Ethics Statement and Editorial Policy

Share

Few issues and concerns are as pertinent and urgent in our century as security. From breaking and entering to identity theft, cybercrime, gun violence, all the safety problems caused by aging, or anything else you could think of. The world is full of threats, so we must consider them and be ready. However, there is a catch. Finding reliable information on these matters is challenging because too much garbage floats around. When you do find something, it tends to be dry and unclear. But not all is lost. That is where we come in.

We produced PrivacySavvy.com to offer ordinary people the best information on staying safe in a growing, more dangerous world. We aim to present knowledge of the highest quality instructively and entertainingly. Our expert staff continually researches everything about security, personal information, and privacy on the web. Reliable and complex data support everything.

We believe information is power. That is why we work for you. We want to empower you by offering the best possible information so that you, your family, and your business can always stay safe. Whatever your security priority is, we have the people who can give you the best options and show you the facts in an informative and exciting way so you can keep reading each article until the end without falling asleep. Everybody can find the most advanced and solid information on security topics. That is our cause.

At PrivacySavvy, we aim to ensure that our content is of the highest quality, alongside making editorial independence beyond any reasonable doubt by operating under a strict ethical code.

All the writers on our website work under detailed guidelines. In fact, our standards are beyond our industry’s average.

Our reader’s trust – your trust is the core value of our site. Building our success depends entirely on it; hence, we work hard to earn it and keep it.

Given the plethora of information available, it’s why, more than ever, we operate under clear ethical guidelines to ensure that our readers know from where the information is coming from and whether they have to trust it.

Editorial Independence

The fact that everything starts with autonomy makes it possible to publish our content in a heartbeat.

At Privacy Savvy, we cover an array of firms relevant to privacy and security. We’re much more concerned about them since we’re communicators rather than cheerleaders.

We’ve based our independence on a responsibility channeled from following the strict editorial rules.

Also, we always ensure a fair distance between the advertising and writing teams so that all information published remains objective and free of commercial influence.

The conduct guidelines for our site include the following:

  • No payment for any endorsement.
  • No gifts from companies or even their PR team.
  • Whenever our writer has any conflict of interest in a particular story, we ensure they tackle something different; therefore, we guarantee neutrality and objectivity throughout the site.
  • We don’t do paid content.
  • For news stories, we never accept pre-conditions in covering any story. If providers ask that we say some particular things, they’re on the wrong site.
  • We aren’t investors in the firms we cover on our site.

By saying that we don’t accept something of value, here we mean things like discounted services, meals, paid trip junkets, and gifts, among others.

Moreover, whenever our writers attend any industry events, we handle all expenses, including hotels, food, and transportation.

A Human Website for Human Beings: The Reason Our Content is Not AI-generated

All the content you will find here, at PrivacySavvy.com, is handwritten by human experts. Many other websites and resources in the industry publish much content quickly because it’s AI-generated. We aim to provide the most reliable content on the subject. That requires a team of human experts doing the research, testing every security product personally, and then writing the reviews, articles, and other content that will be most useful for our readers.

We have faith in the capabilities of technology, and there’s no doubt that AI holds immense power. Nevertheless, we observe significant constraints when AI is employed as a writing aid, particularly in the realm of imparting comprehensive insights into the intricacies and specific subtleties of product testing. In this domain, machines cannot rival humans. Indeed, there are serious consequences when well-established websites resort to robot-generated content.

Here’s why we entrust our website’s content entirely to genuine experts:

  • Our subject matter specialists boast extensive industry expertise, enabling them to analyze and differentiate options in a manner beyond the capabilities of any machine.
  • We take the initiative to personally acquire the products and subscribe to the services we discuss, granting our readers a comprehensive, 360-degree perspective on whether it aligns with their needs.
  • We convey our nuanced experiences with these products and services, a dimension inaccessible to robots.
  • Our unwavering commitment to editorial integrity ensures that we never duplicate existing online content, which often proves misleading or inaccurate.
  • Our original research often emerges from surveys involving hundreds or thousands of real individuals residing in genuine communities much like your own.
  • We invite our readers into a captivating narrative on various subjects, infusing our writing with vibrancy, vitality, and a distinctive personality – a quality robots can’t replicate. (Apologies, robots.)

Our commitment to you, our valued reader, is that each and every word you encounter on our website originates from a genuine human diligently seated at a keyboard. These individuals have dedicated years—sometimes even decades!—to meticulous research and hands-on testing within their respective domains. We hold your security and well-being in the highest regard and firmly believe that personal, human insight must be your guiding light.

You deserve a superior, genuine experience, and it is our steadfast commitment to deliver precisely that.

Our Commitment to Research

Our editorial endeavors are bolstered by an exceptionally skilled team of industry experts. Our team boasts an impressive 57+ years of experience in web freedom and security. Comprising security specialists and a dedicated editorial team, we are unwavering in our commitment to conducting thorough research. This entails aggregating studies from reputable sources, referencing user submissions that have undergone rigorous vetting, and delving into the data ourselves to ensure the highest standards of accuracy and reliability. 

