Research Policy

Last updated: December 4, 2025

Overview

Terac enables researchers to conduct AI-powered interviews and gather human insights at scale. This policy outlines what types of research are allowed and prohibited on our platform.

Allowed Research Topics

Terac supports legitimate research across a wide range of topics, including:

Sensitive Social Topics

• Race, ethnicity, and religion: Research about people's views, experiences, or opinions related to race, ethnicity, religion, or other protected characteristics
• Social issues: Studies about discrimination, prejudice, social justice, political views, and other sensitive topics when conducted for legitimate research purposes
• Historical and cultural research: Academic or scientific research about historical events, cultural practices, or social phenomena

Market Research

• Product feedback: User experience research, feature testing, product validation
• Consumer behavior: Shopping habits, brand preferences, purchasing decisions
• Demographics: Standard demographic segmentation and targeting

Health & Wellness

• Health experiences: Medical experiences, healthcare access, wellness practices (with proper ethical framing)
• Mental health: Research about mental health experiences, therapy, support systems (when conducted professionally)

Professional & Academic

• Workplace research: Job satisfaction, workplace culture, career development
• Education: Learning experiences, educational outcomes, academic research
• Technology: User experiences with technology, digital behaviors, online interactions

Prohibited Research Topics

The following types of research are strictly prohibited on Terac:

1. Explicit Sexual Content

• Research that requests explicit sexual information or content
• Questions about sexual activities, preferences, or explicit sexual experiences
• Any research that requires participants to display or describe explicit sexual content

2. Data Theft & Platform Abuse

• Research designed to extract, steal, or improperly access Terac's platform data
• Attempts to access user information, proprietary algorithms, or system data
• Research that attempts to reverse-engineer or exploit the platform
• Requests to share or distribute Terac's internal information or user data

3. Illegal Activities

• Research that promotes, requests, or facilitates illegal activities
• Studies designed to enable fraud, theft, or other criminal behavior
• Research that violates applicable laws or regulations

4. Privacy Violations

• Requests for participants' passwords, financial account numbers, or other sensitive credentials
• Research that collects PII (Personally Identifiable Information) without clear research justification and proper consent
• Studies that violate participant privacy or data protection requirements

5. Harassment & Targeting

• Research designed to harass, stalk, dox, or target specific individuals
• Studies that enable bullying, intimidation, or harmful targeting
• Research that violates individuals' safety or privacy

6. Exploitation

• Research that takes advantage of vulnerable populations in harmful ways
• Studies that exploit participants financially, emotionally, or otherwise
• Research that violates ethical standards for working with vulnerable groups

Moderation Process

All research guides are automatically reviewed before publication using AI-powered content moderation. Guides that violate this policy will be flagged and cannot be published until the issues are addressed.

What Happens When Content is Flagged

1. Notification: You'll receive a notification explaining why the content was flagged
2. Review: The specific issues will be clearly outlined with actionable suggestions
3. Revision: You can either:
   • Use AI assistance to revise the content ("Fix with AI" button)
   • Manually edit the guide to address the concerns
4. Re-submission: Once revised, you can attempt to publish again

Appeals Process

If you believe your research was incorrectly flagged, you can:

• Contact support at help@terac.com
• Provide context about your research objectives and methodology
• Request a manual review by our team

Ethical Research Guidelines

Even for allowed topics, we encourage researchers to:

• Obtain proper consent: Ensure participants understand what they're participating in
• Protect participant privacy: Only collect data necessary for your research objectives
• Follow ethical standards: Adhere to IRB guidelines, academic ethics, or industry best practices
• Be transparent: Clearly communicate research objectives and how data will be used
• Respect participants: Treat participants with dignity and respect throughout the research process

Enforcement

Violations of this policy may result in:

• Content being blocked from publication
• Account warnings or restrictions
• Suspension or termination of accounts for repeated or severe violations

Updates to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. When we make changes, we'll update the "Last updated" date at the top of this document. Continued use of the platform after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

Questions?

If you have questions about whether your research topic is allowed, please contact us at help@terac.com before creating your research guide.

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This policy is designed to balance research freedom with platform safety and participant protection. We aim to support legitimate research while preventing harmful or inappropriate content.