Betwext Acceptable Use Policy

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Betwext Acceptable Use Policy

Last Updated March 1, 2018

Policy

You may not use the Betwext Services without agreeing to this AUP. Thus, you agree not to use, and not to encourage or allow any End User to use, Betwext Services in the following prohibited ways:

  1. Using the Betwext Services to encourage any illegal, fraudulent, abusive, or other activities that materially interfere with the business or activities of Betwext.
  2. Attempting to bypass or break any security mechanism on any of the Betwext Services or using the Betwext Services in any other manner that poses a material security or service risk to Betwext or any of its other customers.
  3. Reverse-engineering the Betwext Services in order to find limitations, vulnerabilities, or evade filtering capabilities.
  4. Launching or facilitating, whether intentionally or unintentionally, a denial of service attack on any of the Betwext Services or any other conduct that materially and adversely impacts the availability, reliability, or stability of the Betwext Services.
  5. Transmitting any material that contains viruses, Trojan horses, spyware, worms or any other malicious, harmful, or deleterious programs.
  6. Using the Betwext Services in any manner that materially violates the following: (a) industry standards, policies and applicable guidelines published by (i) the CTIA (Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association), (ii) the Mobile Marketing Association, or (iii) any other generally recognized industry associations; (b) carrier guidelines and usage requirements as communicated in writing by Betwext to you.
  7. Engaging in any unsolicited advertising, marketing or other activities prohibited by applicable law or regulation covering anti-spam, data protection, or privacy legislation in any applicable jurisdiction, including, but not limited to anti-spam laws and regulations such as the CAN SPAM Act of 2003, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, and the Do-Not-Call Implementation Act.
  8. Using the Betwext Services in connection with unsolicited or harassing messages (commercial or otherwise), including unsolicited or unwanted phone calls, SMS or text messages, voice mail, or faxes.
  9. Using the Betwext Services to harvest or otherwise collect information about individuals, including email addresses or phone numbers, without their explicit consent or under false pretenses.
  10. Using the Betwext Services to engage in, or in connection with fraudulent activity.
  11. Using the Betwext Services to receive, send or otherwise process Protected Health Information as defined by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 as amended, unless you have signed a Business Associate Agreement with Betwext or your use of the Betwext Services fits within the “conduit” or some other exception for requiring a Business Associate Agreement.
  12. Violating or facilitating the violation of any local, state, federal, or foreign law or regulation, including, but not limited to, laws and regulations regarding the transmission of data or software.
  13. Using the Betwext Services to transmit any material that infringes the intellectual property rights or other rights of third parties.
  14. Using the Betwext Services to transmit any material that is, facilitates, or encourages libelous, defamatory, discriminatory, or otherwise malicious or harmful speech or acts to any person or entity, including but not limited to hate speech, and any other material that Betwext reasonably believes degrades, intimidates, incites violence against, or encourages prejudicial action against anyone based on age, gender, race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, disability, geographic location or other protected category.
  15. Using the Betwext Services to transmit any material or content that is offensive, inappropriate, pornographic, obscene or otherwise objectionable to any person or entity who did not provide prior express consent to receive such material or content.
  16. Creating a false identity or forged email address or header, or phone number, or otherwise attempting to mislead others as to the identity of the sender or the origin of a message or phone call. General Notice: Please be sure to consistently check your IM/All Response messages and manage your unsubscribes prior to sending a campaign or message. Note: STOP to end will normally automatically unsubscribe your subscriber (when replied as a single word with no special characters or images). Be sure to utilize the manual unsubscribe tool to execute this operation for any other replies such as remove, cancel, emojis etc.

Phone Number Reclamation

All phone numbers are subject to rules and restrictions imposed by telecommunication carriers. In order to comply with such rules and restrictions, Betwext may, in its sole discretion, reclaim your phone numbers that do not have adequate usage, as determined by such telecommunication carriers. Betwext, however, will use commercially reasonable efforts to (i) provide notice to you prior to any phone number reclamation and (ii) to work with telecommunication carriers to prevent the reclamation of any phone numbers.

This AUP has examples of restricted behavior, but does not list all restricted behaviors. Ultimately, Betwext will decide whether your use violates the AUP.

