Editorial Policy

Effective date: 2025-10-05

Purpose and Principles

Speaker Interop Lab publishes independent, standards‑driven guidance on smart speakers and related accessories. Our core values are accuracy, interoperability, privacy, accessibility, and longevity. We do not sell positive coverage or accept editorial control from brands.

Independence and Ethics

• No paid placement or “pay for praise.”
• Editorial decisions are separate from revenue operations.
• We disclose material relationships (samples, loans, travel) in the relevant article.
• Conflicts of interest are prohibited; contributors must recuse themselves where conflicts may exist.

Sourcing and Verification

• We verify claims with hands‑on testing and multiple independent sources (standards documentation, developer notes, and public issue trackers).
• Quotes and specifications are attributed; ambiguous marketing terms are clarified or avoided.
• We publish known limitations, firmware versions, and test dates with each review.

How Reviews Are Produced

• Acquisition: We buy most products at retail. If a sample is provided, it comes with no right of preview or approval.
• Duration: Products are tested over weeks, then spot‑checked after major updates.
• Environment: Mixed‑ecosystem households, outage drills, and multi‑user scenarios are mandatory for core speakers.
• Evidence: We log configurations, reproducible steps, and failure modes.
• Updates: Significant firmware changes trigger review updates or advisories.

Ratings and Recommendations

• Our scoring weights interoperability, privacy, reliability, longevity, audio performance, TCO, and accessibility.
• “Buy” or “Consider” calls include conditions (e.g., works best with Thread border routers, or avoid current firmware).
• We avoid absolutes when real‑world contexts differ; we provide room‑by‑room guidance instead.

Corrections and Transparency

• If we make a factual mistake, we correct it promptly and note the change.
• We timestamp updates when products gain/lose features or stability.
• Readers can request corrections at [email protected].

Accessibility and Privacy Lens

• Reviews assess tactile controls, app accessibility, voice options, and multilingual support.
• We evaluate hardware mic mutes, local processing defaults, and permission granularity.

Use of AI

• We may use AI tools for drafting outlines, grammar, or summarizing public specs.
• Human editors review and approve all publishable content.
• We do not allow AI to generate final product verdicts or unsupervised reviews.

Advertising and Sponsorship

• Ads, if present, are clearly labeled and segregated from editorial content.
• Sponsors cannot influence product selection, conclusions, or scoring.
• We do not run third‑party scripts that profile users beyond what is required for basic ad delivery.

Affiliate Disclosure

• We may earn a commission if you purchase through links on our Site. This supports our testing but does not affect the price you pay.
• Affiliate relationships do not influence which products we test or how we score them.
• We include clear link disclosures near commercial links where practical.

Data and Cookies (Editorial Context)

• We collect only the data necessary to operate the Site and measure content quality; see our Privacy Policy for full details.
• Where cookies are used (e.g., affiliate attribution), we minimize identifiers and avoid cross‑site tracking.

Community Standards

• We moderate comments and messages to maintain a respectful, helpful environment.
• We remove spam, harassment, and off‑topic promotions.
• Product makers are welcome to provide technical clarifications with full disclosure of affiliation.

Contact

Questions about this policy or an article: [email protected]