Acceptable Use Policy

1. What this policy is

This Acceptable Use Policy is the long version of what we promised in our Terms of Service. It applies to every part of Spectrum Connect: public profiles, private messages, project briefs, deliverables, reviews, support tickets, our API, and anything else you touch on the platform.

2. Don't do these things

Illegal or harmful

• Anything that breaks applicable law in the US, the EU, or where you or the other party live.
• Sexual content involving minors. No exceptions, no edge cases. We report this directly to NCMEC and to law enforcement.
• Threats of violence, doxxing, stalking, or organising any of the above against another person.
• Hate speech that targets a person or group for who they are.
• Selling or distributing controlled substances, weapons, or items that need a regulated permit.
• Money laundering, terrorism financing, or sanctions evasion. We screen against the usual lists.

Fraud and dishonesty

• Impersonating another person, company, or Spectrum Connect employee.
• Fake portfolios or résumés. Display your real work and credit collaborators.
• Fake reviews. We can't stop a few from slipping through, but we will roll them back when we find them and we look hard.
• Buying, selling, or trading reviews, ratings, or ETF Points.
• Creating multiple accounts to dodge a suspension, game search ranking, or harvest extra ETF Points.
• Submitting an AI-generated portfolio piece as your own work without disclosure.

Going around the platform

Once you've been introduced to someone through Spectrum Connect, the work, the payment, and the dispute resolution belong here for at least the first 24 months. That means:

• Don't share PayPal, Venmo, Wise, or bank details inside the platform messaging system before a hire.
• Don't agree to take a project off-platform “to save the fee”. (You also lose escrow, dispute support, and ETF.)
• Don't use Spectrum Connect purely to find leads you then convert into off-platform deals.

If you have a legitimate reason to convert a Spectrum Connect engagement to an off-platform one (full-time hire, retainer that needs custom invoicing), email legal@spectrumconnect.co. We almost always say yes; we just need to know.

Abuse of other users

• Harassment, sustained insults, sexual messages to people who haven't invited them.
• Retaliating against a reviewer or a dispute participant.
• Sharing private information about another user without their permission.
• Mass-messaging the same template to dozens of profiles a day. Personalise or don't bother.

Abuse of the platform itself

• Scraping, crawling, or harvesting data from Spectrum Connect except through our public API and within its rate limits.
• Reverse-engineering, decompiling, or attempting to extract source code.
• Probing for security vulnerabilities outside our responsible-disclosure programme. (For the record, the programme is at security@spectrumconnect.co; we appreciate ethical reports.)
• Uploading malware, phishing pages, or content designed to compromise other users.
• Stress-testing our rate limits or overloading our infrastructure on purpose.

Content rules

• Don't upload work that infringes someone else's copyright, trademark, or other rights. See our DMCA Policy for how owners can report infringement.
• Don't post personal data of third parties without a legal basis.
• Don't use the platform to spread misinformation about elections, public health, or other matters where harm is concrete.
• Don't paste prompts or links designed to manipulate other users' AI assistants, including Miya.

3. Project and deliverable rules

Some things that look unusual but are fine:

• Adult content from verified adult creators with clearly opted-in clients, subject to your jurisdiction's laws.
• Long-running retainers that span multiple projects.
• Friendly, candid private messages between people who've already worked together.

Some things that look fine but aren't:

• “Hire”-then-cancel patterns used to harvest creator's portfolio in proposals.
• Identical project briefs posted to many creators with no intent to hire.
• Using Spectrum Connect's name, logo, or trademarks in your own marketing without permission.

4. How we enforce this

We'd rather warn and educate than ban. For first or low-severity issues:

• Private warning, with a link to the rule we think you broke.
• Removal of the offending content or review.

For repeated, serious, or obviously bad-faith issues:

• Temporary suspension (24 hours to 30 days, depending).
• Loss of trust signals: lowered visibility in Smart Connect, ETF Points clawback if the points were earned from the conduct in question.
• Permanent account closure. Any escrow funds are released according to the dispute process.

For things that look criminal we may freeze the account immediately and refer the matter to law enforcement. If your account is suspended you can appeal in writing to appeals@spectrumconnect.co; we'll respond within 14 days.

5. Reporting bad behaviour

Most pages have a small “Report” control. Use it. Reports come into our trust & safety queue and are read by a real person. You can also email trust@spectrumconnect.co with the URL of the content and a one-line description of the problem.

We aim to acknowledge any safety report within 24 hours and to action it within 72. Egregious cases (CSAM, credible threats) get acted on faster, day or night.

6. We can update this policy

The internet keeps inventing new ways to be awful, so this list is going to grow. We'll update this page when something new comes up and we'll note the change at the top. If a change materially restricts what you can do on the platform, we'll give you at least 14 days' notice.