1. In one sentence
Yellow text is an empty box in a form. It marks a place where the document still needs an answer from someone at Hidzo, from the board or from our lawyer. It is not part of the final text, and no document is published while it still has yellow text.
You do not have to hunt for yellow text. Use the page Questions for the team (button on the home page): about 30 short fact questions that together fill almost every yellow item the team must answer, because the same fact is repeated in many documents. Answers are saved on the company server, everyone sees the same answers, anyone can correct them, and every earlier version is kept. The rest of this page explains the yellow text in detail, for when you read a document itself.
2. How to read one yellow item
Every yellow item has the same shape:
[WHO: what is needed — where to read more]
| Part | What it tells you | Example |
|---|---|---|
| The first word, in capitals | Who must answer (see the table in section 3) | ENGINEERING |
The text after the colon : | What exactly is missing, or a suggested value to confirm | current list, e.g. iOS and Android |
Codes after a dash — (optional) | Where to read the background. You do not have to understand them to answer | — CLM-008 |
Read the whole sentence around the yellow item too: the yellow part only makes sense inside its sentence.
3. The four kinds
| First word | What it means | Who answers | What you give back | Example |
|---|---|---|---|---|
OPEN | A business choice or a missing value: a date, an email address, a web link, a price, a yes/no | Management or the board. A value (email, link, date) can come from whoever owns it: product, marketing, support | The chosen value or decision, in one line | [OPEN: publication date] → "1 November 2026" |
ENGINEERING | A technical fact about how the app, the servers or the website really work today | The CTO or the engineer who owns that part | The true fact as it is now (not a plan, not a wish), with who confirmed it and the date | [ENGINEERING: 30 days] → "Confirmed: connection logs are deleted after 7 days, not 30. — CTO, 2 Oct 2026" |
COUNSEL | A legal judgment. Only a licensed lawyer can answer | Our lawyer. The team does not answer these | Nothing, unless the Legal Lead asks you for a fact the lawyer needs | [COUNSEL: OFAC] |
VERIFY | A fact or a law we took from a secondary source; it must be checked in the official source | The Legal Lead or the researcher (sometimes the lawyer) | The official link, the date it was checked, and whether it matches | [VERIFY: Apple Support 118428] → "Checked on apple.com on 3 Oct 2026: matches." |
Examples of engineering questions: which data the app collects, how long it is kept, which third-party kits (SDKs) are inside the app, which payment methods are live, which countries the app is offered in, what the cancellation screen shows.
4. Special cases (so nothing is unclear)
| What you see | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| A value inside the brackets, e.g. [OPEN: [email protected]] or [ENGINEERING: 30 days] | A suggested value. It is only a guess until someone confirms it | Reply "correct" or give the right value |
| A first word with nothing after it, e.g. [OPEN], [VERIFY] | The words just before the brackets are the suggested text | Confirm those words or give the correct ones |
| Two kinds together, e.g. [ENGINEERING and COUNSEL] | Both are needed | Engineering answers the fact first; then the lawyer decides |
| [OPEN: if …, COUNSEL …] | A business choice; if it is chosen, the lawyer must also check it | Answer the business choice; the Legal Lead passes it to the lawyer |
| [OPEN — D4: …] or [OPEN — BRF-2026-001 D7: …] | This is board decision D4 / D7 (list in section 6) | Only the board answers, in writing |
| [OPEN: keep only if … is launched] | The paragraph stays only if the company does that thing | Answer yes or no; if no, the paragraph is removed |
| [e.g. Hetzner — VERIFY entity] | An example company name that must be checked | Engineering or finance gives the real supplier and its exact legal name |
| [ENGINEERING: QN-08-020] | The question is number 020 in questionnaire part 8 (QN-08) | Answer that questionnaire row (Documents page → Company facts) |
| An empty box [ ] in a table | A checklist: tick when done. It is not a question | Tell the Legal Lead when the item is done |
| The words "UNKNOWN — evidence needed: …" | A fact nobody has proved yet | Send the proof (screenshot, contract, setting, email) |
| "Reported" or "Verified" after a law or source | Reported = taken from a secondary source, not checked yet. Verified = read in the official source | Nothing for the team |
All yellow items look the same colour on the document pages. The first word inside the brackets tells you the kind.
