How we handle abusive usage

We trust that our customers use our products for appropriate endeavours. Sometimes though, we discover potential abusive usage as detailed in our use restrictions policy. When that happens, we investigate using the following guiding principles and process.

Guiding Principles

Resolve internally

On rare occasions for particularly sensitive situations or if legally required, we may also seek counsel from external experts.

Balanced responsibilities

We have an obligation to protect the privacy and safety of both our customers and the people reporting issues to us. We do our best to balance those responsibilities throughout the process.

Focus on evidence

We base our decisions on the evidence available to us: what we see and hear account users say and do. We document what we observe and ask whether that observable evidence points to a restricted use.

Process

Every case goes through the same general process:

1. Discovery
2. Investigation
3. Decision, sometimes with right to an appeal

How do we discover potential abuse?

From our experience, we learn about potential abuse because:

• Someone alerts us. We give abuse reports our full care and attention. If we notice anything in those reports that points to a violation, we will look into it.
• We notice an anomaly in our business operations monitoring. We monitor a range of things about our products, like signup volume and error rates of web requests. If we see something weird with those numbers, we get to the bottom of it.

How do we investigate?

We focus on the evidence:

• Language and imagery used by users on the account
• Evidence of account users’ permissions and/or ability to act on spoken claims
• Publicly available information about account users

We strive to balance privacy and safety for all those involved:

• We make every effort to complete our investigations without accessing a customer account. For instance, if there are screenshots or public documents available, we review those. We also consider whether it is appropriate to involve the account owner in a given investigation and seek additional evidence from them.
• As we review the evidence, we look for indications of existing negative impact. We also assess the severity of any potential negative impact, regardless of intent. When relevant, we look for and follow available guidelines from expert institutions.
• If we cannot come to a fair assessment from the information available, we may decide to access a customer account without notice. We do not make this decision lightly. Customer privacy is a big deal to us and we only pursue this course of action if the evidence we have already is very concerning, but not definitive.

While some violations are flatly obvious, others are subjective, nuanced, and difficult to adjudicate. We give each case adequate time and attention, commensurate with the violation, criticality, and severity of the charge.

What happens if someone really broke the rules?

We will terminate an account without advance notice if there is evidence it is being used for a restricted purpose that has, is, or will cause severe harm. If applicable, we will also report the incident to the appropriate authorities.

For other cases, we’ll take a case-by-case approach to clear things up.

Further, as a small, privately owned independent business that puts our values and conscience ahead of growth at all costs, we reserve the right to deny service to anyone we ultimately feel uncomfortable doing business with.

Can you appeal a decision?

If we terminate an account without notice, the decision is final.

For other cases, we will consider good faith appeals sent to hello@unnamedoysterenterprises.com by the account owner within 14 calendar days.

Attribution

Unnamed Oyster Enterprises policies are open source, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Adapted from the Basecamp open-source policies / CC BY 4.0.