Acceptable use policy

Everyone sending through Connect shares the same sending reputation. One careless list can land everyone's emails in spam, so this policy applies to every account, every User and, if you're a Partner, every one of Your Clients.

We take email law, permission and good practice seriously. Break this policy and we may pause sends, suspend the account or end the contract. It forms part of our Terms and conditions, and words with capitals mean what they mean there.

Permission

You need a lawful reason to email every single address on your list. For most marketing to individuals, that means they've clearly agreed to hear from you. Some of the ways people give that permission:

Signing up on your website or ticking a box at checkout;
Telling you in person, over the phone or in a survey; or
Handing you their business card.

If you're not sure where an address came from, or whether its owner agreed to hear from you, it doesn't go in Connect. When in doubt, leave it out, or ask us and we'll tell you straight.

You must follow every email and marketing law that applies to who you're sending to. In the UK that's the UK GDPR, the Data Protection Act 2018 and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR). Sending to people in the EU brings in the EU GDPR and ePrivacy rules, and sending to people in the US brings in CAN-SPAM.

Lists we won't send to

Bought, rented or third-party opt-in consumer lists. Any list of individuals that wasn't collected directly by you, with the right permission, counts as unsolicited. It must never be imported into Connect.
Bought business (B2B) data is only allowed where there's a lawful basis to email it under the UK GDPR, PECR and any other law that applies. You must be able to tell us where it came from and what that lawful basis is. We send business data separately from opted-in lists, to protect both.
Lists you can't vouch for. If a list's source or opt-in status is in question, it isn't acceptable, however it was obtained.

We never supply, buy, rent or sell data ourselves. We check every new list before anything is sent to it, and we can refuse a list without giving a detailed reason.

What we won't send

Connect must never be used to harass anyone, send offensive messages or promote anything illegal.

Some kinds of email also draw far more complaints than others, because people simply don't want them. So we don't send:

Third-party opt-in email campaigns to consumers;
Anything promoting personal credit, loans or mortgages;
Affiliate or multi-level marketing; or
Adult personal services.

This is on top of the content our Terms and conditions already rule out (clause 7.3).

Getting the basics right

Everything's urgent, but that's never a reason to cut corners. Skip the basics and you'll end up labelled a spammer, and so will everyone sending alongside you.

Authentication is non-negotiable. Every email goes out with DKIM and SPF set up. On the managed service, we do this for you.
Complaints get dealt with. When someone marks an email as spam, they're taken off the list straight away. Connect processes these feedback loop complaints automatically, and nobody switches that off.
Every sender gets its own domains. Each business sends and tracks clicks on its own custom domains, never shared ones.
Lists stay clean. If someone hasn't opened anything you've sent in 9 months, they come off the list.
Partners check their clients' data. If you're a Partner, it's your job to make sure Your Clients' lists are clean and up to date. Don't take their word for it. Show them how good list hygiene works and why it matters.

Connect runs automatic checks and flags problems it can spot, but every User is responsible for doing things the right way. On the managed service, we'll handle most of this for you and tell you if anything needs your attention.

How we keep an eye on things

We constantly monitor the sending network, spam complaint rates, and soft and hard bounces, so Connect is never the source of spam.

If an account breaks this policy, or its numbers suggest something's wrong, we may:

Pause its sends while we look into it;
Ask for evidence of where a list came from and the permission behind it;
Remove a list, or stop it being sent to;
Suspend the account; or
End the contract, as our Terms and conditions allow.

We'll talk to you first wherever we can. If something risks harming other senders, we'll act first and explain straight after.

If you think you've had unwanted email sent through Connect, or you've a question about this policy, email abuse@littleridgeconnect.com. Include the email if you can. We'll look into every report.