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Anti-Spam Policy

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1. Purpose and Scope

This Anti-Spam Policy ("Policy") sets the rules for sending email through SEVA's Services. It is incorporated into SEVA's Terms of Service by reference and forms part of the binding agreement between you and SEVA.

This Policy applies to all email sent through the following Services:

  • Business Email: mailboxes SEVA provides on your domain as part of a SEVA hosting plan, whether used through webmail, a desktop mail app, or a mobile device.
  • Managed Email Marketing: marketing email SEVA prepares and sends on your behalf under a Managed Marketing Agreement.
  • Self-Managed Email Marketing: marketing email you create and send yourself through the email marketing tools in your client portal.

This Policy applies to you and to every person who sends email through your accounts.

2. Definitions

In this Policy:

  • "Anti-Spam Laws" means all laws and regulations that govern commercial electronic messages, consent to receive them, or the use of recipients' personal data to send them, in every jurisdiction where the sender or a recipient is located. Anti-Spam Laws include, but are not limited to:
    • the CAN-SPAM Act (United States);
    • Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation, known as CASL (Canada);
    • the General Data Protection Regulation and the ePrivacy rules of the European Union and its member states (European Union);
    • the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, known as PECR (United Kingdom).
  • "Commercial Email" means email whose primary purpose is to advertise or promote a product, service, organization, event, or cause, whether sent to one recipient or many.
  • "Marketing Email" means Commercial Email sent through Managed Email Marketing or Self-Managed Email Marketing, and any email sent to multiple recipients with substantially the same content.
  • "Transactional Email" means email that relates to a transaction, account, or service the recipient requested or takes part in, such as a receipt, booking confirmation, or account notice.
  • "Spam" means Commercial Email sent without the consent this Policy requires, and any email sent in violation of Anti-Spam Laws.

Capitalized terms used but not defined in this Policy have the meanings given to them in the Terms of Service.

3. Your Responsibilities as Sender

You are the sender of every email sent through your accounts, including Marketing Email SEVA sends on your behalf under a Managed Marketing Agreement. You are responsible for making sure that email complies with this Policy and with Anti-Spam Laws.

You must:

  1. Comply with Anti-Spam Laws for every email sent through your accounts.
  2. Make sure every person who uses your accounts knows and follows this Policy.
  3. Keep mailbox passwords and portal credentials secure, and protect any website form that collects email addresses against automated sign-ups.
  4. Notify SEVA immediately at support@sevasystems.io if you suspect a mailbox or account has been compromised or misused, and cooperate in stopping it.
  5. Respond promptly when SEVA asks for information about your sending, including Consent Records, and carry out any corrective measures SEVA reasonably requests.

You are responsible for email sent through your accounts by anyone, with or without your permission, including email sent after your credentials were compromised. Your indemnification obligations under Section 10.1 of the Terms of Service apply to any claim arising from email sent through your accounts.

4. Business Email

Business Email mailboxes are for normal individual business and personal correspondence, not for marketing or bulk sending.

Permitted use. You may send and receive individual messages, reply and forward, use auto-replies and out-of-office messages, set up mailbox rules and forwarding, and send occasional notifications, as long as the volume stays consistent with normal correspondence.

Not permitted. You may not use Business Email to:

  • send Marketing Email, newsletters, or promotional campaigns (use Managed or Self-Managed Email Marketing instead);
  • send substantially the same message to large numbers of recipients;
  • run marketing automation or other high-volume automated sending;
  • relay email for other servers, applications, or websites.

Individual business and sales email. You may use Business Email to send individual sales and business emails to your clients and prospects. These emails must comply with Anti-Spam Laws, including any consent they require. You must stop emailing any recipient who asks you to.

Sending limits. Each mailbox is subject to sending limits published by SEVA on its website and in its help documentation. SEVA may change these limits by updating them there. Email that exceeds a limit may be rejected, and sending from the mailbox may be paused until the cause is resolved.

5. Email Marketing

You may send Marketing Email only to recipients who have given explicit, provable consent to receive it from you.

Consent must be:

  • active: the recipient took a clear affirmative step, such as ticking an unchecked box. Pre-checked boxes, silence, and consent assumed from a purchase or account sign-up do not count;
  • explicit: the recipient was told who would email them and what kind of email they would receive;
  • specific to you: consent given to another person or organization does not extend to you.

For each recipient, you must keep a record of when consent was given, how and where it was collected, and what the recipient agreed to receive ("Consent Records"). Keep Consent Records for as long as you email that recipient, and longer where Anti-Spam Laws require. You must provide them to SEVA promptly on request.

5.3 Lists

You may not send Marketing Email to any list or address that was purchased, rented, shared, borrowed, scraped, harvested, or otherwise obtained from a third party or without the recipient's consent.

5.4 Every Marketing Email

must:

  1. identify you accurately in the From and Reply-To fields;
  2. use a subject line that reflects the content of the email;
  3. include your valid physical postal address;
  4. include a clear, working unsubscribe link.

5.5 Unsubscribes, bounces, and complaints

You must honor unsubscribe requests promptly, and no later than Anti-Spam Laws require. You must stop sending to addresses that unsubscribe, permanently bounce, or report your email as spam, unless the recipient gives new consent.

