Acceptable Use Policy

If, at any time, you have questions or concerns regarding our acceptable use policy or if you believe a violation of our policy has occurred, please contact us at abuse@vertexcommunication.com.

This Acceptable Use Policy (“AUP”) sets forth the principles that govern the use of the Web-based products, emails and services (the “Services”) provided by your service provider (“Vertex Communication Group” or “Service Provider”) and to its customers (collectively, “customers”).

Vertex’s goal is to offer customers a positive experience in their use of the Services. To help Vertex offer its customers the best user experience possible and to ensure the Services are used in an appropriate manner, all customers must follow the same rules and guidelines with respect to their use of the Services.

This AUP is designed to help protect customers and the Internet community from irresponsible, abusive or illegal activities, and to make the Services available to all customers as consistently and efficiently as possible. By accessing and/or using the Services, you agree to adhere to this AUP.

If you are unable to agree and abide by the AUP, you should not utilize the Services.

Deliverability depends heavily on numerous factors but mainly relies on the quality of the sender’s list. Therefore, all customers must maintain lists of addresses solely based on, at minimum, single opt-in. Customers must maintain recorded opt-in information (to include a minimum of IP, date/time, and source of sign-up) for all subscribers. Single opt-in is defined as an opt-in where the subscriber has shared their email information with a customer for a specific purpose in order to start receiving emails from the sender directly relating to that purpose. Any emails sent by customer/sender that would be outside of that purpose are strictly prohibited. Customer transparency with its subscribers is essential and therefore descriptions of onerous terms relative to email communication in boilerplate legal terms and conditions are likewise prohibited. Customers must be able to provide opt-in information, such as IP address, source and date and time of sign-up for each subscriber at Service Provider’s request within one business day.

All emails which are not transactional messages must include an opt-out link which will be functional for no less than 60 days after the send is complete. All opt-out requests must be honored as soon as feasible but no longer than 5 business days. Subscribers who have previously opted-out may not be opted-in again without explicit written permission sent to the Company by the subscriber.

All non-transactional emails sent must include both an electronic means to contact the sender and advertiser, and a physical address to which unsubscribe requests can be received. It is recommended that transactional messages include a preference center or an electronic means where a recipient can easily communicate to the sender that the address to which they are sending is incorrect.

The Company currently defines transactional under the applicable laws for the mailing, with a minimum requirement of the mailing complying with the United States’ Federal Trade Commission’s Primary Purpose Rule for transactional messages.

Restricted content and activities must be disclosed prior to the beginning of contract signing. These may be permitted with limitation or additional monitoring.

• Pornography/sexually explicit content
• Pharmaceutical products
• Except as may be expressly prohibited herein, credit repair, credit cards, online day-trading, related foreign exchange (forex), mortgages, loans and other financial services
• Sends must be performed under the sender or advertiser’s own name and brand, with cross-promotional or third party content clearly labeled as such.
• Any other content or activities that Vertex, in its sole discretion determines to be restricted.

Actions, whether intentional or inadvertent, that the Service Provider considers inappropriate and grounds for restriction of access to or removal of offending material or termination of Services include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Emails which violate any relevant or applicable anti-spam laws or which are illegal at either the sender’s, Service’s or recipient’s location
• Any illegal purpose, including but not limited to material which is libelous, threatening, or defamatory, or which infringes on the intellectual property rights of any other entity, or encourages conduct which would constitute a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability, or otherwise violate any local, state, federal or international law, order or regulation
• Any content or activity that holds the Service Provider, its affiliates and/or partners and their parent companies, and their employees or shareholders up to public scorn or ridicule or would in any way damage or impair their reputation or goodwill
• Any information or material which the Service Provider determines (in its sole opinion) to be objectionable, offensive, indecent, harassing, threatening, embarrassing, distressing, vulgar, hateful, racially or ethnically offensive, or otherwise inappropriate, regardless of whether this material or its dissemination is unlawful
• Posting, storing, sending, transmitting, or disseminating any individual’s social security number, credit card number or other bank account related information
• Any information or software which contains malware, including viruses, worms, remote access Trojans, other harmful feature, or other information or software which circumvents the security measures of another person or entity, or adversely affects the ability of other people or services to use the Internet
• Restricting, inhibiting, interfering with, or otherwise disrupting or causing a performance degradation, regardless of intent, purpose or knowledge, to the Services, or otherwise causing a performance degradation to any facilities, equipment or networks used to deliver the Services
• Purchasing or selling (including renting) email subscriber lists, including providing or using list broker and list rental services.
• Sending of messages to email addresses which were appended to other data is expressly prohibited. The email address attached to a subscriber’s data must be provided to the sender by the subscriber
• Selling, leasing, renting, or otherwise making available data learned through the Services in any form (printed, electronically relayed, posted to public list services or bulletin boards, or magnetically stored) to, or for the benefit, of any third party for any reason other than to assist the customer in its normal business activities
• Misidentifying the source of an email; adding, removing, or modifying identifying network header information (aka “spoofing”) in an effort to deceive or mislead, or attempting to impersonate any person by using forged headers or other identifying information. Identifying information included in messages must allow a recipient to easily identify and contact the sender and/or advertiser of the email
• Payday loans or other short-term high-interest loans that violate applicable predatory lending laws and regulations, including without limitation, the Federal Truth in Lending Act
• Real-money gambling
• Generating content which is sent through another service, such as creating tracking links within the system which are included in emails sent through another service or system
• Causing a significant blacklisting or sending content on behalf of an organization with a listing on a significant blacklist at the time of the send. Significant blacklists include Spamhaus, CASA, Invaluement, URIBL, SURBL, or other commonly used blacklists as determined by the Company based on current industry usage
• Receiving excessive complaints or sending to too many spamtraps as defined by the Company based on current industry standards
• Reverse engineering, decompiling, disassembling, or otherwise attempting to learn the source code to, the Services
• Assigning, reselling, sublicensing, or otherwise making the Services available to third parties for their own use, except as expressly permitted by the terms of a customer’s agreement with the Service Provider. Bundling the Services as part of a customer’s own product offering, without the express prior written consent of the Service Provider

