Reviews Policy
Polish Thread Genealogy · polishthread.com
This Reviews Policy explains where the client reviews shown on polishthread.com come from, how we check that they come from real clients, and how we handle them. If you have any questions, please contact us using the details below.
§1 General provisions and contact details
1. Client reviews of the Service Provider’s services are presented on the Website at polishthread.com and its subpages (including the “Client Success Stories” section) in accordance with this Policy. The Service Provider does not offer a form for posting Reviews on the Website. The Reviews presented come from External Platforms (Fiverr, Upwork), from the Review Form sent to Clients after an order is completed, or were sent to the Service Provider directly by Clients who agreed to their publication.
2. You can contact the Service Provider by e-mail at martyna@polishthread.com or via the contact form at https://polishthread.com/contact/. These channels keep a written record of the correspondence, with its date and time.
3. This Policy sets out the rules for publishing, storing and presenting Reviews on the Website.
4. Using the electronic services described in this Policy requires reading and complying with this Policy. The Privacy Policy is an information notice and does not require acceptance.
5. Sending a Review to the Service Provider (including through the Review Form) with a request or consent to publish it on the Website constitutes acceptance of this Policy. Reviews posted on External Platforms are subject to the terms of those platforms.
6. This Policy also applies to Reviews presented on the Service Provider’s social media profiles, subject to the separate rules of those platforms.
7. This Policy is available free of charge in the Website footer before you use the service. You can save or print it.
8. The rules for ordering the Service Provider’s other services are set out in the Terms of Service available at https://polishthread.com/terms/.
9. Capitalised terms used in this Policy have the meanings given to them in §2.
§2 Definitions
1. Service Provider or Controller – Martyna Urbańczyk, conducting business under the name MARU digital Martyna Urbańczyk, ul. Wierzbowa 24/26 m. 91, 90-245 Łódź, Poland, NIP (tax ID): 725-192-18-01, owner of the Polish Thread Genealogy brand, e-mail: martyna@polishthread.com.
2. User – a natural or legal person, or an organisational unit with legal capacity, who leaves a Review of the Service Provider’s services, including a Client.
3. Client – a person who has ordered and used the Service Provider’s services.
4. External Platform – a website operated by a third party through which a Client ordered a service from the Service Provider and left a Review, in particular Fiverr (Fiverr International Ltd.) and Upwork (Upwork Inc.).
5. Review Form – a form on Google Forms, a link to which the Service Provider sends to a Client after an order is completed, through which the Client can submit a Review together with consent to its publication on the Website.
6. Review – a subjective assessment by a User of the Service Provider’s services or activities, expressing the User’s own opinion, presented on the Website in whole or in part.
7. Reviews Policy – this document.
8. Website – the website available at https://polishthread.com and its subpages, on which the Service Provider presents Reviews.
9. Services – any services, digital content, information and materials provided by the Service Provider.
10. Service – the free service of presenting Clients’ Reviews on the Website, including Reviews sent to the Service Provider by Users.
11. Digital environment – the hardware, software and network connections used by the User; minimum requirements are set out in §3.
12. GDPR – Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 (General Data Protection Regulation).
13. DSA – Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 October 2022 on a Single Market for Digital Services (Digital Services Act).
14. Other legal acts referred to in this Policy: the Polish Consumer Rights Act of 30 May 2014, the Polish Civil Code of 23 April 1964, the Polish Act of 10 May 2018 on the protection of personal data, the Polish Act of 18 July 2002 on the provision of services by electronic means, the Polish Electronic Communications Law of 12 July 2024, and the Polish Act of 4 February 1994 on copyright and related rights.
§3 Technical requirements
1. Users must use the Website in accordance with this Policy and the law, and in a way that does not disrupt the Website or other Users.
2. To view Reviews on the Website or send a Review to the Service Provider, you need: internet access and a suitable device; an up-to-date web browser that supports cookies (e.g. Microsoft Edge, Opera, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, Google Chrome); and, if you send a Review by e-mail, an active e-mail account (please check that messages from polishthread.com do not end up in your spam folder).
