User responsibility and acceptable use policy

1. General principle: you are the sender

Ankarex provides the technology to transmit messages, run tests and look up numbers. You decide what is sent, from which Sender, to which numbers and when. You are therefore, for all legal purposes, the originator of the communications and responsible for their content, purpose and recipients.

You must comply with the law applicable in your country and in each Recipient's country. If you are not sure whether a send is lawful, do not make it and consult an adviser. Ankarex does not provide legal advice.

2. Legal basis, consent and proof

Before sending any Message you must have a legal basis to use the Recipient's number. For commercial or promotional communications, most countries require the Recipient's prior, express, specific and informed consent (for example, in the European Union the GDPR and the ePrivacy Directive; in Spain article 21 of the LSSI; in the United States the TCPA; in Canada CASL).

You undertake to:

• Obtain consent through an affirmative action by the Recipient, without pre-ticked boxes, stating who will send the messages, for what purpose and at roughly what frequency.
• Not use numbers that are bought, rented, provided by third parties, scraped from the internet or from directories, randomly or sequentially generated, or collected for a different purpose.
• Keep proof of consent (date, time, channel, accepted text and Recipient identifier) while you send and for the limitation period of any possible claims.
• Provide that proof to us within 48 hours when we request it because of a complaint, a request or an investigation.
• Limit transactional messages (verification codes, service notices, alerts) to their purpose, without advertising unless there is consent for it.

3. Sender identification, opt-out and sending hours

• Every commercial Message must clearly identify the sending business, in the Sender or in the text.
• Where the law requires it, you must include a simple, free way to opt out (for example “Reply STOP to unsubscribe” or a link) and process the opt-out without delay.
• After an opt-out you may not send further commercial messages to that number, nor use another account or Sender to do so.
• You must respect the permitted sending hours in the Recipient's country and, failing that, avoid sending commercial messages at night, at weekends or on public holidays where this may be intrusive.
• You must keep a reasonable frequency consistent with what the Recipient was told.

4. Senders (Sender ID)

• You may only use as Sender brands, trade names or numbers you hold rights to or have written authorisation from the owner.
• Senders that impersonate or may be confused with banks, public administrations, courier companies, carriers, technology platforms or other unrelated organisations are prohibited.
• Using third parties' phone numbers as Sender without their authorisation, or numbers that cannot receive replies when the content invites a reply, is prohibited.
• Some countries require prior registration of the Sender or of the templates (for example India, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Turkey or Indonesia, among others). Meeting those requirements is your responsibility. Without registration, the carrier may replace or block the Sender or the Message.
• The platform may rewrite or block Senders according to content rules and at carriers' request. A space or any other character in the Sender is part of it and is sent as is.

5. Prohibited content

You may not send, or use the Service to facilitate, content that:

• Is fraudulent or misleading: phishing or smishing, links to pages imitating third parties, requests for credentials, codes, card details or transfers, fake prizes, fake debts, fake deliveries or fake security alerts.
• Impersonates people, businesses or authorities.
• Distributes malware, unofficial apps, unsolicited download links or any malicious code.
• Promotes scams, pyramid or Ponzi schemes, investments or crypto-assets with promised returns, abusive or unauthorised loans, or financial services without the required licence.
• Offers gambling or betting without a licence in the Recipient's country or aimed at minors.
• Advertises or facilitates the sale of drugs, prescription medicines without a prescription, weapons, explosives, counterfeit goods, tobacco or alcohol where restricted, or any illegal goods or services.
• Has sexual or adult content, or any content involving minors.
• Incites hatred, violence, harassment, discrimination or terrorism, or is defamatory or threatening.
• Is intimidating debt collection or contrary to the applicable rules.
• Contains political or electoral propaganda where restricted or without complying with the applicable rules.
• Infringes third parties' intellectual property, industrial property, image or privacy rights.
• Discloses third parties' personal data without a legal basis, or special categories of data.

6. Prohibited practices

• Spam: unsolicited commercial messages or messages without a legal basis.
• Filter evasion: altering words with symbols, digits or look-alike characters (for example “b4nk” for “bank”), splitting links, rotating domains or shorteners, artificially varying the text or spreading traffic across Senders, accounts or routes to avoid detection. Variant tools may only be used to personalise legitimate communications.
• Artificial traffic: generating sends, lookups or tests to numbers controlled by you or third parties to earn termination revenue or inflate traffic (AIT or traffic pumping), or systematically probing carriers' filters.
• Random or sequential dialling and mass verification of numbers without a legal basis.
• Evasion of controls: creating several accounts, using false identities, sharing accounts, evading suspensions or blocks, manipulating the device fingerprint or circumventing the platform's systems.
• Technical abuse: overloading the platform, exceeding or evading limits, attacking, scanning or trying to access unauthorised parts of the Service or other customers' data.
• Unauthorised resale of the Service or its routes.
• Misuse of tests and lookups: using the Test Tool, manual tests or HLR on numbers without a legal basis, to profile people, locate someone or verify unlawfully obtained lists.

7. Links, domains and shorteners

Links in Messages must point to domains you own or are authorised to use, with safe content consistent with the Message. The platform blocks generic link shorteners and domains with a bad reputation. We recommend using your own domain or your own branded shortener.

You may not use redirects to hide the real destination of a link or change the destination after sending.

8. Recipients' data

You are the controller of the Recipients' data. You must inform them of the processing, apply data minimisation, handle their rights and keep the data only as long as necessary. Ankarex processes them on your behalf under the Data processing agreement.

Do not upload more data than necessary to the Service: in particular, do not include passwords, health data, full card data or identity documents in Messages.

9. Account security

• Protect your Credentials, enable passkeys and limit each API key to the scopes and IP addresses it needs.
• Do not share the Account. If several people in your organisation need access, manage it so you can identify who did each operation.
• Regularly review open sessions, active API keys and the activity history.
• Report any security incident to [email protected] within 24 hours at the latest.

10. Complaints, investigations and cooperation

When a Recipient, a carrier, a provider or an authority files a complaint or request about your traffic, we will inform you where the law allows and you must cooperate in good faith: provide proof of consent, explain the purpose of the send, identify the source of the numbers and take the corrective measures indicated.

While the investigation lasts we may pause the affected campaigns, hold traffic or suspend the Account.

11. Consequences of a breach

Depending on the seriousness and repetition, we may take one or more of these measures, without notice where there is a risk and without any right to compensation:

• Block or rewrite the affected Messages, Senders, links or numbers.
• Pause or cancel campaigns and schedules.
• Limit the sending rate or hold the Account's traffic.
• Revoke API keys and close sessions.
• Suspend or close the Account and any other we consider linked.
• Hold the Balance during the investigation and apply it to the penalties, surcharges and damage the traffic caused, under the Terms and conditions of service and the Payments, balance and refunds policy.
• Report the facts to the affected carriers and, where appropriate, to the competent authorities.

These measures do not exclude claiming damages.

12. How to report abuse

If you received a fraudulent or unwanted message sent through Ankarex, or you notice misuse, write to [email protected] with the number that received it, the Sender, the approximate date and time and, if possible, a screenshot of the message. We review every report and take the appropriate measures.

If the message tried to obtain your bank details or passwords, also contact your bank and the authorities of your country.