Fair Use Policy

1. What this page is

This page publishes the Fair Use threshold and the measurement methodology that Section 4.8 of the Terms of Service incorporates by reference. It is the authoritative source for the number. The Terms govern how the threshold is applied; where this page and the Terms differ, the Terms prevail.

Routing stays unmetered on every plan (Section 4.6). Every scan by a person is routed to its destination, with no per-scan billing and no quiet throttling. This policy only draws the line for automated traffic, so that one outlier cannot degrade routing for everyone else.

2. Current threshold

"Per day" means any rolling 24-hour window (see Section 4). The threshold applies per short link, not per account. It sits roughly three orders of magnitude above the busiest legitimate use we have modelled: a high-traffic hospitality QR code yields around 400 scans a day.

3. What counts as a request

A request is any HTTP request to a SquareBond short link, whatever the HTTP method, whoever or whatever sends it, and whether or not the routing succeeds. A scan by a person and a request by a bot count the same at this stage. The distinction between them is made in Section 4, not in the count.

4. How we measure

SquareBond assesses traffic to a short link using the following signals:

• Per source. Requests are attributed to the IP address they come from and to the network that address belongs to (its autonomous system, or ASN). A surge spread across many people on many networks looks different from a surge from one address or one hosting provider.
• Over time. Request counts are aggregated per short link over a rolling 24-hour window. The threshold is met when the automated-traffic count within that window exceeds it.
• Human-led or automated. Traffic is classified as automated when these signals show it is generated by bots, crawlers, denial-of-service attempts, scraping or other non-human-led activity, rather than by people scanning the code. Only automated traffic counts against the threshold.

A campaign that genuinely goes viral is human-led traffic. It is protected by Section 4.6 however large it gets, and it is not what this policy is for.

5. What happens above the threshold

Crossing the threshold is not an automatic suspension. Section 4.8 of the Terms sets the sequence:

• (i) Rate-limit. SquareBond may slow automated traffic to the affected link while continuing to resolve human-led scans.
• (ii) Ask you first. SquareBond may ask you to confirm the campaign behind the traffic and the audience you expect, with a 24-hour response window before any further step.
• (iii) Suspend only to investigate. SquareBond may suspend the link for the time reasonably needed to investigate, following the Section 5.4 escalation ladder.

Suspension under Section 4.8 is not a breach of Section 4.6 and does not give rise to Service Credits under Section 9.2.

6. How this page changes

SquareBond will not lower the published threshold without at least thirty (30) days' notice to active Customers. A downward adjustment that materially narrows existing Customer rights for the remainder of a Renewal Term is a material change under Section 13.2 of the Terms, which gives affected Customers notice and cancellation rights.

Every change to the threshold or to the methodology is appended to the changelog below with its date, the value it replaces, the new value and the notice given. Entries are never edited or removed, so you can audit every adjustment.

7. Changelog