2.1. We reserve the right to investigate any suspected violation(s) of this AUP. When we become aware of possible violations, we may initiate an investigation, which may include gathering information from the User involved and the complaining party (if any) and examination of material on our servers, networks or any other equipment associated with the services provided under your agreement.
2.2. We will take action if you abuse our services and/or breach this AUP. The actions we may take, in our sole discretion, at any time include but are not restricted to:
(a) a discussion on the phone or an informal email asking for your cooperation;
(b) a formal warning to you;
(c) suspension of the service (with or without notice);
(d) restriction of your access to all or any part of any service provided under your agreement (with or without notice); or
(e) termination of any service under your agreement (with or without notice).
2.3. Notwithstanding our right to restrict, suspend or terminate the service, if you breach this AUP and/or our terms and conditions we may decide to issue a formal warning to you specifying the unacceptable conduct and notifying you that repeated breaches may result in all or part of our services being temporarily or permanently withdrawn from you.
2.4. If, after we have issued a formal warning in accordance with paragraph 2.3 above, your conduct continues to breach this AUP, then we will withdraw all or any part of the services from you until such time as we are satisfied that you have implemented appropriate steps to ensure that your use of our systems, services or equipment will comply with this AUP.
2.5. If such a suspension is imposed, then this may be lifted at our discretion upon receipt of a formal written undertaking from you not to commit any future relevant abuse. Until the formal written undertaking is received by us using the contact details we specify to you the services will remain suspended. VIRTONO is in no way responsible for any loss during transmission (post, email).
2.6. Prior to terminating services we may, depending on the nature of the breach of the AUP, work with Users to avoid future violations of the AUP and to ensure that there is no reoccurrence of the violation in question. For clarification, the decision as to whether to work with you to resolve any violations of the AUP is in our absolute discretion.
2.7 If you are a reseller of our services and you and/or the end user is in breach of the AUP it is your responsibility to advise the end user regarding any action we take in connection with the terms of this AUP.
3.1. You must not use our services in any way that is unlawful or illegal or in any way to the detriment of other users of our services. You also must not allow anybody using your connection to use our services in any way that is unlawful or illegal or in any way to the detriment of other users of our services.
3.2. In addition to and without prejudice to your obligations pursuant to our terms and conditions, you agree to comply with (and ensure that others using the services comply with) all applicable laws, statutes and regulations in connection with the services. As the User of the services, you are liable for all use of the services supplied to you irrespective of use without your knowledge and/or consent.
3.3. You are required to keep your contact details provided to VIRTONO up to date. Keeping such records up to date is important as we may need to send notices or other information to you using the contact information you gave us.
3.4. In the event that your use of our services is under investigation by relevant authorities, we reserve the right to suspend the services for the duration of the investigation.
4.1.Virtono maintains a zero-tolerance policy for use of its network or services in any manner associated with the transmission, distribution, or delivery of any bulk e-mail, including unsolicited bulk or unsolicited commercial e-mail, or the sending, assisting, or commissioning the transmission of commercial e-mail that does not comply with the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003("SPAM") or the General Data Protection Regulation 2016 ("GDPR").
It is your obligation to ensure that e-mail sent by you, or on your behalf, does not violate the above-mentioned laws. We assume SPAM complaints are valid unless we are provided with credible information to the contrary.
Please familiarize yourself with the CAN-SPAM Act by following this link:
https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/can-spam-act-compliance-guide-business
And get to know the GDPR implications by following this link:
https://gdpr.eu/
4.2.You may not use any of our services or network to send SPAM. In addition, e-mail sent, or caused to be sent, to or through our network or services may not:
A. Use or contain invalid or forged headers
B. Use or contain invalid or non-existent domain names
C. Employ any technique to otherwise misrepresent, hide or obscure any information in identifying the point of origin or the transmission path
D. Use other means of deceptive addressing
E. Use a third party's Internet domain name, or be relayed from or through a third party's equipment, without permission of the third party
F. Contain false or misleading information in the subject line or otherwise contain false or misleading content
G. Otherwise violate Virtono’s Service Agreement, AUP, and other Terms and Conditions.
E-mail sent, or caused to be sent, to or through our network or services should comply with additional technical standards described below.
4.3. Virtono does not authorize the harvesting, mining or collection of e-mail addresses or other information from or through its network. Virtono does not permit or authorize others to use its network or services to collect, compile or obtain any information about its customers or users, including but not limited to customers e-mail addresses, which are Virtono’s confidential and proprietary information. Use of our network or services is also subject to our User Agreement, AUP and other Terms of Service.
4.4. Virtono does not permit or authorize any attempt to use its network or services in a manner that could damage, disable, overburden or impair any aspect of any of our services, or that could interfere with any other party's use and enjoyment of any Virtono product or service.
4.5. We monitor for SPAM all traffic to and from our servers. Customers suspected of using Virtono’s products and services for the purpose of sending SPAM will be investigated. We assume SPAM complaints are valid unless we are provided with credible information to the contrary. It is Virtono’s policy to immediately suspend, terminate and/or cancel any offending Web site or account sending SPAM.
4.6. Customers may be asked to produce records that verify that explicit affirmative permission was obtained from a recipient before a mailing was sent. Virtono may consider the lack of such proof of explicit affirmative permission, to be considered a questionable mailing.
4.7. Customers are prohibited from maintaining open mail relays on their servers. Ignorance of the presence or operation of an open mail relay is not and will not be considered an acceptable excuse for its (the open mail relay) operation.
4.8. Customers are prohibited from providing services for Websites that have been included in SPAM, including, but not limited to hosting Website(s), or providing DNS services or Website redirect services.
