1. Acceptance of Terms

The HonkIO Services are operated by somethingcorporate, a business registered in Ontario (“HonkIO”, “we”, “us”). By accessing or using the HonkIO SMS gateway API and related services (“Services”), you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service (“Terms”). If you are using the Services on behalf of an organization, you represent that you have authority to bind that organization to these Terms.

2. Canadian Law Compliance

You are solely responsible for ensuring your use of the Services complies with all applicable Canadian laws, including but not limited to:

CASL (Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation): You must obtain and maintain valid consent before sending any commercial electronic message. HonkIO enforces STOP/UNSTOP keywords automatically on your behalf.
CRTC National Do Not Call List (DNCL): You must not send telemarketing messages to DNCL-registered numbers except under a recognized exemption, which you must record and retain.
PIPEDA and Quebec Law 25: You must have a lawful basis for processing personal information (including phone numbers) and must honour data subject rights including erasure.
CRTC Broadcasting and Telecom Regulations: You must not use the Services for unsolicited, deceptive, or malicious messaging of any kind.
Toll-free messaging (double opt-in): Before you send messages from a toll-free number to a recipient, you must obtain that recipient’s double opt-in: their consent, followed by their confirmation by text in reply to a confirmation message. HonkIO refuses toll-free messages to recipients who have not confirmed. You must keep in place the opt-in process described in your verification application, and must not use a verified toll-free number for a purpose materially different from the one approved.

3. Prohibited Uses

You may not use the Services to send:

Spam, phishing, smishing, or any fraudulent content
Messages promoting illegal activities under Canadian or provincial law
Unsolicited commercial messages without valid CASL consent
Messages to recipients who have opted out (honoured automatically by HonkIO)
Content that constitutes hate speech, harassment, or threats
Messages that impersonate another person or organization
Bulk marketing campaigns, purchased or rented contact lists, or cold outreach to people you have no existing relationship with
Sending that exceeds your account’s sending limits or evades them by spreading traffic across accounts or numbers

Violation may result in immediate account suspension and referral to the CRTC Spam Reporting Centre. Sending limits are published in the documentation; live sending may be paused automatically when opt-out or carrier-failure rates indicate unwanted messaging.

Email

If you use the email API, the rules above apply to email as they do to SMS, and in addition:

You may not send to purchased, rented, scraped or harvested address lists, or send cold outreach to people you have no existing relationship with.
A commercial electronic message requires CASL consent from each recipient, recorded with HonkIO before sending. HonkIO refuses a commercial email with no consent on file, and always adds List-Unsubscribe and one-click List-Unsubscribe-Post headers to every commercial email; you may not remove them. HonkIO also adds a visible unsubscribe link to the message unless it already has one or you turn our footer off; if you omit or turn off that footer, your own message must carry a working unsubscribe link.
Live email is paused automatically for 24 hours when an account’s recent live emails bounce or draw spam complaints at a high rate (currently more than 5% hard bounces over the last 200 emails, or more than 0.1% complaints over the last 1,000 with at least 2 complaints). These thresholds may change with notice; the documentation carries the values currently in force.
HonkIO may suspend an account’s email sending, without notice, where needed to protect the deliverability of email for all customers.

4. Data Residency & Cross-Border Transfers

All personal information collected through the Services is stored within Canada (Supabase PostgreSQL and Upstash Redis, ca-central-1, Montréal). HonkIO’s API application layer may be hosted on infrastructure located outside Canada. Personal information transmitted via API requests may be processed outside Canada before being written to Canadian-hosted storage, depending on HonkIO’s current infrastructure configuration.

Any such cross-border processing has been assessed under Quebec Law 25. A Privacy Impact Assessment was completed on April 3, 2026, and revised on September 2, 2026, confirming that adequate contractual and technical protections are in place for the current architecture. HonkIO intends to migrate its API layer to Canadian-hosted infrastructure; until that migration is complete, cross-border processing may occur. You acknowledge HonkIO’s data residency and cross-border transfer practices as described in the Privacy Policy.

You are responsible for ensuring that your own transfer of personal information to HonkIO (e.g. phone numbers of your end-users) complies with applicable privacy law, including obtaining any required consents or conducting any required assessments.

