What Actually Happens When You Apply
No black boxes. Here's the exact process — what we check, in what order, and what each step means for you and your visitors.
Apply for VerificationWhat verification is — and what it isn't
The Transparency Badge is not a legal certification and we're not a government body. It's a standardized, subscription-based monitoring service: every applicant is checked against the same published criteria, your domain is continuously re-scanned against threat databases for as long as your subscription is active, and your badge is suspended automatically if a problem is ever detected. The one-time eligibility check at onboarding confirms your site is a legitimate, honest operation before monitoring begins. It's a meaningful trust signal — but not a guarantee that a business is perfect or that it will never have issues.
Four Steps, Start to Finish
Every application goes through the same steps in the same order. Here's what happens.
You Submit the Application
Fill in the form on our Get Verified page — your domain, a brief description of what your website does, and a few questions about your policies. We ask whether you have a privacy policy, terms of service, and a refund policy, and whether your site is currently live. That's all we need to start.
Automatic Safety Checks Run
As soon as you submit, our system runs the same checks your visitors would see in the free checker: we scan your domain against public threat intelligence databases, verify your SSL certificate is active and valid, and check how long the domain has been registered. If your domain is already flagged in malware or phishing databases, we catch that immediately. Most legitimate sites pass this step without any issues.
One-Time Eligibility Check
Before your automated monitoring subscription begins, someone on our team confirms your site meets our published criteria: a working contact method, readable policies, and honest, non-misleading content. This is a standardized, one-time check against the same checklist for every applicant — we're not looking for perfection, just confirming you're running a legitimate operation. If something looks off, we'll email you explaining what we found.
Badge Goes Live — Monitoring Continues
If your site passes review, your domain status changes to Verified in our checker. Anyone who checks your domain from that point forward sees the Verified result instead of New/Unknown. You'll also receive an embed code — a small HTML snippet — that you can place anywhere on your site. Visitors can click it to see your verification details. While your subscription is active, we continue checking your domain against security databases. If your site is ever flagged for malware or phishing after being verified, your badge is suspended immediately to protect visitors.
The Five Things Every Site Must Pass
These aren't arbitrary boxes. Each one exists because it directly affects whether a visitor can trust your site.
| Requirement | What We Look At | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| No malware or phishing flags | Your domain must be clean in public threat databases at time of review. | A site carrying known threats cannot be verified regardless of anything else. |
| Valid SSL certificate | Your site must be accessible over HTTPS with a valid, active certificate. | No SSL means visitor data isn't encrypted in transit — that's a basic safety failure. |
| Privacy policy | A privacy policy that's actually linked and readable — not buried or placeholder text. | Required by law in most countries and a baseline for any legitimate website. |
| Honest, readable content | Your site must do what it says it does. No misleading claims, fake urgency, or deceptive design. | The badge tells visitors your site was reviewed. That review has to mean something. |
| Working contact method | At minimum, a real email address visitors can use to reach you. | A site with no way to contact the owner gives visitors no recourse if something goes wrong. |
The badge can't be bought — only earned
Paying for the subscription covers the ongoing monitoring and keeps your verification active. It doesn't buy approval. Sites that don't meet the criteria don't get the badge — full stop. That's what makes the badge worth something to the visitors who see it.
Things People Ask Before Applying
Straightforward answers to the questions we hear most.
No credit card required to apply.