Acceptable Use Policy

#Introduction

This Acceptable Use Policy ("AUP" or "Policy") sets out how you may and may not use ArcScribe, the voice recorder and speech to text Chrome extension provided by Birchwood Group LLC ("Birchwood Group", "we", "us", or "our"). It works alongside our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, and it is incorporated into your agreement with us.

ArcScribe is a productivity tool with a privacy-first design: your recordings and transcripts stay on your device, and we ask for only the permissions the product truly needs. That design gives you a great deal of freedom, and this Policy exists to make sure that freedom is used responsibly. The vast majority of people use ArcScribe exactly as intended, to capture ideas, meetings, lectures, and notes. This Policy is aimed at the small number of misuses that could harm other people, break the law, or undermine the Service, and it explains what happens when those lines are crossed.

Please read this Policy carefully. By using ArcScribe, you agree to follow it.

Warning: Recording people without the consent required by law can be a serious legal violation. Because ArcScribe is a recording tool, we highlight this responsibility up front: you must know and follow the recording-consent laws that apply to you.

#Table of Contents

1. Executive Summary
2. Purpose
3. Scope
4. Definitions
5. Acceptable Use
6. Prohibited Activities
7. Recording Consent and Privacy of Others
8. Spam and Unsolicited Messaging
9. Automation Abuse
10. Fraud
11. Malware and Malicious Code
12. Reverse Engineering
13. Illegal Activities
14. Intellectual Property Violations
15. Security Abuse
16. Account and License Sharing
17. API Abuse and Scraping
18. Rate Limits and Fair Use
19. Enforcement
20. Warnings, Suspensions, and Bans
21. Reporting Abuse
22. Appeals
23. User Responsibilities
24. Company Responsibilities
25. Examples
26. Frequently Asked Questions
27. Contact Information
28. Future Policy Changes
29. Conclusion

#Executive Summary

• Use ArcScribe lawfully. Record and transcribe only what you have the right to record and transcribe.
• Respect other people. Obtain any consent the law requires before recording others, and do not use ArcScribe to harass, defraud, or harm anyone.
• Do not abuse the Service. No malware, no reverse engineering, no security attacks, no circumventing limits, and no fraud.
• Keep it fair. Do not share paid licenses in ways your plan does not allow, and do not place unreasonable load on our systems or our processors.
• Enforcement is proportionate. We generally start with a warning for curable issues, and escalate to suspension or a ban for serious or repeated violations.
• You can appeal. If you believe an enforcement action was a mistake, contact us and we will review it.

Best practice: When in doubt about whether a use is acceptable, ask yourself whether it is lawful, honest, and respectful of others. If any of those is missing, it probably is not acceptable.

#Purpose

The purpose of this Policy is to protect users, the public, and the ArcScribe service from misuse. Clear rules let honest users enjoy ArcScribe with confidence, protect people who might be harmed by abuse, and give us a fair and transparent basis for acting when someone crosses a line. This Policy is not intended to restrict legitimate, everyday use, which is what almost everyone does.

#Scope

This Policy applies to everyone who installs or uses ArcScribe, on both the free plan and ArcScribe Pro, and to any interaction with our website, support channels, and billing processes. It applies together with our Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, and Cookie Policy. Where this Policy and the Terms of Service overlap, both apply, and the Terms govern in the event of a direct conflict unless stated otherwise.

#Definitions

#Acceptable Use

You may use ArcScribe for a wide range of lawful, everyday purposes, including but not limited to:

• Recording your own voice notes, ideas, and reminders.
• Capturing meetings, interviews, lectures, and calls where you have the right and any required consent to record.
• Generating transcripts to draft documents, study, or improve accessibility.
• Organizing your recordings into folders and tags, and exporting transcripts to formats you need.
• Using ArcScribe in a professional, educational, journalistic, or personal capacity, within the law.

Acceptable use is defined less by a checklist and more by three simple qualities: it is lawful, it is honest, and it respects the rights of others. As long as your use meets those qualities, you are almost certainly within this Policy.

