Review Moderation Policy - Proviews

How Proviews collects, checks, and unpublish reviews, and what you as a merchant can and can't control.

Policy Effective Dates

KEY POINTS

• We never remove a review because it's negative, critical, or has a low rating.
• Every review is moderated before it's published. Auto-publish is not available.
• A review is removed only if it breaks one of four rules: harmful content, personal information, fake activity, or off-topic and misleading content.
• Hiding a review on your store does not remove it from Google Shopping (GMC).
• Only reviews collected by Proviews go to Google. Imported, migrated, and syndicated reviews never do.
• A flag starts a check. The review stays in the Google Shopping (GMC) until we confirm a violation.
• No one at Proviews can remove a review outside this process. That includes support, developers, account managers, and sales.

1. Our approach

Shoppers trust reviews when they can see both the good and the bad. Proviews publishes honest feedback at every star rating and removes only reviews that break the rules on this page.

This policy covers every review collected, displayed, or sent to Google through Proviews on or after June 10, 2026. Reviews collected earlier follow the policy version in place at the time, unless this version gives reviewers more protection.

2. How reviews are collected

EVERY ORDER GETS A REQUEST

Review requests are sent only by the automatic rule after fulfilment / delivery, on the same terms for every eligible order. You can't choose, skip, delay, or filter who gets one. Manual review requests and options to target only domestic or only international customers have been removed from Proviews. Customers can unsubscribe from review emails at any time.

Importing reviews

Imports must give an honest picture of past feedback. When you import:

• Import all reviews, not only the positive ones.
• Keep the rating, text, and date exactly as the customer left them.
• Match each review to the correct product in your catalog.
• Import only reviews from your own store and products.

When you can import

The window is based on your install date, not on app use. It can't be paused, extended, renewed, or reopened on request.

Order ID is required

Every row in your import file must have a valid Shopify Order ID. We check each one against the orders in your store. A file with no Order ID column can't be processed.

After each import, you get a report of every skipped row and the reason it was skipped. Skipped rows are never saved.

Import fields for Shopify stores

Use this when your reviews come from a Shopify store, including from another review app.

NOT SENT TO GOOGLE

Reviews imported from a Shopify store show on your store but are never sent to Google Shopping (GMC).

Import fields for stores moving from another platform

If your reviews come from a store on another e-commerce platform (not Shopify), there is no Shopify Order ID for them. For this kind of migration only, you can import without an Order ID.

NOT SENT TO GOOGLE

Reviews migrated from another platform show on your store but are never sent to Google Shopping (GMC).

Imported reviews show an Imported label and keep their original date. Importing fake reviews, reviews from other stores, edited reviews, or only your best reviews is not allowed.

You can import reviews from the apps below. Imported reviews show on your store but are never sent to Google Shopping (GMC), even with a valid Order ID.

3. When we remove a review

We remove (unpublish) a review only when it falls into one of these four groups. This is the complete list.

Harmful content

• Spam or ads unrelated to the product
• Profanity, obscene, or offensive language
• Hate speech based on race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or other protected traits
• Harassment, threats, or bullying
• Sexually explicit content
• Graphic violence or gore
• Content promoting illegal activity

Personal information

• Full names of private people, without consent
• Phone numbers, emails, or home addresses
• Card or bank details
• Government ID numbers
• Medical or health details

Fake or fraudulent

• Written by someone who didn't buy or use the product
• Created by a bot
• Duplicate reviews from the same person
• Written by the merchant, staff, or affiliates, or with an undisclosed conflict of interest
• Impersonating another person
• Confirmed attacks by competitors
• Paid reviews, or rewards that break our rewards rules

Off-topic or misleading

• About a different product
• Unrelated to the purchase or product
• Only about the shipping carrier
• Misinformation, or misleading or inaccurate claims about the product

Reviews flagged as off-topic will appear on your storefront alongside with other reviews.

off-topic reviews are always excluded from your Google Shopping (GMC), regardless of this setting.

4. What we don't remove

These are not reasons to remove a review. The review stays on your store and in the Google Shopping (GMC).

5. How moderation works

Moderation is active, not only a response to reports. Every review goes through moderation before it can be published, and auto-publish has been removed from Proviews. Reviews that raise a concern go to our moderation team.