While we’ve done our best to make our AUP complete, readable, and understandable, you may still have additional questions. We get that. So, feel free to contact our support team at help@Betwext.com.

Summary of Changes to Betwext’s Acceptable Use Policy

We’ve updated our Acceptable Use Policy (“AUP”), which will be effective starting March 1, 2018. If you want to review our old AUP, effective before March 1, 2018 please go to the bottom of this page.

What we have NOT changed

We have not eliminated any current restrictions under the AUP. You may not use our services in any way that is currently prohibited in the AUP and anything you are restricted from using our services for today will be continue to be restricted when the updated AUP takes effect on March 1, 2018.

As always, we expect that you will use our services as they are intended to be used and that you will not use our services for illegal, abusive or improper purposes.

This new AUP is applicable to all of our customers regardless of whether you have agreed to our Terms of Service or signed another agreement with Betwext.

What we HAVE changed

We have made small changes to our AUP to make it easier to understand.

New restrictions: 1. You may not use our services to harm Betwext or anyone else;
2. You may not use our services in any way that is not authorized by Betwext; and
3. You may not use our services to send, receive or process Protected Health Information in a way that violates the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996.

4. As of March 1, 2016, A $100 Phone Number Change fee will apply if requested by the client for any reason. Phone number changes (example a client requesting a new area code) may take 24-48 hours to implement. 

5. As of March 1, 2016, A $250 closure fee will be applied if Betwext finds an account in violation of our Terms of Service and needs to close it down.

We now have minimum usage and call duration requirements, in line with similar requirements imposed by telecommunications carriers. PLEASE NOTE: Betwext will notify you in writing about any violation at least 30 days before we will take any actions with with respect to your Betwext account so that you will have an opportunity to work with Betwext to cure the violation.

This AUP has examples of restricted behavior, but does not list all restricted behaviors. Ultimately, Betwext will decide whether your use violates the AUP.

While we’ve done our best to make our AUP complete, readable, and understandable, you may still have additional questions. We get that. So, feel free to contact our support team at help@Betwext.com.

Or, if you prefer, you may write to us at:

Betwext LLC

2487 S. Gilbert Rd

Suite 106-626

Gilbert, AZ 85295
Betwext Acceptable Use Policy

Last Updated March 1, 2016

This Acceptable Use Policy (“AUP”) describes actions that Betwext prohibits when any party uses Betwext’s Services. This Policy is incorporated by reference and governed by the Terms of Service contains explanations of defined terms and takes precedence over any conflicting provisions in this AUP. You, the Customer, may not use the Services without agreeing to this AUP. Thus, you agree not to use, and not to encourage or allow any End User to use, Betwext’s Services in prohibited manners, including but not limited to the following: 1. Using the Services to encourage any illegal, abusive, or other activities that interfere with the business or activities of Betwext.
2. Attempting to bypass or break any security mechanism on any of the Services or using the Services in any other manner that poses a security or service risk to Betwext or any of its users.
3. Reverse-engineering the Services in order to find limitations, vulnerabilities, or evade filtering capabilities.
4. Using the Services in any manner that may subject Betwext or any third party to liability, damages, or danger.
5. Launching or facilitating, whether intentionally or unintentionally, a denial of service attack on any of the Services or any other conduct that adversely impacts the availability, reliability, or stability of the Services.
6. Transmitting any material that contains viruses, trojan horses, worms or any other malicious, harmful, or deleterious programs.
7. Using the Services in any manner that violates: industry standards; any third party policies including all of the applicable guidelines published by the CTIA, the Mobile Marketing Association, or any other accepted industry associations, carrier guidelines (or any similar or analogous industry standards, third party policies or requirements in any other jurisdiction);, or requirements that Betwext may communicate to its Customers including any usage requirements.
8. Engaging in any unsolicited advertising, marketing or other activities, including any activities that violate anti-spam laws and regulations including the CAN SPAM Act of 2003, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, and the Do-Not-Call Implementation Act (or any similar or analogous anti-spam, data protection, or privacy legislation in any other jurisdiction).
9. Using the Services in connection with any unsolicited or harassing messages (commercial or otherwise) including unsolicited or unwanted phone calls, SMS or text messages, voice mail, or faxes.
10. Using the Services to harvest or otherwise collect information about others, including email addresses or phone numbers.
11. Using the Services to engage in or in connection with fraudulent activity.
12. Using the Services to receive, send or otherwise process Protected Health Information as defined by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 as amended, unless you have signed a Business Associate Agreement with Betwext or your use of the Services fits within the “conduit” or some other exception for requiring a Business Associate Agreement.
13. Violating or facilitating the violation of any local, state, federal, or foreign law or regulation, including laws and regulations regarding the transmission of data or software.
14. Taking any action to participate in, encourage, or promote any activity prohibited under this AUP or the Betwext Terms of Service. 15. Using the Services to transmit any material that infringes the intellectual property rights or other rights of third parties.
16. Using the Services to transmit any material that is libelous, defamatory, discriminatory, or otherwise malicious or harmful to any person or entity.
17. Creating a false identity or forged email address or header, or phone number, or otherwise attempting to mislead others as to the identity of the sender or the origin of a message or phone call.
18. Using the Services, or any component of the Services, in any manner not authorized by Betwext.

