BēCN Technologies, LLC (d/b/a BēCN Pets)
Effective Date: [DATE] Last Updated: [DATE] Version: 1.0 Applies to: All users, including Pet Owners, Business Partners, and their authorized users
1. Purpose
1.1 This Acceptable Use Policy ("AUP") describes what you may and may not do on the BēCN Pets platform. It applies to the web application, the mobile application, the tag and its resolution service, the lost-pet alert service, the community features, and the Partner Portal.
1.2 This AUP forms part of and is incorporated into the Company's Terms and Conditions. Capitalized terms not defined here have the meanings given in the Terms.
1.3 Why this policy matters more here than at most companies. BēCN Pets exists to help keep animals safe and to help families find pets that have gone missing. The platform also connects pet owners to one another and shares information with strangers who find a pet. Those are exactly the conditions under which a small number of people can cause real harm — to an animal, to a pet owner, or to a person holding a pet. This policy exists to make that harm actionable.
2. Acceptance
2.1 By creating an account, activating a tag, scanning a tag, or using the platform in any way, you agree to this AUP.
2.2 If you do not agree, do not use the platform.
2.3 Business Partners are responsible for ensuring their authorized users comply. A Partner authorizes a user at its own risk.
2.4 We may update this AUP as described in Section 11. Continued use after an update is acceptance.
3. Prohibited conduct — general
You must not:
3.1 Use the platform for any unlawful purpose, or in violation of any applicable law.
3.2 Infringe the rights of any person, including intellectual property, privacy, and publicity rights.
3.3 Access or attempt to access any account, record, or system you are not authorized to access.
3.4 Probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of the platform, or breach or circumvent any security or authentication measure.
3.5 Interfere with or disrupt the platform, including through denial-of-service attacks, excessive automated requests, or introducing malicious code.
3.6 Scrape, harvest, or extract data from the platform by automated means, or use bots or crawlers except as expressly permitted.
3.7 Reverse engineer, decompile, or attempt to derive the source code or identifier-generation logic of the platform.
3.8 Resell, sublicense, or commercially exploit the platform or its data without our written consent.
3.9 Impersonate any person or entity, or misrepresent your affiliation with any person or entity.
3.10 Use the platform to send unsolicited communications, advertising, or spam.
3.11 Harvest or collect information about other users for any purpose without their consent.
4. Prohibited conduct — specific to BēCN Pets
These provisions address how this platform in particular can be misused.
4.1 Pet ownership and registration
You must not:
- (a) Register a pet you do not own or lawfully care for;
- (b) Register a pet you have taken, found, or acquired without the owner's knowledge, in order to establish a claim to it;
- (c) Register a pet in another person's name without their consent;
- (d) Falsely claim ownership of a pet registered to another person, including through a transfer or ownership-dispute request;
- (e) Use a tag on an animal you are not lawfully entitled to keep;
- (f) Register a pet for the purpose of concealing its origin or evading a lawful owner, a shelter, or law enforcement.
Why this matters: a tag is a claim of association with an animal. Registering a pet you do not own is not a paperwork error — it is how someone attempts to legitimize possessing an animal that belongs to someone else.
4.2 Lost-pet alerts
You must not:
- (a) Raise a false lost-pet alert, including for a pet that is not lost;
- (b) Raise an alert for a pet you do not own or lawfully care for, except as a Business Partner acting within the partner agreement;
- (c) Use an alert to harass, intimidate, or draw attention to a person or a location;
- (d) Raise repeated alerts to create alarm or exhaust the community's attention;
- (e) Withhold information about a pet's loss, including how, when, or where it occurred, when reporting an alert;
- (f) Continue an alert after the pet has been found.
Why this matters: the alert network only works because people respond to it. Someone who raises false alerts degrades the system for everyone, and deliberately so.
