Fraudulent Activity and Prohibited Activity

The definitions of Fraudulent Activity and Prohibited Activity as referred to in the CodeFuel Technology publisher agreement (the “Publisher Agreement”) are set forth below. All defined terms in these Fraudulent Activity and Prohibited Activity provisions shall have the meaning set forth in the Publisher Agreement. Please ensure that you have read these Fraudulent Activity and Prohibited Activity provisions before signing the Publisher Agreement with CodeFuel. By signing and submitting the Publisher Agreement to CodeFuel, you indicate that you have read and consent to these Fraudulent Activity and Prohibited Activity provisions.

Fraudulent Activity means:

1. fictitious installations and/or misleading, deceptive or illegal generation of traffic to the Publisher Approved Application or CodeFuel Technology;
2. installing or uninstalling any software or ActiveX controls (including, without limitation, Publisher Approved Application or CodeFuel Technology or any part thereof) on an end user’s computer or changing any end user setting (or change user preferences or reset default home pages) without clear, appropriate notice, and the end user’s prior affirmative and express consent;
3. automated, deceptive, fraudulent or other invalid searches in Web Search Assets or clicks on ads, sponsored links, sponsored search results or sponsored content, whether by automated or artificial means and whether conducted by Publisher or an end user (whether through encouraging end users to do so or not), performed for any purpose or any invalid means including but not limited to repeated manual clicks, use of robots or other automated query tools and/or computer generated search requests, and/or the unauthorized use of other search engine optimization services and/or software, implanting IFRAMEs to induce clicks or mislead in any way, generating a click, query, or impression when that was not the user’s intent, for example using blind links, providing consideration in exchange for inducing clicks, including conversion incentives, for example by awarding users cash, points, prizes, contest entries or similar rewards.
   Clicks or impressions are disallowed and will be considered invalid if they are: (list not exhaustive)
   • Accidental or artificial
   • From a user, program, or automated agent used for the purpose of manipulating click measurement activity or click-based advertising payments.
   • Users generating clicks or impressions have no intention of legitimately browsing site content, making a purchase or performing any other type of legitimate conversion action.
   • Driven by traffic patterns that artificially manipulate or interrupt the application of the Web Search Provider and/or CodeFuel quality mechanisms.
   • The result of malware, adware, spyware or other badware.
   • For Search API: Violate the approved paid search and content ad inputs and definitions, page content policies, market and language requirements, ad call requirements, or are found to be overly aggressive in ad rendering tactics that result in invalid clicks or impressions (for example, clickable background space in between ads).
   • Driven by unauthorized Implementations;
4. causing pages to (i) automatically refresh at any rate greater than that permissible under the applicable IAB impression measurement guidelines, or (ii) automatically refresh at any rate that negatively impacts in a material fashion the click-through rate of the applicable Search Results on the page;
5. inducing or luring users to provide personal identifiable information to any person/entity by intentionally misrepresenting the identity of the person/entity seeking the information;
6. using randomized or intentionally deceptive file names, directory folders, formats or registry entries for the purpose of avoiding detection and/or removal by users and/or security software;
7. issuing any “leave-behinds” or other actions when a user clicks away from the Publisher Approved Application;
8. diverting web traffic from local end users to a different geographical location;
9. sending an internet search not resulting from an end user action or when a user would not have a reasonable awareness that such action would trigger an internet search, or intentionally altering, deleting, changing or pre-populating the end user’s search query to generate different ads, search results, or clicks, or scanning e-mails to personalize ads;
10. requiring payment for services or products that are free from the manufacturer or original source, and / or requiring the user to download files or programs to access the Publisher Approved Application without express written consent from CodeFuel;
11. dialing a phone number, or connecting remotely to another computer or system (e.g., execute “dialer” software), except in response to an end user’s intentional initiation of such action;
12. Engaging in any arbitrage activity (for the purposes of clarity and without limitation, arbitrage includes the purchasing of traffic by or for the Publisher with the intent of directing user to web pages where paid Search Results are a prominent page element).

Prohibited Activity means:

