Acceptable Use Policy

Document status: Approved v1.0 (2026-07-21) Effective date: 2026-07-21

This Acceptable Use Policy (“AUP”) governs your use of the SurveyRock platform and related services (the “Service”) provided by Oak Mountain Digital LLC (“SurveyRock”). The AUP is incorporated into our Terms of Service. Violation of the AUP is a material breach of the Terms.

We monitor for AUP violations through automated systems and respond to user reports. We act in good faith to enforce these rules consistently and proportionately.

1. Purpose

SurveyRock is built for legitimate research, customer feedback, employee feedback, market research, and similar feedback programs. Survey platforms can be misused for harm — phishing, scams, harassment, illegal data collection, and unsolicited marketing. This AUP defines what’s not permitted and what we do about violations.

2. Prohibited content

You may not use the Service to create, distribute, or collect responses for content that:

2.1 Phishing and credential theft

Asks Respondents for passwords, OTP codes, account verification credentials, or any authentication information
Impersonates a legitimate organization to extract sensitive information (banking, government, employer)
Uses brand impersonation language (“Your [Company] account requires verification…”)
Combines urgency + verification (“Verify within 24 hours to avoid suspension”)

2.2 Scams and fraud

“Free [valuable item]” prize draws that extract data without delivering
Advance-fee fraud schemes (Nigerian prince patterns, fake job offers requiring upfront payment)
Crypto investment / token airdrop solicitations
Romance scam patterns
Fake survey rewards / undelivered incentive schemes

2.3 Hate, harassment, and illegal content

Slurs, dehumanizing language, or content targeting individuals based on protected characteristics (race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability, national origin)
Targeted harassment of named individuals
Content sexualizing minors (immediate report to authorities per legal obligation)
Content promoting violence, terrorism, or self-harm
Content that is illegal in the jurisdiction where collected

2.4 Adult content distributed to non-adults

Sexually explicit content distributed without age verification
Content soliciting personal information from minors

2.5 Personal data harvesting beyond legitimate research

Surveys whose primary purpose is to harvest personal data for resale, spam, or unsolicited marketing
Data collection in violation of GDPR, CCPA, or other applicable privacy law
Collecting Personal Information without a lawful basis or required consent
Collecting sensitive personal information (health, financial, biometric, government IDs) without appropriate safeguards and consent

2.6 Intellectual property infringement

Content that infringes copyright, trademark, patent, or other intellectual property rights
Use of others’ brand assets without authorization
Content that violates publicity or likeness rights

2.7 Other prohibited content

Content that infringes others’ privacy rights
Defamatory or libelous content
Content promoting illegal activity
Content that violates laws in jurisdictions where the Service operates

3. Prohibited conduct

You may not:

3.1 Distribution violations

Send survey invitations as unsolicited bulk email (spam) in violation of CAN-SPAM (US), CASL (Canada), GDPR consent requirements (EU/UK), or other applicable anti-spam law
Use purchased or scraped email lists without verifying lawful basis for contact
Distribute surveys to people who have explicitly opted out of contact
Misrepresent the sender’s identity or purpose

3.2 Technical abuse

Attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Service, other Customers’ accounts, or our infrastructure
Probe, scan, or test the security of the Service except through our coordinated disclosure program at security@surveyrock.com
Interfere with or disrupt the Service or its servers
Run automated processes against the Service except via our documented API and within published rate limits
Bypass rate limits, quotas, or other technical restrictions

(License-scope restrictions — no reverse-engineering, no building a competing product — are in Section 8.1 of the Terms of Service.)

