Trust and Safety Standards

This page explains Shadow's behavioural standards, review standards, complaint handling approach, and enforcement model. It supplements Shadow's Terms of Service and Acceptable Use and Prohibited Services Policy.

Role definitions. A “Requester” is a user who posts or seeks a service through Shadow. A “Provider” is a user who offers or performs a service through Shadow. The same user may be a Requester in one transaction and a Provider in another.

1. Community Expectations

Shadow works only if users behave in good faith.

Users must:

• describe requests, scope, timing, access conditions, and constraints honestly;
• represent their identity, skills, and availability truthfully;
• communicate respectfully and keep request-related communication on Shadow where reasonably possible;
• avoid abusive, threatening, discriminatory, sexually inappropriate, or coercive conduct;
• respect privacy and share personal data only where genuinely necessary for the request; and
• treat punctuality, cancellations, and safety obligations seriously.

2. Safety and Boundaries

Users must not:

• ask anyone to perform unsafe, illegal, degrading, or exploitative work;
• pressure another user into a private location, expanded scope, or unsafe condition without clear agreement;
• misuse photos, identity documents, addresses, or private information; or
• record people or private premises without a lawful and clearly communicated basis.

Providers should leave and report the situation if a request becomes unsafe, unlawful, or materially different from what was agreed.

3. Reviews and Feedback

Only users with a genuine request interaction may leave a rating or review for that request.

Reviews must be:

• based on the reviewer's real experience;
• relevant to the request, communication, reliability, or conduct; and
• free from threats, hate speech, personal data leaks, or unlawful content.

Users must not:

• buy, sell, trade, or solicit reviews;
• pressure another user to change or remove a review;
• leave a review for a fake or collusive request; or
• use reviews as leverage for payment, refund, or off-platform contact.

Shadow may remove, hide, or restrict reviews that breach this policy, violate the law, or create disproportionate safety or defamation risk.

4. Complaints and Disputes

Shadow is not the provider of the underlying service and does not act as a court or arbitrator. Shadow's role is to review available platform evidence and decide how platform-controlled outcomes such as account action, payment release, refund handling, or payout holds should be managed.

Users should raise complaints as soon as possible through the app or by contacting support@welcomeshadow.com.

Shadow may consider:

• request, offer, scope, price, and platform timestamps;
• in-app messages and attachments;
• completion, cancellation, refund, payout, and payment records;
• photos, videos, receipts, or other documents submitted by the parties; and
• trust-and-safety signals such as verification history or relevant location records.

Shadow may be unable to recover funds or reverse a platform outcome if:

• the payment was not processed through Shadow;
• a payout has already been completed;
• a bank or payment partner has made a conflicting external decision; or
• the issue is raised too late for practical recovery.

5. Enforcement

Shadow may take action on accounts, listings, reviews, messages, payments, or payout eligibility where there is a breach of Shadow's terms or policies, a safety issue, suspected fraud, or another legal or operational risk.

Depending on severity, history, available evidence, and risk, Shadow may:

• warn a user;
• remove or edit content;
• cancel or pause a request, payment, refund, or payout;
• require additional verification or information;
• temporarily restrict specific features;
• temporarily suspend the account; or
• permanently close the account.

Shadow is not required to use a fixed escalation ladder. Some issues justify immediate action.

6. Payment and Payout Holds

Shadow may temporarily hold a payment, refund, or payout while it investigates:

• a complaint or dispute;
• unusual payment activity;
• chargeback or fraud risk;
• verification issues;
• possible policy breaches; or
• suspected unlawful conduct.

Where permitted by law and the applicable contract, Shadow may apply funds to refunds, reversals, chargebacks, fees imposed by payment partners, or losses directly caused by a user's breach.

7. Appeals

If you believe Shadow acted in error, you may appeal by contacting support@welcomeshadow.com and providing your account details, the action you are appealing, why you believe it was incorrect, and any supporting evidence.

Shadow may decline repeated appeals that do not contain meaningful new information.

Effective on 3 September 2026