PrivateEZ™ Reviews Terms

These Reviews Terms govern Owner Reports on privateez.com and any related reviews host operated by Company. They are the “Reviews Terms” referred to in the PrivateEZ™ Website Terms of Service and in the PrivateEZ Certification Marks Trademark License Agreement.

1. Two verbs. Owner Reports are not PrivateEZ™ certification and are not a star rating. Company does not score Standard controls on Owner Reports. Certification status, if any, appears only on official PrivateEZ™ certification records. A Licensee’s payment of a certification fee does not edit, rank, suppress, or remove Owner Reports.
2. Who these Terms apply to. Reading Owner Reports is use of the website under the Website Terms of Service. You must accept these Reviews Terms before you post an Owner Report, reply to one, or request removal of one. Licensees who reply to Owner Reports do so as Users under these Terms, not as the Certification Authority.
3. Definitions. Terms defined in the Website Terms of Service have the same meaning here. In addition:
   1. "Owner Report"
      A user-submitted note about a product or offering a User states they own, use, or have used, including optional ticks, short comments, and identity fields.
   2. "Vendor Statement"
      A single replaceable reply box on an Owner Reports page, submitted by or for the supplier of the named product or offering.
   3. "Reviews Terms"
      This document, as amended from time to time and published on the website.
4. Account. An Account is required to post, reply, or request removal. An Account is not required to read Owner Reports that Company has published. You must provide accurate Account information. You may not post under another person’s identity or under a Licensee identity you are not authorized to use.
5. What you may post. Owner Reports are post-purchase observations. You may describe what you saw when you set up, used, or tried to leave the product (for example: whether an account was required, whether it worked with the wide-area network unplugged, whether a companion app was required, whether a cloud plan was forced, whether a mute or shutter exists, and what happened when you tried to delete an account).

   You may not present an Owner Report as a PrivateEZ™ star rating, as a finding under the Home Privacy Standard, as a legal conclusion, as a CVE or vulnerability report, or as a score of another brand. You may not use Owner Reports to advertise your own goods or services.

6. Product identity. You must identify the product as specifically as you can: brand and model as printed on the unit or packaging, and GTIN/UPC when you have it. You may also provide an optional “sold to me as” title (the marketplace or box wording you bought under). “Sold to me as” is an alias on your note. It is not Company’s official product name and it is not a Certified Offering record.
7. Photographs. If you upload a rating-plate, label, or packaging photo, you grant Company permission to store it for identity and fraud review. Company will not publish that photo as a public image unless a later written program says otherwise. Do not upload photos that show a readable serial number, a face, a home interior beyond the product, or anyone who has not agreed to appear.
8. Publication. Company may hold an Owner Report unpublished pending review or corroboration. Company may decline to publish a first or isolated note, require a matching identity field, or remove a note that cannot be tied to a product. Delay or refusal to publish is not a finding that the product meets or fails the Standard.
9. Prohibited content. In addition to the Acceptable Use rules in the Website Terms of Service, you may not post:
   1. content that is illegal, threatening, or harassing;
   2. content that is not about the named product or offering;
   3. impersonation of Company, the Certification Authority, a Licensee, or another person;
   4. fake, incentivized, or manipulated Owner Reports, including posting in exchange for payment, refund, discount, or a promise to certify;
   5. confidential or personal information of another person;
   6. malware, spam, or off-topic promotional material.
10. License to Company. You keep whatever rights you have in your Owner Report. You grant Company a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, display, moderate, excerpt, and archive it in connection with the Services. You represent that you have the right to grant that license and that your note is your own observation.
11. Vendor Statements. The supplier of a named product or offering may submit one Vendor Statement per product page (or per Offering record, as the system provides). The statement may be replaced by that supplier; it is not a thread. Company may cap length. A Vendor Statement is the supplier’s speech. It is not a Certification Authority decision and it is not a star rating.

    Licensees shall not treat an Owner Report as a star rating or Standard control score, shall not pay or offer to pay for removal, suppression, or a replacement score, and shall not reply in a way that claims the reply is a Certification Authority decision.

12. No pay to remove. Company does not unpublish, edit the meaning of, or rerank Owner Reports in exchange for certification fees, advertising, or any other payment. Certification and Owner Reports remain separate public acts.
13. Takedown. Company will consider removal only for:
    1. illegal content;
    2. content that is not about the named product or offering;
    3. impersonation;
    4. content that violates these Terms or the Website Terms of Service Acceptable Use rules;
    5. content Company is required to remove by law or by a court or government order.

    Disagreement with an observation, a pending certification application, or a wish to protect a brand is not a ground for removal. Requests go to the notice address in the Website Terms of Service.

14. Company-authored pages. Company may publish category or explainer articles (for example, what to look for in a product class). Company will not publish Company-authored essays that rate or review a specific SKU as if they were Owner Reports or certification records. Category articles are Company’s speech. Owner Reports are Users’ speech.
15. Trademarks. Use of PrivateEZ™ marks on Owner Reports pages is Company’s use. Licensees may link to Owner Reports only with the approved sentence: “Owner reports on this page are not PrivateEZ™ certification and are not a star rating.” Other mark use remains governed by the Trademark License Agreement.
16. Privacy. Collection and storage of Account data, “sold to me as” titles, plate photos, and related fields are described in the Privacy Policy. Do not use Owner Reports to publish another person’s personal information.
17. Relationship to other agreements. These Reviews Terms supplement the Website Terms of Service. If they conflict with the Website Terms of Service on posting, reply, attribution, or takedown, these Reviews Terms control for those subjects only. They do not modify the Trademark License Agreement, the Certification Policy, the Fee Schedule, or the Referral Policy. They do not make a User a Licensee.
18. Changes. Company may modify these Reviews Terms by posting an updated version on the website. Continued posting or replying after the update is posted is acceptance of the new Terms. If you do not agree, stop posting and request Account closure.
19. Liability and disputes. The limited-liability, termination, and dispute-resolution provisions of the Website Terms of Service apply to these Reviews Terms, including arbitration in Detroit, Michigan under Michigan law. Company does not endorse Owner Reports and is not responsible for their accuracy.