#Prohibited Activities

You must not use ArcScribe to do any of the following. This list is illustrative, not exhaustive; conduct that is unlawful or clearly harmful is prohibited even if it is not listed.

• Record any person or communication without the consent or legal right required where you are recording.
• Violate any applicable law or regulation, or facilitate anyone else doing so.
• Harass, threaten, stalk, defame, or invade the privacy of any person.
• Infringe the intellectual property or other rights of any person or organization.
• Distribute malware, viruses, or malicious code, or use ArcScribe as part of an attack.
• Reverse engineer, decompile, or attempt to extract the source code of the extension, except to the limited extent the law expressly permits.
• Interfere with, disrupt, overload, or attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Service, our systems, or our billing processors.
• Circumvent usage limits, licensing checks, security measures, or access controls.
• Engage in fraud, including payment fraud, chargeback abuse, or misrepresentation.
• Resell, sublicense, or commercially redistribute the Service in ways your plan does not allow.
• Impersonate Birchwood Group or misrepresent your affiliation with us.

#Recording Consent and Privacy of Others

Because ArcScribe records audio, respecting the privacy of the people around you is one of the most important parts of using it responsibly. Recording-consent laws vary significantly between countries, states, and regions. Some places allow recording with the consent of one party to a conversation, while others require the consent of all parties. Some contexts, such as private spaces, carry heightened expectations of privacy.

You are solely responsible for knowing and following the laws that apply to you, and for obtaining any consent required before you record another person. Do not use ArcScribe to secretly record people where doing so is unlawful, to capture private conversations you are not entitled to record, or to record in places where recording is prohibited. Respect requests from others not to be recorded, and handle any recording of another person with care and discretion.

Warning: The fact that ArcScribe stores recordings locally on your device does not reduce your legal responsibility. Local storage protects your data; it does not grant you the right to record someone without required consent.

#Spam and Unsolicited Messaging

ArcScribe is not a messaging or bulk-communication platform, but you must not use any part of the Service, including support and feedback channels, to send spam, unsolicited advertising, or repetitive, disruptive messages. Do not use content generated with ArcScribe to facilitate spam campaigns, phishing, or other unsolicited outreach that violates anti-spam laws.

#Automation Abuse

You must not use bots, scripts, or other automated means to interact with ArcScribe or our systems in ways that are not expressly permitted. This includes automating account creation, license verification, checkout, or any function in a manner designed to circumvent limits, gain unauthorized advantages, or place undue load on our infrastructure or that of our processors. Ordinary, human use of the extension is always welcome; automated abuse of it is not.

#Fraud

Fraud of any kind is prohibited. This includes, without limitation, using stolen or unauthorized payment methods, submitting false information to obtain a subscription or refund, abusing refund or chargeback processes in bad faith, and manipulating promotions or trials to obtain benefits you are not entitled to. We may take immediate enforcement action, and pursue any remedies available to us, in response to fraud.

#Malware and Malicious Code

You must not use ArcScribe to create, store for distribution, transmit, or facilitate malware, viruses, ransomware, spyware, or any other malicious code. You must not attempt to use the extension as a vector to compromise your own or anyone else's device, or to interfere with the normal operation of any system. Protecting the integrity of devices and the wider web is a shared responsibility, and misuse of this kind is treated with the utmost seriousness.

#Reverse Engineering

Except to the limited extent that applicable law expressly permits and cannot be waived, you must not reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, or otherwise attempt to derive the source code, underlying ideas, or structure of the ArcScribe extension. You must not remove or alter any proprietary notices, and you must not use the Service to build a competing product by copying its code or design. These restrictions protect the work that goes into ArcScribe while leaving your rights under mandatory law intact.

