Acceptable Use Policy

1. Scope and Application

Zoko is a platform for businesses to talk with their customers on WhatsApp and other messaging channels. This Acceptable Use Policy sets out what is and is not permitted on the platform. It applies to everyone using Zoko: merchants, agencies, developers, team members, and anyone operating an automation, bot, or campaign through the Services.

This Policy forms part of, and is incorporated by reference into, the Zoko Terms of Service. Where this Policy conflicts with the Terms of Service, the Terms of Service prevail. Capitalised terms used here have the meaning given in the Terms of Service.

By using Zoko you agree to comply with this Policy, and to ensure that your team members, your Agency, and anyone acting on your behalf comply with it. If you see something on the platform that does not look right, please report it using the process in Section 11.

2. Child Safety

ZOKO HAS ZERO TOLERANCE FOR CONTENT OR CONDUCT THAT EXPLOITS, SEXUALISES, ENDANGERS, OR HARMS MINORS. THIS IS THE MOST SERIOUS CATEGORY IN THIS POLICY AND IS ENFORCED WITHOUT WARNING OR APPEAL.

You may not use the Services to create, store, request, transmit, promote, or facilitate access to:

• child sexual abuse material, or any sexualised depiction of a minor, whether real, drawn, or synthetically generated;
• content that grooms, solicits, entices, or attempts to arrange contact with a minor for any exploitative purpose;
• content that endangers a minor's physical or emotional wellbeing, or that facilitates trafficking or exploitation of any person;
• marketing of age-restricted goods or services directed at minors, or that is likely to appeal primarily to minors.

Accounts implicated in this category are terminated immediately, together with any associated Accounts, and the matter is referred to law enforcement and to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children or the equivalent authority in the relevant jurisdiction, and reported to Meta or any other affected platform. Where the law requires it, we preserve relevant data and provide it to the authorities.

3. Harassment, Hate, and Threats

You may not use the Services to harass, abuse, insult, harm, defame, slander, stalk, threaten, disparage, or intimidate any individual or group, or to discriminate against anyone on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, disability, or any other protected characteristic.

You may not use the Services to promote, glorify, or provide support for terrorism, violent extremism, organised crime, or any organisation engaged in them, or to incite, threaten, or coordinate violence against any person or group.

You may not use the Services to promote or encourage suicide, self-harm, or disordered eating.

4. Privacy and Personal Information

You may not use the Services to collect, share, or expose private information without authorisation. This includes:

• posting or transmitting another person's contact details, identification documents, or account credentials without consent;
• sharing private messages, photographs, recordings, or documents without permission from the people concerned;
• disclosing confidential business or personal information you are not entitled to disclose;
• publishing private location data or tracking information about an individual;
• exposing personal details in order to harm, embarrass, coerce, or threaten someone, commonly known as doxxing;
• collecting or tracking personal information about individuals without a lawful basis and appropriate notice;
• using the Services for surveillance, stalking, or monitoring of a person without their knowledge and consent.

Your obligations in respect of consent, disclosure, and data protection are set out in Sections 5 and 8 of the Terms of Service and in the Data Processing Addendum. This Policy adds to those obligations and does not replace them.

5. Spam, Fraud, and Impersonation

You may not use the Services to deceive or defraud anyone. This includes:

• sending unsolicited bulk messages, chain messages, or spam, or messaging anyone who has not given valid consent or who has opted out;
• creating fake login pages, payment forms, or other deceptive content, commonly known as phishing;
• redirecting people to malicious websites, commonly known as pharming;
• using false pretences to obtain personal or financial information, commonly known as pretexting;
• impersonating any person, business, brand, or public body, or misrepresenting your affiliation with any of them;
• operating a business under a display name, profile, or brand identity you are not entitled to use;
• submitting false or misleading information to Zoko, to a platform partner, or to your End Users;
• advance-fee fraud, fake prize and lottery notifications, fraudulent investment offers, and pyramid or multi-level marketing schemes.

6. Synthetic and Manipulated Media

You may not use the Services to distribute:

• deepfakes or manipulated media presented as genuine;
• AI-generated content that is misleading as to its origin, where applicable law or platform policy requires it to be disclosed as automated or synthetic;
• content that falsely depicts a real person saying or doing something they did not say or do;
• fabricated depictions of real events, or misinformation designed to deceive or cause harm, including health and electoral misinformation.

Additional rules on the use of AI Features, including disclosure and human oversight, are set out in the Zoko AI Terms.

7. Link and Redirect Abuse

The Services include link generation, short links, click-to-WhatsApp links, and QR codes. You may not:

• use a Zoko link or QR code to direct anyone to content prohibited by this Policy;
• mask or misrepresent the true destination of a link;
• use redirects to circumvent a restriction applied by Zoko, Meta, Shopify, or any other platform;
• use redirects to evade the review, approval, or policy enforcement processes of a third-party platform;
• create redirect chains whose purpose or effect is to obscure the final destination;
• generate links or QR codes in bulk for distribution to people who have not consented to hear from you.

8. Platform and Security Integrity

You may not attempt to compromise the integrity, availability, or security of the Services. This includes:

• uploading or transmitting viruses, ransomware, or any other malicious code;
• interfering with or circumventing any security feature of the Services, of a connected platform, or of the internet;
• using robots, spiders, scrapers, offline readers, or similar automated tools to access the Services outside our published interfaces;
• attempting to decipher, decompile, disassemble, or reverse engineer any software or algorithm used to provide the Services;
• probing, scanning, or load-testing the Services or their infrastructure without our prior written consent;
• accessing another user's Account or data, or non-public areas of our systems;
• copying, distributing, reselling, or disclosing any part of the Services except as permitted by the Terms of Service.

