Subset Of Company Guidelines

Hive Media Specific Guidelines

Last modified: February 2025

These guidelines are binding upon Vendor in performing the Services.

Please note that Hive Media may change or update these guidelines from time to time subject to its sole discretion including for the purpose of addressing and properly reflecting recent law (including regulations and industry best practices) updates, and align with the terms, conditions and guidelines of relevant Service Provider and third parties.

These Guidelines do not derogate in any way from Vendor’s representations, undertakings and obligations under any agreement which was entered between Vendor and Company or any other document binding upon Vendor.

Furthermore, these Guidelines are only aimed to provide Vendor with key principles to which it must adhere and does not derogate from Vendor’s obligations to act at all times pursuant to any applicable law, contractual obligations, terms of service, privacy policies and guidelines of Service Provider and relevant third parties (including – as applicable – Internet service providers, search engines and browsers) and the industry best practices.

Capitalized terms used but not defined herein, shall have the respective meanings given to them in the Agreement.

1. SEARCHBOX

A. May and may not

Vendor may not integrate a search box on any website/applications without obtaining the Company’s prior written approval.
Vendor may not use a different HTML code than the code provided in this document without obtaining the Company’s prior written approval.

B. SEARCHBOX BEHAVIOR

Simple search box can be used for sites/ applications that redirect (via Company’s designated URL) to Service Provider SERP (or to Vendor’s site – subject to the terms of the Agreement) when a user executes a search.

1. WAYS TO EXECUTE A SEARCH REQUEST:

If there is a query term in the search box, clicking the logo would execute a search and loads a Search Result page .
If there is a query term in the search box, clicking the spyglass would take a user to a search result page if users hit a Search Button
If the user clicks “Enter”, this will provide a search request that includes the user’s search term and redirects the search request to the search engine within all the necessary search URL parameters.
If the user provides an empty search request, the user will stay on the same search page and won’t be redirected to the SERP.

2. RESTRICTED AND DISALLOWED CONTENT POLICIES

Your landing page content have to be in compliance (and not violate) best industry’s standard advertising editorial guidelines as applicable to you in your geographic market and have to be in compliance with Service Providers’ content policies.

The following policies address the specific details of content on Publisher properties, generally considered sensitive, legal, dangerous, harmful and/or potentially unethical in nature.

3. DISALLOWED CONTENT POLICIES

Areas of questionable legality
Defamatory, slanderous, libelous or threatening content
Hate speech
Peer-to-peer file sharing
Political and religious content
Sensitive advertising
Suffering and violence
Unregulated user-generated content
Usenet
Tax collection & shipping terms

4. DISALLOWED PRODUCTS AND SERVICES POLICIES

Alcohol
Deceptive products and services
Drugs and related paraphernalia
Endangered and threatened species products or services
Fireworks and explosives
Infant feeding
Tobacco and electronic cigarettes
Weapons, knives, firearms and ammunition

5. Ad Creatives

The following requirements are relevant only to Vendors who received written approval from Company to create customized SERP.

6. DON’TS

Don’t deceive the user.
Don’t use deceptive language or copy in ad creative. Don’t promote false claims or unattainable results in ad creative.
Don’t manipulate users with Ads / Results that have clickable areas:
- Don’t make a ‘hover state’ on text that it is not clickable
Don’t use tricks intended to generate non-human Ad clicks
Don’t create a page with malicious behavior, such as sending automated queries to the search engine
Don’t change search preferences without the user’s informed consent. For example: don’t change the preferred language, default safe search mode, etc.

7. TRAFFIC QUALITY POLICY

This Traffic Quality Policy applies to all Implementations distributed by Vendor in connection with the Agreement.