4.9. It is a violation of this Policy to commission a third party to send e-mail that is in violation of this policy or of applicable law, even if that third-party does not use Virtono systems, networks or resources. E-mail not in compliance with this policy - regardless of source - which contains any reference to a Website hosted by us or contains any reference or link to a network or system of Virtono is prohibited.
4.10. If Virtono believes that unauthorized or improper use is being made of our network, or any product or service, it may, without notice, take such action as it, in its sole discretion, deems appropriate, including blocking messages from a particular internet domain, mail server or IP address. Virtono may immediately suspend, terminate and/or cancel any account on any product or service which it determines, in its sole discretion, is transmitting or is otherwise connected with any e-mail that violates this policy.
4.11. Virtono reserves the right to suspend, terminate and/or cancel permanently any and all services provided to a customer without any notification. In addition to any and all other rights hereunder or otherwise, if a customer is in violation of any term or condition of this SPAM Policy, the Acceptable Use Policy, Service Agreement or uses our services to disrupt Virtono’s business operations, Virtono reserves the right to charge such Customer an administrative fee equal to $100 per each piece of SPAM sent.
5.1. The security of the services used by you is your responsibility. We are not responsible for the consequences of your failure to employ adequate security measures (e.g. lost or corrupted files, identity theft, fraud).
Device security
5.2. Users are responsible for the security of their own systems and devices that are directly or indirectly connected to our systems.
5.3. If we identify that systems and/or devices on the end of your connection are causing significant impact to our service or are part of a “botnet” (machines hijacked by others to distribute malicious software or other forms of abuse), we reserve the right to suspend or disconnect your services without notice.
5.4. You must take all reasonable precautions to protect yourself and your systems and servers from viruses and other forms of malicious intrusion. We will not be responsible for any loss or damage howsoever incurred as a result of such intrusion.
Account security
5.5. You must keep your password(s) (if any) confidential and secure. If you think that your password(s) has become known to any unauthorised person or may be used in an unauthorised way you should take steps to change your password immediately. If you believe that any of your devices have been used to breach the terms of this AUP you must inform us immediately.
6.1. Users must not take any action that may restrict or inhibit any person, partnership, company, firm or organisation (whether a customer of VIRTONO or otherwise) in his/her/its lawful use or enjoyment of any of our systems, services or products.
6.2. Specific prohibited acts in relation to VIRTONO’s systems, services and equipment are:
6.2.1. the sale or resale of our services and products;
6.2.2. any form of unsolicited or unwanted or deceptive or misleading advertising;
6.2.3. furnishing false data including fraudulent use of credit card numbers (and such conduct is grounds for immediate termination and may subject the offender to civil or criminal liability);
6.2.4. attempting to circumvent user authentication or security of any host, network, or account (also known as “cracking” or “hacking”). This includes, but is not limited to, accessing data not intended for the User, logging into a server or account the User is not expressly authorised to access, or probing the security of other networks without the express authorisation of the owner of such third party network(s);
6.2.5. effecting security breaches or disruptions of communications. Security breaches include, but are not limited to, accessing data of which the User is not an intended recipient or logging onto a server or account that the User is not expressly authorised to access. For the purposes of this section “disruption” includes, but is not limited to, port scans, ping floods, packet spoofing, forged routing information, deliberate attempts to overload a service, any otherwise unspecified form of Denial of Service (DoS) attack, or attempts to “crash” a host;
6.2.6. using any program/script/command, or sending messages of any kind, designed to interfere with or adversely affect a User’s enjoyment of our network by any means, locally or by the Internet, including violating the privacy of other Users; and
6.2.7. conducting, for malicious purposes, any form of network monitoring or interception of any data that does not belong to you.
6.2.8. Any use of purchased or offered servers and nodes towards commercial VPN service is strictly prohibited and it will result in a termination of your account, followed by a ban from any future usage of Virtono services.
General
7.1. You are prohibited from storing, distributing, transmitting or causing to be published any “prohibited material” through your use of the services, including for example your use of the services to send emails, post on online forums and use social media. What constitutes “prohibited material” shall be determined by us (acting in our sole discretion). Prohibited material includes (without limitation):
7.1.1. material that is threatening, harassing, invasive of privacy, discriminatory, defamatory, racist, obscene, indecent, offensive, abusive, harmful or malicious;
7.1.2. material that infringes or breaches any third party’s intellectual property rights (which shall include, but not be limited to copyright, trademarks, design rights, trade secrets, patents, moral rights, paternity rights and performance rights) – this includes the use, distribution and/or copying of any material without the express consent of the owner;
7.1.3. material that is in violation of any law or regulation that is enforceable in the country in which you use and/or receive the services; and
7.1.4. programs containing Viruses, malware (malicious software), hoaxes or any tools designed to compromise the security of Internet users, websites and/or systems. However, you may pass samples of malware in a safe manner to appropriate agencies for the purpose of combating its spread.
7.1.5. phishing – material that is designed to acquire information such as usernames, passwords, credit card details or other personal information through masquerading as a trusted source.
7.2. For the avoidance of doubt, the storage upon and/or distribution via our systems and/or services by any User of “pirated” software, or any other materials that are not expressly licensed to the User, will constitute a violation of this AUP.
7.3. At our sole discretion (and without prejudice to any of our other rights pursuant to this AUP and this agreement), we reserve the right to remove or block any material from any server under our control. In addition to any other action we may take, we reserve the right to notify relevant authorities, regulators and/or other third parties of the use, storage, distribution, transmission, retransmission or publication of prohibited material (and/or any other materials the dealing with or use of which may constitute unlawful conduct by Users).
7.4. VIRTONO is a trading name for VIRTONO NETWORKS SRL