3.3 Account abuse

Create multiple accounts to circumvent plan limits or restrictions
Share account credentials with people outside your Authorized Users
Use the Service after we have suspended or terminated your account
Provide false information when creating or maintaining your account

3.4 Respondent rights

Coerce Respondents (financial threats, employment retaliation) into responding
Discriminate against Respondents based on their responses in ways that violate applicable law
Misrepresent the purpose of a survey or how response data will be used
Fail to honor opt-out requests from Respondents who have asked not to be contacted

3.5 Reputation and resource abuse

Cause the Service to be used for activities that damage our sender reputation (high bounce rates, high spam complaint rates, dirty contact lists)
Cause excessive resource consumption that degrades the Service for other Customers
Use the Service in a manner that creates significant legal or regulatory risk for SurveyRock

4. Special use cases — additional requirements

4.1 Healthcare research

If you conduct surveys collecting health information (other than general wellness questions):

You are responsible for HIPAA compliance and any other applicable healthcare privacy law
Do not collect protected health information (PHI) through the Service unless you have a signed Business Associate Agreement (BAA) with us. To ask about a BAA, contact legal@surveyrock.com.

4.2 Financial information

If you conduct surveys collecting financial information (bank accounts, credit cards, tax IDs):

You are responsible for applicable financial privacy law (Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act in US, PCI DSS where credit cards are involved)
Never use SurveyRock to collect full credit card numbers; use Paddle or your own PCI-compliant processor for any payment transaction

4.3 Children’s data

If you conduct surveys involving children under 13 (US) or 16 (EU):

You are responsible for COPPA (US) and equivalent compliance
Verifiable parental consent is required
Additional restrictions on data collection and retention apply

4.4 Research with protected populations

If you conduct research with prisoners, employees subject to coercion, medical patients, or other protected populations, you are responsible for IRB approval and any institutional research requirements.

5. AI-specific restrictions

The Service includes AI features. You may not:

Use AI features to generate phishing content, scam content, or other prohibited content described above
Attempt to extract our AI prompts, model weights, or proprietary AI logic
Use AI-generated outputs to deceive Respondents about whether they’re interacting with a person or a machine where such disclosure is required
Use the Service to train competing AI models on Customer Content (including others’ Customer Content)

6. Reporting violations

If you believe someone is violating this AUP:

Email: support@surveyrock.com
Subject line: “AUP violation report”
Include: the URL or survey ID of the offending content, the nature of the violation, and any supporting evidence

We investigate all reports made in good faith. We do not retaliate against Customers or third parties who report violations in good faith.

7. Our response to violations

Our response depends on the severity, intent, and pattern:

7.1 Minor violations

First incident, ambiguous intent: warning + education
Repeated minor incidents: restriction of specific features (e.g., contact list size reduction)

7.2 Material violations

Active phishing, scam, or harassment: immediate content removal + account suspension pending investigation
Repeated material violations: account termination

7.3 Severe violations

Content sexualizing minors: immediate removal, mandatory legal reporting, account termination
Active fraud causing demonstrable harm: immediate suspension, cooperation with law enforcement, account termination
Content threatening violence or terrorism: immediate report to authorities, account termination

7.4 Process

We:

Investigate before acting where time permits
Notify the Customer of the violation and our action (unless prohibited by law or the situation precludes notice)
Provide an opportunity to respond and remediate where appropriate
Maintain records of enforcement actions for consistency
Apply enforcement proportionate to the violation

We reserve the right to take action without prior notice for severe violations or where notice would impede investigation.

8. Appeals

If you believe we acted in error:

Email legal@surveyrock.com within 30 days of the action
Include the action taken, why you believe it was in error, and any supporting information
We will review and respond within 14 days

Appeals do not pause enforcement unless we determine the original action was incorrect.

9. Reporting illegal content to authorities

We comply with all applicable legal obligations to report certain content to authorities:

Content sexualizing minors → reported to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) per US legal obligation
Imminent threats of violence → reported to law enforcement
Other content requiring reporting under specific jurisdictional law

We respond to valid legal process (subpoenas, court orders, warrants) regarding Customer data per our Privacy Policy.

10. Updates to this Policy

We may update this AUP from time to time. When we make material changes:

We update the “Effective date” at the top
We notify Customers via in-product notification and/or email
Continued use of the Service after the effective date constitutes acceptance

11. Contact

Abuse reports: support@surveyrock.com Legal questions: legal@surveyrock.com Appeals: legal@surveyrock.com