Furthermore, you agree that the following minimum usage and call duration requirements, which will be measured at the master account level on a calendar month basis, apply to your use of the Services, and you understand that we will provide you with notice of any violation of these requirements and allow you thirty (30) days to comply before taking any further action with your account in accordance with the Terms of Service or your agreement with Betwext: 1. Each phone number must have at least two (2) transmissions, which transmissions may be in the form of an inbound or outbound call, or SMS message.
2. No more than 10% of your outbound voice calls may be under twelve (12) seconds in duration.
3. No more than 10% of your inbound toll-free voice calls may be under twelve (12) seconds in duration.
4. No more than 10% of your inbound toll-free calls may be incomplete (i.e. unanswered).

Please note: This list of prohibited uses is provided by way of example and should not be considered exhaustive. All determinations related to violations of this Acceptable Use Policy will be made by Betwext in its sole discretion.

The following information is not intended to replace your responsibility of familiarization with current laws but is provided as a courtesy to assist you with and your choice to abide by the legal requirements pertaining to any sending campaigns prior to using Betwext services.

Along with responsible sending, you are solely responsible for obtaining any rights or licenses to any data, including image or sound files, that may be included in any outbound sending from the Betwext platform. If you are unclear or require more information on the legalities of any message or campaign, you must consult with your attorney prior to your use of the Betwext Services.

You agree to become familiar and abide by all applicable regulations such as local, state, national and international laws, and agree that you are solely responsible for all acts or omissions that occur under your account. This includes content of the messages and mass texting that you create and initiate through the Betwext Services without any limitations. You further agree to the legalities of any sends, texts, messages, campaigns and broadcasts transmitted through the Betwext Services by visiting the following websites or areas:

DoNotCall Registry Info, http://www.donotcall.gov

Federal Trade Commission, http://www.ftc.gov

Federal Communications Commission, http://www.fcc.gov

Individual State Do Not Call Lists

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”), along with the sites above and various state laws, regulations and rules place restrictions on certain types of phone calls and text messages. Betwext owners are not attorneys and are in no way attempting to interpret any rules, laws, or regulations. You are ultimately responsible to make your own informed decisions regarding your messages, broadcasts, and campaigns.

Use Policy Prior to March 1, 2016 updates:

This Acceptable Use Policy describes actions that Betwext prohibits when You use its website and/or services (the “Services”). You acknowledge and agree that this policy may be revised from time to time by Betwext at its sole discretion, with any such modifications effective when the revised Acceptable Use Policy as posted on our site. It is Your responsibility to review this Acceptable Use Policy frequently and remain informed about any changes to it, so we encourage You to visit this page often. This Acceptable Use Policy is governed by our Terms of Service, and all undefined terms herein shall be as defined in the Terms of Service.