Our in-house research remains at the forefront of our operations. This unwavering dedication to research empowers us to furnish our readers with the latest and most precise information available. We take pride in our ability to offer the most exhaustive and engaging insights into home, personal, and cyber security. Nevertheless, we recognize the constant pursuit of excellence. As such, we continually elevate our research and editorial standards to serve our audience better.

Here are some illustrations of our research efforts:

  • Exploring the Risks of Digital Banking
  • Increasing Awareness of Significant Data Breaches
  • Addressing the Growing Menace of Package Theft
  • Analyzing Common Types of Fraud by State
  • Spotlighting the Most Hazardous U.S. Cities
  • Providing Guidance on Safeguarding Personal Data
  • Providing Guidance on Accessing Censored Platforms and Websites
  • And many more insightful topics.

Our Research Approach and Methodology

We’ve developed a distinct methodology for our research and study creation. At its core lies cutting-edge technology, a tool our experts use to delve deeper into various subjects. This empowers them to present the complete narrative to our audience rather than just a fragment of a larger picture.

By harnessing these advanced technologies, we enhance our research capabilities, often working with many data points as opposed to the limited 3-5 used by many other companies.

Our editorial endeavors are further fortified by reliance on credible sources. We draw upon professional studies and peer-reviewed research when necessary, ensuring proper citation. It’s our responsibility to furnish our readers with genuine, fact-based research rather than mere anecdotal information.

Our expert team then distills their findings into a coherent story, drawing from decades of real-world experience. Each team member has forged successful law enforcement and security careers, providing them with firsthand experience to bolster their research. This practical knowledge allows for more precise interpretation of hard data, resulting in accurate and engaging narratives.

Above all, we strive to make learning about home and personal security an enjoyable experience. At Security.org, our editorial staff and expert team consistently place themselves in our readers’ shoes, understanding what resonates and doesn’t. We recognize the distinction between dull research and research that captivates. Consequently, our team continually communicates their research to create a lasting impact on the world, one individual at a time. With this in mind, we endeavor to make all our research and resources interactive and enjoyable.

The sources we rely on and trust vary but often include:

  • Security industry news and trends websites
  • Expert insights from security industry reports
  • FBI crime statistics reports
  • Uniform Crime Reporting Statistics
  • Bureau of Justice Statistics
  • Pew Research Center Studies
  • Other reputable sources

Advertising

However, we do not sell ads on the website; we have a specialized affiliate advertising group dealing with the affiliates on the website.

If we are ever going to accept advertisements, every feature on our website sponsored by a brand, advertiser, or company will be labeled clearly as “Advertiser Content.” And they should not be representative of our site’s views.

Our sales and advertising team has set policies and guidelines that they follow to ensure the content developed doesn’t affect the editorial team’s creativity, liberty, or independence.

Our teams don’t accept compensation from any individual or entity to produce an article or a review.

Our affiliate earnings make our work possible. We always place a disclaimer in the sidebar (or at the top, before a page’s content begins) in every single article, stating that we might earn an affiliate commission if you purchase something using our links.

Our affiliate links have a specific format: https://privacysavvy.com/go/xxxxx.

Again, regardless of affiliation, we don’t allow providers to get in touch with our team’s integrity and the content they produce.

Also, the affiliate links emerge automatically within the site’s editorial texts, so our writers aren’t affected by the affiliate partnerships in any way.

Professional Conduct of Privacy Savvy

Our ethical levels aren’t for preserving the site’s editorial independence only. Also, our researchers and writers are expected to conduct themselves with industry-merit ethics at work.

It means that the editorial team invests significant effort to find the truth and then report it, minimizing harm risks, protecting sources, and achieving the highest level of honesty and accuracy in every piece published.

The website’s professional baseline aligns with the SPJ’s (Society of Professional Journalists) code of ethics.

Code of Ethics

Our company adheres to a robust code of ethics. As we persist in providing top-tier resources on security and freedom, the following eight ethical principles underpin all our endeavors.

Our Code of Ethics:

  • Credibility
  • Transparency
  • Trustworthiness
  • Open Access
  • Accuracy
  • Objectivity
  • Education
  • Beneficence

Distributed Platforms

Our website is present across various platforms, including social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.). Every work done in each platform is managed using similar ethical standards.

Whenever PrivacySavvy distributes any sponsored editorial content and branded pieces using the distributed mediums we own, such publications will always be labeled as “Presented by” or “Paid content” in our blog posts.

Review

We also provide an essential service (to our followers and readers) by advising them on how they should spend precious money, time, and energy on security and privacy products.

These reviews always present the writer’s best appraisals, and none of them is paid for by the manufacturers or even advertisers on our website.

But yes, such reviews can have affiliate links (we do get affiliations with product and service providers who we find worthy for our readers to use).

Some providers and companies may provide us with hardware to research or assess them to produce reviews.

Often, we can hold the article for a long time to let it perform. Also, we could agree to some “embargo” with a company that allows us to get in touch with an unreleased product.

