choose a pattern to see where it appears.
Shading shows only that a country has at least one record in this directory that matches your selection, and every shaded country looks the same on purpose. It says nothing about how often these harms occur there. Pattern filters only cover records classified so far, and small countries are easy to miss on a map, so use the list as well.
In the list but not drawn on the map: Multiple countries, Not stated.
A worker says about 1,500 dollars of invoices from the platform's old site remain outstanding and their support tickets are unanswered. The platform replied that someone would reach out after reviewing the account.
A worker says overdue payments of over 2,500 dollars for completed work have not been paid because the platform has not provided a working payout link, although their payout account is verified and in their name. They report multiple support requests met with inaction. The platform replied the same day that someone would follow up on the payment inquiry.
A worker says the platform suspended their account on 5 January and offered no explanation or reply when they tried to open a dispute. They say the account held more than 800 dollars that they believe they should be paid for work they did. BBB lists the complaint as Unanswered by the business.
The worker reported receiving payment from an AI training project into a digital wallet account, which was subsequently placed on hold by the platform. Despite submitting identity verification documents, they received no response from customer support.
A worker says they completed an assessment on 6 August 2026 and that payment promised within three to four days had not arrived by the complaint date. They say they were asked to chase the payment themselves. The amount is not stated.
A worker says they completed incentive tasks in August with good quality and that by November neither they nor others had received the incentive pay, with project managers and support each pointing to the other. They say they were then removed from every project. The amount is not stated. BBB lists the complaint as Unanswered by the business.
A worker says invoices for completed assignments of 2,463 dollars were pending for months, with no payment link provided and support tickets unanswered. The platform replied that someone would reach out, and the complainant rejected the response because it gave no timeline.
The worker created a wallet account to receive earnings from an AI training platform and says the funds are sitting in it. A failed document verification has blocked transactions and withdrawals, and after more than 10 days they report no concrete update from support.
A worker opened a payment-wallet account to receive earnings from an AI training platform and says 521.59 USDC is sitting in it. A failed document verification blocks all transactions and withdrawals, and support has given no concrete update on the worker's ticket. The wallet company replied publicly that its review was completed and the account is active.
A data worker objected in a group discussion that payouts were routed through a payment service the worker had never signed a contract with, and that the service taxed them. Individual assignments rarely paid more than $10, which made the service minimum withdrawal hard to reach.
Workers concluded unpaid training tasks were actually productive work submitted without pay.
Zambia's Ministry of General Education launched two websites on April 20, 2020, e-Learning Portal (grades 7 to 12) and Smart Revision (exam practice for grades 7, 9 and 12), and required students to pay a monthly subscription fee to access them, although Zambia legally guarantees free basic education. HRW detected e-Learning Portal sending students' personal data to PushEngage, a push notification company, and to Tawk.to, a live chat service, and detected Smart Revision sending students' personal data to Facebook. HRW said submitting to these data practices was an indirect cost levied on students in exchange for their education.
Zambia's government charged students a monthly subscription fee to use its two online education websites during Covid-19 school closures. e-Learning Portal charged ZMW 5 (US$0.26) per course, with bundles priced progressively higher by grade, including a 'Subscribe To All At K35 Only' option (US$1.84) for grades 10 to 12 where only three subjects were offered. Smart Revision charged ZMW 10 (US$0.53) a month for grade 7, ZMW 20 (US$1.05) for grade 9 and ZMW 30 (US$1.58) for grade 12. HRW said the fees were a direct cost and a financial barrier to education, on top of the cost of internet access and devices; Zambia ranks 98 out of 120 countries on the cost of internet access relative to income.
e-Learning Portal, a Zambian Ministry of General Education website offering core-subject courses for grades 7 to 12 for a fee, was detected by HRW sending its students' personal data to PushEngage, a company that markets push notification services as a way to increase revenue from each visitor, and to Tawk.to, a live chat service whose chat function was neither visible nor available on the site. HRW's table lists it as having no privacy policy. The Zambian government, e-Learning Portal and PushEngage did not respond to HRW, and Tawk.to did not acknowledge the finding.
Smart Revision, a Zambian Ministry of General Education website offering practice tests for grades 7, 9 and 12 to prepare for national examinations, was detected by HRW sending students' personal data to Facebook. HRW's table lists it as having no privacy policy. The Zambian government and Smart Revision did not respond to HRW, and Facebook did not acknowledge the finding.
Each record is a short summary of an incident described in a public source or collected through an interview by SHIELD or its partners. Records are reviewed by people before they appear here. Names and identifying details are removed: where a person appears, a role, age band and gender stand in for the name, and dates and places for minors are generalised. Every record links to its original source and shows the date that link was last checked. Records are classified with shared harm categories. The classification is SHIELD's own, so it can differ from how a source describes the incident.
You are welcome to read, link to and quote individual records with credit to FARO. Please do not copy, scrape or republish the dataset in bulk, or use it to train or test automated systems, without written permission. To ask for permission, use the SHIELD contact form. The original sources keep their own rights, and the link on each record leads to them.
SHIELD-APS. Frontline Record of Online Harms (FARO). DIRECTORY-URL. Accessed [date]. To cite a particular selection, use the web address shown after you set the filters.
When you rely on the facts of an incident, cite the original source it links to. When you rely on the classification, the patterns or the country report, cite FARO. Please describe the records as documented incidents and do not present counts or country coverage as how often these harms happen. A country with few records may simply have little published about it.
If a record is wrong, a link no longer works, or you are described in a record and want it changed or removed, use the SHIELD contact form and include the title of the record. We review each request and update or remove the record where the request is justified.
Know of a documented incident that belongs here? Send it through the incident form. A public source, such as a news report, a court or regulator decision, or a research publication, helps us verify it quickly. Submissions without a public source are kept anonymous and are not tied to named products or companies. Please leave out the names of children and of anyone who has not agreed to be named. Submissions are reviewed before anything is published, and sending one does not guarantee a record.
