Mail Relay Data Processing Agreement

1. Definitions

Capitalized terms not defined in this DPA have the meanings given in the parties' main service agreement, order, or applicable Terms of Service (the "Service Agreement"). In this DPA:

• "Controller" means the entity that determines the purposes and means of the Processing of Personal Data.
• "Processor" means the entity that Processes Personal Data on behalf of the Controller.
• "Personal Data", "Process", "Processing", "Data Subject", and "Personal Data Breach" have the meanings given under applicable data protection law.
• "Subprocessor" means any third party engaged by Processor to Process Personal Data on behalf of Controller in connection with the Mail Relay service.
• "Mail Relay Service" means DNS Exit's outbound SMTP relay and related delivery, routing, queueing, logging, tracing, abuse prevention, and support functions.

2. Scope and Order of Precedence

1. This DPA applies where Processor Processes Personal Data on behalf of Controller in connection with the Mail Relay Service.
2. If there is a conflict between this DPA and the Service Agreement regarding data protection obligations, this DPA controls to the extent of that conflict.
3. Nothing in this DPA reduces Processor's obligations under applicable data protection law.

3. Subject Matter, Nature, and Purpose of Processing

1. Processor will Process Personal Data only to provide, secure, support, maintain, troubleshoot, and improve the Mail Relay Service, and to prevent abuse, fraud, spam, malware, unauthorized use, and service degradation.
2. The subject matter, duration, nature, purpose, categories of Personal Data, and categories of Data Subjects are described in Appendix 1.
3. Controller is responsible for determining that its instructions for the Processing of Personal Data comply with applicable law.

4. Controller Instructions

1. Processor will Process Personal Data only on documented instructions from Controller, including as set out in the Service Agreement, this DPA, and Controller's use and configuration of the Mail Relay Service.
2. Controller instructs Processor to Process Personal Data as necessary to transmit messages, route delivery attempts, manage retries, generate delivery and activity logs, provide tracing and reporting, detect abuse, enforce service limits and anti-spam controls, and provide customer support.
3. If Processor believes an instruction infringes applicable data protection law, Processor may inform Controller and may suspend the affected Processing until the issue is resolved.

5. Confidentiality

1. Processor will ensure that persons authorized to Process Personal Data are subject to appropriate confidentiality obligations.
2. Processor will limit access to Personal Data to personnel and contractors who require such access to provide or support the Mail Relay Service.

6. Security of Processing

1. Processor will implement appropriate technical and organizational measures designed to protect Personal Data against accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorized disclosure of, or access to, Personal Data.
2. These measures take into account the nature of the Mail Relay Service, the risks presented by email transport and operational logging, and the state of the art, implementation costs, and the nature, scope, context, and purposes of Processing.
3. A summary of Processor's technical and organizational measures is set out in Appendix 2.

7. Use of Subprocessors

1. DNS Exit does not use third-party Subprocessors to perform the Mail Relay Service itself. Mail content and related relay data are Processed on DNS Exit-operated servers.
2. Controller acknowledges that DNS Exit may use third-party infrastructure providers, such as colocation, dedicated server, hosting, or network connectivity providers, to supply the facilities and connectivity on which DNS Exit-operated servers run.
3. If DNS Exit later engages a third-party Subprocessor to perform part of the Mail Relay Service itself, DNS Exit will ensure that such Subprocessor is bound by data protection obligations materially no less protective than those set out in this DPA, as relevant to the services performed.
4. DNS Exit remains responsible for the performance of any Subprocessor it engages to the extent required by applicable law.

8. Assistance to Controller

1. Taking into account the nature of the Processing and the information available to Processor, Processor will provide reasonable assistance to Controller in responding to requests by Data Subjects to exercise their rights under applicable law, to the extent Controller cannot reasonably fulfill such requests independently using the Mail Relay Service or information already available to Controller.
2. Processor will provide reasonable assistance to Controller with respect to Controller's obligations concerning security of processing, Personal Data Breach notifications, data protection impact assessments, and prior consultation obligations, in each case to the extent required by applicable law and taking into account the nature of the Processing and the information available to Processor.
3. Processor may charge reasonable costs for assistance beyond the standard features and support included with the service, unless such assistance is required due to Processor's breach of this DPA or applicable law.

9. Personal Data Breach

1. Processor will notify Controller without undue delay after becoming aware of a confirmed Personal Data Breach affecting Personal Data Processed under this DPA.
2. Processor's notification may be provided in phases as additional information becomes available.
3. Processor's obligation to notify Controller is not and will not be construed as an acknowledgment of fault or liability.

10. Deletion and Return of Personal Data

1. Upon termination or expiration of the Mail Relay Service, Processor will delete or render inaccessible Personal Data retained in the service environment, unless applicable law requires continued retention or continued retention is reasonably necessary for security, fraud prevention, abuse investigation, billing disputes, legal claims, or compliance purposes.
2. Controller acknowledges that, due to the operational nature of email transport, message data may continue to exist for a limited time in backups, archives, logs, queue artifacts, and disaster recovery systems until those systems are overwritten or cycled in the ordinary course. DNS Exit's standard operational retention schedule for the Mail Relay Service is described in Appendix 1.

