Acceptable Use Policy
Introduction
This acceptable use policy (AUP) sets out the rules governing the use of our hosting services and the transmission, storage and processing of content by you, or by any person on your behalf, using our hosting services.
By using any service provided by WebOps Hosting, you agree to the rules set out in this policy and we will ask for your express agreement to the terms of this policy before you use our services.
You acknowledge that we actively monitor the use of our hosting services to ensure service quality and to identify potential security threats. Specifically, we monitor:
- Uptime and Downtime
- Performance (eg. how long it takes to load a page)
- User experience (eg. how quickly pages load for users in a particular country)
- Content published
- User logins
- Updates of WordPress core, plugins and themes
- Actions taken by WordPress Administrators
If your use of our services results in violation of this AUP, we may take immediate action without prior warning, including deletion of content or suspension of service.
Repeated violations of the AUP will result in termination of services with no refund. WebOps Hosting shall not be liable for any loss or damage arising from our measures taken to prevent harm to our services, other WebOps Hosting customers or to any third party.
Please contact us to report any violation of this policy.
General usage rules
You must not use our services in any way that causes, or may cause, damage to the WebOps Hosting or any third party or impairment of the availability or accessibility of those services. Such actions include, but are not limited to, actions resulting in blacklisting any WebOps Hosting IP addresses by any online spam or IP reputation database, actions resulting in Denial of Service (DOS) attacks for any WebOps Hosting server, etc.
Unlawful Content
Content must not be illegal or unlawful, must not infringe any person's legal rights, and must not be capable of giving rise to legal action against any person (in each case in any jurisdiction and under any applicable law).
Any content published by you and the use of content by us in any manner licensed or otherwise authorized by you must not:
- be libelous or maliciously false;
- be obscene, indecent, pornographic, adult in nature or unlawfully harassing;
- be connected with sex-related merchandising or child abuse;
- infringe any copyright, moral right, database right, trade mark right, design right, right in passing off, or other intellectual property right;
- infringe any right of confidence, right of privacy or right under data protection legislation;
- constitute negligent advice or contain any negligent statement;
- constitute an incitement to commit a crime, instructions for the commission of a crime or the promotion of criminal activity;
- be in contempt of any court, or in breach of any court order;
- constitute a breach of racial or religious hatred or discrimination legislation;
- constitute a breach of official secrets legislation;
- constitute a breach of any contractual obligation owed to any person.
- contain personal data, private information, images, photos, videos and any other identifying information or material of any third party, including children without their consent (or a parent's consent in the case of a minor);
- contain any "protected health information" as defined under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act ("HIPAA");
- be or ever has been the subject of any threatened or actual legal proceedings or other similar complaint.
- impersonate any person or entity;
Graphic material
- Content must be appropriate for all persons who have access to or are likely to access the Content in question.
- Content must not depict violence in an explicit, graphic or gratuitous manner.
- Content must not be pornographic or sexually explicit.
Marketing and spam
You may use our services for purposes relating to the marketing, advertising, promotion, sale or supply of products, services or commercial offerings. However:
- Content must not constitute or contain spam, and you must not use our services to store or transmit spam - which for these purposes shall include all unlawful marketing communications and unsolicited commercial communications.
- You must not send any spam or other marketing communications to any person using any email address or other contact details made available through our service or that you find using our services.
- You must not use our services to promote, host or operate any chain letters, Ponzi schemes, pyramid schemes, matrix programs, multi-level marketing schemes, "get rich quick" schemes or similar letters, schemes or programs.
- You must not use our services in any way which is liable to result in the blacklisting of any of our IP addresses.
- All of your outgoing email messages containing advertising must include an automated opt out
Nulled Software
“Nulled Software’ is software that has been modified to provide functionality that is only available at a cost for a reduced cost or even free. This software is easily available on marketplaces and online forums that promote nulled software but are often distributed with malware, backdoors to provide unauthorized site access, unwanted ads, hidden link and more.
Due to the substantial risk, nulled software must not be installed on our hosting service, under any circumstances. If detected, the software will be immediately removed and a warning about the dangers of nulled software will be issued. If nulled software is again installed after the warning has been issued, the service will be suspended or cancelled.
Harmful software
You must not promote, distribute or execute by means of the our hosting services, any viruses, worms, spyware, adware or other harmful or malicious software, programs, routines, applications or technologies that will or may have a material negative effect upon the performance of a computer or introduce material security risks to a computer.
Login Credentials
You must keep all login credentials secure at all times. In the event that your login credentials are compromised and are being used for activities in breach of this AUP, we may suspend access to the compromised services while the issue is investigated and resolved. We will notify you if such a security breach is detected and if the service is suspended as a result.
WordPress Administrators
You must not create additional WordPress users with the Administrator role, as this unrestricted access can be used to change settings, install plugins and take other actions that break the site entirely or cause other technical or security issues.
Additional users should be created with the equivalent of Editor level permissions or below, which includes the “Shop Manager” role in WooCommerce. These users and roles can be further modified as needed, for example to provide access to Gravity Forms, which is not accessible by Editors by default.
If you are an agency providing services to clients and the client insists on having the Administrator role assigned to their user, please contact us. In these cases, we create two users on your behalf:
- A user with limited access, like an Editor or Author, to be used for day-to-date publishing and content-related changes
- The requested Administrator user that should only be used when absolutely necessary
Domains and DNS
Every effort must be made to renew the domain names associated with active services before they expire. Repeated domain expirations or failure to make timely domain-related updates may result in the suspension or cancellation of services.
Updates to name servers or DNS records must be made in a timely fashion or access provided so they can be made on your behalf.
Software Updates
You acknowledge that we proactively update all software running our servers to ensure service quality and to address potential security vulnerabilities. Failure to take action as needed to keep software running on our services as up-to-date as possible may result in the suspension and eventual cancellation of service.
Expired Licenses
In cases where we are unable to update software packages to the latest version due to expired licenses, the license must be renewed within a reasonable time frame or the software replaced with an alternative. Failure to renew licenses for premium software will result either in the software being proactively replaced with an alternative (if possible) or removed entirely.
End of Life
In cases where software is no longer being actively developed (end-of-life) and either security vulnerabilities are detected or there are conflicts with other, actively developed software, the software must be replaced with an alternative or removed entirely. Failure to replace end-of-life software will result either in the software being proactively replaced with an alternative (if possible) or removed.
Regulated Businesses
Gambling
You may use our services for purposes relating to gambling, gaming, betting, lotteries, sweepstakes, prize competitions or any gambling-related activity only after receiving our explicit content. For such websites, you must receive confirmation from us that you can use our services before submitting your order.
Pharmaceuticals
You may use our services for purposes relating to the offering for sale, sale or distribution of drugs or pharmaceuticals only after receiving our explicit content. For such websites, you must receive confirmation from us that you can use our services before submitting your order.
Weapons
You must not use our services for any purpose relating to the offering for sale, sale or distribution of knives, guns or other weapons.
High Risk Activities
You may host websites related to high-risk activities where the interruption or malfunction of the Services could lead to serious consequences like injury, death or environmental damage only after receiving our explicit consent.
Examples of high risk activities include but are not limited to nuclear facilities, air traffic control, life and health support and you must receive confirmation from us that you can use our services before submitting your order.
Data mining
You must not conduct any systematic or automated data scraping, data mining, data extraction or data harvesting, or other systematic or automated data collection activity, by means of or in relation to the Services.
