Acceptable use policy

Last updated 1 September 2026 · Effective On publication, following legal review · Version 1.0-draft

Draft — not yet reviewed by counsel.

This document is published so it can be read and corrected. It has not been through legal review and it does not yet bind anyone. If you are evaluating Rutba and need agreed terms, ask us and we will tell you where the review stands.

The short version

Do not use Rutba to break the law, to send mail people did not ask for, to attack anyone, or to attack the platform. Nothing here should surprise a business running a business. If we ever suspend anything, we will tell you which rule it engaged and what has to change — that is the reason this document is specific rather than a paragraph saying “do not misuse the service”.

1. Why this document exists

A suspension clause with nothing behind it lets a provider cut off a business on a judgement call and call it enforcement. This document is what makes that impossible: the rules are written down, and section 7 says what enforcement looks like.

It applies to you, to your users, and to anyone you give access to your organization. It forms part of the terms of service.

2. Unlawful and harmful use

Do not use Rutba to:

do anything unlawful where you are, where we are, or where the recipient is
handle material that sexually exploits children, incites violence or terrorism, or promotes self-harm
harass, threaten, defame or impersonate anyone
run a fraud — including advance-fee schemes, fake invoicing, and any operation whose purpose is to obtain money by deception
evade sanctions, or trade with parties or territories subject to them where that trade is prohibited

3. Email, messaging and calls

The platform sends mail, messages and calls on your behalf, and our ability to keep doing that for every customer depends on none of them abusing it. So:

Send only to people who agreed to hear from you. Purchased, scraped, rented or appended lists are not consent.
Honour unsubscribes promptly, and do not require an account to unsubscribe.
Do not forge headers, disguise the origin of a message, or use a sending domain you do not control.
Do not send to a number or address on a do-not-contact register where the law requires you to check one.
Automated and AI-assisted calling carries additional legal requirements in most jurisdictions, including disclosure and consent. Meeting them is your responsibility before you switch the feature on.

Complaint and bounce rates are monitored. A rate that threatens delivery for other customers is a reason for us to act under section 7, before the platform’s reputation is damaged for everyone using it.

4. The platform itself

Do not:

probe, scan or test the security of the platform except under section 6
attempt to reach another organization’s data, or a system you were not given
circumvent quotas, rate limits, licensing checks, or the entitlements attached to your plan
use the platform to mine cryptocurrency, run a botnet or proxy, or resell raw compute or storage
place a load on shared services that degrades them for other customers — if you need more, ask, and we will price it
resell or white-label the platform without a written agreement. The partner programme is the route to doing this properly.

5. Content and rights

You are responsible for having the right to store, send and publish what you put through the platform, including under copyright, trade mark and data-protection law. Where a rightsholder gives us a valid notice, we will act on it and tell you.

6. Security research

We would rather hear about a vulnerability than not. Test only against your own organization and your own data, do not degrade the service for anyone else, do not access or exfiltrate data that is not yours, and report what you find to security@rutba.io before disclosing it publicly.

Research conducted on those terms is not a breach of this policy and we will not pursue you for it.

7. What happens when a rule is broken

The order is deliberate, and we start at the top unless the risk forbids it.

We tell you — what we saw, which rule it engages, and what needs to change.
We limit the specific capability — sending, publishing, an API key — rather than the whole account, where that is enough.
We suspend the product, if it is not enough or nothing changes.
We terminate, for serious or repeated breach, with your data available for export under the terms of service unless the law forbids it.

We will act first and explain immediately after only where the risk is live — an active attack, an ongoing spam run, material that is unlawful to store. In every other case you hear from us first.

You can appeal any action to support@rutba.io and a person will look at it.

8. Reporting abuse

If something reached you from an address or number we operate and should not have, tell us at abuse@rutba.io. Include the full headers if you have them. We investigate every report and we do not need you to be a customer.