Acceptable Use Policy

Throughwire, a service of Meridian Networks LLC

Effective Date: May 1, 2026 Last Updated: May 1, 2026

Introduction
Application of This Policy
General Principle of Lawful Use
Prohibited Activities
Technical Abuse and Service Integrity
Reselling and Account Sharing
Sanctions Compliance
Reporting Violations
How We Investigate
Consequences of Violation
Child Sexual Abuse Material: Zero Tolerance
Cooperation with Law Enforcement
Changes to This Policy
Contact

1. Introduction

This Acceptable Use Policy (the "AUP") sets out the rules that govern your use of the Throughwire service (the "Service") operated by Meridian Networks LLC ("we," "us," or "our"). The AUP is incorporated by reference into our Terms of Service. By using the Service, you agree to comply with this AUP.

The Service is intended as international encrypted network infrastructure for foreign-affiliated organizations and their personnel. It is offered for lawful use only. Violations of this AUP are violations of the Terms of Service and may result in suspension or termination of your account, in addition to any other remedies available to us under contract or Applicable Law.

Capitalized terms not defined in this AUP have the meanings set out in the Terms of Service.

2. Application of This Policy

This AUP applies to:

(a) all natural persons and legal entities that hold an account with us;

(b) any third party using the Service through your account, with or without your authorization;

(d) any automated agent acting on your behalf.

You are responsible for ensuring that everyone who uses the Service through your account complies with this AUP.

3. General Principle of Lawful Use

You must not use the Service in any way that is unlawful in:

(a) the jurisdiction where you reside;

(b) any jurisdiction from which you access the Service;

(d) any other jurisdiction whose laws apply to your conduct.

You are solely responsible for determining whether your intended use of the Service is lawful in each applicable jurisdiction. We do not provide legal advice. If you are unsure, do not use the Service for the activity in question until you have obtained appropriate guidance.

4. Prohibited Activities

You must not use the Service, or permit the Service to be used, for any of the following activities. The list is illustrative and not exhaustive; conduct of a similar character is also prohibited.

4.1 Illegal Conduct

(a) Any activity that violates Applicable Law in any jurisdiction listed in Section 3.

(b) Any activity that aids, abets, or facilitates a violation of Applicable Law by a third party.

4.2 Financial and Economic Crime

(a) Fraud, including identity fraud, payment fraud, securities fraud, and consumer fraud.

(b) Money laundering, terrorist financing, sanctions evasion, structuring, or any activity prohibited by the U.S. Bank Secrecy Act, the USA PATRIOT Act, or equivalent legislation in another jurisdiction.

(d) Operation of an unlicensed money services business or an unlicensed financial institution.

4.3 Computer Misuse

(a) Unauthorized access to any computer system, network, account, or data.

(b) Any activity that violates the U.S. Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the U.S. Electronic Communications Privacy Act, the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime, the United Kingdom Computer Misuse Act 1990, or equivalent legislation in another jurisdiction.

(c) Distributing, hosting, deploying, or commanding malicious code, including viruses, worms, trojans, ransomware, spyware, rootkits, keystroke loggers, or other malware.

(d) Operating, controlling, or contributing to a botnet, command-and-control infrastructure, or other automated abuse infrastructure.

(e) Conducting denial-of-service or distributed denial-of-service attacks against any third-party infrastructure.

(f) Phishing, pharming, smishing, vishing, social engineering attacks targeting credentials or sensitive data, or the deployment of pretexting infrastructure.

(g) Vulnerability scanning, port scanning, or penetration testing of third-party systems without the express written authorization of the system owner.

(h) Cryptojacking or unauthorized use of third-party computing resources for cryptocurrency mining.

4.4 Harmful Content

(a) Any content that depicts the sexual abuse or sexual exploitation of a minor (see Section 11 for our zero-tolerance approach).

(b) Content that incites or threatens violence against any person or group, including content that promotes terrorism, genocide, or mass violence.

(d) Content that constitutes harassment, stalking, or threats of violence against an identifiable person.

(e) Content that defames or libels any identifiable person.

(f) Content that violates the privacy of an identifiable person, including the unauthorized publication of personal data ("doxxing") with intent to harass or harm.

4.5 Terrorism and Violent Extremism

(a) Any activity that supports a designated terrorist organization, including financing, recruitment, propaganda, or operational coordination.

