Affiliate Disclosure

📅 Last Updated: June 2026

💡 Quick Summary: Identitybastion.com uses affiliate links. If you click a link on our site and make a purchase, we may earn a small commission — at no extra cost to you. We only recommend products we have personally tested. Our opinions are always our own.

1. What Are Affiliate Links?

An affiliate link is a special URL that contains a tracking code. When you click an affiliate link on IdentityBastion.com and complete a purchase or sign up for a service the company pays us a small referral commission.

Here is a simple example of how it works:

  • You visit IdentityBastion.com and read our NordVPN review
  • You click our NordVPN link (which contains our tracking code)
  • You purchase a NordVPN subscription on NordVPN’s website
  • NordVPN pays us a commission for referring you
  • You pay exactly the same price you would have paid without clicking our link

The commission comes from the company’s marketing budget — not from your pocket. You never pay more because of our affiliate relationship.

2. Our Affiliate Partners

IdentityBastion.com currently has or plans to have affiliate relationships with the following types of companies and networks:

VPN Services:

  • NordVPN
  • ExpressVPN
  • Surfshark
  • ProtonVPN
  • Private Internet Access
  • Other VPN providers we review

Identity Theft Protection Services:

  • Aura
  • LifeLock (Norton)
  • IdentityGuard
  • IdentityForce
  • Other identity protection services we review

Affiliate Networks (platforms that manage affiliate programs):

  • CJ Affiliate (Commission Junction)
  • ShareASale
  • Impact Radius
  • PartnerStack

This list is not exhaustive. We may add new affiliate partners at any time as we review new products. Regardless of whether a product has an affiliate program it receives the same honest evaluation from us.

3. Our Editorial Promise

We want to be absolutely clear about how affiliate relationships affect our content:

What affiliate relationships DO NOT affect:

  • Our honest opinion of any product
  • Our star ratings or scores
  • Which products we recommend as best
  • The cons and negatives we report
  • Our decision to recommend a competitor if it is the better product

What affiliate relationships DO affect:

  • Which products we prioritize reviewing (we naturally focus on products in our niche)
  • The order products appear in some lists (though we always clearly state our ranking criteria)

Our rule: If we would not recommend a product to a close friend or family member we will not recommend it to you regardless of the commission it pays.

We have declined affiliate relationships with products we did not believe were worth recommending. We have recommended free and lower-commission alternatives when they were genuinely the better choice.

4. FTC Compliance

In accordance with the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) guidelines on endorsements and testimonials (16 CFR Part 255) we disclose our affiliate relationships clearly and prominently.

The FTC requires that material connections between endorsers and advertisers be disclosed. An affiliate commission constitutes a material connection and we take this requirement seriously.

For more information on FTC disclosure requirements visit: ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/ftcs-endorsement-guides-what-people-are-asking

5. How To Identify Affiliate Links on IdentityBastion.com

We make it easy to identify affiliate content on our site:

  • Every review article has a disclosure notice at the TOP of the page (not hidden at the bottom)
  • Affiliate links are clearly labeled where appropriate
  • Best list articles include a disclosure at the beginning
  • This Affiliate Disclosure page is linked in our footer on every page

You will see this notice at the top of review and comparison articles:

“IdentityBastion.com is reader-supported. When you click links on our site we may earn a commission. This does not affect our editorial independence or the price you pay.”

6. Price Transparency

Using our affiliate links never costs you more money. In many cases our affiliate partnerships allow us to negotiate exclusive deals and discounts for our readers.

When we find a special deal or discount code for a product we feature it prominently in our review. These deals are available to everyone who clicks our link.

7. Product Testing Independence

Receiving an affiliate commission does not mean we were paid to write a positive review. Our testing process is the same for every product regardless of affiliate status:

  • We personally install and use the product
  • We run standardized tests (speed tests for VPNs, monitoring tests for identity theft services)
  • We document our experience with real screenshots
  • We write our honest assessment including both pros and cons
  • We assign our rating based on our testing — not on commission rate

Some of our lowest-rated products have the highest commission rates. Some of our top recommendations have low commissions or no affiliate program at all.

8. Sponsored Content Policy

IdentityBastion.com does NOT publish sponsored reviews or paid editorial content.

This means:

  • No company has ever paid us to write a positive review
  • No company has ever paid us to change our rating or remove negative information
  • We do not accept payment in exchange for favorable coverage
  • We do not accept free products in exchange for positive reviews

If a company provides us with a free trial or free access for review purposes this is disclosed in the article. Free access does not guarantee a positive review.

9. Affiliate Commission Rates

We do not publicly disclose the specific commission rates we earn from individual affiliate programs as these are subject to change and are often confidential under the terms of our affiliate agreements.

What we can tell you is that commission rates range significantly across different products and programs. Higher commission rates do not influence our recommendations.

10. Contact Us About This Disclosure

If you have any questions about our affiliate relationships our review process or anything on this page please contact us:

Email: hello@identitybastion.com
Contact Page: identitybastion.com/contact/

We are committed to full transparency and will answer any questions you have about how we operate.

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