Acceptable Use Policy

This Acceptable Use Policy (the "AUP") explains what's allowed and what's prohibited when you use Everynook. It's part of our Terms of Service — by using the Service, you agree to follow it.

This policy exists for three reasons: to keep the Service safe and useful for everyone, to protect us all from legal liability (especially around fair housing), and to set clear expectations so we can act consistently when something goes wrong.

We may update this AUP from time to time. Material changes will be communicated through the Service or by email, and will take effect on the date specified in the update. For non-material changes (clarifications, new examples), the updated version is effective immediately on posting.

---

1. WHO THIS APPLIES TO

This AUP applies to:

• Users — anyone with an Everynook account, including Agents, brokerage staff, team members, and any individual user
• Visitors — anyone browsing the public-facing parts of Everynook
• Signers — anyone signing or interacting with a NookSign document
• Authorized agents — anyone acting on behalf of a User
• Anyone using the Service through an integration, API, or automated tool

If you're using the Service on behalf of a brokerage, team, or other entity, this AUP applies to you personally and to the entity.

1.1 Brokerage and team responsibility

Account owners, brokerages, broker-of-record license holders, and team administrators are responsible for the conduct of any person operating under their organization or invitation, including employees, transaction coordinators, assistants, contractors, virtual assistants, admins, interns, and invited team members. If a person you invite, supervise, or grant access to violates this AUP, you (and your brokerage) are responsible for that conduct as if it were your own. This includes obligations to monitor for fair housing compliance, AI misuse, and inappropriate communications by team members.

---

2. THE BIG PICTURE

A few principles that drive everything below:

• Don't break the law. Federal, state, local, real estate, fair housing, privacy, consumer protection, securities, anti-discrimination, anti-trust, sanctions — all of it.
• Don't break our trust. Don't deceive other users, your clients, signers, or us.
• Don't break the Service. Don't try to break, scrape, automate, reverse-engineer, or destabilize Everynook.
• Don't break other people. No harassment, no discrimination, no abuse.

If you're not sure whether something is OK, ask: privacy@everynook.com or abuse@everynook.com.

---

3. PROHIBITED CONTENT

3.1 Discriminatory content — fair housing

This is the highest-stakes category for a real estate platform, and the rules apply to every piece of content you put on Everynook: listings, descriptions, neighborhood posts, reviews, messages, AI prompts, and outputs you publish.

The federal Fair Housing Act (42 U.S.C. §§ 3601 et seq.), state and local fair housing laws, and the NAR Code of Ethics prohibit communications that indicate a preference, limitation, or discrimination based on protected classes. Protected classes under federal law include:

• Race
• Color
• Religion
• National origin
• Sex (including sexual orientation and gender identity)
• Familial status (presence of children, pregnancy)
• Disability

Many states and cities add additional protected classes: source of income (Section 8 vouchers), age, marital status, military/veteran status, immigration status, criminal history, and others. You are responsible for knowing your jurisdiction.

Don't:

Do:

The rule of thumb: Describe the property, not the people who would live there. If a sentence sounds like advice about who should live there, rewrite it.

Schools and neighborhood characteristics — a clarification. Agents sometimes assume the right answer is "never mention schools or neighborhood characteristics." That's not quite right. Avoid subjective characterizations of schools or neighborhoods. Where school or neighborhood information is genuinely relevant to a property, use objective and verifiable sources (e.g., school assignment from the district website, GreatSchools rating with attribution, distance in miles) and avoid language that implies a demographic preference. "Assigned to Lincoln Elementary School (per Anytown ISD; verify current assignment)" is fine. "Great school district" or "good schools" is not. The same logic applies to neighborhood features: "0.3 miles to Metro Red Line" is fine; "great area" is not.

3.2 AI-generated content and fair housing

AI features can generate fair-housing-violating language without anyone noticing. You are responsible for reviewing every AI-generated listing description, AI-suggested neighborhood post, or AI-drafted communication before publishing or sending it. Saying "the AI wrote it" is not a defense under the Fair Housing Act.