Service Restrictions. Vendor will not engage in any of the following in connection with the use of the Search Services (defined under the Agreement as “Services”) under the Agreement:

edit, modify, reverse engineer, decompile, or otherwise alter the Search Services, except where the foregoing is expressly permitted by law.
use, display, syndicate, redistribute, transfer, transmit, make available to third parties, deliver, distribute, publish, facilitate, enable, or allow access or linking to the Search Services from any location or source other than those traffic acquisition sources approved by search provider or set forth in the Agreement.
edit, modify, filter, remove, obscure, truncate, or add to or change the order of, or replace the text, images, or other content of Search Results, rearrange or reorder the Search Results, display Search Results with Search Results from other sources or with other content so that such other Search Results or content appears, in each case, to be displayed as part of the Search Results.
frame, minimize, remove, redirect, delay, or otherwise inhibit or modify the display of any web page accessed by the links provided in or associated with Search Results.
edit, modify, filter, hide, mask, or otherwise alter: (i) any part of the ad call; (ii) the user’s browser information; or (iii) the user’s IP address (when submitting a query or accessing Search Results) or the user agent. Vendor must at all times follow all of the requirements or conventions relating to ad calls specified by search provider.
hide or mask the Vendor’s
defame, abuse, harass, stalk, threaten, or otherwise violate the legal rights (such as rights of privacy and publicity) of others or otherwise violate Service Provider’s Policies.
impersonate another person or entity, or falsify or delete any author attributions, legal or other proper notices or proprietary designations (e.g., copyright or trademark symbols), or labels of the origin or source of services, software, or other materials.
use the Search Services for illegal, unauthorized or any purpose prohibited under the Agreement or Service Provider’s Policies.
use the Search Services to infringe upon the copyright, trademark or other intellectual property rights of anyone including domain name.
interfere with or disrupt the Search Services, or servers or networks related to the Search Services, or disobey any requirements, procedures, policies, or regulations of networks related to the Search Services.
exploit any technical limitations of a system, software, or application, or introduce or use any device, software or routine in such way, as to interfere with the operation of the Search Services.
copy, store, or cache any Search Results, except as required to use the Search Services, or redirect a user click on a Search Result away from the intended landing page.
use the Search Results to provide any kind of commercial information service or as a source for marketing activities, other than for Search Provider’s or the Vendor’s own benefit.
create or attempt to create a substitute or similar service or product to the Search Services through use of or access to any of the Search Services or proprietary information related to the Search Services; or use the Search Services as part of any machine learning or similar algorithmic activity, including to train or improve another product or service.
diverting web traffic from local users to a different geographical location unless otherwise permitted by search provider in writing.
send an internet search query that does not result from a user action, or a user action that Vendor should reasonably believe, or through the application of industry standards could reasonably determine, was not intended to cause an internet search query, intentionally sending an Invalid query, or intentionally altering, deleting, changing or pre-populating a user’s query to generate different ads, Search Results, or clicks, excluding spell check, auto completion, and suggested query functionalities.
generate clicks, queries, impressions or conversions by any misleading, deceptive, automated, fraudulent or other invalid means, including the purchase of fraudulent or automated traffic, the manipulation of a user’s intended action, or the acquisition of traffic through the use of malware.
directly or indirectly compensate, induce or require users to click on paid Search Results, including items such as the following:
- implanting hidden iframes or blind links to induce clicks;
- using a click exchange, autosurf, paid-to-surf, paid-to-click or paid-to-read schemes; and
- offering some other benefit, result or another function such as leaving a web page or closing a pop-up window.
generate clicks, queries, impressions or conversions that Vendor (should reasonably believe, or through the application of industry standards could reasonably determine, was not the user’s intent (where the user’s action is transformed into an unintended or unknowing click, query, impression or conversion).
