Affiliate Disclosure

How Unsurfaced earns money from some of the links on this site — and how we keep that separate from our reporting.

Last updated: July 15, 2026

Unsurfaced is published by Scalar Digital Services LLC ("we," "us," or "our"). This page explains the commercial relationships behind some of the content on https://unsurfaced.com (the "Site") — display advertising, affiliate links, and any sponsored material — so that you always know when money may change hands in connection with something you read here.

This Disclosure works together with our Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, and Cookie Policy.

Table of Contents

1. Where our revenue comes from
2. What happens when you click an affiliate link
3. How we label commercial content
4. Our editorial line
5. We decide what runs on the site
6. Links are not endorsements
7. Questions

1. WHERE OUR REVENUE COMES FROM

Unsurfaced is a free publication. The money that keeps it running comes from a small number of commercial sources:

• Display advertising. We serve advertisements through third-party ad networks such as Google Ads. These ads appear in designated slots on the Site and are visually separate from our articles. Ads promoting Unsurfaced may also run on other websites and apps that we neither own nor control.
• Affiliate links. Certain pages — most notably our Best Antivirus buying guide — contain links to products and services sold by independent third-party vendors, including antivirus and security software providers such as TotalAV. Those vendors pay us a referral commission when a reader clicks through and completes a qualifying sign-up or purchase on their site.
• Sponsored material. Paid articles, press releases, or similar placements are not a regular feature of the Site today. If we ever publish one, it will carry a clear label such as "Sponsored" or "Press Release" and will be covered by this Disclosure.

Not every category above is active at all times. Whenever content of one of these types does appear on the Site, this Disclosure applies to it.

2. WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU CLICK AN AFFILIATE LINK

A few things are worth understanding before you follow an affiliate link from the Site:

• We may be paid a commission. If you complete a purchase, subscription, or other qualifying action on the vendor's website after clicking one of our links, the vendor may pay us a referral fee.
• You never pay extra. The commission comes out of the vendor's pocket, not yours. Prices, discounts, and trial terms are set entirely by the vendor and are identical whether or not you arrived through our link.
• Your contract is with the vendor. Anything you buy on a partner site is a transaction between you and that vendor. We are not the merchant of record and do not handle billing, renewals, cancellations, or refunds — see the "Affiliate Compensation and Partner Services" section of our Terms of Service for the details.
• Check the fine print before you buy. Confirm the current price, trial length, automatic-renewal schedule, and refund policy on the vendor's own checkout pages before completing any order. Those pages are authoritative if anything we have written becomes outdated.

3. HOW WE LABEL COMMERCIAL CONTENT

We aim to make commercial content easy to recognize:

• Pages that contain affiliate links — such as the Best Antivirus guide and its individual reviews — carry a visible disclosure notice.
• Outbound vendor links on those pages are tagged with the rel="sponsored" attribute so that search engines also see the relationship.
• Display advertisements served by ad networks appear in distinct ad slots and are not written or edited by us.
• Any future sponsored article or press release will be labeled as such at the top of the page.

As a rule of thumb: if a page on this Site ranks, reviews, or recommends commercial products, you should assume it contains affiliate links.

4. OUR EDITORIAL LINE

Unsurfaced is first and foremost a security news publication, and our reporting is not for sale. Vendors cannot pay for news coverage, and affiliate relationships play no role in what our newsroom covers or how.

Where we do publish product rankings and reviews, the order and scores are decided by our editorial team against published criteria — see how we rank — and a vendor cannot buy a higher position. Our reviews include genuine drawbacks for every product, including the ones we earn commissions from.

Any commercial material that does appear on the Site is expected to be truthful, accurate, substantiated where it makes factual claims, lawful, and consistent with the truth-in-advertising principles set out by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, as well as with the policies of the advertising networks we work with.

5. WE DECIDE WHAT RUNS ON THE SITE

We keep full discretion over the commercial content we carry. We may decline any advertisement, affiliate placement, or sponsored submission; require changes before publication; or edit, suspend, or remove such content after it has been published — at any time, without notice, and without owing anyone an explanation. This includes removals we make to stay compliant with the policies of third-party ad networks.

6. LINKS ARE NOT ENDORSEMENTS

The presence of an advertisement, affiliate link, or third-party brand on the Site is not a certification or guarantee of that product or service. An affiliate link reflects a commercial arrangement, and a review reflects our editorial assessment at the time of writing — neither is a promise that a product will work for your particular situation.

Advertisers, sponsors, and affiliate partners are solely responsible for their own products, services, claims, and promotional material. If something goes wrong with a purchase you made on a vendor's site, your recourse is with that vendor. We accept no liability for third-party products or services; the limitations set out in our Terms of Service apply.

7. QUESTIONS

If you would like to know more about this Disclosure, a specific affiliate relationship, or how a particular piece of content is labeled, contact us at [email protected]