Automatic check · instant

We scan each new review for spam and links, profanity, personal information, duplicates, bot-like or coordinated activity (repeated IPs, sudden spikes), and language or location that doesn't match your customers.

Risk level

One minor signal means medium risk. Several signals, or one serious signal, means high risk. High-risk reviews reach a person first instead of waiting their turn.

Human review

Our moderation team checks every flagged review, including reviews reported by shoppers. A moderator checks the review against the rules in section 3, looks at any evidence you sent (such as order records), considers the full context, and compares it with similar past decisions. Unclear cases go to a senior moderator. A review is approved for your store or Google only after it passes these checks.

Decision

The review is kept, removed, or edited to hide personal information. If a merchant keeps flagging genuine negative reviews, we send a warning.

FULL RECORD

We log every flag, decision, and appeal with its reason. You can see the status of reviews you've flagged in your Proviews dashboard.

6. Reviews on Google Shopping (GMC)

Proviews sends reviews to Google's Product Ratings program, which shows star ratings in Google Shopping (GMC) and Search. The Google Shopping (GMC) follows this policy, not what's visible on your store.

IMPORTANT

Hiding a review on your store does not remove it from Google. Only a confirmed policy violation does.

Which reviews go to Google

How review status affects Google

The feed sends unpublished reviews along with published ones, so Google sees the full set of reviews your store has received, not only the ones shown on your store.

Only reviews collected by Proviews go to Google

We send Google only reviews gathered through our own collection system. Any review classified as imported, migrated, or syndicated is left out of the feed every time it's built, and can't be shared with Google any other way.

We keep an import history for every review, including when it was imported and where it came from. The feed checks this history automatically on every run. Because it's based on stored records and not on a setting, you can't change it in Proviews, and an imported review can never be reclassified as collected by Proviews.

Why flagged reviews stay on Google

A flag is a report, not a verdict. If flags removed reviews straight away, anyone could hide a review just by flagging it. So a flagged review stays in the Google Shopping (GMC) until our team confirms a violation.

When a review leaves Google

• Our team confirms it breaks this policy (fake, harmful, or off-topic)
• It contains personal information we can't hide
• The law requires it, such as a court order or GDPR request

7. Flags and appeals

Shoppers

1. Find the review on the product page.
2. Click the flag icon to open Report Review.
3. Choose a reason and click Submit Report.

No account needed, and no need to contact the merchant. Every review shown by Proviews can be reported.

Merchants

1. Go to Reviews and Q/A › Product Reviews.
2. Find the review and click Flag.
3. Choose a reason and add any evidence.

The report form uses a fixed list of reasons based on Google's policy violation categories:

Featured reviews

You can choose reviews to feature in the Review Carousel widget. Featured reviews appear only in the carousel and carry a Selected Reviews badge, so shoppers know you picked them. Featuring a review doesn't change what's sent to Google.

Appeals

Reviewers and merchants can appeal a decision once per review. Include evidence that shows how the review breaks the policy.

What you can and can't do

NOT ALLOWED DURING FLAGS AND APPEALS

Sending false evidence, appealing the same review again without new information, contacting several channels to apply pressure, threatening legal action, offering payment or business favours, or contacting Proviews staff outside official support.

8. Merchant responsibilities

By using Proviews, you agree not to:

• Hide negative reviews as a pattern while showing positive ones
• Retaliate against customers who leave negative reviews
• Create, buy, or ask for fake reviews
• Repeatedly flag genuine negative reviews, or use outside services to change what Google shows

Rewards for reviews

Allowed

• A reward for any review, whatever the rating
• The same reward for 1 to 5 stars
• Telling customers the review is rewarded

Not allowed

• Rewards only for positive reviews
• Bigger rewards for higher ratings
• A minimum rating to unlock a reward
• Anything that discourages honest feedback

A reward is given for submitting a review and nothing else. The star rating never affects whether a reward is given or how much it's worth. Proviews won't let you create settings that set a minimum rating or treat customers differently based on what they wrote.

If these rules are broken

Depending on how serious it is: a warning, a pause on review collection, removal from Google Product Ratings, or closure of your account.

BETTER THAN REMOVAL

Reply to negative reviews politely, contact the customer to fix the problem (many update their review afterwards), use the feedback to improve, and keep collecting new reviews.

9. Contact us

Questions about this policy or a moderation decision? Email support@simprosys.com. We reply within 2–4 business days.