3. The Service Provider uses technical measures to prevent unauthorised access to, modification or distortion of personal data and information, including SSL encryption.
§4 How Reviews are obtained and presented
1. The Service Provider presents Clients’ Reviews in designated places on the Website, in particular in the “Client Success Stories” section on the home page.
2. Using the Service is entirely voluntary.
3. Reviews presented on the Website come only from Clients who have ordered and received a service from the Service Provider.
4. Reviews appear on the Website in the following ways: (a) a Client leaves a Review on an External Platform (Fiverr, Upwork) after an order is completed, and the Service Provider may copy its content or an excerpt to the Website; (b) after an order is completed, the Service Provider sends the Client a link to the Review Form (Google Forms) at the e-mail address used for the order, and the Client submits a Review with consent to its publication; (c) a Client sends a Review to the Service Provider by e-mail, or posts it on social media, and agrees to its publication on the Website. Full Reviews can be read on the Service Provider’s profiles: Fiverr (https://www.fiverr.com/s/BbbyQ9d), Upwork (https://www.upwork.com/freelancers/~0195fc5fb630beccbd?mp_source=share) and this website.
5. On the Website, Reviews are shown as text excerpts with the Client’s first name or initial, country and a label indicating their source (e.g. “Verified on Fiverr”).
6. Reviews posted on External Platforms are publicly available there. When copying their content or an excerpt to the Website, the Service Provider shows only the Client’s first name or initial and country. Reviews submitted through the Review Form or sent directly are published only with the Client’s consent, given in the form or in the message. A Client may ask at any time for their Review to be removed from the Website.
7. If we have doubts about a Review, we do not present it on the Website. A person whose Review has not been published or has been removed may contact us to clarify the reasons.
8. We are not obliged to publish every Review and may remove Reviews where justified. We present a selection of Reviews that best reflect what working with us is like.
9. The average rating shown on the Website (e.g. “4.8 out of 5 across 27 verified reviews”) is calculated from all Reviews the Service Provider has received on External Platforms, not only from the Reviews selected for display, and is updated periodically.
10. We do not use purchased or sponsored Reviews. We do not post, or ask anyone else to post, false Reviews or recommendations, and we do not distort Reviews or recommendations to promote our services.
11. On the Website, the Service Provider presents a selection of Reviews and decides which of them to publish. This selection does not limit access to the others: all Reviews left on External Platforms – positive and critical – remain available on the Service Provider’s profiles on those platforms, and the average rating shown on the Website is calculated from all of them.
12. The Service Provider cannot remove, hide or edit Reviews on External Platforms. It can only respond to them or report violations under the rules of the platform concerned.
13. When presenting an excerpt of a Review, the Service Provider does not change its content or shorten it in a way that changes its meaning.
§5 Publication and verification of Reviews
1. The User is solely responsible for the content of their Review and for its legal and practical consequences, including third-party claims.
2. Users should promptly inform the Service Provider of any breaches they notice. The Service Provider will act promptly to remove them.
3. Reviews should be written in English or Polish, in a way that is clear to the average reader.
4. In the Review Form, the User provides: their name, e-mail address, star rating, the content of the Review, and consent to its publication on the Website.
5. Reviews copied from External Platforms are presented to a limited extent: the Client’s first name or initial, country, the name of the platform and the content of the Review or an excerpt. We do not publish e-mail addresses or other contact details of Clients, including those provided in the Review Form.
6. The Service Provider may refuse to publish a Review that does not meet the conditions of this Policy. If the Review was submitted through the Review Form or sent directly, the Service Provider will inform the User of the refusal and its reasons within 14 days of receiving it. Not selecting a Review for display on the Website is not a refusal within the meaning of this paragraph.