(b) Use of the Service in connection with the planning, commission, or facilitation of an act of terrorism, mass violence, or violent extremism.

4.6 Intellectual Property

(a) Large-scale or commercial copyright infringement, including the operation of unauthorized streaming, peer-to-peer distribution, or piracy services.

(b) Trademark infringement, counterfeiting, or distribution of counterfeit goods.

(d) Use of the Service to circumvent technological measures protecting copyrighted works in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act or equivalent legislation.

4.7 Spam and Unauthorized Communications

(a) Sending unsolicited bulk commercial communications by email, messaging, or any other channel ("spam"), in violation of the U.S. CAN-SPAM Act, the EU ePrivacy Directive, the United Kingdom Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, the Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation, or equivalent legislation.

(b) Sending communications that misrepresent the sender, the routing, or the content.

4.8 Harassment and Abuse

(a) Harassment, stalking, threats, or abuse directed at any identifiable person.

(b) Coordinated harassment campaigns, brigading, or pile-on attacks.

4.9 Drugs, Weapons, and Regulated Goods

(a) The unlawful purchase, sale, or distribution of controlled substances.

(b) The unlawful purchase, sale, or distribution of firearms, explosives, weapons, or weapon components.

4.10 Sexual Conduct

(a) Distribution of any content depicting the sexual abuse or sexual exploitation of a minor (see Section 11).

(b) Distribution of intimate imagery of any person without that person's informed consent.

4.11 Privacy Violations

(a) Conduct that violates the privacy or data protection rights of any person, including unlawful collection, processing, or distribution of personal data.

(b) Mass scraping or harvesting of personal data without lawful basis.

(c) Use of the Service to circumvent rate limits, anti-scraping measures, or other access controls intended to protect privacy.

4.12 Misrepresentation

(a) Impersonating another person or entity, or misrepresenting your affiliation with a person or entity.

(b) Providing false or misleading information to us at registration or during use of the Service.

5. Technical Abuse and Service Integrity

You must not:

(a) attempt to interfere with, disrupt, or compromise the integrity, security, or availability of the Service or any infrastructure used to provide it;

(b) attempt to gain unauthorized access to any part of the Service, to any user account other than your own, or to any related system or data;

(c) attempt to probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of the Service or any related system, except under a written authorization from us;

(d) circumvent or attempt to circumvent any authentication, rate-limiting, billing, or access control mechanism of the Service;

(e) introduce malicious code into the Service or attempt to extract source code, keys, certificates, or other proprietary materials;

(f) reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble the Service except to the extent expressly permitted by Applicable Law that may not be excluded by contract;

(g) operate automation that exceeds the bandwidth, connection, request, or session limits applicable to your subscription tier;

(h) use the Service to send traffic patterns designed to evade the abuse detection systems of third parties in violation of those parties' terms; or

(i) use the Service in any way that imposes a disproportionate load on our infrastructure, including running open relays, public proxies, or transit services for other parties through your account.

You must not:

(a) resell the Service, or any access to the Service, to a third party without our prior written authorization;

(b) lease, rent, sublicense, or transfer your account credentials to any party who is not an authorized user under your subscription tier;

(d) use a single individual account for the access needs of multiple persons, where a Team or Enterprise subscription would be appropriate.

Authorized seat counts are defined by your subscription tier. We reserve the right to consolidate, suspend, or terminate accounts that appear to be in violation of this Section.

7. Sanctions Compliance

You must not use the Service:

(a) in any country or territory subject to comprehensive U.S. sanctions, except to the extent permitted by U.S. law;

(b) on behalf of any person or entity named on the U.S. Department of the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List, the U.S. Department of Commerce Entity List, the Denied Persons List, the Unverified List, or any consolidated sanctions list maintained by the United Nations Security Council, the European Union, or His Majesty's Treasury of the United Kingdom;

(c) to facilitate transactions involving any of the foregoing persons, entities, or jurisdictions in violation of Applicable Law; or

(d) to evade or circumvent any sanctions program of the United States or any other applicable jurisdiction.

We conduct sanctions screening of accounts and reserve the right to refuse, suspend, or terminate Service to any person who appears on, becomes added to, or is otherwise determined to be a restricted person under Applicable Law.

