Acceptable Use Policy

1 Overview

netnow LLC ("netnow," "we," "us," or "our") provides token-based access to residential proxy networks for lawful, legitimate purposes. This AUP sets out the rules for what you may and may not do with the Service. These rules exist to:

• Protect the integrity and availability of the Service for all users;
• Comply with our obligations to Upstream Providers;
• Prevent misuse that harms third parties, networks, and the broader internet ecosystem;
• Fulfill our legal obligations under applicable law.

All capitalized terms used but not defined here have the meanings given in the Terms of Service. By using the Service, you agree to this AUP in full.

2 Permitted Uses

Subject to compliance with this AUP and all applicable laws, the following uses of the Service are permitted:

2.1 Data Collection & Research

• Scraping and aggregating publicly available data from websites for market research, price intelligence, competitive analysis, and academic purposes;
• Monitoring publicly available content for brand protection, intellectual property enforcement, or compliance purposes;
• Collecting publicly accessible government, financial, or real estate datasets;
• Academic research conducted in good faith in accordance with applicable research ethics standards.

2.2 Advertising & Marketing Verification

• Ad verification to detect fraud, confirm ad placement, and ensure brand safety;
• Checking geo-targeted advertising campaigns for accuracy and compliance;
• Verifying affiliate links and tracking pixel integrity.

2.3 SEO & Performance Monitoring

• Tracking search engine rankings (SERP monitoring) across regions;
• Checking website availability, latency, and content delivery from multiple geographic locations;
• Monitoring for unauthorized use of trademarks or content in search results.

2.4 Software Testing & Quality Assurance

• Automated regression testing, integration testing, and QA workflows;
• Testing geo-specific features, localization, and content delivery;
• Load and performance testing against infrastructure you own or have explicit permission to test.

2.5 Privacy & Security

• Protecting your own online privacy by routing traffic through residential IPs;
• Authorized penetration testing and security assessments against systems you own or have written permission to test;
• Researching and documenting privacy leaks in publicly accessible services.

2.6 Business Operations

• Managing multiple social media accounts for legitimate business purposes in compliance with those platforms' terms;
• E-commerce operations including inventory monitoring and price comparison;
• Travel fare aggregation from publicly available booking platforms.

This list is illustrative, not exhaustive. If you are unsure whether your use case is permitted, contact us at [email protected] before proceeding.

3 Prohibited Uses

The following uses of the Service are strictly prohibited. This list is not exhaustive — we reserve the right to determine in our sole discretion whether any activity violates this AUP.

3.1 Illegal Activity

• Any activity that violates applicable local, state, federal, or international law or regulation;
• Fraud, identity theft, wire fraud, money laundering, or financing of illegal activity;
• Unauthorized access to, or interference with, computer systems, networks, or data (in violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, UK Computer Misuse Act, or equivalent legislation);
• Circumventing U.S. or international sanctions, embargoes, or export control laws;
• Any activity that supports, finances, or promotes terrorism or extremist organizations.

3.2 Credential Attacks & Account Takeover

• Credential stuffing, password spraying, or any automated attempt to gain unauthorized access to third-party accounts or systems;
• Brute-force attacks against authentication systems;
• Bypassing multi-factor authentication or CAPTCHA systems without authorization;
• Creating fake or fraudulent accounts on third-party platforms.

3.3 Spam & Unsolicited Communications

• Sending bulk unsolicited email (spam), SMS, or other electronic messages in violation of CAN-SPAM, TCPA, GDPR, or equivalent anti-spam laws;
• Operating email harvesting tools or generating lists of addresses for spam purposes;
• Sending phishing, smishing, or vishing communications;
• Mass-posting unsolicited content to forums, social platforms, or comment sections.

3.4 Malware & Cyberattacks

• Distributing, hosting, or transmitting viruses, ransomware, spyware, trojans, worms, or any malicious code;
• Conducting or facilitating distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks or any other form of network disruption;
• Exploiting vulnerabilities in third-party systems without written authorization;
• Hosting command-and-control infrastructure for botnets or malware.

3.5 Child Exploitation & Human Trafficking

• Any activity involving child sexual abuse material (CSAM) or the sexual exploitation of minors;
• Facilitating human trafficking, forced labor, or sexual exploitation of any person;
• Accessing, distributing, or producing content that exploits or endangers minors in any way.