#Illegal Activities

You must not use ArcScribe to plan, carry out, promote, or facilitate any illegal activity. This includes using the Service in connection with unlawful surveillance, harassment, the distribution of illegal content, the violation of others' legal rights, or any other conduct prohibited by the laws that apply to you. If your use would be illegal without ArcScribe, it is illegal with it, and it is prohibited under this Policy.

#Intellectual Property Violations

You must respect intellectual property rights. Do not use ArcScribe to record, transcribe, reproduce, or distribute material in ways that infringe the copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, or other rights of others. For example, transcribing and redistributing a copyrighted performance or lecture without permission may infringe the rights of the rights holder. You are responsible for ensuring that you have the rights necessary for the content you create and share, and you must not use the ArcScribe brand or marks without our permission.

#Security Abuse

You must not attempt to probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of the Service, our systems, or our processors without authorization, and you must not breach or circumvent any security or authentication measure. Prohibited security abuse includes attempting to access data or accounts that are not yours, interfering with service to any user or network (for example, through denial-of-service techniques), and exploiting or publicizing a vulnerability in a way that could harm users. If you discover a genuine security issue, we encourage you to report it responsibly using the contact details below rather than exploiting it.

Note: Responsible disclosure is welcome. If you believe you have found a security vulnerability in ArcScribe, please contact us privately so we can investigate and fix it before it can be misused.

#Account and License Sharing

The free plan is available to everyone, and ArcScribe Pro is licensed for use consistent with the plan you purchased. You must not share, sell, or transfer a paid license in ways your plan does not permit, and you must not use deceptive means to obtain paid features without an eligible subscription. Reasonable personal use across your own devices is expected; distributing a single paid entitlement across many unrelated users to avoid paying is not permitted.

#API Abuse and Scraping

ArcScribe is primarily a client-side extension and does not offer a public API as part of the standard Service. You must not attempt to script, automate, or reverse engineer any interface to access ArcScribe or our billing systems in unauthorized ways. You must not scrape, harvest, or systematically extract data from our website or systems, and you must not use automated tools to collect information about our infrastructure. If we offer developer tools in the future, they will come with their own terms, and abuse of them will be treated as a violation of this Policy.

#Rate Limits and Fair Use

To keep the Service reliable and fair for everyone, we may apply reasonable rate limits and technical safeguards to the interactions ArcScribe performs, such as subscription verification. You must not attempt to evade these limits or place an unreasonable load on our systems or those of our processors. Fair use means using ArcScribe as a normal person would, not in a way engineered to strain shared resources or degrade the experience for others.

#Enforcement

We enforce this Policy proportionately and in good faith. When we become aware of a possible violation, we assess the nature and severity of the conduct, the risk to other people or to the Service, whether the issue appears deliberate or accidental, and whether it is a first occurrence or part of a pattern. Our goal is to correct problems, protect people, and keep ArcScribe trustworthy, not to punish honest mistakes.

Depending on the circumstances, and to the extent consistent with applicable law, we may take one or more of the actions described in the next section. For serious violations, such as fraud, malware, security attacks, or unlawful recording that endangers others, we may act immediately and without prior warning.

#Warnings, Suspensions, and Bans

Our enforcement toolkit is graduated:

Where reasonable and lawful, we will provide notice of an enforcement action and, for curable issues, an opportunity to fix the problem. Termination of access does not delete Content already stored locally on your device, though certain features may stop working, and it does not entitle you to a refund except where required by law or provided at our discretion under the Terms of Service.

#Reporting Abuse

If you believe someone is misusing ArcScribe, or that content created with ArcScribe is being used to harm you, please tell us. To report abuse:

1. Email us at support@bwg.llc with "Abuse Report" in the subject line.
2. Describe the issue clearly, including what happened and, if relevant, who is affected.
3. Include evidence where you safely can, such as descriptions, context, or references that help us understand the situation.
4. Share how to reach you so we can follow up if we need more information.

We review abuse reports in good faith and take appropriate action. Please note that because recordings and transcripts are stored on users' own devices, we generally do not have access to the content of another person's recordings, which shapes what we can investigate directly.