If an AI suggestion contains protected-class language, edit it before publishing. If the AI keeps producing problematic suggestions, contact privacy@everynook.com — we'll log it as a quality issue.

3.3 Illegal content

You may not post or transmit content that:

• Violates any law
• Facilitates illegal activity (drug trafficking, fraud, money laundering, sanctions evasion, human trafficking)
• Constitutes incitement to violence or terrorism
• Promotes the violent overthrow of governments
• Constitutes child sexual abuse material (CSAM) — we report this immediately to NCMEC and law enforcement, no exceptions
• Constitutes non-consensual intimate imagery
• Violates export controls or sanctions

3.4 Misleading or fraudulent content

You may not:

• Misrepresent listings. Inaccurate square footage, fake addresses, properties you don't have authority to list, prices you don't intend to honor, or features the property doesn't have.
• Conceal virtual staging. All AI-generated, virtually staged, or AI-enhanced images must be disclosed per MLS rules and applicable state laws (see Section 8.2).
• Misrepresent your identity, license, or affiliation. Don't claim to be a licensed Agent if you're not; don't claim to be with a brokerage you're not with.
• Fake reviews. Don't post reviews of yourself, don't coordinate review campaigns, don't pay or pressure for reviews, don't write reviews on behalf of others without disclosure.
• Phantom listings, bait-and-switch. Don't list properties to attract leads if you have no intent to sell that property.
• Hide material defects. Disclosure obligations apply even on a software platform.
• Misrepresent contracts. Don't alter NookSign documents after execution, don't represent unsigned drafts as executed, don't forge signatures.
• Generate or distribute deceptive synthetic media. Don't use the Service to create or distribute fabricated persons (deepfake images or video of agents, clients, or signers), fabricated property conditions (AI-altered photos that hide damage, add structural features that don't exist, or invent rooms), manipulated transaction evidence (forged inspection reports, fake settlement statements, synthetic appraisals), fabricated communications appearing to come from another person, or misleading audiovisual content intended to deceive a counterparty, client, or third party. Cosmetic virtual staging (furniture, paint, finishes) disclosed under Section 8.2 / 6.2 is permitted; synthetic media intended to deceive is not.

3.5 Hate speech and harassment

You may not post, transmit, or send content that:

• Promotes hate against a protected class
• Harasses, threatens, stalks, or intimidates any person
• Targets individuals with abuse based on their identity
• Doxxes (publishes private personal information of others without consent)
• Uses slurs or dehumanizing language
• Encourages self-harm or suicide

This applies in messaging, in community contributions, in support communications with us, and in any other interaction through Everynook.

3.6 Privacy violations

You may not:

• Upload personal information about other people without permission
• Post photographs of identifiable individuals (clients, members of the public) without consent
• Share contact information of others for marketing purposes without consent
• Use the Service to track, surveil, or monitor people who haven't agreed to it
• Scrape user information from the Service

3.7 Sexually explicit content

The Service is a professional real estate platform and is not intended for sexually explicit content of any kind. Do not upload, post, or transmit sexually explicit material, regardless of context.

3.8 Violence and graphic content

Don't post violent or graphic content, including images of violence, gore, or animal abuse. (This isn't a complex problem on a real estate platform, but it's stated for completeness.)

3.9 Spam and unsolicited commercial communication

Don't use Everynook (including NookSign, email, SMS, or any other feature) to send unsolicited bulk messages. This includes:

• Spam emails to leads who haven't opted in
• TCPA-violating SMS to consumers
• Unsolicited cold outreach via NookSign signing requests
• Mass-messaging unrelated users on the platform
• Network marketing pitches, MLM recruitment, or get-rich-quick schemes

If you're sending communications to your own clients or leads, you are responsible for compliance with TCPA, CAN-SPAM, and state telemarketing laws — not us. We provide the tools; legal compliance is on you.

