In Plain English: Some of the links on this site are affiliate links. If you click one of these links and make a purchase, we may earn a small commission — at no extra cost to you. This commission helps us cover the costs of running the site, buying products for testing, and paying our review team. We only recommend products we have personally tested and genuinely believe in. Affiliate relationships never influence our ratings, rankings, or editorial decisions.
1. What Are Affiliate Links?
An affiliate link is a special URL that includes a tracking code. When you click an affiliate link on our Site and subsequently make a purchase on the retailer's website, the retailer's system can identify that you came from our Site. As a result, we may receive a small commission from the sale.
Key things to understand about affiliate links:
- You pay the same price: Whether you use our affiliate link or navigate directly to the retailer, the price you pay is identical. The commission comes from the retailer's advertising budget, not from your wallet.
- Cookies: When you click an affiliate link, a temporary cookie is placed in your browser so the retailer can attribute the sale to us. These cookies typically expire within 24 hours to 30 days and do not contain any personal information.
- No extra steps: You do not need to enter any coupon codes or take any special actions. Simply click the link and shop as you normally would.
- No obligation: You are never required to use our affiliate links. If you prefer, you can copy a product name and search for it directly on Amazon or another retailer.
We identify affiliate links on our Site in several ways: links to retailer sites like Amazon.com are typically affiliate links; we may include a small disclosure notice near affiliate links in review content; and our homepage and review pages contain a persistent affiliate disclosure banner.
2. Amazon Associates Participation
Reviews by Technologies IA is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com and its affiliated sites (including Amazon.ca, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, and others).
The following is the required disclosure statement as provided by Amazon:
"As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Reviews by Technologies IA participates in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites."
This means that when you click on a link to an Amazon product on our Site and complete a purchase, we may earn a commission. Amazon's current commission rates vary by product category, ranging from 1% to 10%. These rates are set by Amazon and are subject to change at any time. Amazon's use of information collected through the Associates Program is governed by Amazon's own privacy policy, available at https://www.amazon.com/privacy.
We are not Amazon employees, agents, or representatives. We are independent publishers who choose to participate in the Associates Program as one way to support our review site.
3. Other Affiliate Programs
In addition to Amazon, we may also participate in other affiliate programs, including but not limited to:
- Direct retailer affiliate programs: We may link directly to retailers such as Best Buy, B&H Photo, Adorama, or manufacturer websites through affiliate links.
- Affiliate networks: We may use affiliate networks such as Impact, ShareASale, Rakuten Advertising, or CJ Affiliate to link to products from various retailers.
- Select brand partnerships: On rare occasions, we may partner directly with a brand through a managed affiliate relationship. These relationships are always disclosed within the review content.
Regardless of the affiliate program, our commitment remains the same: we only recommend products we have personally tested and believe offer genuine value to our readers. We do not participate in any affiliate program that requires positive reviews or guarantees a certain rating in exchange for participation.
4. How We Maintain Integrity
We take our editorial independence very seriously. Here is how we ensure that affiliate relationships never compromise the quality or honesty of our reviews:
We Only Recommend Tested Products
Every product we recommend on this Site has been purchased, tested, and evaluated by our review team. We do not accept free review units from manufacturers, and we do not publish reviews of products we have not personally used. Every review page includes a link to our Editorial Policy so you can verify our testing methodology.
No Paid Reviews
We categorically do not accept payment for positive reviews. No manufacturer, brand, or retailer can pay us to write a favorable review, increase a rating, or include a product in a "best of" list. Period. If you see a product recommended on our Site, it earned its place through our testing process — not through payment.
Ratings Are Independent
Our star ratings and rankings are determined solely by our standardized 6-dimension scoring methodology, which evaluates build quality, performance, value, ease of use, features, and reliability. Affiliate commission rates do not factor into any rating decision. We do not inflate ratings for products with higher commission rates or penalize products with lower ones.
Negative Reviews Are Published
When a product fails to meet our standards, we publish the negative review. We have declined affiliate links for products we tested and did not recommend. Our readers' trust is worth more than any single commission.
5. Transparency Commitment
We believe transparency is the foundation of reader trust. Here is what we commit to you:
- Clear labeling: We clearly identify affiliate links throughout the Site. Our persistent affiliate disclosure banner appears at the top of every page.
- Visible disclosures: Our full Affiliate Disclosure is linked in the footer of every page and in the persistent banner across the top of the site.
- No hidden arrangements: We disclose all material relationships with brands and retailers. If there is any financial relationship beyond standard affiliate commissions, we disclose it explicitly in the relevant content.
- Public editorial policy: Our complete Editorial Policy and testing methodology are publicly available and linked from every page on the Site.
- Open to questions: If you ever have any doubt about whether a particular link is an affiliate link, or whether a specific relationship exists with a brand, please contact us and we will answer honestly.
6. FTC Compliance Statement
This Site complies with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) guidelines regarding endorsements and testimonials in advertising. In accordance with FTC regulations, we clearly and conspicuously disclose our material relationships with advertisers and affiliate programs.
The FTC requires that consumers know when there is a financial incentive behind a product recommendation. We meet this requirement through multiple disclosure methods:
- A persistent affiliate disclosure banner at the top of every page
- An "As an Amazon Associate" statement in the footer of every page
- This dedicated Affiliate Disclosure page linked throughout the Site
- Contextual disclosures near affiliate links within review content where practical
If you have any questions about our affiliate relationships or disclosure practices, please reach out to us at disclosure@technologiesia.com. We are happy to provide additional clarity.