7. Reviews must not contain: spam; content prohibited by law; content that is offensive, vulgar, discriminatory, violent or otherwise contrary to good practice; content that infringes the rights of others, including copyright or trade secrets; links to other websites or promotion of other services; content unrelated to the service; or personal or contact details.
8. Users may leave a Review anonymously or under a pseudonym where the External Platform allows it.
9. We make every effort to ensure that the Reviews presented on the Website are reliable and come from our actual Clients. We take reasonable and proportionate steps described in this Policy to check this: for Reviews submitted through the Review Form or sent to us directly, we obtain consent to publish them, and for every Review we check that it comes from our Client.
10. How we verify Reviews. Reviews labelled “Verified on Fiverr” or “Verified on Upwork” come from those platforms, where a review can be left only by the buyer after an order paid through the platform has been completed. Before copying a Review to the Website, the Service Provider checks that it is linked to a real order in the order history on that platform. We send the link to the Review Form only to Clients after an order is completed, at the e-mail address used for the order. Before publishing a Review from the Review Form, we check that the name and e-mail address given in the form match a Client in our records. Reviews sent through other channels (e.g. e-mail) are published only if they come from a Client for whom the Service Provider has carried out an order confirmed in its records (correspondence, payment, client file). The full content of platform Reviews can be checked on the Service Provider’s profiles: Fiverr (https://www.fiverr.com/s/BbbyQ9d), Upwork (https://www.upwork.com/freelancers/~0195fc5fb630beccbd?mp_source=share)
11. Reviews left on external services are verified under the rules of those services, and the Service Provider has no influence over their content or verification process (subject to the verification described above for Reviews copied to the Website). We periodically review these Reviews and report any irregularities or abuse to the services concerned.
§6 Complaints
1. The Service Provider makes every effort to ensure that the Reviews on the Website are reliable.
2. You may file a complaint if the process of publishing or verifying Reviews on the Website is not working properly.
3. A complaint should include details that identify you (name and at least an e-mail address), what the complaint concerns (e.g. the type and date of the issue) and what you are requesting. If a complaint is incomplete, the Service Provider will ask you to complete it.
4. Complaints should be sent to martyna@polishthread.com or to the Service Provider’s postal address given in §2.
5. The Service Provider will respond to a complete complaint within 14 days of receiving it, by e-mail or in the same way you contacted us, or in another way agreed with you.
6. Personal data will be processed to handle the complaint in accordance with the Privacy Policy.
§7 Intellectual property and licence
1. By sending a Review, the User declares that it is their own work and does not infringe the rights of others.
2. A User who sends a Review to the Service Provider (through the Review Form or directly) for publication grants the Service Provider a non-exclusive, non-transferable, perpetual, worldwide licence, with the right to sublicense, to use, distribute, modify and copy the Review in whole or in part, in the following fields of use: (a) recording and reproducing the Review digitally by any technique; (b) making the Review publicly available so that anyone can access it at a place and time of their choosing, mainly on the internet, and public display; (c) digital storage and modification for the Service Provider’s own needs.
§8 Personal data
In accordance with Article 13(1) and (2) GDPR and the Polish Act of 10 May 2018 on the protection of personal data, we inform you that:
1. The controller of the User’s personal data is the Service Provider. The Controller has not appointed a Data Protection Officer. You can contact the Controller at martyna@polishthread.com or in writing at the address given in §2.
2. Personal data contained in a Review (first name or initial, country, content of the Review) is processed: for Reviews submitted through the Review Form or sent directly – on the basis of consent (Article 6(1)(a) GDPR), with the e-mail address given in the Review Form used only to check that the Review comes from a Client and never published; for excerpts of Reviews copied from External Platforms – on the basis of the Controller’s legitimate interest in providing reliable information about its services (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR). You may object or withdraw consent at any time, which will result in the Review being removed from the Website.
