The systems behind a safe session.
Trust on a platform like this is not a single thing. It's a stack: identity verification, encrypted video, ethics enforcement, crisis escalation, dispute resolution, transparent reporting. Each layer matters. Here's how each works.
Every reader on BookTarot completes identity verification with our payments partner when they connect payouts. That includes a government ID check, a biometric selfie match, and an address verification. The legal name on the account is the legal name on the documents. The person on the video is the person whose ID was verified.
Reader-side verification protects clients from impersonation, scam accounts, and multi-account fraud. We re-verify every two years and trigger a re-check on any material change to the account (legal name change, address change, payout currency change).
Sessions happen in WebRTC video rooms with end-to-end encryption between participants. The audio and video stream is not stored on our servers unless both parties opt in to recording. When recording is on, the file is encrypted at rest, available only via a signed URL to the participants, and auto-deletes after 30 days unless either party saves their copy.
The video layer runs on LiveKit, which has been audited by third parties and is used by other regulated platforms (telemedicine, financial advice). We've extended their default settings with stricter recording defaults and stricter access controls.
Every reader signs the BookTarot ethics code at onboarding. Violations are taken seriously. A first violation triggers a warning and mandatory ethics re-training. A second triggers suspension. Serious violations · fraud, harassment, undisclosed off-platform services, criminal conduct · trigger immediate removal.
We publish anonymised quarterly transparency reports detailing enforcement actions: how many warnings, how many suspensions, how many removals, by category. The full ethics code lives at /ethics.
BookTarot is available to clients aged 18 and older. We verify age at signup by collecting a date of birth and, where required by local law, additional documentation. Sessions involving minors are not permitted under any circumstances.
If a reader believes a client is in acute mental health crisis, intimate-partner violence, or any other situation requiring immediate human support, the reader pauses the reading and provides region-appropriate crisis resources. We maintain partnerships with crisis services in major markets · Samaritans in the UK, 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline in the US, equivalents elsewhere · and surface those resources directly in the session room.
Readers are not therapists. The escalation policy doesn't ask them to be. It asks them to recognise when a session has exceeded what tarot reading can hold and to refer appropriately, without making the client feel dismissed.
If a session goes wrong, you have three ways to raise it: the in-session help button (pages on-call support during business hours), the post-session feedback form, or email to support@booktarot.com. Disputes are reviewed within 48 hours. Refunds and credits are issued where appropriate. Where the issue is an ethics violation, the reader is also reviewed under the code.
- · Block any reader from contacting you further.
- · Report any session for ethics review.
- · Delete your account and have your data removed within 30 days.
- · Download your booking history, your session summaries, and any reviews you've left.
- · Opt out of marketing communications.
- · Restrict who sees your booking history (only you, even readers don't see your past sessions with other readers).
- · Decline a session if it raises an ethics or safety concern.
- · End a session early if a client is abusive (no refund in that case).
- · Block a client from future booking with them.
- · Flag a client to safety@booktarot.com for cross-reader awareness.
- · Request anonymity in transparency reports referencing their cases.
We submit to consumer protection oversight in every jurisdiction we operate in. In the UK, that includes compliance with the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (which require clear 'for entertainment' framing for divination services). In the EU, the Digital Services Act regime. In the US, state-level consumer protection statutes. We publish a regulator-contact list at /legal/regulators.