5.6 Sending domains

You may send only from domains you own or are authorized to use, and you must complete the domain verification and authentication steps SEVA requires.

5.7 Transactional Email

Transactional Email does not need an unsubscribe link. It must not be used to send promotional content that would otherwise require consent under this Policy.

5.8 Managed Email Marketing

When SEVA sends Marketing Email on your behalf, you supply the recipient list and confirm that every recipient meets the consent requirements of this Policy. SEVA may decline to send to any list or recipient without Consent Records, and may decline to send any content it reasonably believes violates this Policy or Anti-Spam Laws.

6. Prohibited Practices

Regardless of the Service used, you may not use SEVA's Services to:

  1. send Spam;
  2. send phishing email, or email containing malware or links to malicious content;
  3. falsify, disguise, or conceal the origin of an email, including its headers, sender name, sender address, or sending domain;
  4. send from a domain, name, or trademark you do not own or are not authorized to use;
  5. send email that generates an abnormal number of bounces, rejections, spam complaints, or abuse reports;
  6. collect or verify email addresses by harvesting, scraping, guessing, or dictionary attacks;
  7. avoid or get around SEVA's sending limits, filtering, or monitoring, including by rotating senders, domains, mailboxes, or accounts.

SEVA may act under this Policy even where a legal basis for sending exists, if the email is unwanted by recipients or harms the reputation or operation of SEVA's email infrastructure.

7. Sending Limits and Monitoring

SEVA monitors sending across its Services to protect deliverability for all clients.

Sending limits. Sending limits for each Service are published by SEVA on its website and in its help documentation, and may change as described there.

Monitoring. SEVA monitors sending volume, bounces, spam complaints, unsubscribe rates, blocklist listings, and unusual sending patterns. SEVA sets internal thresholds for these measures, which may change at any time to reflect the requirements of SEVA's email delivery providers and mailbox providers. Where SEVA makes these thresholds available, they will appear in the help documentation in your client portal.

New domains and sending changes. SEVA may apply temporary limits to new sending domains, new mailboxes, or significant increases in sending volume, and raise them gradually as sending history builds.

8. Enforcement

SEVA may act immediately, without prior notice and without the cure period in Section 11.1 of the Terms of Service or Section 6.2 of the Acceptable Use Policy, to stop email that violates this Policy or puts SEVA's email infrastructure at risk.

8.1 Immediate suspension

SEVA may immediately pause or suspend sending from a mailbox, domain, or account, or suspend access to Self-Managed Email Marketing, where SEVA reasonably believes that:

  1. Spam is being sent, or a practice prohibited by Section 6 is taking place;
  2. a mailbox or account has been compromised, consistent with Section 11.3 of the Terms of Service;
  3. sending is harming, or is likely to harm, the reputation or operation of SEVA's email infrastructure, or SEVA's standing with its email delivery providers; or
  4. you have not provided Consent Records or other information SEVA requested under this Policy.

8.2 Other measures

SEVA may also reject or hold individual messages, lower sending limits, remove addresses from future sends, or require corrective measures before sending resumes.

8.3 Scope and notice

Where possible, SEVA will limit action to the affected mailbox, domain, or Service. SEVA will notify you as soon as reasonably possible and will restore sending once the cause has been resolved to SEVA's reasonable satisfaction. A suspension under this Section does not end your agreement with SEVA or relieve you of your obligations under it.

8.4 Serious or repeated violations

Deliberate, serious, or repeated violations of this Policy are a material breach. SEVA may suspend your entire account, or terminate the affected Services, without the cure period in Section 11.1 of the Terms of Service.

9. No Refunds

Suspension or termination resulting from a violation of this Policy does not entitle you to a refund, credit, or compensation for fees paid, except where required by law. This is consistent with Section 4.5 of the Terms of Service.

10. Reporting Abuse

If you receive email you believe was sent through SEVA's Services in violation of this Policy, report it to abuse@sevasystems.io. Include the full email with its headers where possible, so SEVA can identify the sending account and investigate.

SEVA investigates every report and takes action under Section 8 where a violation is found.

11. Changes to This Policy

SEVA may update this Policy from time to time. Material changes will be communicated in the same manner as material changes to the Terms of Service, as described in Section 13 of those Terms. Changes needed to protect SEVA's email infrastructure or to meet legal requirements or the requirements of SEVA's email delivery providers may take effect immediately.

12. Relationship to Other Agreements

This Policy is incorporated into and forms part of SEVA's Terms of Service. It applies alongside the Acceptable Use Policy, which continues to govern prohibited content and conduct across all of SEVA's Services, and any Managed Marketing Agreement under which SEVA sends email on your behalf.

The disclaimers, limitation of liability, indemnification, and dispute resolution provisions of the Terms of Service apply to any matter arising under this Policy.

If this Policy conflicts with the Terms of Service, the Acceptable Use Policy, or a Managed Marketing Agreement, this Policy controls on matters of sending email through SEVA's Services. The other document controls on all other matters.

Questions about this Policy can be sent to legal@sevasystems.io.

Questions about this document? legal@sevasystems.io