#Appeals

If you believe an enforcement action was taken in error, you may appeal. To do so, email support@bwg.llc with "Appeal" in the subject line, reference the action taken, and explain why you believe it was mistaken. We will review appeals fairly, consider any new information you provide, and respond with our decision. We aim to correct genuine mistakes promptly, and we treat the appeals process as an important safeguard against error.

#User Responsibilities

As a user, you are responsible for:

• Using ArcScribe lawfully, honestly, and with respect for others.
• Obtaining any consent required before recording other people.
• Not attempting to abuse, attack, reverse engineer, or overload the Service.
• Respecting intellectual property and the rights of others.
• Reporting abuse and genuine security issues responsibly.

#Company Responsibilities

Birchwood Group commits to:

• Applying this Policy fairly, proportionately, and in good faith.
• Providing notice and a chance to correct curable issues where reasonable.
• Reviewing abuse reports and appeals seriously.
• Protecting users and the public from harmful misuse of the Service.
• Keeping this Policy clear and up to date.

#Examples

Example 1: Acceptable use. A consultant records their own client meetings, having informed the clients and obtained the consent required where they operate, then transcribes and exports the notes. This is squarely acceptable: lawful, honest, and respectful of others.

Example 2: Prohibited recording. A user secretly records a private conversation in a jurisdiction that requires all parties to consent, without telling anyone. This violates both the law and this Policy, and the fact that the recording is stored locally does not make it acceptable.

Example 3: Attempted circumvention. A user writes a script to bypass ArcScribe's licensing check and unlock Pro features without paying. This is prohibited circumvention and fraud, and it may result in immediate termination.

Example 4: Responsible disclosure. A security researcher discovers a potential vulnerability and, instead of exploiting it, emails support with the details. This is exactly the behavior we encourage, and we will work with them to resolve it.

#Frequently Asked Questions

Can I record other people with ArcScribe? Only if you have the legal right and any consent required where you are recording. Recording-consent laws vary, and following them is your responsibility.

What happens if I break this Policy? Depending on the severity, we may warn you, restrict a feature, suspend access, or terminate your use of the Service. Serious violations can result in immediate action.

Can I appeal an enforcement action? Yes. Email support@bwg.llc with "Appeal" in the subject, explain why you believe the action was mistaken, and we will review it fairly.

How do I report someone misusing ArcScribe? Email support@bwg.llc with "Abuse Report" in the subject and describe the issue. We review reports in good faith.

Does storing recordings locally mean anything goes? No. Local storage protects your privacy, but it does not grant you the right to record people unlawfully or to misuse the Service.

#Contact Information

• Company: Birchwood Group LLC
• Product: ArcScribe
• Email: support@bwg.llc
• Website: https://usearcscribe.com
• Company website: https://www.bwg.llc

For abuse reports, include "Abuse Report" in the subject. For appeals, include "Appeal". For security issues, please contact us privately so we can investigate responsibly.

#Effective Date, Version, and Last Updated

• Effective Date: July 19, 2026
• Version: 1.0
• Last Updated: July 19, 2026

#Future Policy Changes

We may update this Acceptable Use Policy as ArcScribe evolves, as new forms of misuse emerge, or as legal requirements change. When we make a material change, we will update the version number and the "Last Updated" date, and where appropriate we will provide notice. Your continued use of ArcScribe after an update takes effect indicates acceptance of the revised Policy.

#Conclusion

Almost everyone who uses ArcScribe does so exactly as intended, to capture their own ideas and work in a way that respects their privacy and the privacy of others. This Policy exists to protect that experience by drawing clear lines around the small number of misuses that could cause real harm. Use ArcScribe lawfully, honestly, and with respect for the people around you, and you will never need to think about this Policy again. If you have any questions, or you need to report abuse or appeal an action, contact us at support@bwg.llc. Thank you for helping keep ArcScribe safe and trustworthy for everyone.