Acceptable Use

MasterDB works because the data in it is accurate and comes from the business it claims to come from. AI systems retrieve that data to answer real questions from real people. These rules set out what you may and may not publish. They form part of our business terms and apply to everything you publish, including your business identity, product catalogue, jobs, events and news.

Publish accurate and current data

• Publish data that is true at the time you publish it.
• Keep it up to date. Prices, availability, opening hours, delivery information, job listings and event details all change, and stale data in an AI answer is worse than no data.
• Withdraw anything that is no longer true if you cannot correct it straight away.
• Do not describe goods, services or availability you cannot actually supply.

Publish only what you have the right to publish

• You must own the rights in what you publish, or hold a permission that covers publishing it to MasterDB for retrieval by AI systems.
• This includes product descriptions, photographs, videos, logos, brand names, trade marks and any content written by someone else.
• Do not copy another business’s catalogue, listings or images.
• Do not publish personal data about individuals unless you have a lawful basis and are entitled to make it available for retrieval.
• Do not publish confidential information that belongs to someone else.

Do not publish unlawful or harmful material

Do not publish anything that:

• is unlawful for you, or for the goods and services you describe
• is misleading or deceptive, including false claims about origin, quality, certification, endorsement, health effects or savings
• offers counterfeit goods, or goods that infringe someone else’s trade mark or copyright
• offers unsafe goods, goods subject to a recall, or goods prohibited from sale
• offers age-restricted goods or services without the restrictions, warnings and conditions that the law requires being published with them
• is hateful, harassing, obscene, or otherwise material that has no place in an answer given to a member of the public

Where a category is regulated where you trade, publish the disclosures and conditions that regulation requires alongside the listing.

Do not try to manipulate AI answers

MasterDB exists to give AI systems accurate information, not to be gamed. Do not:

• stuff keywords into names, descriptions or fields to catch questions your business does not actually answer
• write descriptions that are deliberately misleading about what a product is, what it does or who it is for
• put text in a field that is not meant for it, in order to influence how an answer is composed
• publish hidden, invisible or filler text intended for machines rather than people
• include instructions aimed at an AI system that are designed to change how it presents your data or how it treats other businesses
• publish duplicate or near-duplicate entries to increase the chance of being retrieved
• misuse job listings, events or news to publish promotional material that belongs elsewhere

Descriptions should describe. If a person read the field aloud, it should make sense to them.

Do not publish malicious or unsafe technical content

• No malware, viruses, scripts or anything designed to cause damage or gain unauthorised access.
• No links to phishing pages, malicious downloads or sites that misrepresent themselves.
• No links that redirect somewhere other than what the listing says they lead to.
• Do not attempt to interfere with MasterDB, with the retrieval process, or with the data published by any other business.

Do not impersonate

• Publish as your own business, under your own verified identity.
• Do not claim to be another business, or a brand, retailer, supplier or authorised dealer that you are not.
• Do not imply a partnership, approval, certification or endorsement that you do not have.
• Do not publish another business’s contact details, address or website as if they were yours.

If you are authorised to publish on behalf of another business, be clear about that relationship and be able to show the authorisation.

Respect the rights of others

Treat other businesses, individuals and the public fairly in what you publish. Do not publish material that defames another business or person, that discloses someone’s private information, that discriminates unlawfully, or that targets a competitor with false claims. Comparative statements must be accurate and capable of being supported.

Reporting a problem

If you believe something published to MasterDB goes against these rules, including anything that infringes your rights or misuses your brand, use the contact form at /contact with enough detail to identify the data and the problem.

What happens if these rules are not followed

Depending on how serious the problem is, we may:

• ask you to correct or remove the data
• remove specific data from MasterDB so it is no longer available for retrieval
• suspend publishing for your business while we look into it
• require verification to be repeated
• close the account and stop publishing permanently

Where it is reasonable and lawful, we will tell you what the problem is and give you a chance to fix it. Where the problem is serious, such as unlawful content, a security risk or deliberate manipulation, we may remove data or suspend publishing immediately and tell you after. We may also be required to act, or to pass information on, where the law requires it.

Removing data stops future retrieval through MasterDB. It cannot reach a copy an AI company retrieved before the removal, or an answer already given.

Changes to these rules

We may update these rules as we see how MasterDB is used. The current version is the one on this page, and the date at the top shows when it last changed. Continuing to publish means you accept the updated rules.

Contact

For any question about acceptable use, use the contact form at /contact.