Acceptable Use Policy

Effective date: May 6, 2026 · Last updated: May 6, 2026

This Acceptable Use Policy (“AUP”) describes prohibited uses of the BidBud platform (“Service”). It is incorporated by reference into the BidBud Terms of Service. By using the Service, you agree to comply with this AUP. Violations may result in suspension or termination of your account without refund.

1. Purpose

BidBud is designed for legitimate service businesses — landscapers, roofers, cleaners, contractors, and similar trades — to manage proposals and payments professionally. This AUP protects the integrity of the platform, safeguards users, and ensures compliance with applicable law.

2. Prohibited Conduct

2.1 Illegal Activity

You may not use the Service to:

• Engage in, facilitate, or promote any activity that violates applicable federal, state, local, or international law or regulation.
• Commit fraud, including creating fictitious businesses, generating false proposals, or collecting payments for services you have no intention of performing.
• Impersonate another person or business, or misrepresent your identity or affiliation.
• Transmit, store, or process data obtained without authorization or in violation of data protection laws.
• Violate export control laws or sanctions administered by the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) or similar bodies.

2.2 Harmful or Abusive Use

You may not use the Service to:

• Harass, threaten, bully, defame, or discriminate against any person or group on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or any other protected characteristic.
• Collect or process personal data from minors (under 13, or under 16 in the EEA) via intake forms without verifiable parental consent.
• Send unsolicited commercial communications (spam) via any email or notification feature of the Service.
• Use another business’s customers’ data outside of the specific service relationship for which it was collected.

2.3 Security and Infrastructure Abuse

You may not:

• Probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of BidBud’s systems or networks without written authorization.
• Attempt to gain unauthorized access to any account, system, or network connected to the Service.
• Introduce malware, viruses, ransomware, Trojan horses, worms, or any other harmful code.
• Conduct denial-of-service or distributed denial-of-service attacks against the Service or any connected system.
• Bypass, disable, or circumvent any authentication, rate limiting, or security feature.
• Use automated means (bots, scrapers, crawlers) to access the Service in a way that burdens our infrastructure or circumvents rate limits.
• Use the Service as a proxy or relay to anonymize malicious traffic.

2.4 Payment Abuse

You may not:

• Use the payment collection features for illegal purposes, including money laundering, tax evasion, or payment for illegal goods and services.
• Manipulate the platform fee or otherwise attempt to circumvent BidBud’s 0.5% platform fee on processed payments.
• Issue fraudulent invoices or collect deposits for services not rendered.
• Initiate chargebacks in bad faith against BidBud.

2.5 AI Feature Misuse

You may not use BidBud’s AI-powered features to:

• Generate, publish, or distribute content that is defamatory, obscene, harassing, or incites violence.
• Generate fraudulent proposals intended to deceive customers about pricing, scope, or services.
• Attempt to extract, reverse-engineer, or probe the underlying AI model.
• Submit another party’s confidential information without their authorization.
• Generate content designed to impersonate a licensed professional (e.g., fabricating engineering certifications or contractor licenses) that you do not hold.
• Circumvent Anthropic’s usage policies, which are incorporated by reference.

2.6 Intellectual Property Violations

You may not:

• Upload, transmit, or store content that infringes any copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret, or other intellectual property right.
• Use BidBud’s trademarks or branding to suggest affiliation or endorsement without written consent.
• Reproduce, republish, or redistribute BidBud’s software, documentation, or marketing materials.

3. Intake Form and Customer Data Standards

Business Users who deploy public intake forms to collect data from their customers are responsible for:

3.1 Lawful collection. Only collecting personal data that is necessary for the service being quoted (“data minimization”). You must have a lawful basis under applicable law to collect each category of data.

3.2 Transparency. If your jurisdiction requires it, you must provide your customers with a privacy notice explaining how their data will be used before or at the time of collection. BidBud’s Privacy Policy covers BidBud’s own processing; it does not substitute for your own disclosures as a data controller.

3.3 Sensitive data. You may not use intake forms to collect sensitive personal data categories (health data, financial account numbers, government ID numbers, biometric data) through BidBud unless you have explicit consent and a lawful basis to do so, and you have implemented appropriate safeguards.

3.4 File uploads. You are responsible for the content of files uploaded via your forms. You may not use the file upload feature to store or transmit illegal content, malware, or material that violates the rights of others.

4. Consequences of Violations

BidBud reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to:

• Issue a warning for minor or first-time violations.
• Suspend access to specific features.
• Suspend or terminate your account without refund.
• Report illegal activity to appropriate law enforcement authorities.
• Seek injunctive or other equitable relief to stop ongoing violations.

Severity, repetition, and harm to others will factor into enforcement decisions. We aim to be fair and proportionate, but we reserve the right to act immediately where necessary to protect users, third parties, or the platform.

5. Reporting Violations

If you believe someone is using BidBud in violation of this AUP, please report it to:

6. Changes to This Policy

We may update this AUP to reflect changes in the law, our platform, or community standards. Material changes will be announced via email or in-app notice. Continued use of the Service after the effective date of changes constitutes acceptance.

Contact

BidBud, Inc.
Email: hello@bidbud.ai
Website: bidbud.ai