Affiliate Disclosure & Editorial Independence

What “affiliate” means on this site

An affiliate relationship is a commercial referral arrangement. A product link may contain a partner identifier or use another attribution method. If a qualifying purchase is attributed to that referral, the vendor or its affiliate network may pay Antivirus-Review.com a commission.

Not every outbound link is affiliate-linked, and not every product we cover has a commercial relationship with the site. Free security tools, native operating-system protections, products without an active partner program and competing alternatives still belong in an article when they answer the reader's question.

Antivirus-Review.com is a publisher, not the merchant of record. The vendor controls checkout, taxes, product delivery, renewal, cancellation and refunds. A link from this site does not give us access to a reader's vendor account or payment details.

How a typical affiliate commission works

1. A reader sees a recommendation or product link. The nearby site notice explains that qualifying purchases may earn a commission.
2. The reader chooses whether to follow it. Editorial information remains readable without making a purchase.
3. The destination seller presents its offer. Plan, region, currency, taxes, device count, introductory term and renewal terms come from that seller.
4. Attribution may be recorded. A referral parameter, cookie or network record may connect a later qualifying order with the link, subject to the partner's rules and the reader's settings.
5. The reader buys from the seller. The contract, charge, license and support relationship are with that seller—not Antivirus-Review.com.
6. A commission may be paid. The amount and eligibility can differ by partner, product, order, return or cancellation.

A click does not guarantee that the site will be paid, and a commission does not convert the review into vendor support. For account or billing help, readers must use the seller's official channel.

What commercial relationships can and cannot influence

How rankings and review scores stay editorial

Rankings start with the page's decision context: operating system, protection evidence, false positives, performance, usability, platform/device fit, features, pricing and renewal, support and product-specific risks. The weight is not identical for every query. A free Windows baseline, a family suite and a Mac-only product solve different problems.

Affiliate payout is not a scoring category. A product may rank below a non-partner, receive a low score, lose a recommendation or be described as poor value even when a commission link exists. A product with no affiliate program may be the right alternative and should be named.

When a page carries a numeric score, it is an editorial rating—not an aggregate of invented readers. The structured data uses one editorial rating unless the site has genuine, auditable user-rating data. Read How We Test for the evidence and scoring workflow.

Vendor-supplied access, information and gifts

A vendor may provide product access, a temporary license, technical briefing, release note or factual correction. Useful access lets an editor inspect a current version; it does not prove protection quality or create a positive-review obligation. A material free product, paid trip or other benefit connected to coverage should be disclosed on the affected page.

We do not accept a condition that the vendor must approve the article, control the comparison set, see competitors' unpublished results or remove supported criticism. A vendor's refusal to participate also does not prevent coverage based on current public evidence.

If a vendor sends a correction, we ask for the exact page/claim and a current primary source. The same standard applies to partners and non-partners. The editorial route is listed on the contact page.

Sponsored content, ads and paid placement

Antivirus-Review.com does not sell a positive review, guaranteed rating or ranking position. Editorial review pages are not vendor-written advertorials. If the site ever publishes a separately funded advertisement or sponsored piece, it must be clearly labeled so a reasonable reader can distinguish it from independent editorial content.

A visible disclosure matters more than a hidden legal page. HTML link attributes such as `rel="sponsored"` or `nofollow` can help search engines understand commercial links, but they do not replace the plain-language notice a reader needs before acting on a recommendation.

Prices, discounts, renewals and “no extra cost”

The commission is paid by the seller or network; Antivirus-Review.com does not add a separate affiliate fee to checkout. That does not mean every linked offer is the lowest price available. Vendors can run regional, channel, student, family, bundle, retention or renewal offers with different eligibility.

Our pages should therefore distinguish the first paid term from the renewal price, name the currency/region when material, record the check date and send the reader to the seller's live terms before purchase. A promotional price is not treated as permanent, and an expired price must be corrected rather than kept for click-through appeal.

Community evidence, testimonials and fake reviews

Reader messages, Reddit threads, support forums and other community sources can reveal recurring questions about billing, removal, compatibility or support. They are directional evidence. We do not fabricate a named user, convert a few complaints into a universal percentage or publish an incentivized testimonial as if it were independent.

The FTC's current review guidance warns about fake or false consumer reviews and paid supposedly independent rankings. On this site, a community claim must remain attributable and proportionate: what was reported, where it appeared, and what current primary evidence can confirm or limit it.

The disclosure standard we follow

The US Federal Trade Commission's endorsement, influencer and review guidance centers on clear disclosure of a material relationship and accurate representation of the reviewer's experience. Its affiliate Q&A explains that the relationship should be clear and conspicuous, and that proximity to the recommendation/link matters.

This page supplies the full policy. The shorter site-wide notice supplies immediate context where reviews and links appear. A disclosure hidden only in the footer would not answer the reader's question at the moment of recommendation.

Questions, missing disclosures and corrections

If a commercial link appears without a clear notice, a partnership seems inconsistent with a review conclusion, or a pricing claim is stale, email [email protected]. Include the page URL, product/link, disputed statement and evidence.

For the site's mission and authorship rules, read About Antivirus-Review.com. For personal data and tracking context, read the Privacy Policy. These pages address different questions and should not contradict one another.

Affiliate disclosure FAQ