Acceptable Use Policy (AUP)

Last Updated: February 2023

Introduction

This Acceptable Use Policy (“AUP”) sets forth the rules and standards that govern all users’ access to and use of the Software for Dog Trainers platform (the “Platform”) provided by Software for Small Businesses Ltd (“we,” “us,” or “our”). By using the Platform, you agree to comply with this AUP in full. This AUP is designed to ensure the Platform’s services – including messaging (SMS, email, and other communications), automation tools (including AI-powered features), media storage, landing page and funnel builders, forms, and other web content tools – are used safely, lawfully, and ethically. We reserve the right to amend or update this AUP at any time by posting the revised version on our website, and such changes will become effective upon posting. Your continued use of the Platform after any changes are posted constitutes acceptance of the revised AUP. If you violate this AUP, we may suspend or terminate your access to the Platform as described below.

Scope: This AUP applies to all users of the Platform, without exception. It is incorporated by reference into our Terms of Service and forms part of your agreement with us. You are responsible for ensuring that anyone you allow to use the Platform (e.g. your employees or agents) also complies with this AUP. You are also fully responsible for all content and communications originating from your account, including content generated by any integrated AI or automation tools. Failure to adhere to any provision of this AUP is considered a material breach of your contract with us.

Acceptable Use of the Platform

You may use our Platform only for lawful, authorised purposes and in accordance with this AUP and applicable agreements. The Platform is intended to support legitimate business activities of dog training professionals and small businesses, such as communicating with clients, managing leads, scheduling, marketing, and building web content for your business. All usage must respect the rights and experience of others and the integrity of our services. Specifically, you agree to:

Follow Applicable Laws and Regulations: You are responsible for using the Platform in compliance with all laws and regulations relevant to your activities. This includes (but is not limited to) telecommunication, privacy, and anti-spam laws governing the messages, calls, and emails you send, as well as intellectual property and data protection laws for any content you upload or publish.

Use Integrations Responsibly: If you utilise third-party services integrated with our Platform (for example, Twilio for SMS/phone or LeadConnector for communications), you must comply with all the applicable third-party terms and policies in addition to our own rules. (For instance, messages sent via our Twilio integration must adhere to Twilio’s Acceptable Use Policy and Messaging Policy, as well as carrier requirements and industry standards.) You are expected to obtain any necessary consents from message recipients and to honour opt-out requests or “Do Not Contact” lists as required by law and industry guidelines.

Operate Within Intended Use: Use the Platform’s features as intended and authorised. For example, our landing page and funnel builders are provided for you to create and publish promotional or informational websites for your own business - you should not misuse these tools for unrelated or prohibited purposes (detailed below). Similarly, our file storage is provided to host business-related media (images, videos, documents, etc.) in support of your activities on the Platform - it is not to be used as a general file sharing or backup service for unrelated data.

If you are ever uncertain whether your intended use of any Platform feature is allowed, please contact us for clarification before proceeding. In general, any use that is not expressly permitted in this AUP (or that falls under any of the Prohibited Uses below) is not acceptable.

Prohibited Uses and Activities

You must not misuse the Platform in any way. The activities and content listed below are strictly prohibited - whether done directly by you, by someone through your account, or by any application or integration you use with our Platform. Engaging in any of these may result in immediate suspension or termination of your account. Prohibited uses include, but are not limited to, the following:

Illegal or Harmful Conduct: Using the Platform to engage in any unlawful, fraudulent, harmful, or rights-infringing activities is strictly forbidden. You may not use our services in any manner that violates any law or regulation, or for any purpose that is illegal, deceptive, or harmful to others. This includes (without limitation) transmitting or storing content that is illegal, violent, exploitative, or otherwise dangerous (e.g. promoting violence or criminal activity), or content that infringes or misappropriates intellectual property rights, privacy rights, or other rights of any person. You also may not use the Platform to engage in activities that pose a security risk, cause harm or nuisance to any person or entity, or that could damage our reputation or business operations. All content and communications on the Platform must be appropriate and lawful; for example, you may not use our services to transmit prohibited content such as spam, fraudulent or misleading messages, or depictions of violence. Any content that is malicious (such as malware, viruses, or phishing schemes) or designed to harass, threaten, or defame others is strictly banned. While the Platform does not actively censor profanity or offensive language by default, any content that crosses into unlawful harassment, hate, or abuse is prohibited. You are expected to maintain professional and respectful communications at all times.