3.10 Malware and security threats

Don't upload, transmit, or link to:

• Viruses, worms, trojans, ransomware, or other malicious code
• Phishing pages or content designed to deceive users
• Content that attempts to bypass our security
• Content that probes for vulnerabilities

If you're a security researcher who wants to report a vulnerability, see Section 5.4 — we welcome responsible disclosure.

3.11 Copyright and IP infringement

Don't upload content that infringes someone else's copyright, trademark, or other intellectual property rights. This is particularly important for listing photos — photographers retain copyright in their photos by default, and using a photographer's images without a license is the most-litigated infringement type in real estate.

By uploading photos, listing descriptions, or other content, you represent that you own them or have a valid license that permits the uses on the Service.

We respond to DMCA takedown notices per ToS Section 30. Repeat infringers will have accounts terminated.

3.12 Impersonation

Don't impersonate another person, organization, brokerage, or government agency. Don't use names, logos, or branding belonging to others in a way that could mislead.

---

4. PROHIBITED CONDUCT

4.1 Account abuse

• One person, one account. Don't create multiple accounts to evade limits, suspensions, or terminations.
• Don't share your account credentials with anyone else.
• Don't sell, transfer, or rent your account.
• Don't access the Service using anyone else's account.
• No circumvention. Don't attempt to evade restrictions, suspensions, rate limits, feature controls, safety systems, moderation systems, content filters, or account limitations through alternate accounts, automation, proxies, VPNs used to defeat geographic restrictions, integrations, browser extensions, or any other means. If your account has been suspended or terminated, do not create a new account.

4.2 Automation, scraping, and dataset creation

• Don't scrape, crawl, or harvest data from the Service except through documented APIs (if any).

• Don't use bots, scripts, or automated tools to interact with the Service, except for standard search-engine indexing of public pages.

• Don't use AI agents to interact with the Service as a user (we may add AI-agent-friendly APIs in the future; until then, agent traffic is not permitted).

• No dataset or product creation from Service content. You may not use the Service, content displayed on the Service, AI outputs generated through the Service, or any data accessible through the Service to create datasets, compilations, market intelligence products, comparative market analyses for resale, benchmarking systems, valuation models, pricing models, AI training corpora, or any other derivative product — for internal use, resale, or distribution — without Everynook's prior written permission. This restriction extends to MLS data, transaction data, listing patterns, agent activity, and aggregated platform metrics. MLS data accessed through Everynook is subject to your separate MLS agreement; you may not use Everynook as a route to circumvent MLS data licensing.

• This restriction applies expressly to the EU Text and Data Mining exception and similar provisions worldwide, which you waive to the extent permitted by law.

• Aggregate Insights — Everynook's reserved rights and your limits. Everynook itself generates de-identified Aggregate Insights from User-contributed data (offers, transactions, listing activity, and other agent inputs), as described in our Privacy Policy Section 4.5 and Terms of Service Section 8.13. This is a feature of the Service. The restriction in this Section 4.2 applies to Users — you may not build your own competing dataset or aggregate-intelligence product from Service content. It does not limit Everynook's right to operate the Service's own Aggregate Insights feature.

  When you receive Aggregate Insights through the Service, you may use them for your individual professional decision-making about specific transactions or your own business. You may not: (i) attempt to re-identify the underlying individuals, properties, transactions, agents, or brokerages; (ii) reverse-engineer the source data; (iii) systematically extract Aggregate Insights to build a competing dataset; (iv) commercially redistribute, license, or resell Aggregate Insights to third parties; (v) combine Aggregate Insights with external data sources for the purpose of re-identification; or (vi) use Aggregate Insights in any manner that violates antitrust law (no use to coordinate prices or commissions) or fair housing law (no use to steer, redline, or discriminate). See Terms of Service Section 8.13 for the full set of constraints.

4.3 Reverse engineering

• Don't decompile, disassemble, or reverse-engineer the Service.
• Don't probe for vulnerabilities (other than responsible security research per Section 5.4).
• Don't try to discover how AI features work in order to extract proprietary prompts or system instructions.