3.6 Harassment, Threats & Stalking

• Stalking, tracking, or surveilling individuals without their knowledge and consent;
• Harassment, intimidation, bullying, or threatening communications directed at individuals;
• Collecting or aggregating personal information about individuals for the purpose of harassment or doxxing;
• Operating stalkerware or covert tracking applications.

3.7 Fraud & Deception

• Impersonating any person, organization, or brand;
• Falsely representing your identity, affiliation, or credentials;
• Conducting click fraud, ad fraud, or any scheme to artificially inflate engagement metrics;
• Manipulating financial markets or engaging in insider trading using scraped non-public information;
• Operating fake review schemes or artificially manipulating ratings.

3.8 Privacy Violations

• Harvesting, compiling, or selling personal data in violation of GDPR, CCPA, or other applicable privacy law;
• Aggregating personal information to build profiles for unauthorized surveillance or profiling;
• Scraping personally identifiable information (PII) from platforms without authorization or a lawful basis;
• Circumventing cookie consent mechanisms or privacy-preserving controls to collect personal data.

3.9 Intellectual Property Infringement

• Unauthorized reproduction, distribution, or commercial exploitation of copyrighted content;
• Scraping and republishing content in a manner that infringes copyright or database rights;
• Circumventing digital rights management (DRM) systems or technological protection measures.

3.10 Service Abuse

• Reselling, sublicensing, or redistributing proxy access or credentials to third parties without our express written consent;
• Sharing your Token with third parties beyond the scope of your own use;
• Intentionally placing excessive load on the Service or Upstream Provider infrastructure in a manner that degrades performance for other users;
• Attempting to reverse engineer, decompile, or extract source code, infrastructure details, or proprietary algorithms of the Service;
• Circumventing rate limits, usage caps, or access controls implemented by the Service.

4 Upstream Provider Compliance

The Service routes proxy traffic through residential IP networks operated by Upstream Providers (including BrightData, Smartproxy, and NetNut). By using the Service, you acknowledge and agree that:

• You must comply with the acceptable use policies of each Upstream Provider whose network you access through the Service. Links to their policies are available in our Terms of Service;
• Upstream Providers may independently monitor, restrict, or terminate access to their networks for violations of their policies;
• netnow may be required to share information about your usage with Upstream Providers in response to abuse complaints or legal obligations;
• Pools may be modified, restricted, or removed if Upstream Providers identify abusive usage patterns associated with your Token;
• You are solely responsible for ensuring your use of each Proxy Pool complies with the Upstream Provider's applicable terms.

netnow is not responsible for independent enforcement actions taken by Upstream Providers. However, Upstream Provider abuse reports will be treated as evidence of a violation of this AUP and may result in account termination.

5 Reporting Violations

If you believe the Service is being used in violation of this AUP — including by third parties whose content or systems are being accessed through our proxy infrastructure — please report it to:

Please include in your report:

• A description of the alleged violation;
• The IP address(es) involved, if known;
• Date and time of the activity (with timezone);
• Any relevant log excerpts, screenshots, or supporting evidence;
• Your contact information for follow-up.

We will acknowledge receipt of abuse reports within 2 business days and investigate all credible reports. We will take appropriate action, which may include suspending the offending account, cooperating with law enforcement, or notifying affected Upstream Providers. We are unable to disclose the outcome of investigations due to confidentiality obligations.

Law enforcement and government agencies may submit legal process requests to [email protected].

6 Enforcement

We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to take any of the following actions in response to a violation or suspected violation of this AUP:

• Warning: Issue a written warning via email to the address associated with your account, or via the dashboard notification system;
• Rate limiting: Temporarily throttle your account's bandwidth or request rate;
• Suspension: Temporarily suspend access to your Token and associated Proxy Pools pending investigation;
• Termination: Permanently terminate your Token and forfeit any remaining Account Credit or Data Allocations;
• Legal referral: Refer the matter to law enforcement, regulatory authorities, or pursue civil remedies as permitted by law;
• Upstream notification: Notify affected Upstream Providers of the violation and your usage details.

We are not obligated to provide advance notice before taking enforcement action where we determine the violation is serious, ongoing, or poses an immediate risk. Enforcement decisions are final. You may contact [email protected] to dispute a decision, but reinstatement is entirely at our discretion.