11. Information Rights and Audits

1. Processor will make available to Controller information reasonably necessary to demonstrate compliance with this DPA.
2. To the extent required by applicable law, Controller may request additional information or an audit of Processor's compliance with this DPA no more than once per year, on reasonable advance notice, during normal business hours, and subject to appropriate confidentiality, security, and scope limitations.
3. Any audit must avoid unreasonable disruption to Processor's systems, personnel, customers, and security controls. Processor may satisfy audit obligations through written responses, documentation, certifications, or a mutually agreed remote review where appropriate.
4. Controller will bear its own audit costs and reimburse Processor's reasonable internal and external costs for supporting the audit, unless the audit reveals a material breach of this DPA by Processor.

12. International Data Transfers

1. Controller acknowledges that the Mail Relay Service may involve Processing in the United States and other jurisdictions in which Processor or its authorized Subprocessors operate infrastructure or support services.
2. Where applicable law requires a specific transfer mechanism for an international transfer of Personal Data, the parties will cooperate in good faith to implement an appropriate lawful mechanism.

13. Liability

Each party's liability arising out of or relating to this DPA will be subject to the limitations and exclusions of liability set out in the Service Agreement, except to the extent such limitations are prohibited by applicable law.

14. Appendix 1: Description of Processing

Item	Description
Subject matter	Provision of the Mail Relay Service, including outbound SMTP relay, routing, retry, queueing, delivery tracing, abuse prevention, support, and related operational functions.
Duration	For the period during which Controller uses the Mail Relay Service and for any limited retention period reasonably required for operational continuity, security, troubleshooting, abuse prevention, legal compliance, billing, or dispute resolution.
Nature of Processing	Receipt, transmission, relay, routing, temporary storage, retry, logging, tracing, inspection for anti-abuse and service protection purposes, and support-related review where necessary to investigate or resolve service issues.
Purpose of Processing	To provide outbound email relay and associated reporting and support functions, protect the Mail Relay Service and other customers, and maintain service reliability, performance, and security.
Categories of Data Subjects	Controller's users, employees, contractors, customers, prospects, vendors, partners, and other message senders and recipients whose Personal Data may be contained in or associated with relayed email messages.
Categories of Personal Data	Sender and recipient email addresses; sender display names; message headers; envelope sender and recipient information; IP addresses; hostnames; authentication identifiers; timestamps; delivery status data; queue and retry metadata; message content and attachments to the extent transmitted through the service; and support or abuse-handling data related to message delivery.
Sensitive data	Controller may choose to transmit messages containing special categories of personal data or other sensitive information. Controller is solely responsible for determining whether such use is appropriate and lawful for the intended purpose.
Processing locations	Processing for the Mail Relay Service occurs in the United States only.
Subprocessors	DNS Exit does not use third-party Subprocessors to perform the Mail Relay Service itself. Mail content and related relay data are Processed on DNS Exit-operated servers. DNS Exit may use third-party infrastructure providers for colocation, server hosting, and network connectivity.
Retention	DNS Exit's standard operational retention schedule for the Mail Relay Service is: Active queue artifacts: retained until delivery, terminal failure, non-delivery report generation, expiry, or administrative removal in the ordinary course of service operations. Delivery and archive metadata: up to 180 days. Delivered message body archives, priority lane: up to 14 days. Delivered message body archives, normal lane: up to 7 days. Delivered message body archives, bulk lane: up to 3 days. Delivered message body archives, abuse lane: up to 14 days. Failed delivery message body archives: up to 30 days. NDR-related message body archives: up to 14 days. Blacklist-drop and abuse-investigation queue copies: up to 14 days. If required to protect production capacity or service stability, DNS Exit may shorten message-body retention periods for operational reasons such as disk-pressure controls, but will not retain such data longer than the standard maximum periods listed above unless required by law or reasonably necessary for security, fraud prevention, abuse investigation, billing disputes, legal claims, or compliance purposes.

15. Appendix 2: Technical and Organizational Measures

Control area	Summary
Access control	Restricted access to production systems and administrative interfaces; role-based or need-to-know access; credential and authentication controls.
Transmission security	Support for encrypted administrative and message transport channels where supported by the relevant client and destination systems, including TLS/STARTTLS for SMTP sessions where available.
Service security	Firewalling, service isolation, monitoring, anti-abuse controls, rate limits, blacklists, and related controls designed to protect the service and other customers from spam, malware, misuse, or operational disruption.
Logging and monitoring	Operational logging, delivery tracing, service health monitoring, and abuse detection to support reliability, troubleshooting, and security.
Availability and resilience	Use of distributed infrastructure, queueing, retries, backup and recovery procedures, and service monitoring intended to support resilience and continuity.
Personnel confidentiality	Authorized personnel are expected to be subject to confidentiality obligations and access limitations appropriate to their role.
Vendor management	Third-party infrastructure providers, if used for colocation, hosting, or connectivity, are expected to be engaged under contractual terms appropriate to the services they provide. DNS Exit does not use third-party Subprocessors to perform the Mail Relay Service itself unless this DPA is updated or supplemented accordingly.
Incident response	Reasonable procedures for investigating suspected security incidents, containing impact, and notifying affected customers where required by applicable law.