4.4 Service disruption

• Don't attempt to overload, flood, or disrupt the Service.
• Don't interfere with other users' use of the Service.
• Don't deliberately trigger errors, abuse rate limits, or test for resource exhaustion.

4.5 Competing products

• Don't use the Service to develop a competing product.
• Don't use the Service primarily for benchmarking or competitive intelligence.
• Don't copy our user interfaces, workflows, or proprietary features.

---

5. AI-SPECIFIC RULES

Everynook uses AI throughout the Service. AI can be misused in ways that don't fit traditional "prohibited content" categories.

5.1 Don't manipulate AI features

• Don't attempt to "jailbreak," prompt-inject, or otherwise manipulate AI features into generating prohibited content (fair-housing violations, illegal advice, sexual content, etc.).
• Don't try to extract our system prompts, model configurations, or proprietary AI instructions.
• Don't try to use AI features to impersonate others or generate deceptive content.

5.2 Don't pass AI output off as human work when it matters

If you use AI to generate a listing description, a communication to a client, a contract draft, or any content where authorship or accuracy matters to the recipient, you must review it for accuracy before sending. You are responsible for what you publish, even if AI generated it.

For consumer-facing content where AI involvement is required to be disclosed (e.g., virtual staging, certain advertising under state law), disclose it.

5.3 Don't use AI for harm

Don't use AI features to:

• Generate content that would violate this AUP if you wrote it yourself
• Generate harassing or threatening messages
• Generate false information about other people, properties, or transactions
• Generate fair-housing-violating language (whether or not you publish it)
• Generate misleading legal advice for clients

5.4 AI output is your User Content once you act on it

Once you review, edit, publish, send, distribute, or rely upon any AI-generated output, that output becomes your User Content under these policies and the Terms of Service. "The AI generated it" is not a defense to a Fair Housing Act violation, a defamation claim, a misrepresentation claim, a TCPA violation, or any other claim arising from content you used in your professional work. The standard is: if it would have been a violation when written by you, it is a violation when generated by AI and used by you.

This is not a trap — it is the legal reality under existing law. AI is a tool you operate. You are responsible for the work product. Build a review habit accordingly.

5.5 Security research

We welcome responsible security research. If you discover a vulnerability:

• Report it to security@everynook.com.
• Don't access, modify, or exfiltrate user data beyond what's necessary to demonstrate the vulnerability.
• Don't disrupt the Service.
• Give us reasonable time to fix the issue before any public disclosure.

In return, we won't take legal action against good-faith researchers who follow these guidelines. We may not have a formal bug bounty, but we appreciate responsible disclosure.

---

6. FEATURE-SPECIFIC RULES

6.1 NookSign (electronic signature)

• Don't forge signatures or impersonate signers.
• Don't alter Documents after execution.
• Don't use NookSign for documents that legally require notarization, wet signature, or in-person execution in your jurisdiction (wills, certain real estate transfers in some states, court documents — when in doubt, consult a lawyer).
• Don't use NookSign to send "cold" signing requests to people who haven't agreed to receive them — confirm consent before sending.
• You are responsible for your own document retention per applicable real estate, tax, and brokerage rules. Everynook is not your record custodian. Download and archive executed Documents independently.
• Don't represent yourself to signers as an attorney or provide legal advice through NookSign templates.

6.2 Virtual Nooks (AI virtual staging)

• You must disclose virtual staging in listings, on MLS, and in any marketing where required by the MLS, state law, or NAR Code of Ethics. The required disclosure varies — "Virtually Staged" caption, watermark, or in-listing-description notice are all common patterns.
• Don't use Virtual Nooks to misrepresent physical facts about a property: don't add rooms that don't exist, don't conceal damage, don't alter structural features.
• Cosmetic changes (furniture, paint, finishes) are the intended use case. Structural changes are not.
• You must own or license source photos for the uses on Everynook.

