I am brand new to this forum, and also new to disroot.
It is possible that this topic has been explored or discussed in another thread.
This looks like a great project, with a lot of promise and potential.
But I have very grave concerns over the section of the terms of service that effectively prohibits the use of disroot e-mail for business purposes.
The complete text of the section is as follows:
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Using disroot services for commercial activities
Disroot is a non-profit organization providing services for individuals on “pay as you wish” basis. Because of this structure we see using Disroot services for commercial operations as abuse of the service and it will be treated as such.Trading any Disroot services with a third party is prohibited.
Using email for purposes such as “no-reply” type of accounts for your business will be blocked without a warning once such activity is detected
Using Disroot services for financial gain, including but not limited to trading or managing sales, is not tolerated. Accounts created for the purpose of generating profits will be subject to termination upon inquiry.
Sending bulk emails, including but not limited to marketing and advertising, for business purposes, will be treated as spam and blocked upon discovery without any prior notice.
Using Disroot services for any other commercial activity will be examined per case and the decision on terminating such accounts will be based upon communication with the account holder and the type of the activities in question.
Simply put, the restrictions are way, way too broad, and the last paragraph of this section basically says that any type of business use can be unilaterally declared to be unacceptable, on a case-by-case basis, using subjective criteria that are not explained in any meaningful way, without any type of appeals process, and with the final decision to terminate an account being made by project leaders or organizers who may not even be required to disclose their real identity.
This particular section of the terms of service is so broad and vague that it is essentially meaningless, and it gives the project leadership a breathtaking degree of discretion, with little or no accountability.
Suppose, for example, that I am an attorney or a psychotherapist, and I wish to use a disroot e-mail account to communicate with my clients.
Would this be permitted?
My clients are paying for my services, and especially in the case of an attorney, I might actually be billing the client by the hour for the time it takes me to read their e-mail messages and compose a response.
So does that mean I am using disroot for “generating profits?”
If disroot can only be used for personal communication, such as sending a happy birthday message to my brother, and I have to have some other e-mail account for anything that is business-related, then the service is useless.
What if use my disroot e-mail account to communicate with a college professor about a course I am taking? I paid tuition for the course. Does that make it business or commercial use?
What if I send an e-mail to the accounting office of the university to raise a question about my tuition bill? Is that a business matter that is prohibited?
I don’t think I can get on board with this service under the current terms and conditions.
Burton