Terms of ServicePrivacy PolicyAcceptable UseData Processing AgreementSub-processors

Acceptable Use Policy

Last updated 16 October 2026 · version 2026-10-16

Every business on Phlare shares the reputation that gets its email delivered, so the rules are the ones every reputable sending service enforces: write only to people who asked to hear from you, make leaving easy and honour it at once, say who you are, and send nothing unlawful. This policy is part of the Terms of Service.

1.Consent comes first

  1. Send marketing — email, text, WhatsApp or any other channel — only to people who have given you their clear, informed agreement to receive it from you, on that channel, or where the law of the recipient’s country allows you to market to an existing customer without it (a “soft opt-in”, such as section 69(3) of POPIA or regulation 22 of the UK’s Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations). Where you rely on a soft opt-in, you must have given the person a simple way to refuse when you collected their details, and in every message since.
  2. Keep a record of how and when each person agreed, and of what they were told. Phlare’s forms store the consent wording each person saw; if you import contacts, you must hold that record yourself.
  3. Under POPIA you may approach a person who has not consented only once, to ask for their consent, and not again if they decline.

2.Lists you may not use

Do not upload, import or send to:

  • lists you bought, rented, borrowed or were given by someone else;
  • addresses or numbers collected by scraping websites, social networks or directories, or guessed or generated;
  • people who agreed to hear from a different business, or about something else;
  • role addresses (such as info@ or sales@) that nobody opted in;
  • people who have unsubscribed, complained or asked you to erase their information — and do not re-import them to get round the do-not-contact list.

3.Leaving must be easy

  1. Phlare adds an unsubscribe link to every marketing email, and recipients can also unsubscribe in one click from their mail program. Do not remove, hide or obstruct it, or ask for a password or anything other than the address to unsubscribe.
  2. Text messages must tell the recipient how to opt out, for example by replying STOP. Treat any clear request to stop, on any channel, as an opt-out.
  3. Phlare puts an address on your do-not-contact list as soon as it unsubscribes, and when it learns that mail to it bounced or was reported as spam. Honour opt-outs you receive outside Phlare within the time the law sets, and in any case within ten working days.

4.Say who you are, and do not mislead

  • Every message must make clear which business it is from. Marketing email must carry your business’s name and a physical postal address, which you set under Settings → Brand.
  • Do not forge or disguise headers, sender names or addresses, or send from a domain you are not entitled to use.
  • Subject lines and previews must reflect what the message contains.
  • Do not impersonate another person or business, including in order to obtain passwords, payment details or other personal information (“phishing”).

5.Text messages and WhatsApp

  • Do not send marketing text or WhatsApp messages at night or at other times the law or your provider’s rules forbid. Phlare holds them until the quiet hours set under Settings → Sending have passed; do not turn the quiet hours off to get round that.
  • In South Africa, text messaging must follow the WASPA Code of Conduct where it applies, as well as POPIA and the Consumer Protection Act, 2008.
  • WhatsApp messages must follow Meta’s WhatsApp Business and Commerce Policies, including using only approved message templates outside the 24-hour customer service window, and only to people who opted in to hear from you on WhatsApp.

6.Content you may not send or store

Do not use Phlare to send, store or link to anything that:

  • is unlawful in the country you send from or the country it is received in, or promotes illegal activity;
  • sexually exploits or endangers children, in any way at all;
  • is pornographic or sexually explicit;
  • incites violence or hatred against people because of race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability or another protected characteristic, or promotes terrorism or violent extremism;
  • harasses, threatens, defames or intimidates anyone;
  • infringes someone else’s copyright, trade mark or other rights;
  • contains malware, or links to sites that distribute it or steal credentials;
  • offers unlicensed gambling, unlicensed financial or investment services, “get rich quick” or pyramid schemes, counterfeit goods, illegal drugs, or weapons where their promotion is unlawful;
  • makes false or misleading claims about health, cures or medicines.

7.Sensitive information

Do not store special personal information — about health, religion, race, sexual life, political or trade union membership, biometrics or criminal behaviour — or information about children, unless the law allows you to process it for your purpose and you have the safeguards it requires. Do not use such information to choose who receives marketing without the explicit consent the law requires. Never put card numbers, passwords or identity numbers into notes, fields or messages.

8.The service itself

  • Do not try to reach another workspace’s data, test or probe the service for weaknesses, or get round security measures or limits — including sign-in limits, sending caps, holds and Plan allowances.
  • Do not create several accounts or Free workspaces to get more than one Plan’s allowance, or to carry on after being held or suspended.
  • Do not overload the service, use it to send denial-of-service traffic, or call the API faster than its documented limits.
  • Do not resell or provide the service to others without our written agreement.

If you find a security weakness, tell us and give us time to fix it before telling anyone else.

9.Sending limits and automatic holds

  1. Each workspace on Phlare sending has a daily limit on marketing email, shown under Settings → Sending, and a monthly allowance set by its Plan.
  2. Because every workspace on Phlare sending shares one reputation, marketing email is held automatically when, over the last seven days and at least 200 messages, more than 5% of a workspace’s email bounces or more than 0.1% is reported as spam. Mail that is not marketing — bookings, receipts, confirmations — is not held. We will tell you why and help you put it right.
  3. We may also hold a workspace’s marketing email by hand — for example when a first large send looks like mail to a list that was not collected with consent — and will tell you why.

10.What happens if this policy is broken

Depending on how serious it is, Phlare may warn you, hold your sending, remove content, suspend a workspace or account, or end the agreement, as the Terms of Service set out. Where the law requires, we may report unlawful content to the authorities. You are responsible for messages sent from your workspaces, including by your Users and anyone with your API keys.