Messaging and consent policy

Zobi is a service operated by Zobi OÜ ("Zobi", "we", "us"), a private limited company incorporated in Estonia. Zobi is a technology platform that transmits AI-written conversational messages over iMessage, with SMS and RCS fallback, to the recipients you select, at the times you configure, using the templates and instructions you supply, for the purpose of recovering abandoned checkouts and driving repeat purchases. Message delivery runs through third-party providers, currently Blooio, SendBlue, AgentPhone, and Twilio.

You, the merchant, are the sole sender, caller, and initiator of every message transmitted through Zobi, and, where applicable law so provides, the data controller for the customer data involved. Zobi provides technology that transmits messages at your direction; Zobi is not the sender, caller, or initiator of any message. You determine the recipients, the timing, and the content (within the templates and instructions you configure), and you are solely responsible for ensuring that every message complies with all applicable law. This policy sets the rules you must follow. It works alongside our terms of service, our acceptable use policy, our data processing addendum, and our privacy policy. Zobi does not provide legal advice, and nothing in this policy is legal advice. You must obtain your own counsel on the laws that apply to your messaging.

Purpose and scope

This policy sets out the rules every merchant must follow when using Zobi to message their customers. The rules exist to keep messaging lawful, to protect recipients, and to keep our sending infrastructure and our provider relationships in good standing. They apply to every message you send through Zobi, on every channel, regardless of where you or your customer are located.

These rules are mandatory. Violating them, or putting our compliance standing at risk, can lead to suspension or termination of your messaging, as described in the enforcement section below. This policy is governed by the laws of Estonia, and the governing-law, class-action and collective-action waiver, and dispute-resolution provisions in our terms of service apply to it.

You are the sender; Zobi is a conduit

Zobi is a neutral technology provider. It transmits the messages you direct it to send, to the recipients you choose, at the times you configure, using the templates and instructions you supply. Zobi does not originate, author, or decide to send any message on its own behalf.

Your messaging program is human-directed and AI-assisted. You are the human decision-maker who initiates, configures, authorizes, and supervises the program: you decide whom to message, on what terms, and within which campaigns. The individual messages are generated with AI assistance operating within the parameters, templates, and instructions you configure and approve. You can review the program, pause it, and intervene at any time. Zobi transmits at your direction and does not independently decide whom to contact. Because the program is initiated and directed by you and confined to the recipients and terms you set, you are the sender, initiator, and originator of every message, and the messaging is human-directed rather than autonomous or random dialing.

• You are the sole "sender", "caller", "initiator", "message originator", and "advertiser" of every message, and you are the party that "makes" or "initiates" each communication for the purpose of any applicable telemarketing, messaging, or privacy law.
• You are solely responsible for any legal obligation to disclose to recipients that they may be interacting with AI or an automated or bot system, including any obligation under the California Bolstering Online Transparency (B.O.T.) Act (Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 17940 et seq.) and the transparency requirements of Article 50 of the EU AI Act, and you must make any such disclosure that applies to your messaging.
• Where applicable law treats the underlying customer data as personal data subject to data protection rules, you are the data controller and Zobi acts as your processor on the terms of the data processing addendum.
• You select the recipients, you configure the timing and cadence, and you supply or approve the templates and instructions that determine the content. Zobi's automation operating within the parameters you configure does not make Zobi the sender or shift any legal responsibility to us.
• You are solely responsible for the lawfulness of every message, including its consent basis, its content, its timing, and its destination, and for any claim arising from it.

Consent

You represent and warrant that, before any message is sent through Zobi, you have obtained and can document prior express written consent (where such consent is required by applicable law) from every recipient, that each recipient knowingly and voluntarily provided their mobile number to you for the purpose of receiving these messages, and that no recipient's consent has been revoked. You bear the entire burden of obtaining, evidencing, and maintaining consent.