4.3 Misuse to locate or monitor a person
You must not use the platform, or any tag, to:
- (a) Track, monitor, surveil, or locate any person without their knowledge and consent;
- (b) Determine where a person lives, works, or spends time;
- (c) Attempt to identify a person who found or scanned a pet, beyond what that person chooses to disclose;
- (d) Contact a person who found a pet for any purpose other than arranging the pet's return;
- (e) Place a tag on an animal in order to monitor a person who has custody of that animal.
Why this matters: a pet is often with a person. A tag that reveals a pet's location can reveal a person's location. This provision treats that as an abuse of the platform, regardless of the stated intent. It applies to a person placing a tag and to a person scanning one.
4.4 Animal welfare
You must not use the platform in connection with:
- (a) Animal cruelty, abuse, neglect, or abandonment;
- (b) Animal fighting or any activity that injures an animal;
- (c) The breeding, sale, or transfer of animals in violation of law;
- (d) The sale or transfer of an animal you do not have the right to transfer;
- (e) Any activity prohibited by applicable animal welfare law.
4.5 The finder experience
If you find a pet and scan its tag, you must not:
- (a) Use the contact mechanism for any purpose other than helping return the pet;
- (b) Retain, publish, or distribute a pet owner's information obtained through a scan;
- (c) Claim a pet that is not yours;
- (d) Use the scan to establish contact with the owner for any other purpose, including commercial or personal solicitation.
5. Content standards
5.1 You are responsible for all content you submit, including pet profiles, photographs, descriptions, care notes, community posts, and messages.
5.2 You must not submit content that is:
- Unlawful, defamatory, or fraudulent
- Harassing, threatening, hateful, or abusive
- Obscene or sexually explicit
- Depicting animal cruelty or animal suffering
- Infringing the rights of another person
- Misleading about a pet's identity, health, lineage, or ownership
- Unsolicited advertising or promotional material
5.3 Pet photographs and descriptions. You must not upload a photograph or description of a pet that is not the pet you are registering, or that misrepresents the animal.
5.4 Medical and care information. You may provide medical and care notes for your own pet. You must not provide veterinary, medical, or professional advice to another user. Care notes are informational only and are not veterinary guidance.
5.5 License. By submitting content, you grant the Company the license described in the Terms and Conditions, limited to operating and improving the platform.
5.6 Removal. The Company may remove or decline to display any content that violates this AUP or the Terms.
6. Community conduct
6.1 Where the platform offers community features, you must treat other users with respect.
6.2 You must not:
- (a) Harass, threaten, or intimidate another user;
- (b) Publish another user's personal information without their consent;
- (c) Use community features to solicit money, goods, or services;
- (d) Post content unrelated to the platform's purpose;
- (e) Create multiple accounts to evade a restriction or suspension;
- (f) Manipulate or attempt to manipulate any reputation, ranking, or voting feature.
6.3 Moderation. The Company may moderate, remove, or restrict content and accounts at its discretion. It is not obligated to monitor all content and does not endorse user content.
7. Account responsibilities
7.1 Accuracy. You must provide accurate information and keep it current.
7.2 Age. You must be at least 18 to hold an account. Accounts may be held by a parent, guardian, or authorized caregiver on behalf of a person who is a minor or who does not have legal capacity. See the Terms §3.3.
7.3 Security. You must keep your credentials confidential, enable available multi-factor authentication, and not share access. You are responsible for activity under your account.
7.4 Notification. Notify the Company promptly of any suspected unauthorized access at [security@becnpets.com].
7.5 One account. You may not maintain duplicate accounts to evade limits, restrictions, or a suspension.
7.6 Tag identifiers. You must not alter, duplicate, obscure, or remove a tag identifier, or attempt to guess, enumerate, or generate identifiers.
8. Business Partner obligations
8.1 Business Partners must comply with this AUP and must ensure their authorized users do.
8.2 A Partner must not:
- (a) Provision tags outside the scope of its partner agreement;
- (b) Transfer a tag that belongs to an individual Pet Owner;
- (c) Retain or use Pet Owner data for marketing without the owner's separate consent;
- (d) Access pet records beyond the access the Pet Owner has granted;
- (e) Misrepresent the platform's features, pricing, or relationship to the Company.