This is intended to be an illustrative, and not exhaustive, list of Prohibited Content. The examples identified in this list are in addition to the content identified in the Agreement between the Service Provider and its customer pursuant to whose Agreement you are given the right to access the Services and are provided solely for your guidance. As a Customer you agree to comply with these restrictions and not to conduct or participate in Prohibited Content. If you are unsure whether any contemplated use or action is permitted, or wish to report a violation of this AUP, please contact the Service Provider.

The Service Provider is entitled to perform a list audit and other assessments, at its own discretion, to determine whether or not a customer is in compliance with this Acceptable Use Policy. The Service Provider prefers to advise customers of inappropriate behavior or any prohibited conduct and any necessary corrective action. However, if the Services are used in a way that the Service Provider, in its sole discretion as between any customer and the Service Provider, believes violates this AUP, the Service Provider may take such responsive action(s) as the Service Provider, in its sole discretion, determines to be appropriate. These responsive actions may include, but are not limited to, suspending your right to access and use the Services, and/or termination of the agreement between the Service Provider and the customer, without notice and without opportunity to cure. Further and for the avoidance of doubt, the Service Provider reserves the right, in its sole discretion as between any customer and the Service Provider, to restrict access to or to remove any content for any reason, including but not limited to, your violation of any laws or the terms and conditions of any agreement between the Service Provider and its customer pursuant to whose agreement you are given the right to access the Services, or this Acceptable Use Policy.

While the Service Provider and its third party service provider may elect to monitor your use of the Service to confirm your adherence to this Acceptable Use Policy, it is ultimately the responsibility of the user of the Services to ensure that all use complies with this Acceptable Use Policy.

The Service Provider’s right to take action under this Acceptable Use Policy will not place an obligation on the Service Provider to monitor or exert any editorial control over your Web site.

A customer’s use of bandwidth is expected to compare to the normal bandwidth used by other customers. If, in the sole discretion of the Service Provider, a customer requires or is utilizing bandwidth that is excessive in comparison to other customers, the Service Provider may impose additional charges for this bandwidth usage.

You may not use the Service Provider’s network or any third party networks contracted by the Service Provider to circumvent user authentication or interfere with the security of any host, network, or account. This includes, but is not limited to, accessing data not intended for you, logging into a server or account you are not authorized to access, password cracking, probing the security of other networks in search of weaknesses, or violation of any other organization’s security policy. You may not attempt to interfere with or deny service to any user, host, or network. Any violation of network security may result in immediate termination of the Agreement between the customer on whose behalf you are utilizing the Services and the Service Provider.

The Service Provider reserves the right to revise, amend, and/or modify this AUP at any time. Notice of any revision, amendment, and/or modification to this AUP will be posted on the dashboard/welcome page for the Services. You agree that your use of the Services, beyond a period of ten (10) calendar days after a notice of such change has been provided on the Services for the first time, shall constitute your consent to the revised, amended, and/or modified version of the AUP.

v14.0 (effective October 11, 2016)