General Policies

Can I create a HIT that may contain explicit or offensive content?

If your HIT could contain explicit or offensive content, for instance, nudity, make sure to do the following:

1. includ e the following phrase in your HIT title: “(WARNING: This HIT may contain adult content. Worker discretion is advised.)”
2. Require that Workers have the Adult Content Qualification in order to work on your HIT. This qualification requires Workers to acknowledge that they are over 18 and that they agree to work on potentially offensive content. You can set this requirement during the Design step on the Requester website or via the developer tools.
3. Require that Workers have the Adult Content Qualification in order to preview the HIT by checking the “Required for Preview” box in the Design step on the Requester website or via the developer tools.

Are there restrictions or prohibited uses of Amazon Mechanical Turk?

You may not use Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) for illegal or objectionable activities. Here are some examples of prohibited activities:

• Collecting personal identifiable information
• Fraud
• Disrupting or degrading the operation of any website or Internet service
• Direct marketing
• Spamming
• Unsolicited contacting of users
• Impermissible advertising or marketing activities
• Infringing or misappropriating the rights of any third party
• Posting illegal or objectionable content
• Disrupting operation of the MTurk website
• Creating a security risk for MTurk, any MTurk user, or any third party

What are some specific examples of types of HITs that violate Amazon Mechanical Turk policies?

• HITs requiring disclosure of the Worker’s identity or e-mail address, either directly or indirectly
• HITs requiring registration at another website or group
• HITs that directly or indirectly promote a site, service, or opinion
• HITs that violate the terms and conditions of an activity or website (for instance asking Workers to vote for something)
• HITs that have explicit or offensive content, for instance, nudity, but do not have the Adult Content Qualification
• HITs asking Workers to solicit third parties
• HITs that generate “referred” site visits or click through traffic
• HITs that ask Workers to take action to manipulate a website’s behavior or results
• HITs that violate intellectual property rights of any party
• HITs that require Workers to download software that contains any malware, spyware, viruses, or other harmful code

Who should I contact about “notice and takedown” of possibly infringing material?

Amazon respects the intellectual property of others. If you believe that your work has been copied in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, please follow our Notice and Procedure for Making Claims of Copyright Infringement.

Payments & Fees

How do I purchase prepaid HITs on Amazon Mechanical Turk?

Follow these steps to purchase prepaid HITs:

1. From your Amazon Mechanical Turk account, go to My Account -> Purchase Prepaid HITs.
2. Enter in the amount you would like to purchase.
3. Select the credit or debit card on file or enter in new credit or debit card information.
4. Confirm your purchase.

Note: As a US Requester, you may be prompted to establish a verified Amazon Payments account if you plan to make a purchase above certain amounts.

What rounding rules are applied when calculating fees?

After the fee is calculated, we round half up amounts greater than $0.01 – we round down if the fractional amount is less than half a penny, and round up otherwise. For example, $0.104 is rounded to $0.10, $0.105 is rounded to $0.11, and $0.108 is rounded to $0.11.

How are Workers paid?

Workers will be paid and Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) fees will be charged when you approve submitted work. If you reject the work, the Worker is not paid and you are not charged the MTurk fees. MTurk Prepaid HITs are subject to Terms and Conditions.