8.3 A Partner is responsible for its authorized users' conduct.
8.4 Partner obligations are also set out in the Master Partner Agreement, including Section 6 (Data Access and Consent). Where an obligation appears in both documents, both apply.
9. Enforcement
9.1 Graduated response. The Company will generally respond proportionately, taking into account the seriousness of the conduct, whether it is repeated, whether harm occurred, and whether the user acted in good faith.
| Level | Circumstance | Typical action |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Minor, likely unintentional, or first occurrence | Warning and guidance |
| 2 | Repeated or deliberate but not seriously harmful | Content removal; temporary feature restriction |
| 3 | Serious, harmful, or repeated after warning | Suspension of the account |
| 4 | Severely harmful, unlawful, or involving animal or personal safety | Immediate termination, and where appropriate, referral to law enforcement |
9.2 Immediate action. The Company may suspend or terminate immediately, without warning or cure period, where it reasonably believes conduct involves:
- (a) Harm or risk of harm to an animal;
- (b) Attempted or actual misuse of the platform to locate, monitor, or harm a person;
- (c) A false lost-pet alert used to harass or draw a person to a location;
- (d) Attempted appropriation of a pet that belongs to another person;
- (e) A security threat to the platform or to other users;
- (f) Fraud or a pattern of abuse;
- (g) Conduct that creates legal risk for the Company or for other users.
9.3 Effect of termination. On termination, the user's access ends and any associated tags are deactivated in accordance with the Tag Lifecycle and Anti-Fraud Specification.
9.4 Pet Owner impact. Where termination affects a tag, the Company will consider the welfare of the animal before deactivating it. A pet should not become unidentifiable as a side effect of an account action where it can be avoided. The Company may offer a transfer path to another responsible person in appropriate cases.
9.5 Preservation. The Company may preserve records relating to a violation for investigation, for legal proceedings, and for law enforcement, as described in the Privacy Policy.
9.6 No waiver. Failure to enforce in one instance is not a waiver.
10. Reporting and appeals
10.1 Report abuse. Report suspected violations to [abuse@becnpets.com]. For anything involving an animal in immediate danger, contact local animal control or law enforcement first — the Company is not an emergency service and does not dispatch responders.
10.2 What to include. The account or pet record involved, the conduct, when it occurred, and any supporting material.
10.3 Confidentiality. The Company will handle reports as confidentially as practical, though it may need to disclose information to investigate or to comply with law.
10.4 Good faith. Reports must be made in good faith. Knowingly false reports may themselves violate this AUP.
10.5 Appeals. A user subject to suspension or termination may appeal within [THIRTY (30)] days to [appeals@becnpets.com]. The appeal is reviewed by someone other than the original decision-maker where practicable. The Company will respond within [FIFTEEN (15)] business days.
10.6 Law enforcement. The Company responds to valid legal process in accordance with the Privacy Policy and applicable law.
11. Changes to this policy
11.1 The Company may update this AUP. Material changes will be notified by email or in-app notice at least [THIRTY (30)] days before taking effect, except where an immediate change is required for legal or security reasons.
11.2 Continued use after the effective date constitutes acceptance.
13. Summary
You may: use the platform to identify your own pets, help return a found pet, connect with other pet owners, and use partner tools within your agreement.
You may not: register or claim a pet that is not yours, raise a false alert, use the platform or a tag to monitor a person, use the platform in connection with animal cruelty, or access data you are not authorized to access.
If you break these rules: the Company may warn you, restrict your account, suspend it, or terminate it — immediately, where an animal or a person is at risk.
Contact: [abuse@becnpets.com] for reports, [appeals@becnpets.com] for appeals, [support@becnpets.com] for everything else.