Commercial value cannot change the public record.

Evidence is not for sale

• No paid ranking. Payment does not improve a product, creator, or claim position.
• No paid deletion or suppression. A brand, creator, or partner cannot pay to remove weak, mixed, or unfavourable eligible outcomes.
• No purchased evidence score. No plan, badge, or commercial relationship can purchase a stronger confidence label or more favourable language.
• No pay-to-play eligibility. Commercial status does not determine whether an outcome can be counted under the methodology.

Relationships stay visible

Claim Cards and studies are intended to identify relevant sponsorship, gifting, affiliate, paid, or personal-purchase relationships where known. A disclosure informs interpretation; it does not decide the outcome.

• Participant rewards, if used, are fixed for completing the stated process and are not conditional on a positive, negative, or particular answer.
• Sponsored studies are permanently labelled with their funder and the applicable methodology version.
• A funding party may define a research question, but may not select only enthusiastic participants, rewrite the methodology after results are known, or cancel publication because results are unfavourable.

Correction without control

Brands may request correction of objective product metadata, such as a model name, variant, price, availability detail, or discontinued status. They may not edit participant outcomes, verification decisions, evidence thresholds, or methodology labels.

Privacy-safe outputs

Public and commercial outputs are intended to be aggregate and privacy-safe. AFTELO does not intend to sell raw personal profiles, receipt files, or identifiable purchase histories. Personal data is not a ranking input for sale.

Appeals and corrections

A participant, creator, brand, or other affected person can raise a factual correction, privacy concern, disclosure concern, attribution dispute, or suspected manipulation through the contact route. Requests should identify the relevant claim, page, or record and explain the issue.

AFTELO intends to review substantiated requests, correct confirmed objective errors, and explain when a record cannot be changed. An appeal does not permit an interested party to alter an honestly reported eligible outcome simply because it is unwelcome.

Changes are documented

Material changes to evidence thresholds, verification treatment, outcome definitions, or study governance should be documented with a methodology version. This covenant is a founding-pilot commitment and may be refined as the product, legal review, and operational controls mature.