Acceptable use policy

Purpose and scope#

Swatted.how ("Swatted", "we", "us") is a private, account-based dashboard for understanding exposure: how much information about a username, email address, phone number, or IP address appears in an index, and what that means for the person it describes. A tool like this is only worth building if it is used to protect people rather than to target them. This policy explains where that line sits.

This policy applies to everyone who creates an account, signs in, searches, reveals a record, or otherwise uses the website, the dashboard, the Swatted Discord server, or any interface we provide. It forms part of our Terms of service, and the enforcement steps described here are the same ones the Terms refer to. Where this policy and the Terms both address a topic, read them together; if they appear to conflict, the stricter rule applies.

The examples in this policy are not a complete list. We may act on conduct that is not named here when it is clearly against the purpose of the service or puts a person at risk. If you are unsure whether something is allowed, ask us first through the channel on our contact page. Asking is always better than guessing.

The core principle#

You may only look up information about yourself, or information you have a legitimate, lawful reason to look up. Everything else in this policy follows from that sentence.

Legitimate reasons include, for example:

• Checking what is exposed about your own usernames, email addresses, phone numbers, or IP addresses.
• Helping a person who has asked you for help, with their knowledge and consent, such as a family member reviewing their own exposure.
• Security work you are authorized to do, such as reviewing exposure of accounts or systems owned by your organization, within the scope your organization has approved.
• Research and education that does not single out, contact, or profile any identifiable person.

Curiosity about another person is not a legitimate reason. Neither is settling a dispute, finding out who is behind an account that annoys you, locating an ex-partner, checking up on a coworker, or gathering information to use against someone. If the person you are looking up would reasonably object to you doing it, do not do it.

A note on the data. Search records are compiled from data sets and vary in age and accuracy, so a result may be out of date, incomplete, or wrong. Treat what you find as a lead to verify, never as proof about a person. The rules in this policy apply to what you do, not to what a search returns: trying to use the service to target someone is a violation even when the search returns nothing, and regardless of whether a result turns out to be accurate.

No harm to people#

These uses are never allowed, under any circumstances, and are treated as the most serious violations.

• Swatting and any real-world harm. Swatting means making a false emergency report so that police or emergency services are sent to someone. It endangers lives and is a serious crime. Using anything from Swatted to plan, attempt, encourage, or joke about swatting, or about any other physical harm to a person, their home, their workplace, or their property, results in an immediate permanent ban.
• Harassment. Repeatedly contacting, insulting, intimidating, or pressuring a person, or encouraging others to do so, including through pile-ons, brigading, or mass reporting.
• Stalking and tracking. Monitoring a person's accounts, movements, locations, or activity without their consent, or trying to work out where someone lives, works, studies, or spends time.
• Doxxing. Collecting, combining, publishing, or threatening to publish information that identifies or locates a person, such as a real name, address, phone number, or workplace, in order to expose, shame, or endanger them.
• Threats and extortion. Threatening violence, exposure, or other harm, or demanding money, content, or favors in exchange for not sharing information.
• Targeting minors. Looking up, profiling, contacting, or attempting to locate anyone you know or suspect is under 18, other than yourself. Accounts are for adults only.
• Discrimination. Using the service to single out, profile, exclude, or harm people because of race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, age, or any other protected characteristic.
• Re-identification and profiling. Trying to de-anonymize a person, link a pseudonymous account to a real identity against their wishes, or build a profile of someone by combining results from Swatted with other sources.

No unauthorized access or security abuse#

• Unauthorized access. Using the service or any result from it to access, or try to access, an account, device, network, or system that you do not own or are not authorized to use.
• Credential stuffing and account takeover. Testing, validating, or trying usernames, email addresses, passwords, or recovery details against any service, or using Swatted to prepare for that.
• Phishing and social engineering. Using information from Swatted to trick a person or an organization into handing over credentials, money, or access.
• Security testing without permission. Scanning, probing, fuzzing, load testing, or looking for vulnerabilities in Swatted, its Discord bot, or its infrastructure without our written permission. If you believe you have found a security issue, report it privately through the contact page and give us a reasonable chance to fix it before telling anyone else.
• Interfering with the service. Attempting to disrupt, overload, or degrade Swatted for anyone, including through denial of service, malicious code, or deliberately malformed requests.
• Reverse engineering. Decompiling, disassembling, or reverse engineering the service, its APIs, its request signing, or its limits, except to the extent the law expressly allows it despite this restriction.

