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Our SSP & Publisher Guidelines

The following Zemanta SSP & Publisher Guidelines describe the standards applicable to any SSP or publisher partner of Zemanta. In order to use the Zemanta service, partners agree to abide by the Zemanta SSP & Publisher Guidelines set out below. Any violation of these guidelines is subject to enforcement (that may include removal from the network) at Zemanta’s discretion. Zemanta reserves the right to update the SSP & Publisher Guidelines from time to time.

Content Guidelines

Zemanta SSP & Publisher Guidelines are in place to deliver the best possible user experience and trust in publisher sites on which recommendations served via Zemanta technology may appear. These guidelines must be adhered to ensuring the reliability, legality, and quality of SSP and publisher partners we work with.

1. User Experience

To ensure the best possible user experience, all pages of the publisher website must:

Host content (slideshows, infographic, articles, video, quizzes, etc, offering value for the reader)

  • Have functioning navigation
    • Social Media icons should link to the relevant pages
    • Site Menu buttons should link to relevant sections of the site

2. Reliability

To provide site reliability and transparency, websites must have:

  • An About us/Contact us section
  • Mentions of the articles’ authors/references
  • A Privacy Policy linked in the footer of every page of the website
  • Provide robust site infrastructure such as not linking to broken pages, non-functional page elements, or pages that link to further pages that break our publisher guidelines

3. Legality

  • Websites must comply with all applicable laws and regulations, and not include:
    • Plagiarism
    • Fraudulent behavior/content
    • Content that may be reasonably considered to be illegal, unlawful, or infringing under any applicable laws
    • No breach of confidence or infringing any other right of any third party

The publisher must maintain the necessary authorizations/consents from 3rd parties and/or any relevant licenses (as applicable)

4. Quality

Websites sites must not and/or content on websites must not include:

  • Adult/ Sexual Content/ Pornography
  • Content Deemed Invasive to Privacy
  • Cryptocurrency
  • Defamatory, Indecent, Seditious, Offensive, Harmful Content
  • Gambling
  • Fake News
  • Hate/ Violence/ Discrimination (racial, ethnical or other)
  • Promotion of or Advocacy for one religion over another
  • Extreme political views
  • Weapon (or ammunition)/ Drugs (or paraphernalia)/ Alcohol Sales
  • Content targeted at children under the age of 16

Zemanta reserves the right to remove from its network any SSP or publisher whose content is deemed inappropriate and not meeting these guidelines at its sole discretion.

Technical Requirements

1. Proper labeling for disclosure requirements

In order to maximize full disclosure and abide by FTC labeling requirements, all Zemanta recommendations must clearly denote that the links are “Sponsored” or “Paid.” For placements that contain both Editorial and Paid recommendations within the same widget, each Paid link must be clearly labeled “Sponsored” or “Paid” on the individual link level.

2. Privacy

You must (i) at all times satisfy the requirements for an appropriate legal basis for the processing of personal data; (ii) disclose Zemanta to users via an appropriate privacy notice, which is updated from time to time and in accordance with applicable laws (iii) where required, it collect consent via a consent management platform using the IAB Transparency and Consent Framework (the most recent version or successor thereto) and pass Zemanta a clear consent or no consent signal (i.e. you must not send Zemanta a null or invalid signal); (iv), for purposes of the CCPA, you shall pass opt-out signals to Zemanta using the IAB’s CCPA framework; and (v) you shall provide a user choice mechanism such as the opt out page(s) of the Network Advertising Initiative, the Digital Advertising Alliance, the European Digital Advertising Alliance.

Proper Use

Do not install Zemanta on a site unless you either own or operate the site and apps or the owner of the sites and apps has given you exclusive third-party rights to monetize the inventory.

Zemanta SSP and publishers may not display Zemanta recommendations on pages with content protected by copyright law unless they have the necessary legal rights to display that content. If you believe a page participating in the Zemanta program is displaying your copyrighted material without the rights to do so, please report it using our contact us form.

User Experience

Publisher’s Website or App must provide users with a positive experience, designed to discover content they seek and not deliberately conceal content or deceive users.

  1. The site or App should be designed and developed using best practices to avoid a poor user experience.
  2. Publishers should not recommend the same story multiple times on a homepage or landing page to seem like it has more content than it does.
  3. Pages should load quickly even in low bandwidth areas. This is not only to avoid an inferior user experience, but also to minimize accidental clicks.
  4. Content should be current and have sufficient options.

Do not display Zemanta on apps or sites that are not fully functional or that provide a misleading or troublesome user experience.

  1. Don’t place ads where people are likely to accidentally click (ex: placing ads where people randomly click or place their fingers, such as near buttons).
  2. Don’t include ads that cover up or hide any area of interest during typical interaction.
  3. Ensure ads are clearly distinguishable from other content within your app.
  4. Ensure that clicking an ad is not the only way to exit a screen.
  5. For general guidance on what ad units are not allowed, please visit https://www.betterads.org/standards.
  6. Interacting with advertising within Zemanta widgets should not be financially incentivized.