5. Data Processing Terms

Sections 4 and 5 of these Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, set out the terms on which HonkIO processes personal information on your behalf under PIPEDA and Quebec Law 25. HonkIO acts as a “service provider” (processor) processing personal data on your behalf as the “organization” (controller), only for the purpose of providing the Services and only on your instructions as expressed through your use of the API. You must ensure you have a lawful basis for sharing personal data with HonkIO for processing.

6. API Keys and Security

You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your API keys. You must not share keys publicly or commit them to version control. HonkIO is not liable for unauthorized use resulting from your failure to secure your credentials. You must notify us immediately at security@honkio.ca upon discovery of any unauthorized key use.

7. Payment and Credits

The Services operate on a prepaid credit model. Credits are non-refundable. HonkIO may refund a payment at its sole discretion where there is reason to believe the payment was fraudulent or unauthorised, and will refund where required by applicable consumer protection law. Prices are stated in Canadian dollars (CAD) and exclude applicable sales taxes. Where HonkIO is required to collect GST/HST, QST or any other sales tax, it will be added at checkout and shown on your receipt; you remain responsible for any other taxes applicable to your use of the Services. HonkIO reserves the right to change pricing with 30 days’ notice.

Phone numbers. A phone number carries a one-time activation fee and a monthly rent, at the prices shown when you add it. Both are deducted from your prepaid balance: the activation fee and the first month’s rent when you add the number, then the rent each month for as long as you hold it. Rent is not prorated or refunded when you release a number. If your balance cannot cover the rent when it is due, the number is suspended and cannot be used to send until a top-up covers the rent. HonkIO may release a number that has been suspended for 30 days. A released number is returned to the carrier and may not be available again.

Auto top-up. If you turn on auto top-up, you authorize HonkIO to charge your saved card the amount you chose, plus applicable taxes, each time your balance falls below the threshold you set or is too low to cover rent due within 24 hours. Each charge is subject to your top-up limits. You can change or turn off auto top-up at any time in your dashboard. If we can’t charge your card, auto top-up is paused until you turn it back on from your dashboard, which requires a new top-up. If your account is under review, it stays paused until HonkIO support lifts it.

Toll-free verification fee: an application to verify toll-free numbers for SMS carries a one-time fee (currently $499.00 per application), paid by card when you submit it and separate from prepaid credits. The fee is refunded in full if HonkIO declines the application. Once HonkIO has submitted the application to the carrier, the fee is not refunded, whatever the carrier decides; an application the carrier rejects may be corrected and resubmitted at no additional charge. HonkIO may decline an application at its discretion, including where it cannot verify the business or its opt-in process.

8. Service Availability and Support

HonkIO targets 99.9% monthly API uptime, but the Services are provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis, without any service level agreement, uptime guarantee, or service credits. Support is provided on a best-effort basis by email at support@honkio.ca, with no guaranteed response time. Scheduled maintenance will be communicated at least 24 hours in advance on our status page. HonkIO is not liable for delivery failures caused by carrier issues, recipient device issues, or force majeure events.

9. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable Canadian law, HonkIO’s total liability for any claim arising from these Terms or the Services shall not exceed the amounts paid by you in the 3 months preceding the claim. HonkIO is not liable for indirect, consequential, or punitive damages.

10. Governing Law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario and the federal laws of Canada applicable therein. You consent to the exclusive jurisdiction of courts in the Province of Ontario for any dispute arising under these Terms.

11. Changes to Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. Material changes will be communicated by email at least 14 days before taking effect. Continued use of the Services after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms.

12. Emergency and High-Risk Use

The Services are not designed or licensed for use where a failure or delay in delivering a message could lead to death, personal injury, or physical or environmental damage. You must not use the Services for emergency notifications, 9-1-1 or other emergency services, life-safety alerts, medical monitoring, or the control of safety-critical systems, and you must not rely on the Services as your sole means of delivering any time-critical communication.

13. Assignment

You may not assign or transfer these Terms or your account without HonkIO’s prior written consent. HonkIO may assign these Terms, in whole or in part, to a corporation that HonkIO controls or that acquires the HonkIO business, and will notify you by email when it does; your account, balance, and data carry over unchanged.

14. Contact

Questions about these Terms? Contact our legal team at legal@honkio.ca.