How do we make Thumbtack safe?

• Transparency - Unlike anonymous classifieds boards, Thumbtack promotes transparency. Danger tends to lurk in the anonymous alleys of the internet; at Thumbtack we shine a bright light of transparency on all corners of our marketplace.


• Continuous monitoring - Thumbtack reviews every profile for appropriateness, and continuously checks service professionals against the DOJ Smart database as well as against all 50 states' professional license databases.

How does our system work?

Thumbtack personally reviews every profile for appropriateness. But that's just the beginning. We also provide you with a dozen tools to verify the background and professional credentials of all service professionals on Thumbtack. Taken together, these dozen tools allow you to verify the identity, better understand the background, and assess the trustworthiness and professionalism of the service professionals in your community.

Identity Verification

We help you verify that a service professional is who they say they are.

Email - We verify service professionals' emails to ensure instant and reliable communication.

Phone - We verify service professionals' phone numbers to ensure instant and reliable communication.

Address - For only 25 cents, we cross-check service professionals' addresses against a credit card database to verify their identity.

Social Security Number - For $1, we verify that the Social Security number is valid and matches the name of the service professional. This service is performed by Acxiom Information Security Services. This tool also verifies name and address simultaneously.

Physical Identity Verification - For $5, we physically check a service professional's driver's license or passport using the United States Postal Service's Restricted Delivery service. We mail a service professional a restricted letter and their local mail carrier checks their driver's license or passport upon delivery.

Facebook - We allow users to login to Thumbtack through their Facebook account. This process allows users to share their Thumbtack activity with their social network if they choose. Additionally, we recommend reviewing your service professional's Facebook profile to further vet their background. (If you ask your service professional to send you a message on Facebook you will be able to view their profile but they will not be able to view yours.)

LinkedIn - We allow users to verify their LinkedIn account using their login credentials. If you'd like to learn more about the service professional, we encourage you to ask to view their LinkedIn profile.

Twitter - We allow users to verify their Twitter account using their login credentials. If you'd like to learn more about the service professional, we encourage you to ask for their Twitter handle.

Background Vetting

We help you vet a service professional's background so that they can demonstrate their trustworthiness.

Thumbtack Human Review - We personally review every profile on Thumbtack to ensure that it meets our strict community standards. This takes significant investment on our part, but it's important to us that we personally control and approve all content on Thumbtack.

DOJ Smart Screen - We manually run every service professional through the sexual offender database provided by the Department of Justice's SMART Office (Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking). The service, called the Dru Sjodin National Sexual Offender database, contains sex offender registries for all 50 states. It may be accessed here. By using the DOJ Smart service we can ensure that a service professional's name and address is not in the sexual offender database, but it is your responsibility to confirm that they are who they say they are. We recommend asking your service professional to complete a background check or name and address verification to verify their identity; if you do not do this, it is important to check their driver's license.

National Criminal Check (Electronic Search) - For $7, we screen a service professional through Acxiom Information Security Services' proprietary national criminal record database which contains more than 600 million criminal record files for all 50 states. Information in the national criminal record file is compiled from local law enforcement, statewide criminal record repositories, state department of correction records, state parole and probation records, and local public record sources. When we run a National Criminal Check Acxiom also verifies the service professional's name, address, and Social Security number.

National Criminal Check (Electronic and Physical Search) - For $49, we screen a service professional through Acxiom's electronic database described above. In addition, Acxiom physically checks federal and county courthouses. Although Acxiom's proprietary national criminal record database contains more than 600 million criminal record files for all 50 states physically checking courthouses is the only way to get the most up-to-date information. When we run a National Criminal Check Acxiom also verifies the service professional's name, address, and Social Security number.

Professional Assessment

Knowing that your service professional is trustworthy is only the beginning; you also want to know that they excel at what they do. We provide the tools to allow you to assess service professionals' professional skills.

Professional License Check - Many professions require a professional license and service professionals in these fields should share their license number with you. But how do you know if the license is valid and not suspended or expired? We've done the hard work of navigating the maze of state license verification websites, and have created the most powerful license check database available on the Internet.

Ratings - After a service professional has completed a job the customer is prompted to leave a rating (positive, negative, or neutral) of their work. This allows you to find the best skilled and most trustworthy service professionals. And it also allows service professionals to acquire a reputation online that accurately represents their offline work.

Reviews - In addition to a rating, customers are asked to leave a written message to describe anything they particularly liked or did not like about the service professional's work.

Testimonials - When service professionals first join Thumbtack, we encourage them to invite previous customers to write testimonials about their work. For important jobs, we encourage you to speak directly with the service professional's references.

Community Flagging - In addition to personally reviewing every profile and offering a dozen tools to vet service professionals' backgrounds we also encourage community policing of our marketplace. If you ever see anything inappropriate please flag the profile by clicking on the exclamation point. Additionally, if you ever want to discuss any concerns or suggestions we would love to hear from you! Contact us anytime and we'll get back to you right away.