How we cite
Every quote on this site is copied verbatim from the source document. Every citation is structured so you can find the exact clause yourself. This page explains how the system works and how to read what you see.
1. What verbatim means
Every quote on a platform record is copied character-for-character from the source document. We do not paraphrase. We do not summarise. We do not splice. The quote is exactly what the platform's lawyers wrote.
The text appears inside a <blockquote> on the page. If the quote is unusually long, we show the first ~300 characters and a Show full quote ▾ toggle — the full text is always one click away. We never truncate permanently.
2. How to read a citation
Each citation is a structured path with up to five levels:
- Terms of Service — which policy document the clause came from (Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, Usage Policy).
- Section 3 (Content) — the section number followed by its heading text, exactly as written.
- Paragraph 2 — the paragraph within that section.
- Subsection (b) — a lettered or numbered subsection, if the paragraph has them.
- Item (ii) — a specific list item, if the subsection is a list.
Levels that don't apply to a given clause are simply omitted. A clause with no subsection just stops at the paragraph level. Click the at the end of any citation line to open that section of the original document in a new tab.
3. The ↗ deep link
Every citation we publish carries a clause deep link when one is discoverable in the source HTML. We build the link by finding the anchor on the section heading — either a real id attribute the platform set, or a slugified version of the heading text.
Most deep links jump directly to the cited section. A small number link to the document but cannot scroll to the exact paragraph — in those cases we render the citation line with a dashed underline and a tooltip that says “Link may not scroll to exact location — search the page for the quote text”. If you click one of those, you'll land on the right document but may need to use the browser's search-in-page (⌘F / Ctrl-F) to find the exact wording.
For a small number of pages — React-rendered single-page apps that inject content without stable id attributes — we cannot construct any deep link at all. Those citations show Direct link unavailable below the path. The source URL is still on the record (in the SOURCES PARSED block).
4. Verification process
Every auto-extracted citation is stamped AUTO-EXTRACT and then runs through an automated verification pass before it enters the public record. No human edits citations or ratings. The verifier:
- Re-fetches the source document and confirms the verbatim quote still exists at the cited location.
- Validates the section / paragraph coordinates against a character-level sentinel stored from the original source.
- Recomputes the plain-English caution note deterministically from the clause classification.
- Promotes the citation to the public record only when the sentinel still matches; any mismatch flags it stale and pulls it for automatic re-extraction.
See the full methodology page for how the engine computes risk ratings.
5. Found an error?
If a citation is wrong, outdated, or the deep link is broken, please tell us:
corrections@aipolicycompare.com
Every platform record also has a REPORT A CORRECTION link in its footer that opens a pre-filled email with the platform ID. We read every report.