generate queries or impressions through any incentive-based means unless approved by search provider and set forth in the Agreement.
allow traffic that Vendor should reasonably believe, or through the application of industry standards could reasonably determine, originates from users that have no intention to legitimately browse, search, make a purchase or perform any other type of legitimate conversion action.
take any action or omit to take any action to manipulate traffic in a manner that is likely to artificially inflate the value or quality of Vendor’s traffic.
generate clicks and conversions through any incentivized means including providing consideration in exchange for inducing clicks or conversions by awarding users cash, points, prizes, contest entries or similar rewards.
use (i) repeated manual clicks, (ii) robots or other automated query tools, or (iii) computer generated search requests that generate, or which may generate, invalid queries, including the use of search engine optimization services and or software as a means by which to engage in the actions described by subsections (i) – (iii).
engage in deceptive practices that would prevent or delay a search box entry point query, a user click on a 2-Click Implementation or any keyword suggestion from resolving to paid Search Results or prevent or delay a user click on a paid Search Result from resolving to the associated advertiser landing page.
cause SERPs to (i) automatically refresh at any rate greater than that permissible under the applicable IAB impression measurement guidelines or (ii) automatically refresh at any rate that negatively impacts in a material fashion the click-through rate of the applicable paid Search Results on the page.
install any program on a user’s computer or replace a user’s home page, without the user’s prior consent.
using ad blocks to deceptively or artificially manipulate or interrupt the normal operations of search provider’s or search provider’s Search Services provider(s)’ traffic quality system.
include ad blocks or Search Results in a browser window generated by programs used for the purpose of manipulating click measurement activity or click-based advertising payments or by users that have no intention of legitimately browsing site content, making a purchase or performing any other type of legitimate conversion action.
require the user to download files or programs in exchange for returning queries or displaying paid Search Results.
Undertake any action that (a) inhibits Service Provider’s Search Services provider(s)’ ability to gather, analyze and investigate traffic patterns, (b) masks traffic sources, or (c) otherwise circumvents spam, quality mechanisms and other traffic filters.
unless expressly set forth to the contrary in the Agreement or except as otherwise approved by Company, click wrap or use a redirection server, except in the case where Vendor preserves the required http headers to accurately capture and pass back the unmodified signals to Service Provider. To preserve the user’s original header, Vendor must comply with the following for browsers supporting “origin” for “Referral Policy Header” or similar:
- Click redirection must strictly use “HTTP 302” (or equivalent to preserve complete SERP URL as referrer for future HTTP/HTTPS revisions); and
- Vendor (and, if applicable, Vendor’s Syndication Vendor) must use one of the following options for referrer policy for SERP and redirection servers: (i) Referrer-Policy: unsafe-url; (ii) Referrer-Policy: no-referrer-when-downgrade – (according to industry best practices)
install software or alter any settings on a user’s device without clear, appropriate notice and explicit and informed consent from the user (e.g., altering the user’s home page, changing browser settings, altering the default browser, resizing browser windows for the purpose of misleading or inducing the user to an action, installing or altering a toolbar, installing an ActiveX control, installing or altering a program, disabling a “back” button, etc.).
scare a user into believing something is wrong with his or her computer that needs to be repaired.
dial a phone number or connect remotely to another computer or system (e.g., execute “dialer” software), except in response to the user’s intentional initiation of such action.
engage in behavior intended to circumvent the application of pricing, content validation, sensitivity systems (false conversions, traffic cycling) or filtering technology.
interfere with the crawling of websites, applications or other properties by search provider or search provider’s Search Services provider(s) for the purposes of content, compliance and sensitivity classification.
engage in any deceptive or misleading act that prevents search provider or Service Provider and Company from accessing or otherwise reviewing any Vendor (and, if applicable, Vendor’s Syndication Vendor) property, in the manner that it would otherwise appear for users, including reviewing the property for audit and verification purposes.