If you believe you have found a security vulnerability, report it to contact@zoko.io rather than testing it further, and give us a reasonable opportunity to address it before disclosing it to anyone else.

9. Restricted Businesses and Activities

The following categories of business and business practice may not use the Services. The list is representative rather than exhaustive, and we may update it. If you are unsure whether your business falls within it, contact us at contact@zoko.io before using the Services.

• Financial and money services: money transmission, cheque cashing, wire transfer, currency exchange, payment aggregation or factoring intended to obscure the origin of funds, bail bonds, collections agencies, debt reduction or credit repair, mortgage or investment advisory services, securities broking, and lending instruments.
• Virtual currency and stored value: cryptocurrency exchange or monetisation, unregulated stored value or credits issued by anyone other than the seller, and sale of in-game currency by anyone other than the operator of the virtual world.
• Gambling and games of chance: real-money gambling, casinos, betting, lotteries, bidding-fee auctions, sports forecasting and odds-making, fantasy leagues with cash prizes, and contests or sweepstakes operated for profit, in each case where prohibited or where advertising them is prohibited, and any payment facilitation or redirect used to circumvent such a restriction.
• Regulated, restricted, and illegal goods: controlled substances and drug paraphernalia, substances marketed to mimic illegal drugs, cannabis and related businesses where unlawful in the relevant jurisdiction, tobacco, e-cigarettes and e-liquid, online pharmacies and prescription medicines, products making health or medical claims that have not been approved by the applicable regulator, weapons and munitions, explosives and fireworks, and toxic, flammable, or radioactive materials.
• Infringing and counterfeit goods: counterfeit or unauthorised branded goods, unauthorised resale of designer products, pirated media or software, and anything that infringes or facilitates infringement of intellectual property, privacy, or publicity rights.
• Adult content and services: pornography and obscene material, escort and prostitution services, and adult live chat or pay-per-view services.
• Deceptive and predatory practices: get-rich-quick schemes, investment offers promising outsized returns, pyramid and multi-level marketing schemes, mugshot publication or pay-to-remove sites, sale of social media engagement such as followers, likes, or views, no-value-added resale of government offerings, and any practice we reasonably determine to be unfair, deceptive, or predatory toward consumers.
• Any business prohibited by the policies of WhatsApp, Meta, Shopify, our payment processors, or any other platform on which the Services depend.

10. Third-Party Platform Policies

Zoko connects to third-party platforms, including Meta (WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram) and Shopify. Using Zoko in any way that violates the policies of a connected platform also violates this Policy, whether or not the conduct is separately listed here.

This includes the WhatsApp Business Messaging Policy, the WhatsApp Business Terms of Service, the Meta Commerce Policies, and the Shopify Terms of Service and App Store terms, each as updated from time to time. It is your responsibility to keep up with changes to those policies. Section 6 of the Terms of Service sets out the consequences of a platform restricting or suspending your access.

You may not encourage or enable anyone else to do anything prohibited by this Policy.

11. How We Detect and Handle Violations

Detection

Zoko uses a combination of automated detection and human review. Automated systems flag indicators of spam, phishing, fraudulent payment activity, prohibited content, and other policy violations. Flagged Accounts are reviewed by our team before enforcement action is taken on substantive matters, and complex cases are escalated internally. We also act on reports from End Users, platform partners, and the public, and we work with Meta's platform integrity teams on serious cases.

Enforcement actions

Depending on the nature and severity of a violation, and on whether it is repeated, we may take one or more of the following steps:

• issue a warning or an in-product notice;
• require you to correct or remove specific content, campaigns, or automations;
• restrict specific features or messaging channels on your Account;
• suspend your Account temporarily;
• terminate your Account permanently, together with any associated Accounts;
• report the matter to Meta, Shopify, or another platform partner;
• refer the matter to law enforcement where required or appropriate.

We aim to act proportionately and, where the circumstances allow, to give you an opportunity to put things right. We do not do so where the violation is severe, where it exposes End Users, Zoko, or a platform partner to immediate risk, or where it falls within Section 2. Termination for a violation of this Policy is termination for cause under Section 12 of the Terms of Service, and no refund is given.

Reporting a violation

If you have received a message from a Zoko-powered automation that you believe violates this Policy, or you have encountered an Account misusing the platform, report it to contact@zoko.io with the subject line "Abuse Report".

To help us investigate, include as much of the following as you can: the business name, phone number, or link involved; a description of what happened; screenshots or recordings of the interaction; and the date and approximate time. Your own contact details are optional but let us follow up with you.

Once we receive a report we will acknowledge it if you have given us contact details, review the Account or content against this Policy and the Terms of Service, take enforcement action if a violation is confirmed, and let you know the outcome where we can, subject to the confidentiality we owe to account holders.

12. Updates to this Policy

We may update this Policy from time to time, for example to address new forms of abuse, to reflect changes in the policies of platforms we depend on, or to meet new legal requirements. Changes take effect when posted, and your continued use of the Services after that constitutes acceptance. Where a change materially expands what is prohibited, we will endeavour to give notice in advance in accordance with Section 27 of the Terms of Service.

For compliance questions, or to escalate an urgent trust and safety matter, contact contact@zoko.io.

Governing law

This document forms part of the Zoko Terms of Service and is governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, USA, in accordance with Section 24 of those Terms. Disputes follow the escalation path and arbitration provisions in Sections 23 and 24 of the Terms of Service.