Bottom line
ETOCHATBOT is designed for legitimate communication between businesses and their customers. Any mass or targeted messaging to people who haven't consented to receive it is spam and is prohibited. A breach of this policy is grounds for an immediate account block with no refund.
1. Legal basis
- Part 1, Article 18 of Federal Law No. 38-FZ "On Advertising" — advertising over telecom networks, including messaging platforms, requires the subscriber's prior consent.
- Part 1, Article 6 of 152-FZ — personal data processing (including contacts collected for broadcasts) requires a legal basis (consent, etc.).
- Rules of the platforms and channels the service runs through: sending rate limits, restrictions on bot-initiated messages outside the 24-hour window, and other requirements set by their respective APIs.
2. What's allowed
- Replying to messages from users who started a conversation with the bot themselves.
- Sending messages within the time windows allowed by each platform.
- Running broadcasts to customers who explicitly opted in (for example, through a subscribe form on your website or a "Subscribe" button in the bot).
- Sending transactional notifications (order status, appointment reminders) when the user provided their contact specifically for this purpose.
- Segmenting your audience by tags you've collected during conversations.
3. Strictly prohibited
- Importing contact lists obtained from third parties or open sources and starting broadcasts without recipients' consent.
- Sending advertising messages without subscriber consent (a violation of Article 18 of 38-FZ; fines under Article 14.3 of the Administrative Code go up to RUB 500,000).
- Sending messages that break Russian law: promoting extremism, calls to violence, defamation, sale of prohibited goods and services, fake documents, and so on.
- Using the service for phishing, fraud, impersonating official brands (banks, government services, marketplaces), or deceptive giveaways.
- Distributing CSAM (child sexual abuse material), materials exploiting minors, or extremist content.
- Sending messages with malware, links to malicious resources, or phishing forms.
- Spoofing the sender, using fake names and avatars to mislead users.
- Ignoring users' unsubscribe requests.
4. Consent and unsubscribe
Every one of your broadcasts must:
- Be based on the recipient's explicit, voluntary, specific, and informed consent.
- Offer a clear way to unsubscribe in one click or command (for example, an "Unsubscribe" button in the bot interface, a /stop command, or contacting an operator).
- Stop sending to a specific user immediately after receiving an unsubscribe signal.
5. Technical limits
To prevent abuse, the service applies:
- Sending rate limits on each platform — in line with its official documentation.
- A broadcast queue with load control.
- Automatic monitoring of the spam complaint rate. Accounts above 1% are automatically suspended from broadcasting.
- Anti-fraud measures: blocking attempts at mass sending to non-existent accounts, loops, and similar patterns.
6. Complaints and violations
If you received an unwanted message sent through ETOCHATBOT, let us know at info@etochat.bot with "Spam complaint" in the subject line. Please attach:
- The name and username of the sender bot.
- A screenshot or the text of the message.
- The date and time you received it.
We review complaints within 3 business days. A confirmed violation results in a block on the sender's account.
7. User responsibility
The User is solely responsible for complying with Russian law on advertising and personal data, with the rules of messaging platforms, and with this Policy. The service Operator is not the author of the User's broadcast content and does not initiate sending.
If the Operator faces penalties from Roskomnadzor, the Federal Antimonopoly Service, or platforms due to the User's actions violating this Policy, the User shall reimburse the Operator for documented losses.
8. Related documents
- Terms of service — general usage rules.
- Privacy policy — how we store and use data.
- Data processing agreement (DPA) — processing of end-customer data.
- Report abuse — the complaint process.