DocsReferenceResponsible use
Reference2 min read

Responsible use

OpenLeads is a powerful, free tool. With that comes responsibility. Read this before running campaigns.

#What OpenLeads is for

  • Legitimate B2B outreach (sales, partnerships, sponsorships)
  • Recruiting and talent sourcing
  • Research on startup ecosystems
  • Building your own CRM/prospecting workflows

#What it is not for

  • Spam, bulk unsolicited blasting, or buying/selling scraped lists
  • Harassment, scams, phishing, or any deceptive messaging
  • Scraping behind logins or violating a site's Terms of Service
  • Circumventing rate limits or hammering mail servers

#Know the law

Cold email is legal in many places if you follow the rules. You are responsible for compliance, which may include:

  • CAN-SPAM (US): truthful headers/subject, a valid physical address, a working unsubscribe, and honoring opt-outs promptly.
  • GDPR / ePrivacy (EU/UK): have a lawful basis (often "legitimate interest" for B2B), honor objections, and disclose how you got the contact.
  • CASL (Canada): stricter consent rules, understand them before emailing Canadians.

This is not legal advice. When in doubt, consult a professional.

#Be a good citizen of the network

  • Keep the built-in rate limits and delays. They protect mail servers and your sending reputation.
  • Verification probes never send mail, but they still touch other people's infrastructure, don't run them at abusive volume.
  • Use a dedicated sending domain/mailbox, warm it up, and watch your bounce rate. High bounces hurt deliverability for everyone on your domain.
  • Send relevant, personalized, low-volume outreach. It performs better anyway.

#Sensitive verticals (read this)

v2.0 can reach beyond startup founders into verticals that carry extra ethical and legal weight. The data is public, but public ≠ fair game for any use.

  • Healthcare providers (NPI): The NPI Registry is public U.S. government data and contains practice information, not personal/patient data, so HIPAA does not apply to it. But cold-emailing clinicians is heavily regulated and easily resented. The npi source deliberately returns rich records without fabricating emails (NPI rarely exposes one). Use it for legitimate research, directory building, or genuinely relevant B2B outreach. never for medical spam, lead-list resale, or anything touching patients.
  • Researchers / academics (OpenAlex, ORCID): Scholarly metadata is open by design for scholarly purposes. Respect that intent: relevant collaboration, recruiting, or conference outreach is fine; bulk marketing blasts are not.
  • Developers (GitHub): A public profile email is published for project contact, not for cold sales sequences. Be relevant and low-volume.

When a vertical feels sensitive, it is. Default to less volume, more relevance, and an easy opt-out, or don't send at all.

#Data hygiene

  • Never commit scraped emails or leads.csv to a public repo (the .gitignore already blocks this).
  • Delete data you no longer need.
  • Honor any opt-out or deletion request immediately.

Used well, OpenLeads helps small teams and nonprofits compete with expensive tools. Please keep it that way.