Acceptable Use Policy

This Acceptable Use Policy ("AUP") applies to every person or entity ("Customer," "you," or "your") that accesses or uses the products and services provided by Surge Communications Inc ("Surge," "we," "us," or "our"), including our APIs, software, websites, and communications services (collectively, the "Services"). It also applies to anyone who accesses or uses the Services through a Customer's application or account (an "End User"). This AUP forms part of our Terms of Service.

Customers are responsible for their End Users' compliance with this AUP and for making the applicable requirements available to them. The examples below are not exhaustive. You may not use the Services, or allow anyone else to use the Services, to engage in, enable, or encourage illegal, deceptive, abusive, harmful, or unauthorized activity.

1. Follow laws and messaging-industry rules

You must:

• Comply with all applicable laws, regulations, governmental orders, telecommunications-provider requirements, and industry standards, including those governing telemarketing, privacy, data protection, consumer protection, and communications.
• Complete all required sender, brand, and campaign registrations and ensure that the information you provide is complete, accurate, and kept up to date.
• Obtain and document every consent required before sending or initiating a communication. Consent must be appropriate for the sender, recipient, content, and manner of communication. A purchased, rented, or shared contact list does not by itself establish consent.
• Clearly identify the sender and purpose of a communication, provide all required disclosures, and maintain records sufficient to demonstrate compliance.
• Provide recipients with legally required opt-out instructions, honor opt-out and revocation requests promptly, and maintain appropriate suppression lists so that opted-out recipients are not contacted again unless they provide valid consent.

2. Prohibited communications and content

You may not use the Services to transmit or facilitate:

• Spam, unsolicited communications, or communications that generate excessive complaints, opt-outs, or other indicators of recipient harm.
• Fraud, scams, phishing, impersonation, misleading claims, deceptive offers, or falsification of a sender's identity or a communication's origin.
• Content or activity that is unlawful, threatening, harassing, defamatory, exploitative, discriminatory, or that promotes violence or hatred against people based on a protected characteristic.
• Child sexual abuse material, sexual exploitation, non-consensual intimate imagery, or content that facilitates human trafficking.
• Content that infringes or misappropriates intellectual property, privacy, publicity, confidentiality, or other rights.
• Malware, malicious code, credential theft, or links or attachments intended to compromise a device, account, network, or person.
• Products, services, or content prohibited by applicable law or by the telecommunications providers carrying the traffic, including where prohibited or restricted: controlled substances or cannabis, firearms, gambling, adult content, high-risk lending or debt relief, and third-party lead generation.
• Traffic pumping, access stimulation, artificially generated traffic, snowshoeing, SIM-box activity, number cycling, or other activity intended to generate improper revenue, avoid detection, or evade carrier or Surge controls.

3. Protect the Services and communications networks

You may not:

• Attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Services, another account, or any related system or network.
• Probe, scan, or test a vulnerability except as expressly permitted by our Vulnerability Disclosure Policy.
• Interfere with, overload, disrupt, degrade, or disable any part of the Services or a connected telecommunications or third-party network.
• Bypass, defeat, disable, or evade authentication, filtering, rate limits, usage limits, security controls, carrier registration, or other restrictions.
• Use bots, scripts, or other automated means to access the Services in an abusive manner, scrape non-public data, or create accounts or traffic deceptively.
• Reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, or copy the Services except to the limited extent that applicable law expressly permits it.

4. Protect data and credentials

You are responsible for determining whether the Services provide the safeguards required for your use before transmitting or processing data through them. You must use reasonable security measures to protect accounts, API keys, personal information, message content, and other data; limit access to authorized persons; and notify Surge promptly of unauthorized access or use. You may not collect, use, disclose, or transmit data without the rights, notices, and permissions required by applicable law.

5. Customer responsibilities

You are responsible for all activity conducted through your accounts and applications, including activity by your employees, contractors, customers, and End Users. You must take reasonable steps to prevent and stop violations, respond promptly to complaints, and cooperate with Surge's efforts to investigate and remedy suspected abuse. You must not help another party evade this AUP or use the Services after suspension or termination.

6. Enforcement

Surge may investigate suspected violations and may block content or traffic, limit functionality, quarantine or remove data, suspend or terminate access to the Services, or take other reasonable action to protect recipients, Surge, its providers, and communications networks. We may act immediately and without prior notice when we reasonably believe activity creates a risk of spam, fraud, security harm, legal liability, network disruption, or carrier action. When reasonably practicable, we will provide notice and an opportunity to remedy the violation. We may report suspected illegal activity to appropriate authorities and cooperate with lawful requests.

7. Reporting violations

Report suspected violations, prohibited messages, or other abuse to abuse@surge.app. Include relevant phone numbers, message content, timestamps, and any other information that may help us investigate. Customers must promptly report violations they discover and reasonably cooperate with our investigation and remediation efforts.

8. Changes to this policy

We may update this AUP from time to time. We will provide reasonable notice of material changes through the Services, by email, or by posting an updated version on this page. Changes become effective on the date stated in the updated AUP. Your continued use of the Services after that date constitutes acceptance of the updated AUP.