What tasks can't be placed in Toloka?

All new projects in Toloka pass the moderation check before being sent to labeling. We will verify the project for compliance with our platform guidelines and for security. This is necessary to ensure that Tolokers are getting the best possible experience and don’t encounter any tasks that could potentially be harmful. You will be notified if your project doesn't follow the Toloka guidelines and get recommendations to fix the task before launching. In this way we're working together toward compliance with platform rules and enhanced security.

Please read the rules below before placing your tasks.

Guidelines for tasks

You can't post tasks that:

  1. Advertise and promote websites, products, or services, involve any type of fraud related to advertising, reviews, clicks, ratings, and so on. In a task, don't ask Tolokers to:

    • Register on certain websites, apps, or social networks and use your referral link. If the Toloker needs to have an account on a particular social network or website to complete the task, specify this in the task terms or provide them with access (if this is allowed by the terms of use and privacy policy of the particular social network or website).

    • View ads on external sites. However, you can put your own advertising materials in tasks for Tolokers to evaluate. For example, you can ask Tolokers to compare two versions of a banner ad.

    • Subscribe to newsletters, order products or services, or fill out feedback forms.

    • Publish, distribute, or evaluate posts and comments on social media or websites, participate in online voting, or sign petitions. However, you can conduct surveys and research in Toloka.

    • Create and send out any kind of spam, distribute flyers, or make advertising calls.

    • Write and/or edit reviews of products, services, or organizations and/or post them on websites or social networks. But you can ask Tolokers to moderate and evaluate reviews.

  2. Disclose personal data of the Toloker or a third party. Don't post tasks that:

    • Allow the requester or third parties to access the Toloker's account in Toloka.

    • Request or contain data that can be used to identify the Toloker or a third party. This includes their first and last name, phone number, email address, registration or residence address, pages on social networks, and so on.

      If you want to collect personal data, determine the legal basis for its processing. In case of using consent as a legal basis, make sure your task includes:

      • The link to your privacy policy.

      • The purpose of personal data processing (how the data will be used in general and for scientific/research purposes specifically).

      • Company name and legal address of the requestor.

      • How to withdraw consent (for example, by sending an email request).

    • To learn how to select a legal basis and/or to determine a data processing purpose for your project, you may read these instructions (hereinafter – the “Instructions”). Please be informed that the information presented herein and in the Instructions should not be taken as legal advice. We recommend that you seek legal advice on what you need to do to comply with the requirements of the applicable privacy legislation.

    • If your tasks contain personal information, then pseudonymize, anonymize or remove it before transmitting to Toloka. For example, you can cover up people's faces in photos, cut out the document fields that are filled, and change the pitch of the voice in speech recordings.

    • Make Tolokers take pictures or videos of people on the street, cars, and other vehicles with licence plates. In accordance with Section 3.5 of the User Agreement, such tasks are prohibited. If you're launching field tasks, mention this in the instructions for Tolokers and specify the purpose of collecting information (for example, monitoring prices or checking a company's business hours). If the responses you receive contain photos or videos that violate the terms of Section 3.5 of the User Agreement, don't use them. However, you can ask Tolokers to take a selfie or a video of themselves.

  3. Could harm the Toloka platform, Tolokers, other requesters, or a third party. Don't post tasks if they:

    • Involve illegal activities or creating illegal materials. Please note that Toloka has Tolokers all over the world. The terms of the task and its materials must not violate the laws of their countries.

    • Could cause moral or material harm to Tolokers or mislead them.

    • Involve violence: violent acts and the suffering or humiliation of others.

    • Are offensive or violate ethical and moral norms.

    • Involve deception: major conspiracies or events related to major ongoing geopolitical events.

    • Harm the Toloka platform or its underlying technology, other requesters, third parties, the infrastructure, the internet, and more.

    • Encourage downloading or installing software, including malware, on Tolokers' devices. If special software is needed to complete your task, contact support.

  4. Serve as recruiting or assigning tasks to people who work for the requester. Don't make Tolokers do work outside the platform and don't post tasks for your employees.

