Acceptable Use Policy

22. February 2024.

This Acceptable Use Policy (referred to as "AUP") outlines prohibited material and activities in connection with the Services provided by Tau Commerce. While this AUP covers many aspects, it is not exhaustive, and Tau Commerce reserves the right to take necessary actions regarding content or activities not explicitly mentioned herein.

You are accountable for any breaches of this AUP committed by individuals using your account, whether with your authorization or without it. Moreover, you are responsible for ensuring that Your Users comply with this AUP. Engaging in activities through the Services that would breach this AUP if performed by you is also considered a violation. Tau Commerce retains the right to amend this AUP at any time by publishing an updated version on the Tau Commerce Websites and/or Services.

All terms that are capitalized and formally defined within this AUP hold the same meanings as outlined in the Terms of Service.

Illegal or Abusive Activity or Content

You are not allowed to utilize the Services for any unlawful or abusive purposes. Prohibited activities encompass:

• Illegal Activities: Any utilization of the Services to partake in, promote, or endorse illegal conduct or activities, including the dissemination of content deemed unlawful by a court of competent jurisdiction.
• Fraudulent or Harmful Activities: Engaging in activities that are deceptive or detrimental to others, or that could harm the operations or reputation of Tau Commerce. This includes offering or disseminating fraudulent goods, services, schemes, or promotions (e.g., make-money-fast schemes, Ponzi and pyramid schemes, phishing, or pharming), impersonating another person or entity, or engaging in other fraudulent or misleading practices.
• Violation of Intellectual Property Rights: Using the Services in a manner that violates or infringes upon the intellectual property or proprietary rights of any third party, including copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret, privacy, or publicity rights. This also includes publishing content intended to assist others in unlawfully circumventing technical measures protecting such rights.
• Unlawful Pornography: Disseminating child pornography or depictions of nudity or sexual activity obtained or disseminated without the consent of those depicted (e.g., "revenge pornography").
• Violent, Harassing, or Abusive Content: Content that incites or threatens violence against any person, promotes terrorism, harasses, abuses, invades the privacy of individuals, poses a risk to physical safety or health, or threatens or encourages harm based on various factors including race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.
• Controlled Substances: Unlawfully selling or distributing controlled substances, including illegal or prescription drugs.

Furthermore, you may not use the Services to compromise the security or integrity of any network, computer, or communications system. Prohibited activities include:

• Harmful Software: Content or software that may damage, interfere with, intercept, or expropriate any computer system, program, or data, including viruses, malware, spyware, adware, Trojan horses, worms, or time bombs.
• Unauthorized Access: Accessing or using any system without permission, including attempting to probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of a system or breach any security measures.
• Interception: Monitoring data or traffic on a system without permission.
• Falsification of Origin: Using fake or misleading TCP-IP packet headers, e-mail headers, or any part of a message to describe its origin or route. (Note: This excludes the use of aliases or anonymous remailers.)

Network Abuse

You are prohibited from establishing network connections with users, hosts, or networks unless you have explicit permission to communicate with them. Forbidden activities include:

• Monitoring or Crawling: Engaging in monitoring or crawling of a System that disrupts or impairs its functionality, or any harvesting or scraping of content from the Services.
• Deceitful Actions: Introducing viruses or other harmful code into the Service intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly, or collecting, transmitting, or utilizing information, including email addresses, screen names, or other identifiers, through deceitful or covert means such as phishing, Internet scamming, password theft, spidering, or harvesting.
• Intentional Interference: Disrupting the proper functioning of any System, including deliberately overloading a system through mail bombing, news bombing, broadcast attacks, flooding techniques, or conducting denial of service ("DoS") attacks.
• Operation of Certain Network Services: Running open proxies, open mail relays, open recursive domain name servers, Tor exit nodes, or similar network services.
• Avoiding System Restrictions: Using manual or electronic methods to circumvent any limitations imposed on a System, such as access or storage restrictions.
• Retaliation Against Tau Commerce: Engaging in conduct likely to provoke retaliation against Tau Commerce, its Services, or its employees, officers, or agents, including behavior resulting in Tau Commerce servers becoming targets of DoS attacks.
• Withholding Identity: Participating in activities aimed at concealing or falsifying identity or contact information, including the omission, deletion, forgery, or misreporting of any transmission or identification details such as return mailing addresses and IP addresses.
• Mining of Cryptocurrencies: Mining any cryptocurrency, including but not limited to Bitcoin or similar currencies, without explicit written permission.

