How AffectedNow works

Sources

Events are detected from official government sources (FDA, CPSC, USDA FSIS and others), official company announcements and status pages, and search-trend signals. We prioritize official sources over media reports.

Verification

Every factual field on an event page is tied to a source. Facts taken directly from official documents are marked verified. When key sources conflict, we hold or clearly flag the information instead of guessing. Unknown values are shown as “Not yet confirmed” — never filled in automatically.

Automation and AI

We use automated systems, including AI models, to detect events, organize verified facts and draft explanations. Drafts are checked against the verified fact set before publishing, and pages that fail those checks are not published.

Editorial review

AffectedNow has two kinds of pages, and they are reviewed differently.

Event articles (recalls, outages, travel disruptions) are the pages we write about. After automated checks, an editor opens each one and confirms three things: the source links point to the official notice, the status shown (ongoing / resolved) matches the source right now, and the "what to do" steps match the official guidance. Pages that have been through this check show Reviewed by editor with the date under the headline. A page without that line has not yet been checked by a person.

Recall database records are structured summaries of individual official recall notices — there are more than a thousand, and new ones arrive daily, so they are curated by rule rather than read one by one. A record is published only if it passes all of these: it comes from an official regulator (FDA, CPSC, NHTSA); it concerns a product ordinary consumers own (commercial, industrial and fleet equipment is kept out of search results); it contains enough information to act on (a reason for the recall or an identifiable product); and every page links to the originating notice. Records that fail a rule are kept for reference but excluded from search engines.

What we add on every page beyond the official text: the affected lots, models or dates pulled out so you can check your own item; plain-language steps to take; the agency and recall number; and links to related recalls of the same brand.

Updates and corrections

Event pages are updated as official information changes; each page shows its full update history and last-updated time. Errors are corrected on the page and noted in the history. To report an error, see Corrections.