Legal - Acceptable Usage Policy

Acceptable Use Policy - Quick Summary

Arcustech is committed to providing a secure, reliable hosting environment for all customers. To help protect our customers, infrastructure, providers, and network reputation, please follow these guidelines:

• Be lawful and respectful: Do not use the Services for illegal activity, harassment, abuse, fraud, or other harmful conduct.
• Protect privacy and security: Access only systems and data you are authorized to use, and keep your sites, scripts, applications, and credentials secure and up to date.
• No bulk or unsolicited email from Arcustech infrastructure: Normal transactional and low-volume application email is permitted, but bulk or marketing email must use an appropriate third-party delivery provider.
• Responsible testing only: You may run authorized PCI scans against your own VPS and engage penetration testers for your own applications, but you may not test Arcustech infrastructure or other customers without express written permission.
• Respect content and intellectual property rules: Do not host or distribute unlawful, abusive, fraudulent, or infringing material.
• Use resources appropriately: Use assigned IP addresses, storage, network access, and other resources only for legitimate services associated with your Arcustech account.

This summary is for convenience only. The full Acceptable Use Policy below is incorporated by reference into our Master Service Agreement and is legally binding.

Acceptable Use Policy (AUP)

This Acceptable Use Policy ("AUP") is incorporated by reference into Arcustech, LLC's Master Service Agreement ("MSA"). Your use of Arcustech Services is subject to this AUP, and violations may result in restriction, suspension, or termination of Services in accordance with the MSA.

Revisions to this AUP become applicable as provided in the MSA's Changes to Agreement Documents provisions.

Questions regarding this policy may be directed to corporate@arcustech.com.

1. Prohibited Uses

You may not use Arcustech's network, infrastructure, or Services to engage in, facilitate, encourage, or promote illegal, abusive, fraudulent, harmful, or irresponsible activity. Prohibited activity includes, without limitation:

• Unauthorized access to or use of data, systems, accounts, networks, or computing resources.
• Monitoring, intercepting, scanning, or capturing data or network traffic without authorization.
• Interfering with or disrupting service to any user, host, network, or system.
• Using an Internet account, computer system, service, or credential without authorization.
• Collecting, harvesting, or using email addresses, usernames, screen names, credentials, or other identifiers without appropriate authorization or consent.
• Using false, misleading, forged, or deceptive TCP/IP packet headers, email headers, routing information, source information, or identity information.
• Distributing software that covertly collects, monitors, transmits, or discloses information without appropriate authorization or disclosure.
• Distributing advertising, tracking, or promotional software without appropriate disclosure, consent, and a reasonable method of removal where applicable.
• Violating lawful privacy rights, publishing unlawful defamatory material, engaging in harassment, threats, intimidation, or abusive conduct.
• Conduct reasonably likely to result in retaliation, abuse complaints, blacklisting, denial-of-service activity, or other harm directed at Arcustech, its providers, infrastructure, customers, or staff.
• Using the Services to facilitate phishing, credential theft, fraud, impersonation, malware distribution, botnet activity, or other malicious activity.

2. Email Usage and Bulk Sending Policy

Arcustech Services are designed primarily for web hosting, application hosting, and related services. This policy applies to both Managed VPS and Self-Managed VPS environments.

Limited use of local system mail functions such as sendmail, PHP mail, or direct outbound SMTP is permitted for normal application-level needs, including transactional messages, account notifications, contact forms, and other low-volume messages generated by hosted applications.

Use of any Arcustech Service to originate bulk email, mass mailing, marketing email, or unsolicited email directly from Arcustech infrastructure is prohibited.

Customers who require newsletter, campaign, marketing, or other bulk email capabilities must use an appropriate third-party email delivery provider. Mailing activity must comply with applicable law and must be permission-based or otherwise lawfully authorized. Where applicable, recipients must be provided a functional and reasonable method to unsubscribe or opt out.

Abuse reports, blacklisting events, unusual outbound mail volume, or other indicators of prohibited bulk email activity may result in immediate restriction or disabling of outbound email capabilities, including blocking SMTP ports or other delivery methods, without prior notice where Arcustech reasonably determines that immediate action is necessary to protect its network, providers, customers, or reputation.

Serious or repeated violations may result in suspension or termination of Services in accordance with the MSA.

3. Vulnerability Testing

You may not perform security testing, vulnerability scanning, penetration testing, load testing, exploitation, or similar activity against Arcustech systems, networks, infrastructure, management interfaces, or other customers without Arcustech's express written authorization.