1. any activity or use of any content that:
   1. encourages conduct that would be considered a criminal offense or could give rise to civil liability or violates any applicable law, regulation or order of any court or tribunal including, but not limited to, collecting, using or disclosing personal information in violation of applicable law;
   2. affects the security or privacy of end users without the user’s informed consent (e.g., password retrieval programs, key logging software or any deceptive means to obtain any information from the user);
   3. interferes with or disrupts web navigation or browsing or web pages visited by end users without the user’s informed consent; resizing browser windows, disabling back buttons, or otherwise interfering with a user’s ability to navigate.
   4. contains adware, spyware, scareware or malware (including acquiring traffic or including ads in browser window through the use of malware, adware, spyware); or
   5. replaces or adds to a web page by injecting content from a source with which the site owner does not have an affiliation;
2. use, endorsement, and/or promotion of content which is, promotes or advocates (including distribution from websites or software applications which contains such content):
   1. adult content, pornography, obscene, excessively profane, racist, ethnically offensive, hate speech, discriminatory, threatening, infringing, excessively violent, religiously insensitive, political or libelous;
   2. illegal drugs or arms trafficking, violates export control laws, creates a risk to a person’s safety or health, compromises national security, promotes online pharmacies and prescription-only medicines or interferes with an investigation by law enforcement officials;
   3. offensive, misleading, deceptive or phishing conduct;
   4. family-planning products;
   5. substantial un-moderated user-generated content or
   6. gambling-related or sweepstakes; or
   7. a violation of copyrighted material via technologies or protocols such as, for example, peer to peer, file sharing, file hosting or torrent portals, including, without limitation, placing advertisements in a peer-to-peer application or via traffic from a peer-to-peer application if they promote or encourage the sharing of copyrighted content;
3. using the CodeFuel Technology, the Publisher Approved Application, the Documentation or any related application, extension, feature or material to offer, display, distribute, transmit, route, provide connections to or store any content or any other material that infringes or promotes the violation of the Intellectual Property Rights, privacy or other rights of any person or entity;
4. interfering with or disrupting, or attempting to interfere with or disrupt (including without limitation working around any technical limitations or introducing or using any device, software, or routine that interferers with) , the CodeFuel Technology or the Web Search Provider, or any server or network related thereto, or disobey any requirements, procedures, policies, or regulations of networks related to the CodeFuel Technology or Web Search Providers, or attempt to gain access to any systems or networks that connect thereto (except as required to access and use the CodeFuel Technology for Publisher’s own use as permitted herein);
5. modifying, removing, obscuring, truncating, adding to or changing the order of, replacing the text, images or other content included in or interfering with the Search Results as provided by CodeFuel, including, without limitation, truncating, deleting, adding or otherwise modifying any part of the ad call or user’s browser information, or the full titles, descriptions and URLs provided by CodeFuel. Without limiting the foregoing, all Search Result must be displayed contiguously, in the order provided by CodeFuel, without any other content between the individual results, and without any omission or modification of results or their ranking;
6. displaying the Search Results with search results from other sources or with other content so that such other search results or content appears as displayed to be part of the Search Results, other than blending and displaying such results with Publisher’s own proprietary information distinguishable from the Search Results and approved by CodeFuel;
7. modify, removing or interfering with the Web Search Provider made available in any of the Web Search Assets;
8. obscuring, stripping, blocking or filtering any portion of the Search Results or a web page (including, but not limited to, pop-up windows, expanding banners, interstitials buttons or any animation) for the purpose of revenue generation, back button blocks or otherwise;
9. serving Search Results on 404 or other error message screens, on websites which are under construction or unfinished, within pop-over or pop-under windows, or in or through a downloadable application or an email;
10. Engaging in behavior intended to circumvent application of pricing, content validation, sensitivity systems (false\conversions, traffic cycling) or filtering technology;
11. creating or attempting to create a substitute or similar service or product to that of the CodeFuel Technology, including the Documentation, through use of or access to any of the CodeFuel Technology, Documentation or proprietary information related to them;
12. using the CodeFuel Technology, as part of any machine learning or similar algorithmic activity in order to train any product or service;
13. using either the CodeFuel Technology to offer, distribute or promote any search or search-related applications not provided or approved by CodeFuel or CodeFuel Technology;
14. violating CodeFuel’s (i) Third Party Guidelines available at: http://www.codefuel.com/legal/thirdpartyguidelines, and advertising guidelines available at: http://www.codefuel.com/legal/StandardGuidelinesForAdsPlacement which are incorporated herein by reference; or
15. For Search API, forwarding, masking or cloaking of URLs or engaging in deceptive practices as determined by the Web Search Provider and /or CodeFuel, or engaging in any activity that hinders the ability of CodeFuel and/ or the Web Search Provider from assessing and reviewing the Publisher Approved Application and /or the implementation of the Search API by the Publisher, including:
    1. Click wrapping, whereby Publisher avoid passing the true Publisher’s destination URL or property (where, the ads are actually being displayed); or
    2. Blending web traffic under a single ad unit: Publisher and traffic sources must be tracked via a separate ad unit.
       In this section the following terms shall have the following meaning:
       • Cloaking: Presenting content to a search engine crawler that is materially different from that presented to a user’s browser.
       • Masking URLs: Displaying in the user’s address bar a URL different from that of the page being visited.
       • Forwarding: Redirecting users to a different domain or URL.
16. caching, storing, copying, re-syndicating or redirecting any Search Results.

Last Updated: February 15, 2017.