6.3 Neighborhood Niche / Area Insights

This is the highest fair-housing-risk feature on the platform. The same fair housing rules from Section 3.1 apply here, possibly more strictly because neighborhood-level content is exactly where steering claims arise.

• Don't characterize the people who live in an area. Describe the neighborhood objectively — geography, amenities, history, transportation — not its demographics.
• Don't say "safe," "family-friendly," "good schools," "wealthy area," "up-and-coming," or other terms that have been treated as coded steering language. Some of these may be true and even useful, but the legal risk of including them outweighs the benefit.
• Don't make claims about specific identifiable neighbors, businesses, or homeowners.
• Don't post personal disputes with neighbors as area content.
• If you post a review of a neighborhood, base it on objective characteristics, not on assumptions about who lives there.

6.4 Listings

• Listings must be accurate. Verify square footage, lot size, school zones, tax info, HOA dues, and similar data before publishing.
• Listings must reflect properties you have authority to list. Don't list properties you don't represent.
• Listings must use photos you own or have licensed.
• Listings must comply with MLS rules and NAR Clear Cooperation Policy.
• Listings must avoid fair-housing-violating language (Section 3.1).

6.5 Communications

• SMS to clients/leads is subject to TCPA — get express written consent before sending marketing texts.
• Email to clients/leads is subject to CAN-SPAM — include unsubscribe options, identify yourself, honor unsubscribes promptly.
• Don't use Everynook to send bulk unsolicited messages.

---

7. REPORTING VIOLATIONS

If you see content or conduct that violates this AUP, report it:

• General content concerns: abuse@everynook.com
• Copyright infringement (DMCA): dmca@everynook.com
• Fair housing violations: abuse@everynook.com — flag prominently
• Security vulnerabilities: security@everynook.com
• Privacy concerns: privacy@everynook.com
• Child safety / CSAM: abuse@everynook.com — this is treated with the highest priority and immediate NCMEC reporting

Include: a description of the violation, links or screenshots, the username (if known), the date/time, and any other relevant context.

We review reports as quickly as we can. We may not always be able to respond individually, but we take all reports seriously.

---

8. ENFORCEMENT

8.1 What we may do

When a violation is reported (or detected automatically), we may take any of the following actions, in our discretion and depending on severity, intent, and prior history:

• Warning — notification of the violation with guidance on correction
• Content removal — taking down the specific content
• Feature restriction — disabling specific features (e.g., disabling Neighborhood Niche posting while keeping account access)
• Suspension — temporary account suspension while we investigate
• Account termination — permanent account closure
• Legal action — civil or criminal referral
• Law enforcement reporting — for illegal content (CSAM is reported automatically and immediately)

For first-time, low-severity violations (e.g., a single fair-housing-borderline phrase in a listing), we'll typically warn and request correction. For repeated, intentional, or high-severity violations, we'll move directly to suspension or termination.

8.2 Immediate-termination offenses

The following result in immediate account termination, without a warning step:

• CSAM or sexual content involving minors
• Credible threats of violence
• Fraud against other users
• Forgery of NookSign signatures
• Repeated copyright infringement after DMCA takedowns
• Repeated fair housing violations after warning
• Attempting to manipulate AI features to generate prohibited content
• Hacking, scraping, or attempting to compromise the Service
• Selling or transferring your account
• Use of the Service for sanctioned countries or persons

8.3 Effect of termination

If your account is terminated:

• You lose access to the Service
• Per ToS Section 9.7 retention rules, your NookSign Documents may be retained for the period applicable to your subscription tier — but in cases of severe abuse, we may delete content immediately
• You may not create a new account without our written permission
• Outstanding fees remain due
• We may retain certain data for fraud prevention, dispute resolution, and legal compliance

8.4 No-discrimination protection

We will not terminate or restrict your account because you exercised a privacy right (CCPA, GDPR, or equivalent), because you reported a violation, because you made a good-faith abuse report, or because you submitted feedback.

