Acceptable Use Policy

1. Permitted uses

The following uses are permitted under your Data Docked subscription:

• Commercial maritime intelligence applications and internal dashboards.
• Fleet tracking and vessel monitoring for legitimate business operations.
• Trade compliance monitoring and sanctions screening workflows.
• Academic and commercial maritime research.
• Building customer-facing products that incorporate maritime data, subject to the terms of your plan.

2. Prohibited uses

The following are strictly prohibited:

• Resale or redistribution of raw API data to third parties without prior written consent from Data Docked.
• Tracking individuals without a lawful basis under GDPR or applicable data protection law. AIS data relates to vessels; using it to infer personal movements without legal justification is prohibited.
• Sanctions evasion — providing data to, or facilitating activity by, sanctioned parties or entities on international sanctions lists.
• Criminal activity — using vessel tracking data to support piracy, illegal fishing, drug trafficking, human smuggling, or any other unlawful surveillance of vessels.
• Automated scraping beyond rate limits — making requests in excess of the rate limits published in the API documentation, or circumventing rate-limiting controls.
• Reverse engineering or competing products — decompiling, disassembling, or otherwise attempting to derive the source or underlying data structures, or using the service to build a directly competing maritime data product without a separate data licensing agreement.

3. API usage requirements

• You must authenticate all requests using your assigned API key.
• API keys must not be shared across separate legal entities or organisations.
• Rate limits set for your plan must be respected at all times. If you require higher limits, contact us to discuss a suitable plan.
• You are responsible for keeping your API key secure. Report a compromised key to [email protected] immediately.

4. Enforcement

Data Docked reserves the right to investigate suspected violations of this policy. If a violation is confirmed, we may suspend or permanently terminate the Customer's account with immediate effect and without refund. Serious violations — including those involving criminal activity or sanctions evasion — may be reported to relevant authorities.

5. Contact

To report suspected misuse or to ask whether a specific use case is permitted, email [email protected].