Accounts terminated for AUP violations are not eligible for refunds of any Account Credit or Data Allocations. See the Refund Policy in our Terms of Service.

7 DMCA & Copyright Notices

netnow respects intellectual property rights. If you believe that material accessible through the Service infringes your copyright, you may submit a notice under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) or equivalent applicable law to:

A valid DMCA notice must include:

• A physical or electronic signature of the copyright owner or authorized agent;
• Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to be infringed;
• Identification of the material alleged to be infringing and information reasonably sufficient to locate it;
• Your contact information (name, address, telephone, email);
• A statement that you have a good faith belief that the use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law;
• A statement under penalty of perjury that the information in the notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on the owner's behalf.

Please note that netnow is a proxy service and does not host or store third-party content. DMCA takedown notices should generally be directed to the hosting providers of the relevant websites. We will, however, act on notices directed to us where we are in a position to do so.

Counter-notifications: If you believe your material was wrongly identified, you may submit a counter-notification to the address above. Submitting a false DMCA notice or counter-notice may expose you to legal liability under 17 U.S.C. § 512(f).

8 Security Research

netnow supports good-faith security research conducted in compliance with all applicable laws. If you are conducting security research using the Service, the following conditions apply:

• You must have explicit written authorization from the owner of any system or network you test;
• Your research must comply with all applicable laws, including the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (18 U.S.C. § 1030), the UK Computer Misuse Act, and any other jurisdiction-specific cybercrime legislation;
• You may not cause harm to third-party systems, extract sensitive data, or disrupt services as part of your testing;
• Responsible disclosure of any vulnerabilities discovered must follow industry-standard practices;
• Unauthorized testing of systems — even for ostensibly benign purposes — is a violation of this AUP.

netnow does not provide safe harbor for security research that violates applicable law, even if conducted in good faith. You are solely responsible for obtaining the necessary authorizations.

If you discover a security vulnerability in netnow's own infrastructure, please report it responsibly to [email protected]. We appreciate responsible disclosure and will work with you to address valid findings.

9 API & Automated Access

The Service is designed to support automated and programmatic access. However, the following conditions apply to all automated use:

• Automated access must comply with all provisions of this AUP;
• You must respect the robots.txt directives and stated terms of service of any target website you access, unless you have an independent legal basis that overrides those directives;
• Rate limits imposed by target websites must be respected. Intentionally bypassing anti-scraping measures in a manner that harms the target's infrastructure is prohibited;
• You must not use the Service to circumvent access controls on paywalled, subscription-based, or otherwise restricted content without authorization;
• API keys and Tokens issued to you are personal and non-transferable. Sharing API credentials with unauthorized third parties is prohibited;
• netnow may impose API rate limits to ensure fair use and infrastructure stability. Attempting to circumvent these limits is a violation of this AUP.

10 Your Liability for Violations

You are solely and fully responsible for all activity conducted through your Token, whether or not you authorized that activity. Violations of this AUP may result in:

• Immediate termination of your account without refund;
• Civil liability to netnow for damages arising from the violation, including costs incurred in responding to abuse complaints, legal process, or Upstream Provider penalties;
• Criminal prosecution where your activities constitute a criminal offense under applicable law;
• Civil liability to third parties harmed by your use of the Service.

In addition to any remedies available at law or equity, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless netnow LLC and its officers, directors, employees, contractors, agents, licensors, and Upstream Providers from any claims, damages, losses, costs, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising from your violation of this AUP. See the indemnification provision in the Terms of Service for full details.

11 Modifications to This AUP

We reserve the right to modify this AUP at any time to reflect changes in our legal obligations, Upstream Provider requirements, or to address new forms of misuse. When we make material changes, we will update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page.

Your continued use of the Service after the effective date of any changes constitutes acceptance of the revised AUP. If you do not agree to any change, you must immediately cease using the Service. We encourage you to review this AUP periodically.

This AUP supplements and is incorporated into the Terms of Service. In the event of a conflict between this AUP and the Terms of Service, the more restrictive provision shall apply.

12 Contact & Abuse Reporting

For questions about this AUP, acceptable use inquiries, abuse reports, legal process, and security disclosures: