Grass is committed to ensure that it operates the Grass network ethically and responsibly. This Grass Network Use Policy (this “Policy”) explains how Grass seeks to ensure that Grass Network-enabled activities of Grass, its affiliates, service providers, and third party customers are lawful and legitimate.

Business Verification and Customer Onboarding Controls

Grass makes its network available only to legitimate business organizations. Before permitting a business to access or use the Grass Network-enabled bandwidth, products, or services (collectively, “Network Services”), Grass will conduct risk-based due diligence on the business, which include:

• Verifying the identity of the business, including by obtaining the contact information of the business and its authorized representatives;
• Identifying the business’s stated use case for the Network Service;
• Assessing applicable legal and regulatory obligations with the respect to the stated use case of the business, as well as Grass’s ability to provide Network Service in support of the use case; and
• Requiring contractual commitments to comply with applicable law and to respect third party rights.

The scope and nature of business verification and customer onboarding controls will vary based on the nature of the Network Service that the business or customer is seeking to access or use, as well as the scope of its intended use case.

Permitted Uses

Business that are provided with access to or use of a Network Service, are only permitted to use the bandwidth in compliance with applicable law and contractual restrictions. All permitted uses of Network Services must be approved by Grass. Permitted Uses may include, but are not limited to: market research, price comparison, public web data collection for artificial intelligence and machine learning, website performance testing, advertisement verification, SEO monitoring and search analysis, web search, web indexing, academic and scientific research, and other lawful and approved business purposes that are consistent with this Policy.

All uses of Network Services are to be conducted in a manner designed to minimize the burden on both the nodes that contribute the bandwidth and the target websites and services. This includes utilizing reasonable rate limits, honouring technological signals where required by applicable law, avoiding disruption to any nodes or target websites, and collecting only the data reasonably required to fulfill the approved purpose.

Prohibited Activities

Network Services are not permitted to be used for illegal or unlawful activity. Prohibited activities include, but are not limited to: hacking, credential theft, malware distribution, phishing, social engineering, distributed denial of service attacks, botnet activity, traffic flooding, circumvention of technological protection measures, fraud, impersonation, harassment, scalping, inventory hoarding, or any other use that Grass reasonably determines presents an unacceptable risk to node operators, third parties, the Network Services, or Grass.

Monitoring and Enforcement

Grass utilizes technical, operational, contractual measures to support compliance with this Policy. These measures may include customer on-boarding controls, request logging, use-case reviews, rate limiting, audits, and the investigations of complaints or reports of misuse.

If Grass identifies or is notified of non-compliance with this Policy, it may take one or more of the following steps:

• Blocking the specific activity, use case, account, or customer;
• Restricting or suspending access to or use of the Network Service;
• Requesting additional information with respect to the matter;
• Terminating or suspending access to or use of the Network Service, including, without limitation, by termination or suspending a customer relationship; and
• Reporting matters to appropriate authorities where required by applicable law or otherwise determined by Grass to be appropriate in the circumstances.

If you believe that Network Services have been used in a manner that does not comply with this Policy, applicable law, or the rights of a third party, please report the concern to [email protected] and provide a reasonably detailed description of the activity, and any supporting information.

Grass will review credible reports in good faith and may investigate, restrict, suspend, or terminate access to or use of the Network Services, or take any other step that Grass deems to be appropriate.

Updates

Grass may update this Policy from time to time to reflect changes in its service, legal requirements, industry standards, and security practices. The current version is posted at https://www.grass.io/network-use-policy.