Permitted Testing Exceptions:

• PCI compliance scans against your own Virtual Server and IP addresses assigned to your account.
• Third-party penetration testing directed strictly at your own web applications, APIs, or other application-layer services hosted within your own Virtual Server environment.

Permitted testing must be conducted responsibly and must not disrupt Arcustech operations, infrastructure, providers, or other customers. Arcustech may require that testing be stopped or modified if it creates operational, security, or abuse concerns.

4. Social Media, Chat Forums, and Other Networks

When using the Services in connection with forums, chat systems, social media platforms, mailing lists, or other communities, you must follow the applicable rules and acceptable-use requirements of those services. Mass posting, abusive posting, automated harassment, or off-topic commercial messaging is prohibited.

5. Content Restrictions

You may not use the Services to publish, transmit, store, or distribute content that Arcustech reasonably believes:

• Is illegal under applicable law or promotes unlawful activity.
• Constitutes unlawful pornography or other content prohibited by law.
• Promotes or facilitates unlawful violence, credible threats, or unlawful hate-based activity.
• Is fraudulent, materially deceptive, or unlawful under applicable consumer-protection laws.
• Is unlawfully defamatory, invasive of privacy, harassing, threatening, or reasonably likely to place a person at unlawful risk.
• Discloses trade secrets or confidential information without authorization.
• Infringes copyrights, trademarks, patents, trade secrets, or other intellectual-property rights.
• Promotes or facilitates unlawful drug trafficking, illegal gambling, unlawful weapons trafficking, or other criminal activity.
• Contains, distributes, or facilitates malware, credential theft, phishing, fraud, malicious code, or other harmful activity.
• Is otherwise unlawful, malicious, fraudulent, or likely to create material operational or legal risk to Arcustech or its providers.

6. Copyrighted Material

You may not use Arcustech's network, systems, or Services to reproduce, distribute, display, or otherwise use copyrighted material unless you are authorized by the copyright owner or the use is otherwise permitted by applicable law. Arcustech may restrict or terminate Services associated with repeated or serious infringement in accordance with applicable law and the MSA.

7. Additional Obligations

• Maintain accurate and current contact information for your Arcustech account and for domain names used with the Services where required.
• Keep websites, scripts, plugins, themes, frameworks, applications, and other software secure and reasonably up to date. You are responsible for impacts caused by insecure, compromised, or outdated customer-managed software.
• Use only IP addresses assigned to you or otherwise expressly authorized by Arcustech.
• Do not use Arcustech storage primarily as a repository for unrelated off-site backups, file warehousing, archival storage, or data unrelated to the websites, applications, or Services hosted on your Arcustech account unless Arcustech expressly agrees otherwise.
• Do not intentionally consume excessive or unreasonable shared infrastructure, network, storage, or platform resources in a manner that materially affects other customers or Arcustech operations.
• Promptly address security, abuse, malware, compromise, or application issues when Arcustech notifies you that they are creating risk to the Services, other customers, or Arcustech infrastructure.

8. Consequences of Violations

Arcustech may investigate suspected violations and may take reasonable measures to protect its Services, network, infrastructure, providers, customers, and reputation. Depending on the nature and severity of the issue, actions may include warning, traffic filtering, disabling specific services or ports, isolation, suspension, or termination.

Arcustech may charge its then-current hourly service rate, together with reasonable third-party costs, equipment, or materials, for work reasonably required to:

1. Investigate suspected violations of this AUP or the MSA.
2. Remedy or mitigate harm caused by a violation.
3. Respond to subpoenas, legal demands, or third-party information requests where the Agreement permits such charges.
4. Investigate and remediate abuse, reputation, or blacklisting issues caused by customer activity.
5. Investigate, respond to, and remediate issues caused by a customer's failure to keep customer-managed websites, applications, plugins, frameworks, or other software updated and secure in a timely manner. This may include identifying compromised accounts, isolating infected files, or restoring server-side Services. Application cleanup, application updates, and securing customer-managed code remain the customer's responsibility.

No SLA credits will be issued for service interruptions resulting from violations of this AUP or the MSA, or from actions Arcustech reasonably takes to investigate, contain, mitigate, or remediate such violations.

9. Relationship to the Master Service Agreement

This AUP forms part of the Agreement described in the Master Service Agreement. The MSA governs amendment timing, suspension and termination rights, limitations of liability, notices, and other contractual matters not separately addressed here. If there is a conflict between this AUP and another Agreement document, the order of precedence stated in the MSA applies.