Usage Policy

Public Circles Inc. · Effective Date: August 21, 2026

1. Purpose and Scope

This Acceptable Use Policy (“AUP”) describes the activities, content, and practices that are prohibited or restricted in connection with the use of the Public Circles email and SMS marketing platform and related services (the “Services”). This AUP is incorporated by reference into, and forms part of, the Public Circles Terms and Conditions of Service (the “Agreement”). Capitalized terms not defined in this AUP have the meanings given to them in the Agreement.

This Policy applies to Client, its Users, and anyone else who accesses or uses the Services under Client’s account, and to all Client Data, including Contact Data and Content Data, sent, uploaded, or processed through the Services.

Public Circles may update this AUP from time to time in accordance with Section 12 (Changes to this Policy). Client is responsible for reviewing this Policy periodically and for ensuring its own compliance and that of its Users.

2. General Standard of Use

Client will use the Services only for lawful purposes and in a manner consistent with this AUP, the Agreement, and Applicable Law. Client will not use, or permit any User or third party to use, the Services in any way that:

• violates Applicable Law, including Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (“CASL”), PIPEDA, applicable provincial privacy legislation, and, where applicable, CAN-SPAM, TCPA, or GDPR;
• infringes, misappropriates, or violates the intellectual property, privacy, publicity, or other rights of any third party;
• is fraudulent, deceptive, misleading, or facilitates fraudulent or deceptive activity;
• harms, disrupts, or threatens the security, integrity, or availability of the Services, Public Circles’ infrastructure, or any other client’s use of the Services; or
• damages the sending reputation of Public Circles’ shared sending infrastructure, including its shared IP addresses and domains.

3. Consent and Anti-Spam Requirements

This section supplements, and does not replace, the representations and warranties Client makes under Section 5.2 (Consent, CASL and Anti-Spam Compliance) of the Agreement. Before sending any commercial electronic message, SMS, or other communication through the Services, Client must:

• obtain valid express or implied consent (as applicable under Applicable Law) from each End Recipient, and retain records sufficient to demonstrate that consent on request;
• include accurate sender identification, a valid physical mailing address, and a clear, functioning unsubscribe or opt-out mechanism in every commercial message;
• honour unsubscribe, opt-out, and deletion requests within the timeframe required by Applicable Law, and not re-add a contact who has opted out without obtaining fresh consent; and
• refrain from uploading purchased, harvested, scraped, rented, co-registration, or other third-party-sourced contact lists unless Client can demonstrate a valid legal basis and consent for each individual contact.

Public Circles may, but is under no obligation to, request evidence of consent or list-acquisition practices at any time. Providing unsubscribe tooling or other platform features does not satisfy Client’s own compliance obligations under CASL, PIPEDA, or other Applicable Law.

4. Prohibited Content

Client will not use the Services to create, upload, store, or transmit content that:

• is unlawful, fraudulent, or facilitates illegal activity;
• is defamatory, obscene, pornographic, or sexually explicit;
• promotes discrimination, violence, or hatred against individuals or groups on the basis of a protected characteristic;
• infringes any third party’s copyright, trademark, trade secret, or other intellectual property or proprietary rights;
• contains malware, viruses, ransomware, or other harmful code, or links to any of the foregoing;
• constitutes phishing, spoofing, or impersonation of a person, business, or organization; or
• Public Circles reasonably determines poses a legal, security, or reputational risk to Public Circles or its clients.

5. Restricted and High-Risk Categories

As referenced in Section 5.3 (Prohibited Uses) of the Agreement, the following categories of message content and business activity are restricted. Client may not send campaigns relating to these categories without Public Circles’ prior written consent, which Public Circles may condition on additional documentation, list-hygiene evidence, or dedicated sending infrastructure:

• pharmaceuticals, supplements, or health products not properly licensed or approved for sale in the jurisdiction of the End Recipient, including unlicensed or prescription-only pharmaceuticals;
• multi-level marketing, pyramid, matrix, or other recruitment-based compensation schemes;
• cryptocurrency, digital asset, or forex trading solicitations, including initial coin offerings and investment opportunities of that nature;
• debt consolidation, credit repair, payday lending, or other high-risk financial products or services;
• firearms, ammunition, or weapons sales;
• adult content, escort services, or dating services targeting minors or lacking age-verification safeguards;
• gambling, sweepstakes, or games of chance, except where properly licensed in every jurisdiction targeted; and
• any other category Public Circles designates as high-risk from time to time, with notice to Client where reasonably practicable.