• Consent must be specific to receiving messages from your brand. A recipient who agreed to hear from one business has not agreed to hear from another.
• Consent must be clearly and affirmatively given. Do not rely on pre-checked boxes, buried terms, or consent bundled into something unrelated where the law of the recipient's location requires more, including any heightened "prior express written consent" standard.
• You may not use purchased, rented, scraped, or otherwise third-party-sourced contact lists. Every recipient must have a direct relationship with your brand and must have consented to it.
• Conversational messages tied to a customer's own checkout or order are still subject to all applicable consent requirements and law. The fact that a message is a reply about the customer's own activity does not exempt it.
• You must retain records of when, how, through what disclosure, and for what purpose each recipient consented, and you must produce those records on request. Zobi may, but is not obligated to, request proof of consent for any recipient or campaign, and Zobi may suspend or restrict your sending if you do not provide that proof promptly.

Data processing obligations that come with handling this customer data are covered in the data processing addendum.

Opt-out and HELP

Zobi's system honors STOP, UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, END, QUIT, and other standard opt-out keywords, and their common equivalents, in the language a recipient is likely to use. That automation is a convenience and does not transfer the legal duty to you. You remain solely responsible for honoring every opt-out, including opt-outs received through any other channel, and for not re-adding any recipient who has opted out.

• You must provide a helpful response to HELP requests so recipients can understand who is messaging them and how to get assistance or stop messages.
• Recipients may withdraw consent at any time and by any reasonable means, not only by a specific keyword. Treat any clear request to stop, made through any channel, as an opt-out.
• Once a recipient opts out, do not message them again unless and until they give fresh consent.
• You must not upload, import, or message any number you know or should know is on an internal, carrier, or statutory do-not-contact, do-not-call, or suppression list.

Zobi supports automated opt-out and HELP handling to make compliance easier. That tooling does not transfer the legal duty. You remain legally responsible for honoring every opt-out and for the consequences if one is missed.

Timing and quiet hours

You must respect each recipient's local time and any applicable quiet-hours rules. Do not send marketing messages outside the hours permitted where the recipient is located. As an example only, US guidance commonly restricts messaging outside 8am to 9pm in the recipient's local time; this is an example, not the rule for every place, and you are responsible for the rules that actually apply to each recipient.

Zobi includes timezone-aware scheduling and quiet-hours deferral to help defer messages out of quiet hours. This is a convenience feature, not a compliance guarantee. It does not determine, and Zobi does not warrant, the lawful send times for any recipient. You remain solely responsible for ensuring that the timing of every message is lawful for each recipient.

Frequency and relevance

Keep message frequency reasonable and keep content relevant to the recipient and their relationship with your brand. Do not over-message. Excessive or irrelevant messaging leads to complaints, carrier filtering, and a poor experience for recipients, and it puts your account and our infrastructure at risk.

Prohibited and restricted content

You may not use Zobi for any messaging for which you lack the required consent, and you may not send content that is prohibited or restricted. This includes, without limitation:

• SHAFT content: sex, hate, alcohol, firearms, and tobacco, including content that promotes or references these categories where messaging rules prohibit it.
• Illegal goods or services, and illegal, deceptive, fraudulent, or misleading content of any kind.
• Phishing, smishing, malware, or other content designed to deceive or harm recipients.
• High-risk financial and other regulated categories, such as those subject to special legal restrictions, unless you are fully authorized and compliant and we have agreed to it in writing.

This list is not exhaustive. Our acceptable use policy is incorporated into this policy by reference, sets out the full content and conduct rules, and you must follow it.

Channel and carrier rules

Each channel and carrier has its own rules, and you must comply with all of them as they apply to your messaging.

• For SMS in the United States, you must comply with US A2P 10DLC registration requirements, including accurate brand and campaign registration.
• You must follow the CTIA Messaging Principles and Best Practices, and you must comply with carrier acceptable-use rules and filtering, including content and traffic standards.
• For iMessage and other Apple messaging, you must comply with Apple's iMessage and Business messaging terms and policies.
• For RCS, you must comply with applicable RCS requirements and sender verification rules.