Unsolicited or Abusive Messaging: The Platform’s communications tools (SMS, MMS, email, voice calls, and other messaging channels) must not be used for spam or abusive communications. You may not send unsolicited bulk messages, unsolicited marketing emails/SMS, or mass communications to individuals who have not consented to receive such messages. Sending unwanted or “spam” messages is a violation of this AUP and may also violate laws such as the CAN-SPAM Act, TCPA, or other anti-spam/telemarketing regulations – you are responsible for ensuring compliance with all such laws. Automated dialling or messaging features must be used responsibly: you may not bombard users with repetitive messages, and you must honour all opt-out requests promptly. It is also prohibited to use the Platform’s messaging or AI features to generate or send deceptive, false, or misleading communications. This means you must not impersonate or misrepresent your identity, organisation, or the origin of your messages (no spoofing of phone numbers, falsified sender names, fake email headers, etc.). You shall not send phishing messages or any content intended to trick or scam recipients. The use of our AI tools to craft messages or content does not exempt you from these rules – AI-generated content must be truthful, lawful, and compliant with this AUP. Under no circumstances may you use AI or automation through our Platform to harass others, facilitate fraud, spread malware, or to create content that would itself violate this Policy (e.g. hate propaganda or disinformation). We may impose limits on messaging rates or volumes and require adherence to third-party messaging policies; for example, Twilio and telecom carriers impose content rules and volume restrictions to combat spam and unwanted messages, and severe violations (e.g. certain illegal or high-risk messaging categories) can lead to carrier penalties or blocking. You are solely responsible for any such penalties or consequences of unlawful messaging.

Improper Content and File Uploads: You may not upload, transmit, create, or publish any content via the Platform that is illegal, harmful, or objectionable. This applies to all media and files you upload (such as images, videos, audio, documents, and other files) as well as content on landing pages, forms, or any web pages you build using our Platform. Prohibited content includes content that is obscene or sexually explicit (especially any content involving exploitation of minors, which will be reported to law enforcement immediately), excessively violent or graphic content, content that promotes self-harm or harm to others, and any material that is unlawful, defamatory, or violates the rights of others (including privacy and intellectual property rights). Infringing content – such as unlicensed copyrighted material or trademarks used without permission – must not be stored or published via our services. You are also prohibited from using our file storage or website features to distribute malicious code, malware, or viruses, or to host files that facilitate hacking, phishing, or other malicious acts. Additionally, you should not use the Platform as a means to store or share extremely large files or amounts of data not related to your use of our services (for example, using your account as a general cloud drive for personal files or as a torrent hosting platform is not acceptable). We reserve the right to remove or disable access to any content that violates this AUP or that we deem harmful to the Platform or its users.

Misuse of Website and Forms: The Platform enables you to create and publish landing pages, sales funnels, forms, surveys, and other web content. You must not use these tools for any malicious or unauthorised purpose. Prohibited uses include creating websites or forms that are fraudulent or misleading (e.g. phishing websites pretending to be someone else in order to steal information), that violate any law or regulation, or that collect data in an unlawful or deceptive manner. You are responsible for ensuring that any personal data collected via forms or landing pages is collected with proper consent and handled in accordance with applicable privacy laws. Scams, hoaxes, or deceptive schemes are strictly forbidden on our Platform. You may not publish content that falsely advertises products or services, makes deceitful claims, or otherwise intentionally misleads visitors. Furthermore, you may not use our web publishing features to host content that distributes malware, engages in click fraud, or otherwise interferes with the use of the internet by others. All websites and pages you create using our services should accurately identify you (or your business) as the owner/operator and should not be used to impersonate or masquerade as another company or entity. We may unpublish or take down any page or form that violates these provisions without prior notice.