redirect users to a different domain or URL without appropriate disclosure to, direct action by, and consent by, the user. For the avoidance of doubt, if Vendor (and, if applicable, Vendor’s Syndication Vendor) adheres to the click wrapping requirements above, then it may direct through Service Provider’s URL.
engage in unauthorized or unapproved redirection of users (e.g., redirecting users from a search access point of one property to an unapproved, unaffiliated or unrelated property or SERP).
use, display, include, or deliver any Search Results to any property that is not approved by Service Provider or that does not comply with Service Provider’s Policies.
acquire traffic from or otherwise redirect users from an unauthorized property, Vendor site or traffic source to an authorized property or site
re-route or redirect traffic from approved Implementations in a manner that is not approved by Service Provider.
replace or add to any web page by injecting content from a source with which the site owner does not have an affiliation.
distribute Implementations that violate or differ materially from those permitted by Service Provider’s Policies or as provided for in the Agreement.
intentionally provide false information to Service Provider or Service Provider’s Search Services provider(s) (e.g., false Implementation information, false ad call information (including false serve URL or overwriting the referrer URL), false names, contact info, credit card info, etc.).
drive activities that may result in material harm or injury to a user or user’s property (e.g., the dissemination of a virus or software that may result in personal identity theft).
provide paid Search Results or data that relates to or Search Results from Vendor’s (and, if applicable, Vendor’s Syndication Vendors’) use of Search Services to any third party unless approved by Service Provider.
scan emails to personalize ads.
participate or facilitate arbitrage Implementations that have not been approved by Company (i.e., purchasing of traffic by or for a Vendor’s property with the intent of directing a user to web pages where paid Search Results are a prominent page element without Service Provider’s approval) or that do not comply with Service Provider’s Policies.
blocking traffic from being delivered to paid Search Results, advertisers or the Search Service.
Collecting user data from the Search Services via the API provided by Service Provider or Service Provider’s Search Services provider(s) to track individual patterns on Service Provider’s or Service Provider’s Search Services provider(s)’ properties through any means; or for any other competitive purpose.
blocking or diverting from being delivered to Service Provider or not resolving to the intended advertiser landing page (e.g., inserting an interstitial or redirected block page between the ad click and the advertiser landing page).
blend or move traffic between source tags, or send traffic from an approved Implementation to a source tag for another Implementation
Requirements. Vendor will comply (and, if applicable under the Agreement, will ensure that its Syndication Vendors comply) with the following requirements:
1. Comply with all of Service Provider’s Policies, as well as all applicable laws and regulations.
2. Maintain the ability to suspend its provision of Search Services.
3. Have a platform and implement internal controls to manage policy compliance, quality and control of Vendor (and, if applicable, Vendor’s Syndication Vendor) traffic, compliant with all of Service Provider’s Policies.
4. Promptly provide Company with all requested information and assistance relating to Vendor’s (and, if applicable, Vendor’s Syndication Vendors’) properties and Implementations, to enable Service Provider to address quality issues, advertiser complaints, or issues raised by Service Provider’s Search Services provider(s).
5. Vendor must ensure that each of its Implementations and traffic sources maintains an adequate traffic quality level specified by Service Provider from time-to-time.
6. Maintain controls which assist in detection, improvement and removal of suspicious behavior and traffic that Vendor should reasonably believe, or through the application of industry standards could reasonably determine, could lead to either advertiser escalations or fraudulent activity.
7. Restrict traffic sourcing from specific Implementations and certain categories, sources or portions of traffic at the keyword, domain or traffic source level for quality purposes, as specified by Company from time to time. In addition, Vendor (and, if applicable, Vendor’s Syndication Vendors) must maintain the ability to (and, upon request by Company, must) institute keyword blocks and impression/click caps for each Implementation.
8. Ensure that each query for paid Search Results is preceded by a clear expression of user intent or interest (e.g., search query or keyword link).
9. Ensure that all Implementations provide feedback signals and other data, as specified by Company from time-to-time.

