Acceptable Use Policy

This policy applies to everyone sending through Pigeon Atlas. It exists because mail sent from this platform affects every other sender on it: a single account mailing people who never asked lands the rest of us in spam folders. Using the service means agreeing to what follows.

Consent is required, and it is specific

You may only send to recipients who asked to hear from you, from you, about this. Consent does not transfer between companies, does not survive a change of subject, and is not implied by someone having done business with you once.

You must be able to show, for any address, when and how consent was given. The following never count as consent:

• — Lists that were bought, rented, swapped or otherwise acquired from a third party.
• — Addresses scraped from websites, social profiles, directories or public records.
• — Addresses guessed or generated, including the common pattern of trying every first name at a domain.
• — Addresses collected for one purpose and used for another, such as a support enquiry turned into a newsletter.
• — A pre-ticked box, or a sign-up flow where the subscription was not the thing being agreed to.

What may not be sent

• — Phishing, credential harvesting, or anything impersonating another person, company or service.
• — Malware, or links leading to it.
• — Falsified headers, forged sender addresses, or misleading subject lines.
• — Content that is illegal where the recipient is, or that promotes it.
• — Mail routed through the service to disguise its origin.

What every message must carry

Marketing mail must offer a working way to unsubscribe, and it must keep working for at least 30 days after the message was sent. We add the one-click header automatically, which is what Gmail and Yahoo expect from bulk senders, but the link in your own footer is yours to keep working.

An unsubscribe must take effect promptly and must not require a login, a reply, or a reason.

Sending from a domain you control

You can only send from a domain you have proven you control, by publishing DNS records we give you. This is not a formality we might waive: it is the mechanism that makes impersonating someone else's domain through this platform impossible rather than merely against the rules.

Bounces and complaints

We suppress addresses that hard bounce or file a complaint, for your account, automatically. You must not attempt to send to a suppressed address by any route, and you must not re-import an address that was suppressed. Sustained bounce or complaint rates are grounds for suspension on their own, whatever the cause.

How this is enforced

We may suspend sending, revoke API keys, or close an account that breaks this policy. Where the harm is ongoing — an active phishing run, for instance — we will do so immediately and explain afterwards. Everywhere else we will tell you what we found and what has to change.

Report abuse to abuse@pigeonatlas.com. Include the full message headers if you have them; they tell us which account sent it, and that is the first thing we need.

Sending through Pigeon Atlas also means complying with the law that applies to you and to your recipients, including the CAN-SPAM Act, the GDPR and the ePrivacy Directive where they reach. Where this policy is stricter than the law, this policy applies.