Acceptable Use Policy

Overview & Scope

KIVOZA's value comes from accuracy and trust: genuine Customers describing real needs, and verified Vendors receiving leads worth pursuing. This AUP protects that. It defines what is and isn't acceptable, and what happens when the rules are broken.

This AUP applies to all use of the Platform — www.kivoza.com, vendor.kivoza.com, our applications, and any related service. Breaching it is a breach of the Terms of Service and may lead to the consequences in Section 13.

Who This Applies To

This AUP applies to every user, in every role:

• Customers — who post requirements and connect with Vendors;
• Vendors — who receive leads and offer services;
• Visitors — anyone accessing the Platform, whether or not they hold an account.

Some rules apply to everyone (Section 4); others are specific to Customers (Section 5) or Vendors (Section 6).

General Principles

Above the specific rules, we ask every user to follow three principles:

• Be honest. Represent yourself, your business, your needs, and your work truthfully.
• Act in good faith. Use the Platform for its intended purpose — genuine connections between Customers and Vendors.
• Be lawful and respectful. Follow the law and treat other users and our team with basic courtesy.

Where a situation isn't covered by a specific rule, these principles guide what we consider acceptable.

Prohibited Conduct — For Everyone

Regardless of your role, you must not:

• provide false, misleading, or fraudulent information, or impersonate any person or business;
• use the Platform for any unlawful purpose, or to request, offer, or facilitate illegal services;
• harass, threaten, defame, abuse, or discriminate against any user or member of our team;
• post or transmit content that is unlawful, hateful, obscene, or infringes anyone's rights;
• upload viruses, malware, or malicious code, or attempt to compromise the security of the Platform or any account;
• attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Platform, other accounts, or our systems;
• scrape, harvest, crawl, or systematically collect data from the Platform except as expressly permitted;
• interfere with, overload, or disrupt the Platform or its infrastructure;
• infringe any intellectual property, privacy, publicity, or other right of any third party.

Prohibited Conduct — Customers

In addition to the general rules, Customers must not:

• post fake, fictional, or test requirements, or requirements you have no genuine intention of pursuing;
• submit spam, duplicate, or nonsensical enquiries, or requirements on behalf of someone who has not asked you to;
• use Vendor contact details obtained through the Platform for any purpose other than the genuine enquiry — including marketing, solicitation, or resale;
• misrepresent your project in order to attract Vendors under false pretences;
• harass Vendors, waste their time in bad faith, or use the Platform to collect quotes with no intention of engaging anyone.

Prohibited Conduct — Vendors

In addition to the general rules, Vendors must not:

• misrepresent your business, skills, experience, team, or past work, or claim work or credentials that are not genuinely yours;
• create fake accounts, fake reviews, or fake activity, or manipulate matching, ratings, or verification;
• submit false or misleading information during verification, or provide a business registration number that is false, forged, expired, or belongs to another business (see Section 11);
• impersonate another business, or present another business's registration, credentials, or past work as your own;
• sell, share, or transfer your Vendor account or verified profile to another business or person;
• contact Customers for purposes beyond the specific engagement, or send unsolicited marketing;
• harass Customers or other Vendors, or behave abusively in communications;
• attempt to obtain lead or contact details without properly acting on the lead;
• engage in any scheme to game credits, promotions, or the founding-vendor program.

Circumvention & Platform Integrity

KIVOZA's model depends on Vendors acting on leads through the Platform. You must not circumvent, or attempt to circumvent, the intended operation of the Platform. In particular, you must not:

• arrange to connect or transact off-platform specifically to circumvent the Platform on a lead that was surfaced through KIVOZA;
• solicit a Customer or Vendor to move a KIVOZA-originated introduction off the Platform in order to bypass fees, verification, or these rules;
• share, sell, or pass on leads, contact details, or accounts to third parties;
• use multiple or fake accounts to gain leads, credits, or advantages you would not otherwise receive;
• reverse-engineer or manipulate the matching system.

Content Standards

All content you submit — requirements, profiles, portfolios, messages, and reviews — must meet these standards. Content must not:

• be false, deceptive, or fraudulent;
• infringe copyright, trademarks, or other intellectual-property rights (for example, passing off others' work as your own in a portfolio);
• contain unlawful, defamatory, hateful, harassing, obscene, or explicit material;
• contain personal data about others that you have no right to share;
• contain malware, spam, or links intended to deceive or harm.

You are solely responsible for your content and must have the rights to everything you submit.

Reviews & Ratings Integrity

Reviews and ratings help everyone choose well, so they must be genuine. You must not:

• write fake, incentivized, or dishonest reviews, or review your own business;
• offer or accept anything in exchange for a review, or pressure anyone to leave or remove one;
• post reviews that are irrelevant, defamatory, or not based on a genuine experience;
• manipulate ratings through fake accounts or coordinated activity.

Communications & Anti-Spam

Use the Platform's communication features only for genuine, relevant, and respectful communication connected to an enquiry or engagement. You must not send unsolicited bulk messages, marketing, phishing, or repeated unwanted contact, and you must comply with applicable anti-spam and communications laws.

Verification Integrity

Verification is central to KIVOZA's trust: Customers rely on it to know that Vendors are real, registered businesses. Interfering with it is a serious breach of this Policy.

You must not:

• submit a business registration number — such as a GSTIN, PAN, Udyam (MSME) number, or CIN — that is false, forged, invalid, expired, or altered;
• submit a registration number that belongs to another business or person, or that you are not authorised to provide;
• impersonate another business, or present another business's registration, credentials, or track record as your own;
• misrepresent your registration or verification status to Customers, on your profile, or anywhere else;
• fail to tell us when your business registration has been cancelled, suspended, or struck off, or continue to present yourself as verified once it is no longer valid;
• attempt to obtain, display, or imply a verified status you have not genuinely earned;
• sell, share, rent, or transfer a verified account, or allow another business to operate under your verified profile;
• attempt to bypass, manipulate, or interfere with verification checks or the verification provider.

Reporting Violations

If you encounter a fake enquiry, a suspicious Vendor, abusive behaviour, or anything that breaches this AUP, please report it to [email protected] with as much detail as you can, including any relevant references.

Reports help us keep the marketplace clean. We review reports in good faith, though we can't always share the outcome for privacy reasons.

Enforcement & Consequences

Where we reasonably believe this AUP has been breached, we may take any action we consider appropriate and proportionate, including:

• issuing a warning and asking you to correct the behaviour;
• removing or hiding content that breaches this AUP;
• adjusting or restricting account features connected to the breach;
• limiting features, matching, or visibility for your account;
• suspending or terminating your account, with or without notice;
• reporting unlawful activity to the relevant authorities and pursuing legal remedies.

The action we take depends on the seriousness of the breach. Serious breaches — such as fraud, deliberate circumvention, or faked verification — may result in immediate termination without warning and as set out in the Terms and the Refund Policy.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this AUP from time to time. The current version is always available on the Platform, with the "Last Updated" date shown above. For material changes, we will take reasonable steps to notify you. Continued use of the Platform after changes take effect constitutes acceptance.

Contact Us

For questions about this Acceptable Use Policy, or to report a violation, please reach out:

Thank you for helping keep KIVOZA a genuine, trustworthy marketplace.