Acceptable Use Policy

This policy sets out what you can and can't do with Arcela. It forms part of our Terms of Service. It applies to your business and to everyone you let use your account, and you're responsible for making sure they follow it.

Arcela is provided by Arcscribe Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 16921982, registered office 18 Colegate, Norwich, NR3 1BQ, United Kingdom.

1. The short version

Use Arcela to run a lawful business and to talk to people who have a genuine reason to hear from you. Don't use it to mislead, harass, spam or harm anyone, or to get around our limits or security.

2. Who can use Arcela

Any lawful business may use Arcela. We don't ban particular industries, but you must not use Arcela for anything our telecoms or payments partners prohibit, including:

• the Twilio Acceptable Use Policy and Messaging Policy, which apply to all calls and texts; and
• for the Payments module, the Stripe Services Agreement and Restricted Businesses list.

If your business is restricted under those rules, some features (such as Payments, or texts to some destinations) may not be available to you.

3. Calls and texts

You may use Arcela's phone numbers, calls and texts for service communication. That means calls and messages about a real enquiry, booking, job, quote, invoice or account that the person has with your business.

Marketing calls and texts aren't allowed through Arcela at the moment. This includes promotions, offers, newsletters, "we're in your area" messages and any bulk or campaign messaging. It applies even if you have the person's consent. We may offer marketing messaging later as a separate feature with its own rules.

When you call or text anyone through Arcela, you must:

• Have a reason: only contact people who have contacted you, are your customers, or have asked to hear from you about their job;
• Respect opt-outs: stop texting anyone who replies STOP or asks not to be contacted, and don't contact anyone marked "do not contact" in Arcela. Arcela blocks these automatically, and you must not try to get round that;
• Show who you are: never hide or fake your identity or caller ID. Don't present a number you aren't entitled to use. Use your business name in texts;
• Avoid nuisance: don't make silent or abandoned calls, repeated calls to the same person meant to pressure or harass, or calls at unreasonable hours;
• Don't use auto-diallers: don't use automated dialling, robocalls or recorded-message campaigns;
• Don't misuse calls: don't send or forward premium-rate, fraudulent or "wangiri" (one-ring) calls or messages; and
• Know the limit on emergency calls: don't use Arcela to contact the emergency services, or rely on it for that. Keep another way to call 999 or 112.

4. Call recording, transcripts and the AI receptionist

• The AI receptionist always tells callers it's an AI and that the call may be recorded and transcribed. You must not change, hide or remove that disclosure, or set it up to suggest it's a person.
• Recording and transcription must be lawful for your business. You're responsible for telling callers where the law requires it, and for having a lawful basis to keep recordings.
• You must not instruct the AI to give advice it isn't qualified to give (legal, medical, financial or safety advice beyond the built-in emergency guidance). You must not make it quote prices you haven't approved, or make promises on your behalf that you don't intend to keep.
• Bookings made by the AI are pencilled in, not confirmed. Don't present them to customers as confirmed until you have confirmed them.

5. Content and data

You must not use Arcela to create, store, send or publish anything that:

• is unlawful, fraudulent, defamatory or in breach of anyone's rights, including copyright and privacy;
• harasses, threatens, bullies or intimidates anyone, or promotes violence or hatred;
• is sexually explicit involving anyone under 18, or exploits children in any way. We will report this to the authorities;
• is designed to mislead, such as fake reviews, impersonating another business or person, or phishing; or
• contains malware or harmful code.

You must also:

• Collect lawfully: only collect and store personal data you're allowed to under UK data protection law, and give your own customers the privacy information they're entitled to;
• Limit sensitive data: only store special category data (such as health information) when you genuinely need it to serve your customers and have a lawful basis; and
• Take care with sensitive details: treat key safe codes, alarm codes and access notes with care, and store them only in the fields Arcela provides for them.

6. Public pages and forms

If you publish a booking page or enquiry form through Arcela:

• Be accurate: describe your business and services accurately, and don't advertise services you don't provide;
• Tell people how you use their data: link to your own privacy information where required. Arcela adds a standard consent line, but you're responsible for what you ask people and why; and
• Don't misuse it: don't use the page to collect payment card details, passwords or other data outside the fields Arcela provides.

7. Payments

If you use the Payments module, you must:

• follow Stripe's terms and Restricted Businesses list;
• only take payments for genuine goods and services your business provides;
• not use Payments to move money for anyone else, or to split, disguise or launder payments; and
• handle refunds and disputes honestly and promptly.

8. Keeping Arcela working for everyone

You must not:

• Break in: access, or try to access, another business's data or any part of Arcela you aren't authorised to use;
• Test our security without permission: probe, scan or test our security. If you find a vulnerability, report it to us instead (see section 10);
• Overload the service: interfere with Arcela or overload it, for example with excessive automated requests, scraping or denial-of-service activity;
• Get round limits: work around usage limits, spending caps, trial rules or feature gating, for example by opening multiple accounts to get repeated free trials;
• Copy the software: reverse engineer, decompile or copy Arcela, except where the law allows; or
• Share access: share logins, or give access to anyone outside your business without our written agreement.

Fair use: where a plan says something is unlimited, such as quotes and invoices, normal use for a business of your size is included. If use is far beyond that and affects the service or our costs, we'll talk to you first about the right plan.

9. What happens if this policy is broken

We'd rather fix things with you than fall out with you. Our approach is:

1. Warning: if we spot a problem, we'll usually tell you what we've found and give you a reasonable time to fix it.

2. Suspension for serious issues: we may suspend some or all of your account straight away, without warning, if we reasonably believe the use:

   • is unlawful or fraudulent;
   • is harming people (for example harassment or nuisance calls);
   • puts Arcela, our partners or other customers at risk; or
   • must be stopped because a partner (such as Twilio or Stripe), a regulator or the law requires it.

   When that happens we'll tell you why, unless the law or security stops us.

3. Ending the account: for serious or repeated breaches, we may end your account under our Terms of Service.

We may also:

• remove content;
• block specific numbers or features;
• keep records; and
• share information with our partners, regulators or the police where the law allows or requires it.

10. Reporting a problem

If you think an Arcela number or account is being misused (for example nuisance calls or texts), or you've found a security issue, email contact@arcscribe.co.uk. Include the number, date, time and what happened. We'll look into every report.

11. Changes

We may update this policy as the law, our partners' rules or Arcela changes. We'll give you notice of significant changes by email or in Arcela.