Affiliate Disclosure
Plain version - some links may earn us a commission, that is disclosed next to the links themselves, and it has no bearing on what we conclude.
Last updated
The short version
Some outbound links on this site are affiliate links. If you follow one and buy something, the retailer may pay us a commission. It does not change the price you pay. It does not change our scores, our rankings or our conclusions.
Current status
No affiliate programmes are active at the time of writing. No link on this site currently earns commission, because we have not yet published a product review. This page describes how affiliate links will work when they are introduced, and it will be updated with the specific programmes we join before any commissioned link goes live.
Where disclosures appear
When affiliate links exist, disclosure appears in three places, not one:
- On this page, in full.
- Near the top of any page containing affiliate links, before you reach the first one.
- Next to the purchase button itself, so the disclosure is visible at the moment it matters.
How our links behave
- Affiliate links carry
rel="sponsored nofollow", which tells search engines the link is commercial. - Link text says where the link goes: “Check price at Amazon”, not “Best price here”.
- We do not use countdown timers, invented discounts, fake stock warnings or urgency language.
- We do not disguise outbound links behind redirects that hide the destination.
- Prices shown next to a link carry the date we checked them, and are labelled when they are old enough that we would not vouch for them.
What commission does not buy
- It does not affect scores. Category scores are entered against evidence before any link is added, and the overall figure is computed from those scores.
- It does not affect rankings. Positions are not for sale. We will link to a product we criticise, and we will criticise a product we link to.
- It does not determine what we test. Test selection is based on what readers are actually cross-shopping in the United States.
- It does not buy silence. A commissioned product that fails our testing gets a review saying so.
If a retailer offered us a higher commission for a better placement, the answer would be no, and we would tell you they asked.
Why we use affiliate links at all
Testing devices costs money. Buying masks at retail rather than accepting free samples from manufacturers costs more, and keeps us further from the brands. Affiliate commission is the funding model that lets us buy our own units rather than depend on the goodwill of the companies whose products we are assessing.
The alternative models are worse. Sponsored content compromises the review directly. Advertising sold to the same brands we cover creates the same conflict a layer removed.
Your options
You are welcome to ignore every link on this site. Every review names the exact product and model, so you can search for it yourself, buy it anywhere you like, and we earn nothing. The reviews are identical either way.
Questions
If anything here is unclear, or you think a link on this site is not properly disclosed, tell us and we will fix it. Contact details are on the contact page, and our corrections policy covers how we handle reports.