Platform &
Community
Guidelines
Platform & Community Guidelines
Learn about our platform and community guidelines. This includes guidelines for reviewers and businesses and our code of ethics.
Our Commitment to Truth
We built The Trust Search to eliminate fake reviews and unreal business ratings. And to help us keep this platform clean and trustworthy for everyone, we require reviewers, businesses, and our community members to follow these fair-usage guidelines.
Our Most Important Rules
Here are our three most important standards users should abide by that apply across the entire platform.
Mandatory Transaction Proof
When reviewing, you must ensure your review is backed by an authentic invoice or receipt of the transaction. This invoice—whether digital or non-digital—has to be real. Otherwise a review with a fake or no invoice at all will not be published.
No Paid Reviews
Businesses can’t and shouldn’t offer incentives, such as discounts, gifts, or compensation for a 5-star review. Reviewers can’t accept such payments to write a positive review against the offering business or a negative one against another.
Respect for Everyone
Criticism is welcome as long as it’s constructive and respectful. We strictly prohibit abusive language, hate speech, threatening language, and practices like doxxing others, even if kept subtle.
Our Core Principles
Our core principles are the rules that we, The Trust Search, bind ourselves to. These commitments help us keep this platform fair for everyone.
Privacy for Reviewers
We ensure your sensitive information is protected through our AI redaction system before your review goes live. This means buyers can attach invoices without fearing data exposure.
Complete Neutrality
The Trust Search commits to maintaining neutrality in all aspects that affect businesses ratings and reviewers’ voice. This means that star ratings, scores, and review placements can never be bought, hidden, or altered through sponsorships or paid plans.
Fair & Objective Auditing
We handle review verifications and review disputes with fair and objective auditing. Our unbiased human moderators handle these tasks based on invoice verification and factual evidence—no feelings involved.
Learn more about our Platform and Community Guidelines for
reviewers and businesses, as well as our Code of Ethics, through
the following pages.
For Reviewers
Learn the do’s and don’ts and how to write reviews that comply with our guidelines.
For Businesses
Understand how to manage your business profile, manage customer reviews, and comply with our guidelines.
Code of Ethics
Take a look at our code of conduct, our core values, platform neutrality, equal ground for small vs. large businesses, and dispute oversight.
Platform Safeguards, Buyer Privacy, &
Review Verification
We leverage both AI technology and human judgment to safeguard our platform, ensure buyer privacy, and verify reviews. Understanding these processes help you learn more about what’s expected of you.
AI-Powered Receipt
Verification & Privacy
Our AI system keeps an eye for fake receipts and sensitive information of reviewers. Every time a buyer writes a review, the system automatically checks their invoice for signs of editing and AI-generation.
In case of fake receipts:
In case a receipt appears fake or edited, the system rejects it and flags it for further examination by human auditors.
In case of personal information:
Once the receipt is verified to be original, the system scans for and auto-redacts personal information like phone or card number.
Unbiased Human Moderation
While AI handles the receipt scans and redactions, human auditors pass the final judgment as to whether the review meets our standards for authenticity and platform integrity or not before it’s published.
Pre-Publication Review:
Our team verifies new reviews before it even goes live on a business profile to make sure it aligns with our community guidelines. Auditors check for spam, hate speech, abusive language, inappropriate content, and doxxing attempts.
Manual Authenticity Checks:
A human auditor manually examines the review for any issues. Reviews that get flagged by AI for fabricated or edited invoice are also examined. Auditors also look into transaction details and dates to confirm the interaction is authentic.
Fraud & Network Monitoring:
Beside rigorous checking of reviews, our teams look for repeated flags and suspicious account activity to prevent disruptive behaviors and bot activities. Auditors conduct deep-dive examinations to dismantle coordinated reviews manipulation. This prevents the platform from dishonest accounts and keeps legitimate buyers safe.
No Paid Moderation:
We never monetize review visibility, star ratings, and moderation outcomes. Authentic reviews that follow our guidelines are published equally for every business, whether they're on a free profile or paid tier.
Have Questions or Need to
Report a Breach?
Our verification team is here to assist if you believe a review or a business profile has violated our policies. Contact our Support Team if you have questions about our customer review guidelines or need help filing a report.