8. FRAUDULENT ACTIVITY AND PROHIBITED ACTIVITY

Fraudulent Activity means:

fictitious installations and/or misleading, deceptive or illegal generation of traffic to the Search Services;
installing or uninstalling any software or ActiveX controls on an end user’s computer or changing any end user setting (or change user preferences or reset default home pages) without clear, appropriate notice, and the end user’s prior affirmative and express consent;
automated, deceptive, fraudulent or other invalid searches or clicks on ads, sponsored links, sponsored Search Results or sponsored content, whether by automated or artificial means and whether conducted by Vendor or an end user (whether through encouraging end users to do so or not), performed for any purpose or any invalid means including but not limited to repeated manual clicks, use of robots or other automated query tools and/or computer generated search requests, and/or the unauthorized use of other search engine optimization services and/or software, implanting IFRAMEs to induce clicks or mislead in any way, generating a click, query, or impression when that was not the user’s intent, for example using blind links, providing consideration in exchange for inducing clicks, including conversion incentives, for example by awarding users cash, points, prizes, contest entries or similar rewards.

Clicks or impressions are disallowed and will be considered invalid if they are: (list not exhaustive)

Accidental or artificial
From a user, program, or automated agent used for the purpose of manipulating click measurement activity or click-based advertising payments.
Users generating clicks or impressions have no intention of legitimately browsing site content, making a purchase or performing any other type of legitimate conversion action.
Driven by traffic patterns that artificially manipulate or interrupt the application of the Service Provider quality mechanisms.
The result of malware, adware, spyware or other badware.
For Search API: Violate the approved paid search and content ad inputs and definitions, page content policies, market and language requirements, ad call requirements, or are found to be overly aggressive in ad rendering tactics that result in invalid clicks or impressions (for example, clickable background space in between ads).
Driven by unauthorized implementation.
inducing or luring users to provide personal identifiable information to any person/entity by intentionally misrepresenting the identity of the person/entity seeking the information;
using randomized or intentionally deceptive file names, directory folders, formats or registry entries for the purpose of avoiding detection and/or removal by users and/or security software;
diverting web traffic from local end users to a different geographical location;
sending an internet search not resulting from an end user action or when a user would not have a reasonable awareness that such action would trigger an internet search, or intentionally altering, deleting, changing or pre-populating the end user’s search query to generate different ads, Search Results, or clicks, or scanning e-mails to personalize ads;
requiring payment for services or products that are free from the manufacturer or original source, and / or requiring the user to download files or programs to access the Vendor approved application without express written consent from Company;
dialing a phone number, or connecting remotely to another computer or system (e.g., execute “dialer” software), except in response to an end user’s intentional initiation of such action;

Prohibited Activity means:

any activity or use of any content that:
- encourages conduct that would be considered a criminal offense or could give rise to civil liability or violates any applicable law, regulation or order of any court or tribunal including, but not limited to, collecting, using or disclosing personal information in violation of applicable law;
- affects the security or privacy of end users without the user’s informed consent (e.g., password retrieval programs, key logging software or any deceptive means to obtain any information from the user);
- interferes with or disrupts web navigation or browsing or web pages visited by end users without the user’s informed consent; resizing browser windows, disabling back buttons, or otherwise interfering with a user’s ability to navigate.
- contains adware, spyware, scareware or malware (including acquiring traffic or including ads in browser window through the use of malware, adware, spyware); or
use, endorsement, and/or promotion of content which is, promotes or advocates (including distribution from websites or software applications which contains such content):
- adult content, pornography, obscene, excessively profane, racist, ethnically offensive, hate speech, discriminatory, threatening, infringing, excessively violent, religiously insensitive, political or libelous;
- illegal drugs or arms trafficking, violates export control laws, creates a risk to a person’s safety or health, compromises national security, promotes online pharmacies and prescription-only medicines or interferes with an investigation by law enforcement officials;
- offensive, misleading, deceptive or phishing conduct;
- family-planning products;
- substantial un-moderated user-generated content or
- gambling-related or sweepstakes; or
- a violation of copyrighted material via technologies or protocols such as, for example, peer to peer, file sharing, file hosting or torrent portals, including, without limitation, placing advertisements in a peer-to-peer application or via traffic from a peer-to-peer application if they promote or encourage the sharing of copyrighted content;
modifying, removing, obscuring, truncating, adding to or changing the order of, replacing the text, images or other content included in or interfering with the Search Results including, without limitation, truncating, deleting, adding or otherwise modifying any part of the ad call or user’s browser information, or the full titles, descriptions and URLs. Without limiting the foregoing, all Search Result must be displayed contiguously, in the order provided by Service Provider, without any other content between the individual results, and without any omission or modification of results or their ranking;
Engaging in behavior intended to circumvent application of pricing, content validation, sensitivity systems (false\conversions, traffic cycling) or filtering technology;
For Search API, forwarding, masking or cloaking of URLs or engaging in deceptive practices including: Click wrapping, whereby Vendor avoid passing the true Vendor’s destination URL or property (where, the ads are actually being displayed); or Blending web traffic under a single ad unit. In this section the following terms shall have the following meaning: Cloaking: Presenting content to a search engine crawler that is materially different from that presented to a user’s browser.; Masking URLs: Displaying in the user’s address bar a URL different from that of the page being visited.; Forwarding: Redirecting users to a different domain or URL.
caching, storing, copying, re-syndicating or redirecting any Search Results.
making any representation or warranty (i) of any type with respect to the specifications, features, or capabilities of, or otherwise concerning, the products and services provided by Company and/or the Service Provider.