Acceptable Use Policy

1. Prohibited uses

You may not use FrontDesk Talk to:

Break the law or deceive people

• Do anything illegal, or help anyone else do so
• Commit fraud, run scams or phishing, or make false or misleading claims
• Impersonate another person, business, or government agency, or misrepresent who is calling
• Pretend to be, or imply a connection with, 911, 988, police, fire, emergency medical services, or any emergency service
• Spoof caller ID or send inaccurate caller ID information

Harass or spam

• Harass, threaten, abuse, stalk, or intimidate anyone
• Send spam or unsolicited bulk texts
• Place unsolicited robocalls or mass calls to people who have not consented
• Use abusive, deceptive, or harassing debt collection practices
• Place political calls or texts without meeting every law that applies to them

Handle information you shouldn't

• Collect, store, or share protected health information (PHI) if you are a HIPAA covered entity or business associate and our Business Associate Agreement is not in effect for your account, or in any way HIPAA or the BAA does not allow
• Break the health information rules in the next section
• Set up the AI to ask callers for Social Security numbers other than with the call intake’s Social Security number question, or for full credit or debit card numbers, bank account numbers, passwords, or government ID numbers
• Collect information about children in violation of law
• Record calls without giving the notices and getting the consent the law requires

Send restricted content

• Adult or sexually explicit content
• Hate speech or content that promotes violence
• Sales or promotion of weapons, drugs, or other goods and services where they are illegal
• Content that breaks carrier rules, including restricted SHAFT content (sex, hate, alcohol, firearms, tobacco, and cannabis) where not permitted
• Content that infringes someone else's intellectual property or privacy

Abuse the platform

• Try to jailbreak, manipulate, or trick the AI into producing harmful, deceptive, or prohibited output
• Resell, sublicense, or white-label the Service without our written permission
• Probe, scan, or test the security of the Service, or run load tests, without our written permission
• Access other customers' data, get around usage limits, or interfere with the Service
• Reverse engineer the Service or use it to build a competing product
• Use automated means to create accounts or place fake calls to consume or inflate minutes of AI call time (Talk Time)

2. Health information rules

Callers may tell your receptionist about their health. Whether or not HIPAA applies to you, you may not:

• Set up the AI to give medical advice, diagnose, triage, recommend or change treatment or medication, or tell a caller whether something is an emergency
• Present the AI as a doctor, nurse, therapist, or other licensed professional, or as a person
• Use the Service as a crisis line, a nurse line, or a substitute for 911 or 988
• Put patient or customer health information in your greeting, business information, FAQs, or AI instructions
• Ask callers for more health information than you need to schedule, route, or return the call
• Send diagnoses, test results, or other sensitive health details by text unless the patient asked to be contacted that way and the law and your policies allow it
• Store psychotherapy notes or substance use disorder records protected by 42 C.F.R. Part 2 in the Service without our written agreement
• Use caller health information for advertising, to sell it, or for any purpose the caller would not expect from calling your business
• Answer “no” to the app’s health information question (which turns on detailed texts, emails, and push notifications) when your callers may share health information
• Connect a calendar that isn’t covered by your own business associate agreement, when HIPAA requires one

See our HIPAA page for how to set up FrontDesk Talk for health information, and our Terms of Service for your responsibilities.

3. Outbound calling rules

Outbound call campaigns are coming soon to the Big Talk plan and are not available yet. Once they launch, they will let the AI call people for your business, and these rules apply. Outbound calling is heavily regulated, and you are responsible for following every law that applies to your campaigns. At a minimum, you must:

• Get the right consent. Under the FCC's 2024 ruling, AI-generated voices are "artificial voices" under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). That means calls using the FrontDesk Talk AI voice generally require the called person's prior express consent, and prior express written consent for telemarketing or marketing calls. Keep records of that consent.
• Follow the TCPA, the Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR), and state telemarketing and "mini-TCPA" laws, which may be stricter than federal law.
• Scrub against Do Not Call lists. Check the National Do Not Call Registry, any applicable state lists, and your own internal do-not-call list before calling, unless a legal exemption clearly applies.
• Call only during allowed hours. Place calls only between 8:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. in the called person's local time, or a narrower window if state law requires it.
• Identify yourself and disclose the AI. At the start of each call, state your business name and that the caller is an AI assistant, and give a way to reach your business.
• Honor opt-outs immediately. If someone asks not to be called again, stop calling them right away and add them to your do-not-call list. FrontDesk Talk will record opt-outs it hears, and you must not work around them.
• Keep your lists clean. Only call numbers you obtained lawfully, and remove reassigned, wrong, or disconnected numbers.
• Respect limits on frequency. Follow any state limits on how often you may call the same person.

FrontDesk Talk provides tools, not legal advice. Talk to your own lawyer about the rules that apply to your business and campaigns.

4. Enforcement

If we believe you have broken this policy, we may, with or without notice depending on how serious the issue is:

• Remove or disable content or AI settings
• Pause texting or, once available, outbound campaigns
• Suspend or terminate your account
• Cooperate with carriers, regulators, and law enforcement

Carriers may also block or filter your numbers on their own. Fees are not refunded when an account is suspended or ended for violating this policy. You are responsible for any fines, penalties, or carrier charges your use causes, as described in the Terms of Service.

5. Reporting abuse

If you received an unwanted call or text from a business using FrontDesk Talk, or you think someone is misusing the service, email help@frontdesk.talk with the number that contacted you, the date and time, and what happened. You can also use our contact page.

To stop texts right away, reply STOP to the message. See our SMS Terms.

6. Changes

We may update this policy as laws, carrier rules, and the Service change. We will change the "last updated" date above when we do.