Acceptable Use Policy

You agree not to use Talkstead to:

• Make or receive calls or send messages that are illegal in any jurisdiction where the call originates, terminates, or is received.
• Deceive callers about who they are speaking with, including impersonating a real person, government agency, or another business.
• Conduct telemarketing, robocalls, or outbound campaigns without the prior express written consent required by the TCPA and analogous state laws.
• Send SMS without valid opt-in consent or fail to honor opt-out requests promptly.
• Harass, threaten, defraud, stalk, or abuse callers or message recipients.
• Promote or facilitate violence, terrorism, child sexual abuse material, human trafficking, or any other illegal content.
• Sell, advertise, or facilitate fraud, scams, pyramid schemes, fake invoices, phishing, or identity theft.
• Collect personal information under false pretenses or beyond what is needed for the legitimate purpose disclosed to the caller.
• Infringe intellectual property, publicity, or privacy rights.
• Distribute malware, scrape protected data, or attempt to access systems or accounts you do not own.
• Reverse engineer, decompile, or attempt to extract the source code, models, prompts, or training data behind the service, except to the extent applicable law expressly permits.
• Stress-test, load-test, or attempt to circumvent rate limits or security controls without our written consent.
• Use the service to generate synthetic voices of real people without their explicit consent, or to clone voices in a way that could mislead listeners about identity.

Many jurisdictions require disclosure when a call is answered by an AI agent and require one-party or two-party consent for recording. You are responsible for configuring the service to comply in every state and country where you operate. At a minimum:

• Disclose to callers that they are speaking with an AI agent if required by the law of the caller’s location or your location.
• Provide callers a way to reach a human or leave a message when they ask.
• Obtain any consents required before recording calls, including under California, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Washington, and other two-party-consent jurisdictions.
• Honor caller requests to stop recording, end the call, or be removed from future contact.

If you use Talkstead to send SMS to callers (for example, an appointment confirmation or summary):

• You must have prior express consent from the recipient under the TCPA and CTIA Messaging Principles.
• Provide a clear opt-out instruction (e.g., “Reply STOP to unsubscribe”) and honor opt-outs immediately.
• Identify the sender in each message.
• Do not send messages outside the recipient’s permitted hours under state or federal law.
• Do not use Talkstead for SHAFT-restricted content (sex, hate, alcohol, firearms, tobacco) where carrier policies prohibit it.

Talkstead is general-purpose front-desk software. Some industries impose specific rules that you, the customer, are responsible for satisfying:

• Healthcare. Talkstead is not, by default, a HIPAA business associate. Do not collect, transmit, or process Protected Health Information through the service unless you have a Business Associate Agreement in place with us. Without a BAA, configure the agent to avoid eliciting PHI.
• Legal and financial services. The AI agent does not provide legal, tax, investment, or insurance advice. Configure it to triage and book, not to advise. Have a licensed professional review any scripts that touch regulated topics.
• Debt collection. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) and state analogs impose strict limits on calls and messages to consumers. Do not use Talkstead for collections without compliant scripts and counsel review.
• Emergency dispatch. Talkstead is not an emergency service. If your business handles time-critical or life-safety calls (medical, fire, gas leaks, etc.), you must maintain a human fallback path and clearly direct callers to call 911 in an emergency.
• Minors. Do not configure the agent to collect personal information from individuals under 13 without verifiable parental consent (COPPA).
• Political, election, and government communications. Subject to additional rules; you are responsible for compliance.

You are responsible for ensuring you have the right to use any phone numbers you forward to or associate with the service. We may require verification before activating a forwarded or ported number, and we may decline numbers associated with known violations.

Do not attempt to probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of the service or any system or network connected to it without our prior written authorization. Do not bypass authentication, rate limits, or other controls. Promptly report any security vulnerability you discover to security@talkstead.com.

If you believe a customer is using Talkstead in violation of this AUP — for example, you received an illegal call or unwanted SMS — please report it to abuse@talkstead.com. Include the caller ID, date and time, and a brief description so we can investigate.

We investigate reports of suspected violations and may, at our discretion: (a) request more information, (b) require you to remediate within a stated time, (c) suspend specific features or numbers, (d) suspend or terminate your account, or (e) cooperate with law enforcement. We will, where reasonable, give you notice and a chance to cure before terminating, but we may act immediately when the conduct creates ongoing harm, legal risk, or threats to the integrity of the service.

Capitalized terms not defined here have the meaning given in our Terms of Service. Talkstead is operated by Stead Labs, LLC.