The Transparency factor accounts for 15% of every Trust Score. It measures whether a site publicly discloses verifiable business information. Sites that operate openly score higher than those that hide their identity.
Why transparency matters
When you send money to an online service, you need to know who is on the other side. A site that publishes its legal name, physical address, and registration number gives you a way to verify the business exists and to pursue recourse if something goes wrong.
Anonymous operators are harder to hold accountable. The transparency factor rewards sites that remove that ambiguity.
The five sub-components
Each sub-component adds points to the factor score, up to a maximum of 100:
| Sub-component | Points | What we check |
|---|---|---|
| Legal company name | +25 | A registered business name visible on the site or in public records |
| Physical address | +25 | A verifiable office or headquarters address |
| Company registration | +20 | A registration number traceable in a government business registry |
| Contact email | +15 | A working, publicly listed email address for support or inquiries |
| Domain age over 2 years | +15 | The site's domain has been registered for more than two years |
How verification works
Our team checks each sub-component against public sources. A legal name must match a real entry in a business registry. An address must correspond to an actual location. A registration number must be valid in the stated jurisdiction.
Self-reported information that cannot be independently confirmed does not earn points. The data goes through a quarterly manual review cycle in addition to the daily automated checks.
Domain age
Domain age is the simplest sub-component. A site registered more than two years ago earns 15 points automatically. Newer domains do not lose points - they simply do not gain the age bonus yet.
Domain age is a weak signal on its own, but it adds context. A brand-new domain combined with no business name and no address paints a different picture than a two-year-old domain with full disclosures.
Improving a transparency score
Site operators can increase their transparency score by publishing their business details on their website and ensuring those details are verifiable. Adding a company registration page, a contact email, and a physical address covers 85 of the 100 possible points.
If you notice that a site's transparency data is outdated or incorrect, you can report it through the site's profile page. Our team reviews reports during quarterly verification checks. See How Trust Scores are calculated for the full factor breakdown.