# Responsible Use & Scope Limitations

TraceForge is designed strictly for **authorized defensive security audits, forensic investigations, verified bug bounties, and academic research**.

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## 1. Authorized Operator Mandate

Operators must hold explicit, written authorization from asset owners before performing active reconnaissance or network scans.

### Legitimate Use Cases:
- **Defensive Incident Response**: Investigating compromised workstations, servers, or internal network traffic.
- **Authorized Penetration Testing**: Auditing targets defined strictly within a written statement of work.
- **Bug Bounty Programs**: Testing domains and scopes explicitly declared by the program policy.
- **Law Enforcement & Forensics**: Ingesting and analyzing evidence under valid legal warrant.
- **Academic Research**: Conducting security and metadata analysis in controlled laboratory environments.

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## 2. Prohibited Activities

The following actions are strictly prohibited with TraceForge:
- Unauthorized computer access, network intrusion, or port scanning without asset owner consent.
- Denial-of-service (DoS/DDoS) attacks or deliberately exhausting target bandwidth/resources.
- Bulk scraping of private individuals for harassment, stalking, doxxing, or unauthorized surveillance.
- Intercepting private communications or Wi-Fi traffic without legal authorization.

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## 3. Statutory Notice

Unauthorized computer access is a criminal offense under international cybercrime legislation:
- **India**: Information Technology Act, 2000 (§§ 43, 66, 66B, 66C, 66D, 79).
- **United States**: Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA, 18 U.S.C. § 1030).
- **European Union**: Directive 2013/40/EU on attacks against information systems.
- **United Kingdom**: Computer Misuse Act 1990 (Sections 1, 2, 3, 3A).

See [DISCLAIMER.md](https://github.com/paman7647/TraceForge/blob/master/DISCLAIMER.md) and [RESPONSIBLE_USE.md](https://github.com/paman7647/TraceForge/blob/master/RESPONSIBLE_USE.md) for full policy terms.