Public Circles may decline to onboard, or may suspend, any Client whose primary business falls within a restricted category described in this Section 5, at its sole discretion.

6. List Acquisition and Hygiene

In addition to the consent requirements in Section 3, Client must:

• remove hard bounces, invalid addresses, and role-based or known spam-trap addresses from active sending lists on an ongoing basis;
• segment and suppress contacts who have not engaged with Client’s communications over an extended period, consistent with good sending practice;
• avoid list-growth practices that rely on pre-checked consent boxes, deceptive sign-up flows, or bundled consent for unrelated communications; and
• promptly investigate and remediate any unusual spike in bounce rates, spam complaints, or unsubscribes associated with a list or segment.

7. Sending Practices and Deliverability Standards

Because Public Circles’ shared sending infrastructure affects deliverability for all clients, Client’s sending activity must remain within the following general thresholds, measured on a rolling basis per sending domain or account:

• bounce rate should not exceed 5% of a given send;
• spam-complaint rate should not exceed 0.1% (1 in 1,000) of a given send; and
• unsubscribe requests should be processed, and complainants suppressed, on an ongoing and automated basis.

These thresholds are operational guidelines used to assess deliverability and compliance risk under Section 5.4 of the Agreement; they do not limit or redefine Client’s underlying legal obligations under Applicable Law, which may be more stringent.

8. System and Network Integrity

Client will not, and will not permit any User or third party to:

• access or attempt to access the Services, another client’s account or data, or Public Circles’ underlying infrastructure without authorization;
• probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of any system or network, or breach any security or authentication measure, without Public Circles’ prior written consent;
• interfere with or disrupt the Services, or any server, network, or account connected to the Services, including through denial-of-service attacks or excessive automated requests; or
• use the Services to relay or forward unauthorized traffic on behalf of a third party who is not a User under Client’s account.

9. Monitoring and Enforcement

As described in Section 5.4 of the Agreement, Public Circles may monitor bounce rates, spam-complaint rates, abuse reports, and other sending signals across its platform. Where Public Circles reasonably determines that Client’s use of the Services violates this AUP or poses a material deliverability, security, or legal compliance risk, Public Circles may, at its discretion and without liability to Client:

• issue a warning and request corrective action within a specified period;
• throttle, pause, or rate-limit Client’s sending;
• require Client to re-verify or clean a contact list, or remove specific segments, before resuming sending;
• suspend Client’s access to some or all of the Services; or
• terminate Client’s account in accordance with Section 13 (Term, Suspension, and Termination) of the Agreement.

Public Circles will use commercially reasonable efforts to notify Client promptly of any such action and, where the risk is not urgent, to give Client a reasonable opportunity to cure before suspension. Public Circles is under no obligation to proactively monitor or review Client Data, and Client’s compliance obligations exist independently of whether Public Circles identifies a violation.

10. Reporting Violations

Recipients of Client communications, and third parties, may report suspected violations of this AUP — including unwanted messages, spam complaints, or abuse — to Public Circles through the abuse or support contact information published on its website. Public Circles will review reports it receives and may take any of the actions described in Section 9 in response.

11. Relationship to the Agreement

This AUP is incorporated by reference into the Agreement. In the event of a conflict between this AUP and the Agreement, the Agreement will govern, except that this AUP governs with respect to the specific operational and content standards described in Sections 4 through 8 above. Client’s breach of this AUP constitutes a breach of Section 5 (Client Responsibilities and Acceptable Use) of the Agreement.

12. Changes to this Policy

Public Circles may update this AUP from time to time to reflect changes in the Services, industry practice, or Applicable Law. Public Circles will provide notice of material changes by email or through the Services at least fifteen (15) days before they take effect, consistent with Section 19 (Modifications to this Agreement) of the Agreement. Client’s continued use of the Services after the effective date of a change constitutes acceptance of the updated Policy.

13. Contact

Questions regarding this Policy, or reports of suspected violations, may be directed to Public Circles Inc. through the contact information published on its website.