No automation, scraping, or bulk use#

Swatted is built for a person checking specific values one at a time, inside the dashboard. It is not a data source to be harvested.

• Scraping. Copying results, masked previews, or revealed records at scale by any means, including scripts, browser extensions, headless browsers, or manual copying intended to build a dataset.
• Automation. Using bots, scripts, macros, or any tool that sends searches or reveals on your behalf, or calling our internal endpoints directly outside the dashboard.
• Bulk and enumeration queries. Working through lists of values, iterating over patterns, prefixes, or number ranges, or otherwise searching systematically to discover what the index contains rather than to check a value you already have a reason to check.
• Building competing or derived products. Using results to build, train, enrich, or sell a database, lookup service, model, or list.
• Reselling. Selling, renting, or trading access to your account, your credits, your searches, or any result, or running searches for other people in exchange for payment or favors.

No account misuse or getting around limits#

• Account sharing. Letting anyone else use your account, sharing your password, login codes, recovery codes, or session, or signing in to someone else's account. One account belongs to one person.
• Multiple accounts. Operating more than one account, including to extend daily or weekly limits, to collect free allowances, or to keep using the service after a restriction.
• Circumventing limits. Trying to get around search limits, reveal limits, credit balances, rate limits, or masking, for example by rotating IP addresses, devices, or Discord identities, or by exploiting a bug instead of reporting it.
• Evading enforcement. Creating a new account, linking a different Discord account, or using someone else's account while yours is disabled or banned. Ban evasion extends the ban to every account involved.
• Impersonation. Pretending to be Swatted staff, the owner, a moderator, or a bot, or pretending to be another person or organization, in the Discord server, in direct messages, or anywhere else.
• False reports and requests. Filing removal requests for information that is not yours without authority to act for the person, or filing abuse reports or appeals you know to be false.
• Anything unlawful. Any use that breaks the law where you are or where the affected person is, or that infringes anyone else's rights, including privacy and data protection rights.

Handling what you see#

Masked previews and revealed records are shown to you, for your own legitimate purpose, and they stay with you. Treat every result as if it described a real person, because the rules are written for the day it does.

• Do not share results. Do not post, forward, screenshot for others, or paste results into chats, forums, documents, or the Swatted Discord server, unless the result is about you.
• Do not store or combine results. Do not keep results in spreadsheets, notes, or other tools, and do not merge them with information from other sources.
• Use the minimum. Reveal only what you need for the reason you searched. Credits and reveal limits exist partly to keep lookups deliberate.
• Keep your account secure. Your search and reveal history is tied to your account. Protect it with a strong password, keep your recovery codes offline, and approve only sign-ins you started yourself.

Conduct in the Discord server#

The Swatted Discord server is part of the service, and this policy applies there too. Every rule above covers what you say and share in the server and in direct messages with staff. In addition, do not post anyone's personal information, including your own search results about other people; do not ask others to run searches for you; do not advertise other lookup services; and do not message members out of the blue about Swatted. Server staff can warn, disable, or ban under this policy, and disables and bans issued through the Swatted bot carry over to your Swatted account, as described in the enforcement section below.

Your own information and removal#

If you find information that describes you, you are welcome to review it, and you can ask for it to be removed. Start a request from the removal page while signed in. Include the record reference shown in your results so we can find the exact entry. Each request receives a reference in the format REM-000123 that you can quote if you need to follow up.

Removal requests are handled privately. They are never posted publicly and are not shared with the person who ran the search. You do not need to explain why you want information about yourself removed, although any detail that helps us verify the request speeds things up. For practical steps you can take to reduce your exposure elsewhere, see Protect yourself. For how we handle your personal data, see our Privacy policy.