8.5 Automated enforcement

Everynook uses automated systems — including AI-assisted moderation, fraud-detection systems, abuse-detection systems, spam classifiers, image-analysis tools, and content-pattern analysis — to identify potential violations of this AUP. Automated systems may flag content for human review, apply temporary rate limits, hide content pending review, or take other interim actions. Human review is involved in account suspensions and terminations except in cases of urgent risk (Section 8.6).

8.6 Emergency action authority

We may take immediate action without prior notice where reasonably necessary to: prevent harm to users or third parties; protect the security, integrity, or stability of the Service; preserve evidence; stop ongoing abuse, hacking, or scraping campaigns; mitigate fraud or impersonation; respond to credible threats; or prevent material legal or reputational exposure. Emergency actions may include immediate content removal, account suspension, IP blocking, integration shutoff, or feature disabling. We will provide notice and appeal rights as soon as reasonably practical after the emergency action.

8.7 Cooperation with regulators and authorities

We may cooperate with — and share relevant information with — MLSs, REALTOR® associations and ethics boards, state real estate licensing authorities, the National Association of REALTORS®, fair housing agencies (HUD and state equivalents), the Federal Trade Commission, state attorneys general, the FCC, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, copyright holders, and law enforcement, regarding suspected violations of law, MLS rules, license obligations, the NAR Code of Ethics, intellectual property rights, or this AUP. Cooperation may include responding to subpoenas, court orders, valid administrative requests, and (where consistent with our policies) preserving and producing records about specific accounts.

8.8 No reliance on moderation

Everynook's moderation, warnings, automated filters, AI compliance checks, and enforcement actions do not constitute legal review, brokerage supervision, compliance certification, fair housing approval, or any form of endorsement of any content, communication, document, or conduct. The fact that we did not remove content does not mean the content is compliant with law or with this AUP. The fact that we did not warn you does not mean your conduct was acceptable. You may not rely on the absence of enforcement as evidence of permission, and you may not argue that "Everynook allowed it" as a defense to a legal claim or regulatory complaint. Your professional and legal obligations remain yours.

8.9 Reserved rights

We reserve the right to restrict or remove content or conduct that creates legal, reputational, operational, regulatory, or security risk to the Service, to other users, or to third parties — even if not expressly listed in this AUP. Abuse patterns evolve faster than written policies, and our enumeration of prohibited content in this document is illustrative, not exhaustive.

---

9. APPEALS

If your account has been suspended or terminated and you believe we made a mistake, you can appeal:

• Send an email to abuse@everynook.com within 30 days of the action
• Include: your account email, the action taken, why you believe it was incorrect, and any context we may have missed
• We will review and respond within 30 days
• If you remain unsatisfied, you may pursue dispute resolution per ToS Section 22

Appeals are reviewed by someone other than the original decision-maker where reasonably possible.

---

10. INTERACTION WITH OTHER POLICIES

This AUP works alongside our other policies:

• Terms of Service — overall agreement; this AUP is incorporated by reference under ToS Section 7
• Privacy Policy — how we handle personal information
• SMS Terms — specific rules for text messaging
• Cookie Policy — specific rules for tracking technologies
• DMCA Policy — copyright takedown procedures (in ToS Section 30)

If there's any conflict between this AUP and another policy, the Terms of Service generally controls — but we'll resolve apparent conflicts in good faith and in line with the spirit of all policies.

---

11. CHANGES TO THIS POLICY

We may update this AUP from time to time to address new patterns of abuse, new features, or new laws.

For material changes that significantly restrict what's allowed or expand consequences, we'll provide reasonable advance notice (typically 14 days) through the Service or email.

For non-material changes — clarifying examples, adding new categories that flow from existing rules, formatting — we may update immediately with notice via the "Last Updated" date at the top of this document.

If you continue using the Service after a change, you're accepting the updated AUP. If you don't agree with a change, your option is to stop using the Service.

---

12. CONTACT

Questions about this AUP:

abuse@everynook.com

Every Nook, LLC Attn: Trust and Safety 6325 Woodside Court, Suite 105 Columbia, MD 21046 United States