Security Violations and System Abuse: You are strictly prohibited from any activities that interfere with, disrupt, or compromise the security or functionality of the Platform or any related systems, networks, or data. This includes no hacking, penetration testing, or unauthorised access attempts. You must not attempt to probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of our infrastructure or to breach any security or authentication measures without our express written consent. Attempting to bypass or defeat any security mechanism we have in place (for example, attempting to circumvent user authentication or access controls, finding and exploiting software bugs, or intentionally introducing vulnerabilities) is forbidden Likewise, launching or facilitating any form of attack against the Platform or our users – such as a denial-of-service (DoS) attack, distribution of viruses or malware, logic bombs, or any other attempt to overload, flood, mailbomb, or crash the service – is strictly banned. You may not use the Platform to distribute harmful code or to operate botnets, relay attacks, or other harmful activities. Additionally, you must not do anything that interferes with or disrupts the normal use of the service for other users, including excessive use of resources that impacts service performance.

Unauthorised Scraping or Data Harvesting: Automated data extraction from our Platform without permission is prohibited. You must not deploy bots, scripts, scrapers, crawlers, or similar technologies to scrape or collect data (such as other users’ information, our pricing or product data, or any proprietary data) from the Platform, whether by automated or manual means, for any purpose outside the intended use of the Platform. This includes indexing or caching our content in an unauthorised manner, or “harvesting” email addresses or phone numbers from the Platform for sending unsolicited messages. We also prohibit any form of data mining or monitoring of the Platform’s availability, performance, or functionality for competitive analysis or other commercial purposes, except with our prior written approval. Any use of the Platform that imposes an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our servers or infrastructure (for example, performing mass automated account creations or content submissions) is not allowed.

No Reverse Engineering or Tampering: Attempting to reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, or otherwise derive source code or underlying ideas of any part of the Platform is strictly forbidden. You must not hack or modify the Platform’s software, nor create derivative works based on our software or services except as allowed by us. Any form of tampering with the Platform’s functionality, circumventing usage restrictions, or using unauthorised tools to access features or data is a violation of this AUP. Similarly, you may not remove, obscure, or alter any proprietary notices (such as copyright, branding, or terms of use) that we display on the Platform or in our software.

Prohibition on Competitive Use: You may not access or use the Platform to develop or assist in developing a competing product or service. We explicitly forbid registering for or using our services for the purpose of monitoring, benchmarking, or gathering information to aid a competitor. You also must not provide access to our Platform (including any non-public features or content) to our competitors or to any third party working on a competing service. In essence, using the Platform as a competitor (or on behalf of a competitor) to glean insights, copy features, or otherwise undermine our business is not allowed. We reserve the right to refuse service, cancel accounts, or take legal action against individuals or entities found to be accessing our services in order to compete with us or to commercially exploit our confidential information. This also means you shall not use any portion of our Platform’s content, user interface, or workflows in order to create or enhance any kind of competing software or service. All usage of our Platform must be in good faith and for the benefit of your own business with the Platform, not for competitive analysis.

Abusive or Harassing Behaviour Toward Staff: You must treat all members of our team, contractors, and partners with respect at all times. Abusive, aggressive, or otherwise inappropriate behaviour toward our staff is strictly prohibited. This includes, but is not limited to: repeatedly contacting staff outside business hours, calling or messaging staff on non-business or personal phone numbers or social media accounts, using threatening, offensive, or disrespectful language in any communication, or otherwise acting in a way that is unprofessional, unreasonable, or disruptive to our business operations.

Such behaviour will be considered a serious breach of this Policy and may result in immediate suspension or termination of your account without refund. These rules apply to all forms of communication, including phone calls, text messages, emails, chat, social media, or any other channel.

