ELLA Acceptable Use Policy

Last updated: 3 November 2026

This policy sets out what you may not do with ELLA. It applies to everyone who uses ELLA, and it is part of the Terms of Service.

ELLA exists to make documents accessible, and most people never come near these rules. We enforce them firmly because they keep everyone who uses ELLA safe.

1. Safety protections for everyone

These protections apply to every user, adults included. We may check what is sent to ELLA for illegal content before an AI model sees it, and the assistant won't help with requests that could cause serious harm. If you tell the assistant you are thinking about hurting yourself, it shows you how to get help from a person, such as Samaritans (116 123, for anyone) or Childline (0800 1111, for under-19s). If you or someone else is in immediate danger, call 999.

2. Child sexual abuse material

You must never upload, create, request, store or share any sexual content involving children (anyone under 18), whether real, drawn or computer- or AI-generated, or any text that sexualises children or is written to groom or exploit them. This is a crime in the UK, and we have zero tolerance for it. We refuse the request, may restrict the item or the account while a person reviews it, and report to the appropriate authorities, such as the Internet Watch Foundation, the National Crime Agency or the police. A safety warning is not a finding that you have committed an offence.

A check can make a mistake. If you think a restriction is wrong, email support@autodots.ai with the request reference, without attaching the material, and tell us if it stops you getting material you need because of a disability or for your education. We may limit what we tell you where the law requires it.

3. Other illegal or harmful content

You may not use ELLA to create, obtain, process or share content that is illegal in the UK, such as terrorist content, content that incites violence or hatred, threats, or intimate images shared without consent. You may not use it to harass, bully, threaten, stalk or impersonate anyone, to process other people's personal information without a lawful reason, or to make content meant to deceive people harmfully, such as fake official documents, forged certificates or fake identity documents.

4. Reselling and abuse of credits

You may not resell ELLA or access to it, or supply its results to other people as a paid service; share one account between several people; create extra accounts or sign up automatically to get more credits; or get around usage or rate limits. Breaking these rules may lead to every account involved being suspended and credits gained by abuse being removed.

5. Copyright and other people's rights

Only submit work you own, have permission to use, or may use under a copyright exception. UK law lets disabled people, people acting for them, and education and not-for-profit bodies make accessible copies (Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, sections 31A to 31F), and you must use ELLA within those rules. You may not use ELLA to make copies for sale or hire, or pass accessible copies to anyone other than a disabled person or an authorised body, unless the rights holder allows it. Don't remove or hide copyright notices, and don't ask ELLA to get around copy protection.

6. Honest use

You may not use ELLA to produce work a person will submit as their own where that breaks the rules of their course or workplace, or to change the meaning of a document beyond the adaptation you were asked for or are allowed to make.

7. Documents and the assistant's answers

ELLA keeps the meaning of lawful documents when it makes them accessible. A document isn't refused just because it discusses health, relationships, abuse, violence or another difficult subject, and we don't quietly remove passages from a conversion. The assistant's answers follow safety limits for every user. If lawful educational or health material is wrongly blocked, ask for a review by emailing support@autodots.ai.

8. Attacks on ELLA and misuse of AI

You may not try to get into accounts, systems or data that aren't yours; upload malware; or try to make ELLA's AI ignore its instructions, reveal hidden information or act against other users, including by hiding instructions in documents. You may not probe or test ELLA's security without our written permission, though we welcome responsible security reports at support@autodots.ai. You may not overload or scrape ELLA, access it by automated means except through an API we provide you, or copy it to build a competing service. You also may not present ELLA's results as checked by a qualified person when they weren't, or use ELLA to make medical, legal or financial decisions about people without proper human review.

9. What we do

If a check stops a request, we tell you to contact us if you think it is a mistake, and we don't say what the check found. Depending on how serious a problem is, we may refuse or stop a request; remove content and results; warn you; limit your account; suspend your account and any linked accounts while a person reviews them, then restore, limit or close them; report to the police, the National Crime Agency, the Internet Watch Foundation, Action Fraud or another authority; and keep the records we need to investigate, prevent repeat abuse or defend legal claims, for as long as the law allows. Restrictions are proportionate and can be reviewed. A person, not an automated check, decides whether to close an account.

10. Appeals

If you think we got it wrong, email support@autodots.ai with "appeal" in the subject. A person reviews the decision within 14 days. Where it would break the law or put someone at risk, we won't discuss whether we have reported anything to the authorities.

11. Reporting abuse

Email support@autodots.ai with "abuse" in the subject. Tell us what you saw and where, and when. You can report anonymously. Never send us copies of child sexual abuse images. You can also report directly to the Internet Watch Foundation (report.iwf.org.uk) or CEOP (ceop.police.uk). A report isn't an emergency message: if someone is in immediate danger, call 999.

12. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy. We will tell account holders about important changes in advance, unless we need to change it at once to deal with a new kind of abuse or a legal requirement.