Q: What is Buycott?

A: Buycott is a tool that lets you organize your consumer spending to help causes that you care for, and to oppose those that you don\'t.

Q: How does it work?

A: Scan a barcode with the Buycott app and it will look it up in our database and try to determine who owns it. Buycott will then trace the product\'s ownership back to its top parent company and cross-check this company against the campaigns that you\'ve joined before telling you whether it found a conflict.

Q: What does a campaign consist of?

A: A campaign must have a goal, and a list of companies that it aims to either support or avoid (buycott or boycott). Look for campaigns organized around goals that you share, or create a campaign if you can\'t findwhat you\'re looking for.

Q: How does it figure out all the corporate relationships?

A: Buycott has a rich, but ultimately limited knowledge base of corporations and products. When you scan a product not in the Buycott database, it will ask you for help in identifying the product name, brand name, and company name.

Q: I scanned an unknown product and I want to add it to the database. How do I determine what to call the product, brand, and company?

A: Sometimes we will input our best guess at what the product is by autopopulating the input field. You can alter the data if you find that the information doesn\'t match the product the barcode you scanned. The company name should be the registered business entity of that product\'s immediate parent company. This will almost always be on the packaging of the product. The brand name is generally the word(s) on the front of the packaging with the largest font size.

Q: Is all the data guaranteed to be accurate?

A: No. Corporate ownership structure is always changing and can sometimes be complex. Most companies in our database actually own more brands than we have on record for them. That\'s why we need your help maintaining and improving the integrity of the data. New users can add unknown products they scan, and also contribute contact and background information for existing companies or vote on the accuracy of information that\'s already been added. The most active users have the ability contribute more types of data to the database.

Sustainy Organization and App Models