Acceptable Use Policy

Scope

This AUP covers:

• Public pages, forms, and interactive features on this website.
• Accounts, the donor portal, the farmer directory, and the investor/partner area.
• Emails, newsletters, and messages you receive from us, and any replies you send.
• Foundation-run online spaces (chat groups, forums, video calls, mailing lists, and official social channels).
• Farm tours, volunteer days, training events, and other Foundation-hosted gatherings — see also the events conduct clause in our Terms of Use.

Acceptable use

You may use our services to:

• Learn about the Foundation, our farmer training program, and events.
• Apply to the program, RSVP to events, request access, or contact us for legitimate purposes.
• Make donations, manage your recurring giving, and receive tax documentation.
• Participate constructively in official community channels, mentorship, and events.
• Share our public content with attribution, consistent with our intellectual-property terms.

Prohibited use

Unlawful and harmful activity

• Violating any applicable law, regulation, court order, or third-party rights.
• Threats of violence, incitement, terrorism, child exploitation, human trafficking, or promotion of self-harm.
• Fraud, phishing, impersonation of another person or organization, or misrepresenting your affiliation with the Foundation.
• Money laundering, sanctions evasion, or transactions with sanctioned persons or jurisdictions.

Harassment and discrimination

• Harassing, stalking, doxxing, or intimidating other users, staff, mentors, volunteers, participants, or guests.
• Slurs, hate speech, or discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, disability, or any other protected status.
• Unwanted sexual attention, sexually explicit content, or contact that continues after a request to stop.

Content and communications abuse

• Spam, chain messages, mass unsolicited outreach, MLM, or unrelated commercial solicitation to our users, mailing lists, or contact forms.
• Uploading or transmitting malware, ransomware, viruses, or other malicious code.
• Posting content that infringes copyright, trademark, trade secret, publicity, or privacy rights.
• Disclosing another person's personal, medical, financial, or service records without their consent.
• Sharing confidential program materials, mentorship discussions, or donor information outside authorized channels.

Security and integrity

• Probing, scanning, or testing the vulnerability of any system or network without our prior written authorization.
• Bypassing, disabling, or interfering with authentication, rate limiting, CAPTCHAs, or other security controls.
• Accessing accounts, data, or areas you are not authorized to access, or attempting to do so.
• Scraping, crawling, mirroring, or bulk-downloading site content, other than by well-behaved crawlers honoring robots.txt.
• Automating form submissions, donations, RSVPs, or account creation.
• Reverse-engineering or attempting to derive source code, keys, or credentials from our services.
• Overloading, disrupting, or degrading our services (denial-of-service, resource exhaustion, deliberately expensive queries).

Donations and payments

• Using a payment method you are not authorized to use.
• Making donations to test cards, launder funds, or manipulate donor recognition or matching programs.
• Filing bad-faith chargebacks — see the chargebacks and disputes clause in our Terms of Use.

On-site and event conduct

Conduct on Foundation property, at Foundation-hosted events, and in Foundation-run online spaces is governed by the events conduct clause in our Terms of Use, which is incorporated into this AUP by reference. That clause covers expected behavior, weapons, alcohol and drugs, biosecurity, and recording of other participants, among other topics.

AI and automated tools

• Do not use AI systems, bots, or scripts to generate fraudulent applications, fake false eligibility claims, sham donations, or impersonated communications.
• Do not use our content to train models in a way that violates our intellectual-property terms or that redistributes participant or donor data.
• Well-behaved indexing crawlers (for example, mainstream search engines) are welcome and should honor robots.txt and reasonable rate limits.

Reporting abuse

If you see conduct that violates this AUP — on the site, in a community channel, at an event, or involving a donation — please report it to Diamond.cleary@baufarmfoundation.org. For anonymous reports of fraud, financial misconduct, or serious policy violations, follow the process in the Whistleblower Policy on our Governance page. In an emergency, call 911 first, then notify Foundation staff.

To report a suspected security vulnerability, email the same address with "Security" in the subject line. Please give us a reasonable opportunity to investigate and remediate before public disclosure, and do not access, modify, or exfiltrate data belonging to others.

Enforcement

We may investigate suspected violations and take any action we consider appropriate, at our sole discretion and without prior notice, including:

• Removing or editing offending content.
• Warning, suspending, or terminating accounts, mailing-list subscriptions, or channel access.
• Canceling event registrations or recurring donations, and blocking payment methods, email addresses, or IP ranges.
• Revoking program participation or removing individuals from Foundation property or online spaces.
• Preserving and disclosing information to law enforcement, regulators, payment networks, or affected parties when required by law or reasonably necessary to protect people, property, or the mission.

Serious or repeated violations may result in permanent bans and referral to law enforcement. Enforcement decisions are not a waiver of our other rights and remedies under our Terms of Use or applicable law.

Changes to this policy

We may update this AUP from time to time. Material changes will be reflected by an updated "Last updated" date at the top of this page. Continued use of our services after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the revised AUP.

Contact

BAU Farm Foundation
Diamond.cleary@baufarmfoundation.org

See also our Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, and Governance documents.