E-Mail and Other Message Abuse; Spamming

You are strictly prohibited from distributing, publishing, sending, or facilitating the sending of unsolicited mass email or other messages, promotions, advertisements, or solicitations, commonly known as "spam." This includes commercial advertising and informational announcements. Additionally, you may not alter or obscure mail headers or assume a sender’s identity without explicit permission. You are also forbidden from collecting replies to messages sent from another internet service provider if those messages violate this AUP or the acceptable use policy of that provider.

You are required to exert reasonable efforts to secure any device or network under your control against being used for spam or unsolicited email, including, where appropriate, installing antivirus software, firewall software, and ensuring operating system and application software patches and updates are up to date. You must refrain from taking any action that results in any of our IP addresses being listed on any abuse database (e.g., Spamhaus).

Compliance with laws and regulations governing bulk or commercial email in your jurisdiction is mandatory. Additionally, your bulk or commercial email must adhere to the following guidelines:

• You must have a privacy policy or similar disclosure posted for each domain associated with the mailing.
• You must have mechanisms in place to track anonymous complaints.
• The source of your email must not be obscured in any manner.
• An email address for complaints (e.g., abuse@yourdomain.com) must be prominently displayed on any website associated with the email, and you must promptly respond to messages sent to that address.
• Recipients of your emails must have provided their consent through affirmative means, such as an opt-in procedure, and evidence of such consent must be producible within 72 hours upon request by the recipient or Tau Commerce.
• Reasonable measures must be implemented to ensure that the person giving consent is the rightful owner of the email address.
• The recipient's email address must be included in the body of the message or in the "TO" line of the email.
• Revocations of consent must be honored, and recipients must be notified accordingly.

These mail policies apply to messages sent using the Services, or messages sent from any System by you or any person on your behalf that refer the recipient directly or indirectly to a site hosted via the Services. Moreover, you may not utilize a third-party email service that does not adhere to similar procedures for all of its customers. These requirements also extend to distribution lists created by third parties to the same extent as if you had created the list.

Vulnerability Testing

You may not attempt to probe, scan, penetrate, or test the vulnerability of a Tau Commerce system or network, or to breach the Tau Commerce security or authentication measures, whether by passive or intrusive techniques, or conduct any security or malware research on or using the Services, without Tau Commerce’s prior written consent.

Excessive Use of Shared System Resources

You are prohibited from using any shared System provided by Tau Commerce in a manner that unnecessarily disrupts its normal operation or consumes an excessive share of its resources. Additionally, you acknowledge that we reserve the right to quarantine or delete any data stored on a shared System if it is infected with a virus or corrupted, posing a risk of infecting or corrupting the System or other customers’ data on the same system.

DNS and IP addresses

It is mandatory to maintain valid and up-to-date information with your domain name registrar for any domain hosted on the Tau Commerce network. Furthermore, you may only utilize IP addresses assigned to you by Tau Commerce in connection with your Tau Commerce Service. If you register a DNS record or zone on Tau Commerce-managed or operated DNS servers or services for a domain where you are not the registrant or administrative contact according to the registrar's WHOIS system, we reserve the right, upon request from the registrant or administrative contact according to the registrar's WHOIS system, to modify, transfer, or delete such records or zones.

Our Monitoring and Enforcement

We retain the right, although not the obligation, to investigate any suspected violation of this AUP or misuse of the Services, of which we have actual knowledge. In the course of such investigations, we may report any suspected illegal activity to appropriate law enforcement officials, regulators, or other relevant third parties, and may disclose, review, and preserve customer information consistent with applicable law. Additionally, we may cooperate with appropriate authorities to aid in the investigation and prosecution of illegal conduct by providing network and systems information related to alleged violations of this AUP.

Consequences of Violation of AUP

In the event that we determine, at our discretion, that you have breached this AUP, we reserve the right to remove, disable access to, or modify any content or resource, and/or suspend or terminate your use of the Services. We may also intercept or block any content or traffic belonging to you or users engaging in unlawful use of the Services or violating this AUP. Our right to suspend or terminate your use of the Services applies regardless of whether the violation was unintentional or unauthorized and is not contingent upon any obligation to act at any time or with respect to any particular Subscriber. We retain the discretion to exercise such rights at any time.

Reporting of Violations of this AUP

If you suspect any violation of this AUP, please notify us promptly, providing a detailed explanation of the violation. We may request your assistance in halting or remedying the violation. To report any violations of this AUP or make related inquiries, please contact us through the provided channels.