Regional laws and regimes

You are solely responsible for complying with all laws and regulations that apply to your messaging in each recipient's location, and for obtaining your own legal counsel on them. Zobi does not provide legal advice and does not warrant that your messaging complies with any of them. The following are examples of regimes you may be responsible for; they are not the complete set of laws that may apply to you:

• United States: the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), including its consent and quiet-hours requirements; FCC rules; the CTIA Messaging Principles; A2P 10DLC registration for SMS; the CAN-SPAM Act; and state telemarketing laws, including the Florida Telephone Solicitation Act (FTSA) and equivalent state statutes.
• Canada: Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL).
• European Union and United Kingdom: the GDPR, the EU ePrivacy rules, and the UK Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR), which require prior consent for electronic marketing and an ongoing right to object.
• Carriers and Apple: carrier acceptable-use rules and the messaging terms and policies of Apple, the carriers, and our messaging providers.
• A catch-all duty to comply with all other laws, regulations, and rules applicable in each recipient's location.

No delivery or deliverability guarantee

Delivery is not guaranteed. Zobi does not guarantee the delivery, deliverability, speed, or timing of any message, and does not guarantee that a message will not be filtered, blocked, throttled, delayed, or otherwise restricted. Apple, carriers, RCS providers, and our messaging providers may filter, delay, throttle, or block messages at their discretion, and Zobi is not responsible for non-delivery or for any consequence of it.

The quiet-hours and timezone-aware deferral feature is a convenience and not a compliance guarantee. You remain solely responsible for lawful send times and for all aspects of your messaging regardless of how, when, or whether any message is delivered.

Recordkeeping and audit cooperation

You must maintain accurate records of consent and of your messaging, and you must cooperate with any carrier, provider, or regulator audit, inquiry, or investigation relating to your messaging. On request, you must promptly provide evidence of consent and any other records reasonably required to demonstrate compliance.

If you fail to provide requested consent evidence or to cooperate with an audit, or if we reasonably believe your messaging presents a compliance, legal, or reputational risk, we may immediately suspend or restrict your sending without liability to you.

Merchant responsibility and indemnity

You are the sole sender, caller, and initiator of the messages and, where applicable, the controller of the data, and you bear sole legal responsibility for your messaging. This includes obtaining and recording consent, honoring opt-outs, respecting timing and content rules, and complying with all applicable law. Zobi provides technology to help, but using that technology does not move any legal responsibility to us.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, you will defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Zobi OÜ and its affiliates, officers, directors, employees, and agents from and against any and all claims, demands, regulatory actions, investigations, fines, penalties, settlements, judgments, damages, losses, liabilities, and costs (including reasonable legal fees), including TCPA and other statutory damages, class and collective actions, and claims by message recipients, arising out of or related to your messaging, your selection of recipients, your content, your consent practices or any failure of consent, your opt-out handling, your failure to make any required disclosure of the use of AI or automated or bot systems, or your breach of this policy or applicable law. This indemnity is uncapped, is in addition to any indemnity in our terms of service, and survives termination.

The class-action and collective-action waiver and the limitation of liability in our terms of service apply to your use of Zobi for messaging. Nothing in this policy excludes or limits any liability that cannot be excluded or limited under mandatory provisions of Estonian or European Union law, and to that extent the carve-outs in our terms of service apply.

Enforcement and suspension

We may suspend, restrict, or disable your messaging at any time for any violation of this policy, any related policy, or any applicable law, where you fail to provide requested consent proof or to cooperate with an audit, or where we reasonably believe there is a compliance, legal, or reputational risk, or a risk to our providers or infrastructure. We may do this with or without prior notice, and we may report unlawful activity where required. We are not liable to you for losses arising from action we take to protect compliance.

Trademark note

iMessage is a trademark of Apple Inc. Zobi is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Apple Inc. Other names and marks are the property of their respective owners.

Contact

Questions about this policy can be sent to legal@heyzobi.com.