Acceptable Use Policy

Last updated: 1 January 2024

1. Overview

This Acceptable Use Policy (“AUP”) governs your use of the web hosting, reseller hosting, domain registration, email, SSL and related services (“Hosting Services”) supplied by YottaByte Computer Services CC (trading as “YottaByte”, “YottaByte Computer Services”, “we”, “us” or “our”). It applies to every account holder and to anyone who uses a service through an account holder (“you”).

YottaByte resells and provisions Hosting Services on the infrastructure of our upstream provider, 247 Hosting (247hosting.co.za). Your use of the Hosting Services is therefore also subject to 247 Hosting’s own acceptable use and terms of service, and to the acceptable use rules of any domain registry or third-party platform involved. Where policies differ, the stricter rule applies.

This AUP forms part of, and must be read with, our Terms of Service. Capitalised terms not defined here have the meaning given in the Terms of Service. We may update this AUP from time to time (see section 12).

2. General principle

You may use the Hosting Services only for lawful purposes and in a way that does not harm us, our upstream providers, other customers, or any third party. You are responsible for all activity that occurs under your account, whether or not you authorised it, and for the conduct of your own users, clients and visitors.

3. Prohibited content

You may not use the Hosting Services to publish, store, host, link to or transmit any content that:

  • is unlawful under South African law or the law of any jurisdiction from which it can be accessed, or that promotes or facilitates unlawful activity;
  • infringes the copyright, trade marks, patents, trade secrets or other intellectual-property or proprietary rights of any person;
  • is defamatory, harassing, threatening, or that incites violence or hatred against any person or group on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability or any other protected characteristic;
  • contains, depicts or promotes child sexual abuse material — such content will be reported to the South African Police Service and the relevant authorities without notice to you;
  • is sexually explicit or obscene, where hosted in a manner that is unlawful or that exposes minors to such material;
  • discloses another person’s personal information without a lawful basis, contrary to the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA);
  • promotes gambling, firearms, ammunition, pharmaceuticals, financial products or other regulated goods or services without the licences and disclosures required by law;
  • constitutes a pyramid scheme, “get rich quick” scheme, or fraudulent, deceptive or misleading offer; or
  • contains malware, or is designed to deliver malware, phishing pages, fake login pages, or other content intended to deceive or defraud users.

4. Prohibited activities

You may not, and may not permit any other person to:

  • distribute malware, viruses, worms, trojans, ransomware, keyloggers or any other malicious code;
  • run phishing, pharming or identity-theft operations, or host command-and-control infrastructure for botnets or malware;
  • attempt to gain unauthorised access to any system, account, network or data, or probe, scan or test the vulnerability of any system without the operator’s written authorisation;
  • intercept, monitor or capture data on a network without authorisation, or forge TCP/IP packet headers, email headers or any part of a message;
  • launch or participate in denial-of-service (DoS/DDoS) attacks, mail bombs, or any activity that degrades or disrupts a service or network;
  • circumvent, or attempt to circumvent, user authentication, resource limits, billing, or the security of any account or host;
  • resell, sub-let or share the Hosting Services in a way not permitted by your plan; or
  • use the Hosting Services in any way that exposes us or our upstream providers to legal liability or to blacklisting by third parties.

5. Email and anti-spam

Sending unsolicited bulk or commercial email (“spam”) through, or referencing an account hosted on, the Hosting Services is prohibited. You must comply with the direct-marketing provisions of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, 2002, the Consumer Protection Act, 2008 and POPIA. In particular:

  • you may send marketing email only to recipients who have consented or with whom you have an existing customer relationship, and every message must identify you and offer a working opt-out;
  • you must not use purchased, rented, harvested or third-party mailing lists;
  • you must not operate an open mail relay or open proxy, or send mail with forged headers;
  • outbound mail is subject to rate limits; bulk senders should use a dedicated or specialist mail service and must discuss volumes with us first;
  • maintaining valid SPF, DKIM and DMARC records for your domains is your responsibility.

Repeated spam complaints, a poor sender reputation, or listing of a shared IP because of your activity may result in immediate suspension.

6. Resource usage on shared and reseller plans

Shared and reseller hosting plans operate in a multi-tenant environment. Even where a plan is described as “unlimited”, it is subject to fair use. You may not:

  • consume CPU, memory, I/O, inode or process resources to a degree that degrades service for other customers on the same server;
  • use hosting storage primarily as a file-sharing, backup, archival or content-distribution service unrelated to a live website;
  • run standalone or background processes, IRC servers, public game servers, proxy scripts, cryptocurrency miners, or bit-torrent trackers/clients;
  • run cron jobs at intervals shorter than those permitted by your plan; or
  • maintain a database or mailbox that grows without bound relative to the site it serves.

Where usage exceeds plan limits or fair-use thresholds we may throttle the account, require an upgrade to a suitable plan, or suspend the account, and we will make reasonable efforts to notify you first.

7. Backups

Any backup facility included with a plan is provided as a convenience and on a best-effort basis only. You remain responsible for keeping your own independent, current backups of all websites, databases, email and other data. We are not liable for data loss (see the Terms of Service).

8. Copyright and takedown requests

If you believe content hosted on the Hosting Services infringes your rights, send a notice to abuse@yottabyte.co.za setting out: your contact details; identification of the work or right concerned; the URL(s) of the offending material; a statement that you hold the right or act for the holder; and a statement that the complaint is made in good faith. We handle takedown notifications in line with Chapter XI of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, 2002 and the applicable industry representative body’s procedure. We may remove or disable access to material we reasonably believe to be infringing or unlawful, and will notify the affected account holder.

9. Suspension and termination for breach

We may suspend or terminate an account, or remove or disable specific content, with or without notice, if we reasonably believe this AUP has been breached, if required by law or by our upstream providers, or if an account poses a security, legal, financial or reputational risk to us, our providers or other customers. Where circumstances allow we will give notice and an opportunity to remedy the breach. No fees are refunded for a suspension or termination caused by your breach, and you remain liable for amounts owing up to the termination date. Repeated or serious breaches may result in permanent closure of all your accounts with us.

10. Reporting abuse

Report suspected abuse of the Hosting Services — spam, malware, phishing, network attacks, illegal content — to abuse@yottabyte.co.za. Include full headers, URLs, log extracts, timestamps (with time zone) and any other detail that helps us investigate. We treat abuse reports seriously and act on them promptly.

11. Cooperation with law enforcement

We cooperate with law-enforcement and regulatory authorities and will disclose account and usage information where required by a valid legal process, or where we reasonably believe disclosure is necessary to prevent harm or to comply with the law.

12. Changes to this policy

We may revise this AUP at any time by posting an updated version on our website. Material changes take effect 14 days after posting, or immediately where a change is required by law or to address a security or abuse risk. Your continued use of the Hosting Services after a change takes effect constitutes acceptance of the revised AUP.

13. Contact

YottaByte Computer Services CC (Registration No. 2008/041283/23)
112 Walter Sisulu Rd, Bloemfontein
Abuse reports: abuse@yottabyte.co.za
General support: support@yottabyte.co.za

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