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Acceptable use

Acceptable Use Policy

ZelNum is a verification service: it checks whether phone numbers, email addresses, and account identifiers show registration, availability, and line-type signals. This policy spells out the workflows it is built for, the uses that are prohibited, and what happens when the line is crossed.

Effective: October 19, 2026

Scope of this policy

This policy sits inside the Terms of Service. Terms capital-D "you" is a business or individual with a ZelNum account; this policy uses the same convention. It applies to every channel: single lookups on the website, bulk uploads in the dashboard, and API jobs.

If a use is not clearly permitted here, ask us before you build on it: [email protected].

What the service does

ZelNum answers one narrow question about an identifier you already hold: is it valid, what is its line type and carrier, and does it show registration or availability signals on a given platform? Output is a set of technical and status fields — validity, format, country, carrier, line type, portability, registration and availability indicators.

ZelNum does not send messages of any kind, does not log in to any third-party account, does not read private profile content, and does not return names, addresses, or other identity attributes of the person behind a number. Details of the data flows are on the Data & Compliance page.

Permitted uses

ZelNum exists for data-quality and risk workflows on records you are already entitled to process:

  • Contact and CRM hygiene — fixing malformed records, removing duplicates, and suppressing dead numbers inside your own customer or contact lists.
  • Pre-send list validation — checking reachability and line type before messaging people who have already agreed to hear from you, so they never receive a message for a dead or wrong-channel number.
  • Fraud and abuse review — screening signups, leads, and applicants for disposable, high-risk, or inconsistent identifiers.
  • Compliance screening — identifying line types (for example VoIP) that regulation or platform policy treats differently in your jurisdiction.
  • Product integration — building validation into your own software through the API for your users' records.

Prohibited uses

You must not use ZelNum, or allow anything built on ZelNum to be used, for any of the following:

  • Spam and mass outreach. Preparing, enabling, or optimizing unsolicited bulk messages, cold email or SMS lists, robocalls, or any campaign aimed at people who have not asked to hear from you. ZelNum has no sending capability, and using it to feed one is a direct breach.
  • Telemarketing preparation. Building, cleaning, enriching, or refreshing lists whose purpose is outbound telephone or messaging sales, including by third parties on your behalf.
  • Surveillance and tracking. Monitoring, locating, or profiling a specific person, checking numbers out of curiosity about an individual, or any use in a domestic, stalking, or harassment context.
  • Data broking. Compiling, reselling, licensing, or redistributing results as a people directory, number-ownership database, or enrichment feed for third parties.
  • Eligibility decisions about people. Using results as a factor in employment, credit, insurance, tenancy, education, or benefits decisions, or as identity verification or a background check. The signals are not fit for those purposes.
  • Platform abuse. Circumventing the terms, rate limits, or access controls of any platform, or using availability signals to target platforms' users against those platforms' rules.
  • Unlawful processing. Checking identifiers you hold no lawful basis to process, or breaking spam, privacy, or consumer-protection law in any jurisdiction that applies to you.

Use cases we decline

Some business models are built on the prohibited uses above. We do not serve them, and an account created for one of them will be closed regardless of volume:

  • Lead brokers and list vendors selling contact data or "verified" prospect lists.
  • Cold-outreach agencies and blast-sending platforms using verification to fuel campaigns.
  • People-search, skip-tracing, or "who owns this number" services.
  • Any tool whose output is used to approach individuals who did not consent.

Your lawful basis

ZelNum processes the identifiers you submit on your instructions. For most business workflows that makes you the controller of the submitted data and ZelNum a processor. That means the lawful basis — consent, contract, or legitimate interest under the GDPR and similar laws — is yours to establish and keep records of, before you press upload. The Data & Compliance page explains how we handle the data while we hold it, and the Privacy Policy covers retention.

Enforcement

We review accounts for patterns inconsistent with this policy — for example, submission sources that look like harvested lists, API usage shaped like list laundering, or results resold through another interface. Where we find a breach we may warn, throttle, suspend, or close the account, and we will do so without refund for the part of the service already consumed where the terms allow. Serious breaches — surveillance, harassment, data broking — end the account on first detection.

Reporting misuse

If you believe ZelNum results are being used against you or in breach of this policy, write to [email protected] with whatever identifiers you have — the numbers or addresses involved, screenshots, or the product that exposed the data. We investigate every report and can block specific identifiers from future lookups. Reports that show a banned use case also help us close the account behind it.

Contact

Questions about this policy, or whether your planned use fits inside it: [email protected], or through the contact page. We answer policy questions before you commit engineering time, not after.