Acceptable Use Policy.

The plain-English version

• You are responsible for every call your AI agent makes or receives. Period.
• If your jurisdiction requires you to disclose that calls are recorded, your agent has to say so at the beginning of the call.
• If a caller asks “Am I talking to a robot?”, your agent must say yes.
• No calls to numbers on the Do Not Call Registry without an exemption. No fraud, no impersonation of government officials, no scams.
• Some industries we don’t serve (firearms sales, gambling, adult content, debt collection, payday lending). Full list below.
• If you break these rules, we suspend your Account. Repeat violations get you permanently banned.

1. Scope

This Acceptable Use Policy (“AUP”) is incorporated by reference into the Terms of Service and applies to all use of the Hermes Service by any Operator, Account holder, or authorized user. Capitalized terms not defined here have the meanings given to them in the Terms of Service.

2. Calling Law Compliance

You must comply with all applicable calling laws in every jurisdiction whose law applies to a call placed or received through the Service. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, you must:

• TCPA & FCC rules. Obtain any required prior express consent or prior express written consent before placing calls to consumers under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (47 U.S.C. § 227) and FCC implementing regulations (47 C.F.R. § 64.1200). Honor the National Do Not Call Registry.
• State calling laws. Comply with state-level calling restrictions, including auto-dialer registration, caller-ID authentication (STIR/SHAKEN), and time-of-day calling windows.
• A2P 10DLC and DNC. Maintain a current internal do-not-call list, honor opt-out requests within ten (10) business days, and submit A2P 10DLC registration where required.

3. Recording Consent

You must obtain and document any consent to record the call required by federal law (18 U.S.C. § 2511) and by the law of every jurisdiction in which any party to the call is located. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing:

• Two-party (all-party) consent states. In California (Cal. Penal Code § 632), Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Washington, you must configure the voice agent to clearly and audibly inform the call recipient at the very beginning of the call that the call is being recorded, before any substantive conversation occurs.
• One-party consent jurisdictions. Even where only one party’s consent is legally required, we strongly recommend pre-call disclosure for transparency and to defuse potential consumer complaints.
• International calls. For calls to or from individuals in the EEA, the UK, or Switzerland, you must comply with the GDPR and any national wiretap or telephone-recording statute that applies. You must obtain GDPR-valid consent (or rely on another lawful basis under Article 6) before recording.
• Record-keeping. Maintain records of the consents and disclosures required by this Section for at least the longer of (i) the statute of limitations applicable to the relevant claim or (ii) seven (7) years from the date of the call.

4. AI Disclosure

You must configure the voice agent to truthfully identify itself as an artificial intelligence, and not a human, whenever the recipient asks any reasonable variation of “Am I speaking to a person?”, “Are you a robot?”, “Am I talking to an AI?”, or similar. This obligation applies regardless of whether your jurisdiction has an explicit AI-disclosure law. Specific obligations include:

• California BOT Act. If you call individuals in California, you must comply with California Business and Professions Code § 17941 (BOT Act) and Assembly Bill 1018 (effective January 2025), which require AI to identify itself when directly asked.
• Honest framing. You must not instruct the voice agent to claim to be a specific named human, to deny being an AI when asked, or to feign emotions or physical embodiment in a way intended to deceive the caller about its nature.

5. Prohibited Uses

You may not use the Service to:

• Place calls to any individual under thirteen (13) years of age, or to a phone number you know or reasonably should know is associated with a minor under thirteen (13), absent verified parental consent and applicable COPPA compliance.
• Place calls to phone numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry without an applicable exemption (established business relationship, prior express consent, etc.).
• Engage in harassment, fraud, intimidation, threats, doxing, swatting, or coordinated abuse, including through repeated calls after a request to stop.
• Impersonate any government official, law enforcement officer, regulatory agency, court, or judicial officer.
• Impersonate any specific identified human being, brand, or entity in a manner intended to deceive the recipient.
• Engage in unfair or deceptive acts under any state consumer protection act, including but not limited to the New York General Business Law § 349, the California Unfair Competition Law (Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 17200 et seq.), and the Massachusetts Consumer Protection Act (Mass. Gen. Laws Ch. 93A).
• Promote or facilitate the purchase or sale of firearms, ammunition, explosives, illegal drugs, controlled substances, gambling (other than state-regulated lotteries), payday loans at usurious rates, or adult sexual content.
• Engage in or facilitate the unauthorized practice of medicine, law, or psychotherapy; provide professional medical, legal, financial, or mental health advice as a substitute for a licensed professional.
• Operate “robo-debt” collection, where the agent calls a consumer about a debt without complying with the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (15 U.S.C. § 1692 et seq.) and applicable state debt-collection laws.
• Make calls intended to manipulate, intimidate, or interfere with elections, voting, or government processes.
• Probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of the Service or attempt to circumvent any security or authentication measures.
• Reverse engineer, decompile, or attempt to derive the source code of the Service or any underlying voice engine, except to the extent expressly permitted by applicable law.
• Use the Service in any way that violates applicable law in any jurisdiction where any party to a call is located.

6. Bias and Disparate Impact

You are responsible for monitoring the Service for disparate performance across protected classes (race, color, national origin, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, religion, disability, familial status, and any other class protected under federal, state, or local law) and for taking remedial action as required by applicable law. If you become aware that your voice agent performs materially worse for callers of a particular accent, dialect, language, age group, or disability, you must promptly investigate and either correct the performance gap or restrict use of the Service in the affected context.

7. Industry-Specific Restrictions

Some industries are subject to additional restrictions. You may not use the Service for the following without our prior written approval:

• Healthcare workflows involving Protected Health Information under HIPAA (45 C.F.R. Parts 160 and 164) until a Business Associate Agreement is executed.
• Financial services workflows involving non-public personal information under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (15 U.S.C. § 6801 et seq.).
• Education workflows involving student records under FERPA (20 U.S.C. § 1232g).
• Telecommunications carrier operations subject to the FCC’s CPNI rules (47 C.F.R. § 64.2001 et seq.).

8. Reporting and Enforcement

If you become aware of a violation of this AUP, please report it to hello@buildwithhermes.com. We investigate reports in good faith. We reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to investigate any suspected violation, to suspend or terminate Accounts that violate this AUP, to remove or disable agents that violate this AUP, and to cooperate with law enforcement and regulators. Repeat or egregious violations may result in permanent loss of access. We provide no refunds for fees paid in respect of any period during which an Account is suspended or terminated for AUP violations.

9. Changes to this Policy

We may update this AUP from time to time to reflect changes in applicable law, industry practice, or our internal policies. Material changes will be communicated to Account holders by email at least seven (7) days in advance of taking effect. The current version is always available at /acceptable-use with the effective date noted at the top.

10. Contact

Questions about this AUP, requests for industry-specific approval, or reports of violations should be directed to hello@buildwithhermes.com.