  5. Are intended for money laundering, including scams with payments and bonuses and the placement of fake tasks.

    If these types of tasks or a fraudulent requester are discovered, Toloka has the right to suspend their access to the platform and take other measures it deems appropriate for stopping the requester, including blocking their profile, limiting their ability to post tasks, and restricting their use of the Toloka website.

Requirements for conducting surveys and research

The guidelines for conducting surveys in Toloka are based on the Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects:

  1. Before conducting a survey, make sure that all your content has been checked and approved by the Internal Review Board (IRB). Save the number assigned to your IRB-approved survey. You will need it when launching it through the academic survey template. If you're using a different template and/or are running your survey on a third-party website, the platform's administration may also request that number for verification purposes.

  2. The survey should contain its goal and objectives. We also recommend to indicate requirements for participants, and approximate survey completion time.

  3. Do not request data that can be used to identify the Toloker or a third party. This includes their first and last name, phone number, email address, registration or residence address, and pages on social networks. You can ask questions regarding the respondents' gender, age, education level, region or city of residence, and income level. To preserve the anonymity of requesters and annotators, make sure you communicate with annotators only via private messages in your Toloka account. However, the survey may include the researcher's name, organization, and email address as a standard practice for scientific research.

    If you want to collect personal data, determine the legal basis for its processing. In case of using consent as a legal basis, make sure your task includes:

    • The link to your privacy policy.

    • The purpose of personal data processing (how the data will be used in general and for scientific/research purposes specifically).

    • Company name and legal address of the requestor.

    • How to withdraw consent (for example, by sending an email request).

    To learn how to select a legal basis and/or to determine a data processing purpose for your project, you may read these instructions (hereinafter – the “Instructions”). Please be informed that the information presented herein and in the Instructions should not be taken as legal advice. We recommend that you seek legal advice on what you need to do to comply with the requirements of the applicable privacy legislation.

  4. The amount that the Toloker earns for completing the survey (including bonuses) should not depend on their political or religious beliefs, race, nationality, gender, social standing, or other criteria. Set the price based on how long it should take Tolokers to complete the survey.

  5. Do not include questions or content in your survey that could cause moral injury, material loss, or any other type of harm to the Toloker or the Toloka platform. The terms of the survey and any materials included in it must comply with the laws of the countries where the survey is available.

  6. The survey should not cover political, ideological, religious, or other controversial views and sensitive issues. The questions and other materials included in the survey should not impose the author's point of view on the respondents, offend the proponents of other positions, or stir up discord among users and various groups of people.

  7. The survey should not contain advertising of websites, products, or services.

  8. The Toloker should be able to complete the survey and submit a response:

    • If your survey is hosted on a third-party website and uses confirmation codes, make sure that all Tolokers receive the code regardless of their responses. You can change the confirmation code depending on the Toloker's responses to attention check questions.

    • Set sufficient time for survey completion in pool settings.

Requirements for task names and descriptions

The name of the task must match its content, description, and instructions.

You can't post tasks with names that:

  • Are written in uppercase.

  • Contain multiple capital letters, emojis, question marks, and exclamation marks.

  • Encourage Tolokers to complete the task by promising easy and fast earnings or contain other calls to action aimed at promoting the task.

  • Contain obscene or profane language.

  • Contain unreadable characters, code elements, and links.

  • Mention illegal actions or prohibited goods and services.

  • Contradict the applicable legislation.

  • Request or contain data that can be used to identify the Toloker or a third party. This includes their first and last name, phone number, email address, registration or residence address, and pages on social networks, and so on.

Toloka reserves the right to check the platform's public resources and block tasks that do not meet the aforementioned conditions.

Requirements in effect prior to 7:59 on March 9, 2022
Requirements in effect prior to 7:59 on October 14, 2021
Requirements in effect prior to 7:59 on February 20, 2021
Requirements in effect prior to 7:59 on January 23, 2019

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Last updated: February 15, 2023

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