Pinpointe Spam Policy & Terms of Use

Pinpointe Anti-Spam Policy and Terms of Use

(updated January 1, 2008)

If you’re taking the time to read this, you’re probably not a spammer. But legitimate email marketers get accused of spamming all the time and we want to avoid that for our customers. We are aware of our responsibilities as a good Internet citizen and are dedicated to protecting the privacy rights of other Internet citizens. So, if you use Pinpointe, you must read and understand our Anti-SPAM policies and you mush agree to our Terms and Conditions.

Required Elements on Every Mass E-mail

We require that each e-mail message sent out from Pinpointe includes an easy way for subscribers to remove themselves via an unsubscribe link. If a recipient contacts our offices and requests to be manually removed from a customer’s list, we will manually unsubscribe the recipient from our customer’s account.

Every e-mail campaign sent through Pinpointe must contain:

• An accurate and proper subject line
• A valid Unsubscribe / Opt-out link to all campaigns. This is required. Removing this from a message is a violation of Pinpointe’s policies.
• The sender’s valid postal address
• The sender’s valid phone (optional but highly recommended)
• Appropriate content – please see below.

We also require that each email message comply with CAN-SPAM laws.

There are four ways by which a customer may violate our Anti-Spam policy:

1. By sending spam as defined in our SPAM policies, here.
2. By sending content that is prohibited by our policies.
3. By not responding properly to an inquiry from a Pinpointe staff member about the source of a particular e-mail list or e-mail address.
4. By not including the required elements on every e-mail campaign sent through our service.

We may determine whether a customer is spamming. There are a number of factors Pinpointe uses to determine whether a customer is spamming. These may include: violating our guidelines here, complaints sent to abuse report addresses, SpamCop reports, complaints sent to any of Pinpointe’s upstream providers, and evaluating a customer’s e-mail campaign statistics and recipient addresses.

How Pinpointe Defines Spam

Spam is any promotion, information or solicitation that is sent to a person via e-mail, that does not conform to the CAN-SPAM requirements, or includes prohibited content, or is similar to any of the SPAM examples below, is SPAM.

Examples of Spam

• Any e-mail message that is sent to a recipient who had previously signed up to receive newsletters, product information or any other type of bulk email but later opted-out by indicating to the sender that they did not want to receive additional email, then that email is spam.
• Any e-mail message that is sent to a recipient without a way for a person to opt-out or request that future mailings not be sent to them, is spam.
• Any email message that is sent to non-specific addresses such as: sales@domain.com, business@domain.com, webmaster@domain.com, info@domain.com, or other general addresses.
• Any email message that does not have a valid email address in the From Line is spam.
• Any email message that contains any false or misleading information in the header, subject line or message itself is spam.
• Any email that says you can earn $1000’s each week from home is spam.
• Any anonymous emails or emails that do not contain the required elements. Since spammers often use anonymous email accounts to do their work, you can’t create a trial account using some anonymous @yahoo.com, @hotmail.com, etc. email account.

Prohibited Content Spam

Please don’t use Pinpointe to send anything offensive, to promote anything illegal, or to harass anyone. The following content is prohibited:

• In general, don’t send anything you’d be ashamed to show your mother.
• Do not send or promote Pornography
• Do not send or promote material that exploits children or discloses personal information of children under 18.
• No campaigns selling or promoting illegal products, drugs or substances
• Do not send or promote material that is grossly offensive or threatening in any way
• Do not send or promote content that introduces viruses, worms, harmful code and/or Trojan horses on the Internet.
• Do not send content that violate the FTC’s CAN-SPAM Law.
• Do not send or promote material that encourages violence against any governments, groups or individuals.

What is Not Spam

Below are examples of content that is not considered SPAM:

• An e-mail message is NOT spam if the recipient in anyway requested email be sent to them from the sender or the sender’s organization and they have not opted-out of your list.
• Anytime an organization sends a mass e-mail message to one of its customers, it is NOT spam provided that the organization offers a way for the customer to opt-out of future mailings and that the customer did not previously opt-out.
• An e-mail message is NOT spam when sent to recipients who agreed to receive information or promotions from a partner organization (as long as there is a clear opt-out option).
• An e-mail message is not spam if it is sent to a list you purchased or acquired, as long as it a) fully CAN-SPAM compliant as noted above and b) is not SPAM as defined above and c) is not prohibited content as noted above. In general if you have any questions or reservations, please contact your account manager so we can assist you and minimize your likelihood of irritating prospective customers.
• All emails must include a relevant title, from and reply-to address that is a valid email address, and the bricks ‘n mortar, physical address and phone number.

Any customer that sends spam is in violation of this Anti-Spam policy.