Our Recommendations

At our company, we believe in providing tailored recommendations for each individual reader. For instance, when it comes to finding the best Mac security suite, we consider various factors, such as your specific MacOS version, your preferences and requirements, and the level of security you desire. That is how we find the right solution for each problem according to specific needs and preferences.

Updated and Corrections

We always strive for accuracy and work to ensure we achieve it.

However, mistakes can be made along the way (an error is to human – we are!). Still, when we realize an error has been committed, our editors issue a correction instantly to remove the inaccurate information and replace it with an explanatory note, clearing things out.

Sometimes, things like videos may require that we take the original content down entirely and then replace it with the new, corrected version.

Usually, extra information surrounding a particular story already published may come to the spotlight. It can be clarifying the original story’s narrative and not a correction, and in such a scenario, we could change or append the concerning pieces of the initial article.

Be sure that everything will be clearly noted (usually at the end of the story’s content), and clarification includes the time it was changed and an explanation for the changed elements.

Moreover, we could get away with content deemed to infringe on the property rights of a third party or violate third-party rights. The decisions always involve the website’s legal team.

In our editorial work, we pay keen attention to several key factors:

  • Ensuring information remains current, avoiding references to outdated sources.
  • Identifying and avoiding hyperbolic claims like “Product X guarantees 100% safety.”
  • Providing contextual information within our research and studies.
  • Guarding against any misrepresentation or misinterpretation of raw data and statistics.
  • Ensuring factual and up-to-date details on plans, pricing, packages, and more.
  • Maintaining consistency when citing multiple sources.
  • Utilizing credible and dependable sources in all our research.
  • Vigilantly addressing typos, spelling, and grammar errors and maintaining proper formatting, among other elements.

Personal Investments

We don’t invest in companies we cover. Furthermore, our employees are not permitted to get into a trade regarding the covered corporations.

While the site’s retirement savings program holds some restricted financial instruments, its employees don’t manage them directly.

Also, we forbid our employees from getting involved in the cryptocurrency market (Ethereum, Bitcoin, Ripple, etc.).

Giveaways

Often, we might run giveaways as well as contests for our users and readers. On occasions like that, we’ll post relevant rules for every competition or giveaway that will be binding for the entities deciding on joining.

While our partners or advertisers could sponsor such events to some level, they should not be considered an endorsement of that company or its products.

Other Employment

Our employees can’t be employed or otherwise paid by the companies they cover.

All the writers at PrivacySavvy are allowed to write for companies only with the website’s express permission, specifically from the chief editor.

Partnership

We can get into partnerships with new projects (organizations, businesses, and brands) whose work is similar to our editorial teams, and the involvement won’t have a bearing on the content that we publish.

Therefore, our partnership teams can create and publish that content on our partners’ sites. In such situations, a description of the connection between the partner and us is included in the article — and the extent to which our research and writing teams were involved in the process.

Our Investors

Unlike other blogs with many investors, PrivacySavvy is funded by only one privacy enthusiast, a friend investment firm (KI UK), and the affiliate commissions the site earns.

If we ever bring some investors on board, even with such circumstances, the position of our editorial team will remain neutral and independent. The investors won’t influence our creative process except when there’s a prior contract in place with the investor, including a partnership for the creation of content explicitly.

With such a relevant partnership, we will always disclose it clearly to our audience. Also, we will remind our users of a relationship we could have with a particular investor when covering their news or activities.

How We Keep PrivacySavvy.com Free for You

We firmly believe everyone should have free access to the information and resources contributing to their safety. Keeping this principle in mind. We do not charge any fees for accessing our research. We offer it freely without expecting anything in return. Additionally, you won’t find any advertisements cluttering our site. We understand that intrusive and irritating ads can frustrate readers and diminish their overall experience.

However, to sustain our commitment to providing top-notch research to our audience, our site does need to generate revenue. To achieve this without disrupting the reader experience, we occasionally feature affiliate links to products or phone numbers. When these links are clicked or called, we receive a small commission. We provide precise details about this in our earnings disclosure. This approach minimizes the impact on our readers while helping us monetize our site effectively.

It’s important to emphasize that our affiliate earnings never compromise our editorial efforts. We remain dedicated to transparency and would never jeopardize the trust and loyalty of our readers by publishing biased or inaccurate research.

We Welcome Readers’ Feedback

You’re our king, and we always want your feedback. In case you have a concern with our statement, ethical standards, or praxis, you’re free to reach out, and let’s know.

Contact Details

Organization: PrivacySavvy ltd
Address: 403 34-37 Liverpool Street London, EC2M 7PP, United Kingdom
Email: info@privacysavvy.com

Contacting Us

Our editorial guidelines have addressed any queries you may have had about our approach, processes, team, and editorial standards. We’re thrilled you’ve opted for our company as your source of information and education regarding home and personal security.

If you need to contact us, this form is the most effective method. Your message will be sent directly to our customer service team, and we’ll respond to your inquiry at the earliest opportunity. Alternatively, you can send a letter to info@privacysavvy.com or editorial@privacysavvy.com.