8. Reporting Violations

If you become aware of conduct that may violate this AUP, please report it to:

Abuse reports: info@throughwire.net Legal: info@throughwire.net

When making a report, please include:

(a) a description of the conduct in question;

(b) the time, date, and (where known) the account or identifier associated with the conduct;

(d) your contact information.

We treat reports confidentially to the extent feasible. We may follow up with you for additional information.

We do not require, but appreciate, reports from security researchers regarding vulnerabilities in the Service. Researchers acting in good faith and in accordance with our coordinated disclosure expectations should contact info@throughwire.net.

9. How We Investigate

When we receive a credible report of a violation, or when our automated systems flag potential abuse, we may:

(a) review available account metadata, billing records, sub-processor reports, and other information lawfully available to us;

(b) request additional information from the reporting party or from the account holder;

(c) impose temporary restrictions on the account during the investigation, including suspension where the alleged conduct presents a serious or ongoing risk;

(d) consult with legal counsel; and

(e) where required by Applicable Law, report the conduct to relevant authorities.

We do not log or retain the substantive content of communications transmitted through the Service (see Section 5 of the Privacy Policy). Our investigations therefore rely on account metadata, billing data, security event logs, and information available to us through legitimate operational channels.

10. Consequences of Violation

Where we determine, in our reasonable judgment, that you have violated this AUP, we may take any one or more of the following actions, with or without prior notice depending on the severity of the violation:

(a) issue a written warning;

(b) require you to take corrective action within a specified period;

(d) suspend your account, in whole or in part, for a defined period or pending investigation;

(e) terminate your account immediately;

(f) refuse to issue a refund of any fees paid;

(g) report the conduct to relevant authorities where required by Applicable Law or where we determine in good faith that reporting is appropriate;

(h) preserve account metadata and other information necessary to support an investigation, in accordance with Applicable Law;

(i) seek injunctive or other equitable relief; and

(j) pursue any other remedy available to us under contract or Applicable Law, including recovery of damages and reasonable attorneys' fees.

The consequences listed above are cumulative. Election of one remedy does not preclude us from pursuing others.

For severe violations, including those described in Section 4.5 (Terrorism), Section 4.10 (Sexual Conduct involving minors), and Section 11 (CSAM), we will terminate the account immediately and without prior notice, and we will report the conduct to the appropriate authorities as required by Applicable Law.

11. Child Sexual Abuse Material: Zero Tolerance

We have a zero-tolerance policy regarding child sexual abuse material ("CSAM"), as that term is defined under United States federal law (18 U.S.C. §§ 2256 et seq.) and equivalent definitions in other jurisdictions.

If we become aware that the Service has been used to create, transmit, distribute, store, or facilitate access to CSAM:

(a) we will terminate the account immediately and without prior notice;

(b) we will preserve all relevant information that we have lawfully retained;

(c) we will report the matter to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children ("NCMEC") through the CyberTipline as required by 18 U.S.C. § 2258A; and

(d) where required by Applicable Law, we will cooperate with law enforcement investigations.

This obligation is unconditional and survives any other provision of this AUP, the Terms of Service, or the Privacy Policy.

12. Cooperation with Law Enforcement

We comply with valid legal process from competent authorities of the United States, as described in Section 16 of the Privacy Policy. Where required to do so by valid legal process, we will produce the categories of data we actually retain (see Section 5 of the Privacy Policy).

We do not voluntarily share user information with non-United States authorities. Foreign government and law enforcement requests are processed exclusively through Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty channels or other formal channels recognized under United States law.

This Section does not limit our right to take action under Section 10 where conduct violates this AUP, regardless of whether legal process has been issued.

13. Changes to This Policy

We may update this AUP from time to time. Where changes are material, we will provide notice to you by email to the address associated with your account, by in-product notification, or by a prominent notice on the Service, in each case at least thirty (30) days before the changes take effect. For non-material changes, we will update the Last Updated date at the top of this AUP. Continued use of the Service after the effective date of any change constitutes your acceptance of the updated AUP.

14. Contact

For questions about this Acceptable Use Policy, please contact:

Legal: info@throughwire.net Abuse reports: info@throughwire.net Security: info@throughwire.net

Mailing address:

Meridian Networks LLC 1209 Mountain Road Pl NE, Ste N Albuquerque, New Mexico 87110 United States of America

This Acceptable Use Policy is effective as of the Effective Date stated above and supersedes all prior acceptable use policies issued by Meridian Networks LLC for the Throughwire service.