Pinpointe’s Complaint Response Process

We are here to help our customers maximize the effectiveness of their e-mailings, educate them as to the best e-mail practices, and help them to avoid spam complaints. If you have any questions or feedback regarding our anti-spam policy, please do not hesitate to contact our abuse and SPAM department directly at:

feedback [at] pinpointe.com

How we deal with complaints

Even though a customer may not be sending spam, complaints may still be received by Pinpointe from a customer’s recipients. It is Pinpointe’s policy to respond to every complaint, so that the complainant knows his/her address was not harvested, sold or otherwise improperly added to a customer’s lists. The Pinpointe Abuse staff takes the following steps anytime a complaint is received:

• Contact the E-Mail Manager for the customer’s account with a Pinpointe Abuse Inquiry. This inquiry will ask the customer to confirm the list source, in general, and also to provide all specific information available regarding the particular e-mail address in question. Customers should respond within two business days of receiving an Abuse Inquiry from Pinpointe. Failure to respond to the Abuse Inquiry is in itself a violation of this policy. Failure to provide all requested information about the e-mail address in question is a violation of this policy. The customer may not respond directly to the complainant without prior approval from Pinpointe’s Abuse staff.
• The Pinpointe Abuse team reviews the customer’s response and the entire complaint and determines whether or not the customer is in compliance with this policy.
• Pinpointe will respond to the complainant. As long as the customer has been adhering to this policy, Pinpointe will respond to the complainant and reassure him that his e-mail address has been unsubscribed from future mailings. We carbon copy the customer on our response to the complainant.
• Should the customer be found to be in violation of this policy, the customer will receive a spam determination response from our Abuse team with specific information related to the violation.

Please Report Bad Senders

If you are reporting SPAM, please forward the contents of the offending information, including all header information to the following address:

abuse [at] pinpointe.com

We will respond directly within 48 hours.

Who Can Use Pinpointe

If you do not meet these eligibility requirements, you may not use the Pinpointe’s services:

• You must be at least 18 years of age to use Pinpointe, and can form legally binding contracts under applicable law.
• You must complete the registration process and agree to our terms of use in order to use Pinpointe. All contact information you submit must be true, complete, and up to date.
• Pinpointe reserves the right to refuse service or to terminate accounts for any user, and to change eligibility requirements at any time, in its sole discretion.
• You must complete the registration form on the Sign Up page in order to use Pinpointe’s Services. You will provide true, accurate, current, and complete information about yourself as requested in the registration form. As part of the registration process, you will identify an e-mail address and password for your Pinpointe account.

Fees, Refunds, Account Suspensions, Etc.

Payment for Products will be made by a valid credit card. Checks will be accepted for prepayments, subject to prior approval. Fees are payable in U.S. dollars. If the monthly payment option is selected or if you have previously provided your credit card for payment, you hereby authorize Pinpointe to charge your credit card for such amounts on a regular monthly basis.

You agree to pay for all emails you send from your account, even if messages are blocked by any third party (we have no control over your recipients’ email servers, ISP availability, personal spam filter settings, etc)

If, for some reason, we are unable to process your credit card order, we will attempt to contact you by email and by phone. If we are unable to confirm payment, we reserve the right to suspend usage of your account until your payment can be processed.

We don’t provide refunds for unused email credits or monthly subscriptions (especially if we had to shut down your account for violating these terms).

Pinpointe reserves the right to (reasonably) change our fees at any time. We will send email notifications to users 30 days in advance if and when we do. We may also post new pricing information on our website at www.pinpointe.com.

If a user violates any of the terms outlined above, we reserve the right to cancel accounts, or bar access to accounts, without refund.

If you do not log in to your account for a period of 6 months, your account (including all campaigns, lists, and other data) may be deleted permanently from our system. We will first attempt to contact you by email and/or by phone to confirm.

You are responsible for maintaining the security of your account, passwords and files and for all uses of your account and of the Services in your name.

Indemnification

You Agree To Indemnify And Hold Pinpointe, Its Parents, Subsidiaries, Affiliates, Officers, Owners, Partners And Employees, Harmless From Any Claim Or Demand, Including Reasonable Attorneys’ Fees, Made By Any Third Party Due To Or Arising Out Of Your Use Of The Service, Use Of Your Account By Any Third Party, The Violation Of The Terms Of Use By You, Or The Infringement By You, Or Any Third Party Using Your Account, Of Any Intellectual Property Or Other Right Of Any Person Or Entity.

DISCLAIMER

The Pinpointe Site And Its Contents Are Provided “As Is” And “As Available” Without Warranty Or Representations Of Any Kind, Whether Expressed Or Implied. Pinpointe Is A Distributor And Not A Publisher Of The Content Supplied By Third Parties And Users Of The Site; As Such, Pinpointe Exercises No Editorial Control Over Such Content And Makes No Warranty Or Representation As To The Accuracy, Reliability Or Currency Of Any Information, Content, Service Or Merchandise Provided Through Or Accessible Via The Site. Without Limiting The Foregoing, Pinpointe Specifically Disclaims All Warranties And Representations As The Publisher Of Any Content Transmitted On Or In Connection With The Site Or On Sites That May Appear As Links On The Site, Or As The Manufacturer Of The Products Provided As A Part Of, Or Otherwise In Connection With, The Site, Including Without Limitation Any Warranties Of Merchantability, Fitness For A Particular Purpose Or Non-infringement Of Third Party Rights. No Oral Advice Or Written Information Given By Pinpointe Nor Any Of Its Affiliates, Employees, Officers, Directors, Agents, Or The Like Shall Create A Warranty. Price And Availability Information Is Subject To Change.