Acceptable Use Policy

This Acceptable Use Policy ("AUP") governs your use of the Zatabase platform and all related services (the "Service") operated by Black Leaf Digital ("Company", "we", "us", or "our"). This AUP is incorporated into and forms part of our Terms of Service. Violation of this AUP may result in suspension or termination of your account.

1. Prohibited Activities

You may not use the Service to:

• Illegal activity: Engage in or facilitate any activity that violates any applicable local, state, national, or international law or regulation.
• Harmful content: Store, transmit, or distribute content that is unlawful, defamatory, obscene, threatening, abusive, or that promotes violence, discrimination, or hatred.
• Unauthorized access: Attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Service, other accounts, computer systems, or networks connected to the Service, through hacking, password mining, brute-force attacks, or any other means.
• Service disruption: Interfere with, disrupt, or attempt to disrupt the integrity, performance, or availability of the Service or any related systems, including denial-of-service attacks.
• Spam and unsolicited communications: Use the Service to send unsolicited bulk messages, spam, phishing emails, or any form of deceptive communication.
• Malware: Upload, store, or transmit viruses, trojans, ransomware, worms, or any other malicious code or software.
• Cryptomining: Use the Service's compute resources for cryptocurrency mining or proof-of-work calculations unless explicitly authorized under a dedicated Enterprise agreement.
• Intellectual property infringement: Use the Service to infringe upon the intellectual property rights of any third party, including copyright, trademark, patent, or trade secret rights.
• Resale without authorization: Resell, sublicense, or redistribute access to the Service without our prior written consent.
• Circumvention: Bypass or attempt to bypass any access controls, rate limits, usage quotas, or other technical restrictions on the Service.

2. Resource Usage and Fair Use

The Service operates on a credit-based model with defined resource allocations per plan tier. You agree to:

• Use resources within the limits of your plan tier as described on our Pricing page.
• Not intentionally or repeatedly exhaust shared resources (compute, bandwidth, storage) in a manner that degrades the Service for other users.
• Not create multiple free-tier accounts to circumvent resource limits.
• Not use automated tools to generate artificial load, inflate usage metrics, or consume credits without a legitimate business purpose.

We reserve the right to throttle, suspend, or restrict accounts that exhibit resource usage patterns that are disproportionate to their plan tier or that negatively impact the Service for other users. We will make reasonable efforts to notify you before taking such action.

3. Content Guidelines

You are solely responsible for all data and content you store on or transmit through the Service. You agree not to use the Service to store or process:

• Content that violates the privacy rights of any third party.
• Regulated data (such as protected health information under HIPAA, or payment card data under PCI DSS) unless you are on an Enterprise plan with the appropriate compliance addendum in place.
• Content that you do not have the right to store, process, or transmit.

4. Security Requirements

You are responsible for maintaining the security of your account and the data you store on the Service. You agree to:

• Use strong, unique passwords and enable multi-factor authentication where available.
• Keep API keys, access tokens, and other credentials confidential. Do not embed credentials in client-side code or public repositories.
• Promptly rotate credentials if you suspect they have been compromised.
• Report any discovered security vulnerabilities to abuse@zatabase.io rather than exploiting them.
• Implement appropriate access controls within your organization using the Service's permissions and role-based access features.

5. API and Automation Usage

• Automated API usage must respect published rate limits and implement appropriate backoff strategies.
• You must include a valid User-Agent header or API key with all automated requests.
• Scraping or automated data extraction from the console interface (as opposed to the API) is not permitted.

6. Reporting Violations

If you become aware of any violation of this AUP, please report it to abuse@zatabase.io. Include as much detail as possible, including the nature of the violation, the account or resource involved, and any supporting evidence. We will investigate all reports promptly and in confidence.

7. Enforcement

We enforce this AUP at our sole discretion. Depending on the severity and frequency of the violation, enforcement actions may include:

• Warning: A written notice describing the violation and requesting corrective action.
• Throttling: Temporary reduction of resource limits or rate limits on the offending account.
• Suspension: Temporary suspension of account access pending investigation or remediation.
• Termination: Permanent termination of the account and deletion of associated data, with or without prior notice for severe violations.
• Legal action: Referral to law enforcement or initiation of legal proceedings where appropriate.

We will make reasonable efforts to notify you and provide an opportunity to remedy the violation before taking enforcement action, except in cases where immediate action is necessary to protect the Service, its users, or third parties.

8. Changes to This Policy

We may update this AUP from time to time. We will notify you of changes by posting the updated policy on this page and updating the "Last updated" date. Material changes will be communicated via email or a prominent notice in the console. Your continued use of the Service after changes are posted constitutes your acceptance of the revised AUP.

9. Contact

If you have any questions about this Acceptable Use Policy, please contact us at abuse@zatabase.io.