5. What the codes mean
You do not need to understand these codes to answer. They show where the background is.
| Code | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
D0 … D8 | A decision the board must take (list in section 6) | D4 |
BRF-… | The urgent legal priorities brief (Home page → Urgent tasks) | BRF-2026-001 |
P0-…, P1-…, P2-… | A task in that brief; P0 is the most urgent | P1-3 |
DEC-… | A decision record for the board | DEC-2026-001 |
POL-… | One of the twelve documents | POL-TOS-002 = Terms of Service |
RSK-… | A row in the risk list | RSK-047 |
CLM-… | A row in the advertising-claims list | CLM-031 |
EV-… | A source or piece of evidence in the source register | EV-232 |
QN-… | A question in the company questionnaire | QN-01-015 |
§, Art., C.F.R., U.S.C., Directive … | A section of a law or a document. For the lawyer | §17602 |
6. The board decisions (D0–D8)
| Code | Question for the board |
|---|---|
| D0 | Appoint the Legal Lead and confirm who holds each role |
| D1 | One company name for all contracts; stop using the old names (DEC-2026-001) |
| D2 | Which lawyers to hire, and the budget |
| D3 | What service to offer users in countries under full U.S. sanctions, including Iran |
| D4 | Advertising model of the free version (Privacy Policy §2, Alternative A or B) |
| D5 | Refund model for web payments (Refund Policy §3, Alternative A or B) |
| D6 | Which law applies and how disputes are resolved (DEC-2026-002) |
| D7 | Keep or pause cryptocurrency payments |
| D8 | The business address shown to users in the EU and UK |
The full list, with deadlines, is in the urgent legal priorities brief (BRF-2026-001).
7. How to answer, step by step
- Find your items. Open the document. Look for yellow text. Read the first word: is it for you (section 3)?
- Find the true answer. Check the real app, the real settings or the real contract. Do not guess.
- Write the answer with the template in section 8.
- Send it as a Change request in the Git repository (the Issues tab, template "Change request"), or send it to the Legal Lead. Until the board appoints a Legal Lead (decision D0), send it to the person who shared this dashboard with you.
- Do not edit the Word files or the website pages yourself, and do not delete yellow text. The Legal Lead puts the answer into the source file; the Word files, the website pages and this dashboard are then rebuilt, and the yellow item disappears.
8. Answer template (copy it)
Document: POL-PRIV-002 (Privacy Policy), section 3.3
Yellow text (copy it exactly): [ENGINEERING: 30 days]
Answer: Connection logs are deleted automatically after 7 days.
Proof: screenshot of the log settings (attached) / link / contract
Who confirmed: Name, role
Date: 2026-10-02
Also affects (if you know): POL-SUB-0019. Good and bad answers
| Bad answer | Why it is bad | Good answer |
|---|---|---|
| "I think about 30 days." | A guess becomes a public promise; a wrong promise is a legal risk | "7 days — checked in the server settings today. Screenshot attached." |
| "We will add this next month." | The documents describe what is true today | "Not live today. Planned for November; tell me when to re-check." |
| "Fine." | It is not clear what was confirmed | "The suggested value [email protected] is correct; the mailbox works." |
An answer to a COUNSEL item from the team | Only a licensed lawyer can give legal advice | Leave it for the lawyer; give facts only if asked |
10. Rules
- Never guess. "I don't know; ask X" is a good answer.
- Describe today, not the plan. If something will change, say when.
- Answer in writing, with your name and the date. Add proof when you have it.
- The same fact can appear in several documents (for example Privacy Policy and Terms). Give one answer; the Legal Lead updates every place so the documents match.
- Board decisions (D0–D8) come only from the board, in writing.
- **The team never answers
COUNSELitems.** - A document is ready only when it has no yellow text left and our lawyer has approved it.
11. Questions people ask
Can I publish a page if only a few yellow items are left? No. One yellow item means the page is not ready.
Why is there a suggested value if it is not confirmed? To make answering faster: often you only need to say "correct".
Who removes the yellow text? The Legal Lead, in the source file. Then everything is rebuilt automatically.
I found a mistake that is not yellow. Send a Change request the same way, with the document, the section and the correction.
Where do I see how many items each document still has? In the table below on this page.