Finding your own information is never a reason to go after someone else. If you believe another person is using Swatted against you, report it as described below rather than responding yourself.

Reporting abuse#

If you believe someone is misusing Swatted, tell us. Reports reach us through Discord only: join the Swatted Discord server and send the owner a direct message, as explained on the contact page. To help us act quickly, include:

• What happened, and when, as specifically as you can.
• The Swatted username, Discord username, or Discord user ID of the person involved, if you know it.
• Screenshots or links that show the conduct, with anything unrelated cropped out.
• Whether you believe anyone is in immediate danger.

Reports are handled privately and we do not tell the reported person who reported them. We may not be able to share the outcome with you, but every report is read.

Enforcement#

We review suspected violations using account activity, search and reveal history, moderation records, and reports. Enforcement is proportionate: we usually start with the lightest step that will stop the problem, and move up the ladder if it continues. Serious conduct skips straight to the top.

• 1. Warning. We contact you on Discord, explain what we saw, and ask you to stop. A warning is recorded on your account and counts if the conduct happens again.
• 2. Limits. We may reduce or pause your searches and reveals, or rate limit your account, while we look into a pattern of use. Limits are applied on our servers and cannot be lifted from your side.
• 3. Temporary disable. Your account is disabled until a specific date and time. You are signed out everywhere and cannot search or reveal. When you sign in, you see a countdown to the end of the disable and, where we have recorded one, the reason. Access restores automatically when the timer ends; you do not need to contact us.
• 4. Permanent ban. Your account is closed to you for good. You are signed out everywhere, and the ban also applies in the Swatted Discord server. A ban is not lifted with time; it can only be reversed on appeal.

We may skip any step for serious conduct. Swatting, threats of violence, targeting minors, doxxing, and ban evasion normally lead to an immediate permanent ban. A permanent ban always overrides a temporary disable.

Swatted and Discord work together. Every account is tied to one Discord identity, and moderation in the Discord server and on Swatted is linked. A ban or disable issued by staff, whether on the site or through the Swatted bot in Discord, applies to both the Swatted account and its linked Discord identity for the same period. Separately, if you leave the Swatted Discord server, your account is suspended until you rejoin. That suspension is not a penalty and lifts automatically once you are back in the server.

Records. Every moderation action is logged with the action taken, who took it, when it expires if it is temporary, and the reason where one is given. We keep these records, even after an action is reversed, so that decisions can be reviewed and appeals can be judged fairly.

Authorities. Where the law requires it, or where we believe in good faith that a person's life or safety is at risk, we may preserve relevant records and share them with law enforcement or emergency services.

Appeals#

If you believe a warning, limit, disable, or ban was a mistake, you can appeal. Start from the appeal page, which walks you through reaching us on Discord. In your appeal, include:

• The email address or username of the affected Swatted account.
• Which decision you are appealing, and the reason shown on your account screen, if there was one.
• Why you believe the decision was wrong, and any context we may have missed.

A person reads every appeal. We review the moderation record and the activity behind it, and we may ask you follow-up questions. The outcome can be to keep the decision, to shorten or reduce it, or to reverse it. We reply in the same Discord conversation once a decision is made.

Because a ban also applies in the Discord server, a banned account may not be able to rejoin it, and Discord only delivers direct messages between people who share a server or are friends. The appeal page explains what to do in that case.

Please send one appeal per decision and keep it in a single conversation; repeated or abusive appeals slow everything down. The restriction stays in place while we review. A temporary disable still ends on its own when the timer runs out, whether or not you appeal. Never include your password, login codes, or recovery codes in an appeal. We will never ask for them.

Changes to this policy#

We may update this policy as the service changes, as the law changes, or as we learn how people use Swatted. When we do, we change the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. If a change materially affects what you are allowed to do, we will also announce it in the Swatted Discord server before it takes effect. Continuing to use Swatted after a change takes effect means you accept the updated policy. Conduct is always judged against the version of the policy that applied at the time.

Questions about this policy are welcome. Reach us through the contact page.