 

Betwext may in its sole discretion determine whether You are in violation of this Acceptable Use Policy. The Services may be used only for lawful purposes and may not be used for any illegal activities. As specified below, Betwext maintains the position that using the Services in an illegal, abusive or any other manner that interferes with or diminishes others’ use and enjoyment of the Services is prohibited. Please be sure to consistently check your IM/All Response messages and manage your unsubscribes prior to sending a campaign or message. Note: STOP to end will normally automatically unsubscribe your subscriber (when replied as a single word with no special characters or images). Be sure to utilize the manual unsubscribe tool to execute this operation for any other replies such as remove, cancel, emojis etc.

 

The following list gives examples of illegal, abusive, interfering or otherwise unacceptable or inappropriate behavior while using the Services. This list is provided by way of example and shall not be considered exhaustive.

 

  • Adversely impacting the availability, reliability, or stability of Betwext’s Services
  • Launching or facilitating, whether intentionally or unintentionally, a denial of service attack on any of Betwext’s Services
  • Attempting to bypass or break any security mechanism on any of the Services or using the Services in any other manner that poses a security or service risk to Betwext, to any user of our Services, or to any of our or their respective customers
  • Using the Services in any manner that may subject us or any third party to liability, damages or danger
  • Using Betwext’s Services with credentials that do not belong to You, or intentionally or unintentionally allowing others to use Your Betwext credentials
  • Engaging in fraud with respect to Your account
  • Using Your account to engage in fraudulent activity with respect to third parties or otherwise using Your account to bypass phone identification systems such as those by classified advertising websites
  • Using any of the Betwext Properties or Betwext Marks other than as expressly permitted in the Terms of Service
  • Transmitting any material that may infringe the intellectual property rights or other rights of third parties, including but not limited to trademark, copyright or rights of publicity or otherwise violating, infringing, or misappropriating the rights of any third party
  • Engaging in spamming or other unsolicited advertising, marketing or other activities, including, without limitation, any activities that violate anti-spamming laws and regulations such as the CAN SPAM Act of 2003 and the Do-Not-Call Implementation Act
  • Using the Services in connection with any unsolicited or harassing messages (commercial or otherwise) including but not limited to unsolicited or unwanted phone calls SMS or text messages, voice mail, or faxes.
  • Use of Betwext SMS in a manner that is not designed to enhance or augment the person-to-person nature of SMS communications.
  • Offering any Emergency Services to users. “Emergency Services” shall mean services that allow a user to connect with emergency services personnel or public safety answering points such as 911 or E911 services
  • Promoting or engaging in illegal activities
  • Engaging in activities or transmitting through the Services any information that may be libelous or defamatory or otherwise malicious or harmful to any person or entity, or discriminatory based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation, or age
  • Harvesting or otherwise collecting information about others, including email addresses or phone numbers, from Betwext’s website without their express consent
  • Creating a false identity or forged email address or header, or phone number, or otherwise attempting to mislead others as to the identity of the sender or the origin of a message or phone call using Your account
  • Transmitting any material that contains viruses, trojan horses, worms or any other malicious, harmful, or deleterious programs
  • Violating or facilitating the violation of any U.S. or foreign law regarding the transmission of technical data or software
  • Interfering with or disrupting networks connected to the Services or violating the regulations, policies or procedures of such networks
  • Improperly engaging in activity for which the United States Federal Communications Commission has restricted or regulated with regard to proper use of the public telephony network

Industry Standards for Short and Long Code Campaigns

Per Betwext’s https://www.betwext.com/acceptuse/ your company is required to comply with carrier compliance requirements, industry standards, and applicable law in the use of any Betwext-provided short or long code numbers.

The compliance guidelines in the links below are provided as a courtesy to assist you in building a short code message flow and advertising that complies with carrier requirements and industry standards.  You should expect that your text campaign will be audited at some point by a carrier or industry organization.  In our experience, campaigns are typically audited for compliance with the industry guidance found at the links below.  Please note, though, each carrier reserves the right to suspend texting service for any user at any time, and following the compliance guidance in the links below is not a guarantee against a carrier suspending texting service.

