Approach
That line decides what we build and what we refuse to build. Below is what it means in practice, written plainly enough to hold us to it.
We cite research, academic work, reputable publications and official sources. Forum posts, blogs and reviews are shown as opinion, never passed off as fact. Where a source looks influenced by someone with a stake in the answer, we treat it with caution or leave it out.
Businesses can pay us for services. They can never pay for position. No partner, advertiser or vendor can raise a score, change a source grade, or alter what a product recommends.
Every score names the version of the rules that produced it. When the rules change, the version changes with them, so nothing is ever altered quietly behind a familiar number.
Messages are screened first. If someone may be in danger, the product stops being a search tool and helps them reach a person. Those replies are reviewed by a clinician and by a native speaker before release.
We keep what is needed to run a product and nothing for its own sake. We don’t sell data or aim ads at anyone personally, and health details, ID numbers and passwords are never kept in memory.
When the evidence is thin or disputed, our products say so instead of filling the gap. A confident sentence is not the same as a correct one, and we would rather be useful than impressive.
Carefully, and in a way we can undo.
A restore point before every change. Nothing new begins until we can return to the last good version.
Tested before it ships. Hundreds of automated tests run on every build, including the safety replies.
Small changes over big ones. We prefer the least invasive change that does the job, so a product stays stable and fast.
People test it before the public does. A small pilot group uses each product for weeks and tells us honestly how it does.