3. Personal data may also be processed: to handle complaints or claims (Article 6(1)(b) GDPR); to establish, pursue or defend claims (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR); to keep records required by the GDPR (Article 6(1)(c) and (f) GDPR); for archival and evidential purposes (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR); and, where a Review includes your image, video or voice, on the basis of your consent (Article 6(1)(a) GDPR).
4. Providing personal data is voluntary but necessary to publish a Review submitted through the Review Form or sent directly.
5. Personal data will be processed for as long as the Review is published and then for the period needed to secure possible claims under applicable law, after which it will be deleted, unless you use the Controller’s services and the data is kept on another basis.
6. Personal data may be shared with service providers such as IT and hosting providers, the e-mail provider (Seohost), the provider of the Review Form (Google Ireland Limited – Google Forms), and subcontractors involved in the Service Provider’s work.
7. Because the Controller uses external service providers (e.g. Meta Platforms Ireland Limited, Google, Microsoft), data may be transferred to the United States. Such transfers are based on the European Commission’s adequacy decision of 10 July 2023 under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, standard contractual clauses approved by the European Commission or binding corporate rules, or on your consent.
8. You have the right to access, rectify and erase your data, to restrict processing, to object to processing, to data portability, and to lodge a complaint with the President of the Personal Data Protection Office (UODO), ul. Moniuszki 1A, 00-014 Warszawa, Poland, if you consider that the processing of your data infringes the law.
9. You may withdraw consent at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of processing carried out before its withdrawal.
10. Your data will not be subject to automated decision-making, including profiling, within the meaning of the GDPR.
11. The Service Provider applies technical and organisational measures appropriate to the level of risk, in particular to prevent unauthorised persons from obtaining or modifying personal data.
12. Full details on the processing of personal data are set out in the Privacy and Cookie Policy at https://polishthread.com/privacy-policy/.
§9 Digital Services Act (DSA)
The Service Provider does not provide any intermediary services within the meaning of the DSA (Regulation (EU) 2022/2065) and is therefore not subject to the obligations arising under the DSA.
§10 Out-of-court dispute resolution
1. The Service Provider agrees to resolve any disputes concerning the publication of Reviews through mediation. The details will be agreed between the parties.
2. Consumers may use out-of-court complaint and redress procedures, including: applying to a permanent consumer arbitration court; asking the provincial Trade Inspection inspector to initiate mediation; or obtaining free assistance from a district (municipal) consumer ombudsman or a consumer organisation (e.g. Federacja Konsumentów, Stowarzyszenie Konsumentów Polskich).
3. More information is available at https://www.uokik.gov.pl and from consumer ombudsmen, consumer organisations and the Provincial Trade Inspectorates.
4. A case may be heard by an arbitration court only after the complaint procedure has been completed and if both parties agree. Otherwise, disputes are resolved by the competent courts under the Polish Code of Civil Procedure.
§11 Final provisions
1. This Policy is available in English. The service of presenting Reviews is provided under Polish law.
2. The Service Provider may amend this Policy for important reasons, such as changes in the law, changes in the way the service is provided, changes in technology, changes in the scope of services, or editorial changes that do not affect Users’ rights and obligations. The new version takes effect on the date it is published on the Website.
3. Reviews published before an amendment are governed by the version of the Policy in force when they were submitted.
4. If any provision of this Policy proves inconsistent with mandatory law and detrimental to consumers’ interests, the relevant provisions of law apply instead.
5. Disputes between the Service Provider and a User who is a consumer (within the meaning of Article 22¹ of the Polish Civil Code) or a sole trader with consumer-equivalent rights are resolved by the competent courts under the Polish Code of Civil Procedure.
6. Matters not covered by this Policy are governed by Polish law, in particular the Civil Code, the Consumer Rights Act, the Act on the provision of services by electronic means, the Act on combating unfair competition, the Act on the protection of personal data and the GDPR.
Privacy and Cookie Policy: https://polishthread.com/privacy-policy/
This Policy: https://polishthread.com/reviews-policy/
Previous version: none – first version · Last updated: 19.10.2026