Other Unauthorised Activities: In addition to the above, any other activity that is contrary to the intended use of the Platform, in our sole judgment, or that otherwise poses a risk to us or our users may be deemed a violation of this AUP. For example, sharing your account credentials or allowing multiple unauthorised parties to use your account is prohibited (except as allowed for your team members under your subscription); reselling or redistributing our services to unapproved third parties without authorisation is not allowed; and using the Platform to process or store highly sensitive personal information (such as credit card numbers, health records, or other sensitive data) without appropriate safeguards and without our consent may also be considered misuse. Users are expected to exercise common sense and restraint in using the Platform’s features. If your usage is adversely affecting the Platform or other users (even if not specifically listed above), we may intervene and consider it a violation.

Enforcement and Consequences of Violations

Monitoring: We reserve the right (but do not assume the obligation) to monitor usage of the Platform and user content to ensure compliance with this AUP. This may include automated monitoring of message sending patterns or content scanning (for example, to detect spam or malware) and manual review of content or activity if we become aware of potential violations. We may investigate any suspected violation of this AUP, and in doing so we may suspend access to the Platform for the user under investigation and/or remove or disable any offending content. Our failure to immediately enforce any part of this AUP in a particular instance does not constitute a waiver of our right to do so in the future.

Reporting: If you become aware of any violation of this AUP by any user, please report it to us immediately through our support channels. We may also work with law enforcement or applicable regulatory agencies if criminal or other illegal behaviour is suspected.

Actions Upon Violation: If we, in our sole discretion, determine that you or your content violate this AUP (or any applicable law or third-party policy), we may take some or all of the following actions with or without notice to you:

Content Removal: We may remove, delete, or disable access to any content or materials (including websites, files, or messages) that violate this AUP. You will not be entitled to any restoration of such content and we will have no liability for any loss of your data as a result of such removal.

Account Suspension: We may suspend your access to the Platform (in whole or in part) for any length of time we deem necessary to address the violation. Suspension may be immediate and without prior notice if the violation is severe (for example, if your use poses an urgent threat to the Platform’s security or other users). During suspension, you will not be able to access certain or all Platform features, and we may further investigate your activity.

Account Termination: We may terminate your user account and your right to use the Platform if you violate this AUP or repeatedly engage in prohibited conduct. Termination includes permanent revocation of access and may include deletion of your account data (subject to our data retention policies). We are not liable for any losses you may incur due to account termination enforced for AUP violations.

Legal Action: Serious violations of this AUP (for example, using the Platform for illegal activities, distributing malware, or infringing others’ rights) may result in referral to law enforcement authorities or civil legal action against you. We will cooperate with law enforcement as legally required in the investigation of any suspected criminal misuse of our services. You may also be liable to us for any costs or damages we incur as a result of your breach of this AUP. This includes reimbursement for any fines, fees, or penalties imposed on us by third-party providers or regulators due to your conduct (for example, carrier fines for spam or prohibited messages).

Liability and Indemnity: You are solely responsible for your conduct and content while using our Platform. We disclaim any liability for any activity performed by you or your end users that violates this AUP. You agree to indemnify and hold us harmless from any claims, losses, or damages (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) arising out of or relating to any content you transmit or any activity that occurs under your account in violation of this AUP.

Right to Reinstate: In our discretion, we may allow a suspended account to be reinstated once we are satisfied that any issues have been resolved and that you have implemented any corrective actions we require. However, we are under no obligation to reinstate an account or data that has been terminated due to AUP violations.

Additional Terms

This AUP is not exhaustive. It provides guidelines for the most common and egregious forms of misuse, but in general you should avoid any behaviour that undermines the security, integrity, or performance of our Platform, or the trust and safety of our user community. We reserve the right to determine, in our sole judgment, whether any specific act or content is prohibited under this AUP. In any conflict between this AUP and any other policy or agreement, the provision that allows us to enforce stricter standards of conduct shall govern (unless we expressly state otherwise). This AUP will be interpreted to the maximum extent permitted by law, in a manner consistent with applicable law and regulations. If any part of this AUP is held invalid or unenforceable, the remainder shall remain in full effect.

By using the Software for Dog Trainers Platform, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agree to abide by this Acceptable Use Policy. Failure to adhere to this AUP may result in suspension or termination of your access to the Platform, as well as other remedies as described above. We thank you for your cooperation in keeping our Platform safe, lawful, and useful for all users.