Industry Guidance Materials:

In addition, your text messaging campaigns, whether they use short codes or long codes, may also be subject to compliance requirements under applicable laws and regulations.  Some of these legal compliance requirements overlap with the carrier requirements and industry standards.  However, there may be legal compliance requirements in addition to the carrier requirements or industry standards.  Therefore, you should not assume that you need only comply with carrier requirements to have a fully-compliant text messaging campaign.  Which laws and regulations apply will depend on the particulars of your text messaging campaign including such things as where the texts originate, where recipients of your texts are located, where your company is located, the industry you are in, and the content of your text messages.  Please note that Betwext is not in a position to interpret any laws, rules, or regulations and is providing this information only as a courtesy.  You should consult with your legal counsel to ensure that your text messaging campaign is compliant with all laws, regulations, and requirements that apply to your particular text messaging campaign.

Please note that we may provide summaries of best practices to our clients as a courtesy only and are not intended as a replacement for reading the full industry guidance documents found at the links above or for consultation with your legal counsel.

Please note that if we identify issues where our providers notify Betwext that a high rate of unwanted messages originating from your account is reported we may take the following action. We may enable updated outbound message filtering on your account from a specified date This action may not be a total account suspension. You may notice some or all of your outbound messaging traffic is undelivered, but other services such as inbound messaging or voice calls will not be affected. This determination may be made based on our review of multiple factors including, but not limited to:

A high opt out rate, which indicates that end users receiving messages are more likely to object and generate complaints;

A high carrier filtering rate, which indicates that external carrier filters are refusing to deliver your messages;

A high delivery error rate, which indicates you may be attempting to contact numbers that are no longer in service

Failure to include clear opt out instructions in your initial outreach messages. Please note that the Betwext Messaging Policy requires that the initial message that you send to an individual needs to include the following language: “Reply STOP to unsubscribe.”

Failure to use double opt-in consent. Some business uses cases are required to follow a double opt-in consent process, as set forth by providers messaging policy: it appears your business content is one of these.

First, the message recipient must knowingly provide consent to you or your customer prior to receiving any text message. That consent must be provided through an electronic signature or some other online sign-up form that makes clear to the individual they are agreeing to receive messages of this type.

Second, in your first text message to that individual, you must identify yourself and prompt the individual to confirm their consent. It is not permissible to message the individual further until they have provided this consent reply.

What Do I Do if this happens to your account?

You can appeal this decision at any time. If your appeal is successful, we may remove outbound message filtering on your account (the filtering that is in our control – note providers may choose to additionally filter at any time). To appeal, reply directly to this email. In your response, please provide detailed answers to the following questions:

  • 1. Are you aware of any reasons why we would perceive unwanted messaging being sent from your account?

What is your account’s current business use case, opt-in, and opt-out process, including steps that end-users take to give consent for receiving communications? Providing screenshots or links to this process is also helpful.

  • 2. How often does your account buy and release phone numbers over time, and under what circumstances?
  • 3. What steps have you taken to prevent further unwanted messages sent from this account, and when did you take those actions?

Your responses to these questions are vital to assist us in better assessing your appeal. Please allow at least 2 business days for us to respond. Since we have observed significant unwanted messaging on your account, we must have confidence that this activity is no longer occurring in order to maintain or reinstate your account’s access to outbound messaging services. These actions are taken in order to ensure Betwext complies with carrier expectations to safeguard against messaging abuse.
The fastest way to initiate your appeal is to respond to the email that may be sent to you with the information we have requested above.

We take compliance seriously and will take action if these issues arise from our provider.

Remedies

Violation of this Acceptable Use Policy may result in the immediate suspension or termination of Your account, civil and/or criminal liability, and Betwext may, in addition to any remedy that it may have at law or in equity, terminate permission for You to use the Services. In such event, You are still liable for any and all outstanding charges accumulated through Your use of the Services, including uses in violation of this Acceptable Use Policy or the laws of any jurisdiction. In addition, Betwext may investigate incidents that are contrary to this Acceptable Use Policy and provide requested information to third parties who have provided notice to Betwext stating that they have been harmed by Your failure to abide by this Acceptable Use Policy. Betwext’s failure to enforce this policy in each and every instance in which it might have application does not amount to a waiver of Betwext’s rights hereunder.

Please reference https://www.usshortcodes.com/info/static/docs/CTIA%20Short%20Code%20Monitoring%20Handbook%20v1.5.2.pdf