ACCEPTABLE USAGE POLICY

An AUP (Acceptable Usage Policy) is a policy which sets out the rules applicable to the use of our services. Most of these relate to legal requirements, but we also need to ensure that our network and customers are kept safe and secure. The Company is committed to complying with the provisions of the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA) by securing the integrity and confidentiality of personal information in its possession or under its control. We will do that by taking appropriate, reasonable technical and Company measures to prevent:

• Loss of, damage to or unauthorised destruction of personal information; and
• Unlawful access to or processing of personal information of the Company’s employees, clients, and partners.

• The purpose of this policy is to outline the acceptable use of computer equipment at the Company.
• These rules are in place to protect the employee and the Company.
• Inappropriate use exposes the Company to risks including virus attacks, compromise of network systems and services, and legal issues.

• This policy applies to the use of information, electronic and computing devices, and network resources to conduct the Company’s business or interact with internal networks and business systems, whether owned or leased by the Company, the employee or a third-party.
• All employees, contractors, consultants, temporary, and other workers at the Company and its subsidiaries are responsible for exercising good judgement regarding the appropriate use of information, electronic devices, and network resources in accordance with the Company policies and standards, and local legislation and regulation.

• Digital Zoo’s proprietary information stored on electronic and computing devices whether owned or leased by Digital Zoo, the employees or a third party, remains the sole property of Digital Zoo.
• For security and network maintenance purposes, authorised individuals within Digital Zoo may monitor equipment, systems, and network traffic at any time.
• Digital Zoo reserves the right to audit networks and systems on a periodic basis to ensure compliance with the policy.

• Any criminal, illegal or unlawful act.
• Any use which intentionally interferes with our ability to provide our services in any respect.
• Any use which intentionally interferes with our rights or the rights of any third party.
• Any use which is a breach of any other agreement we may have entered into with you or any policy or other terms and conditions which you have agreed to in connection with the use of our services.
• The use of the service to send unsolicited direct marketing communications in contravention of applicable law or which would cause us to be in contravention of the ISPA Code of Conduct.
• Introduction of malicious programs into the network or server
• Revealing your account password to others or allowing the use of your account by others. This includes family and other household members when work is being done at home.
• Using a Digital Zoo computing asset to actively engage in procuring or transmitting material that is in violation of sexual harassment workplace laws.
• Making fraudulent offers of products, items, or services originating from any of Digital Zoo’s accounts.

Illegal Usage:

Digital Zoo servers may be used for lawful purposes only. Transmission, storage, or distribution of any information, data or material in violation of any applicable law or regulation is prohibited. This includes, but is not limited to copyrighted material, trademark, trade secret or other intellectual property right used without proper authorization, and material that is obscene, defamatory, constitutes an illegal threat or violates export control laws.

Examples of non-acceptable content or links:

Pirated software, Hackers’ programs or archives, Warez sites, MP3, and IRC bots. The subscriber to Digital Zoo service agrees to indemnify and hold harmless Digital Zoo from any claims resulting from the use of the service that damages the subscriber or any other party.

Adult Content:

Legal Adult Content is allowed.

Security:

Violations of system or network security are prohibited and may result in criminal and civil liability. Examples include, but are not limited to the following: Unauthorized access, use, probe, or scan of a systems security or authentication measures, data or traffic. Interference with service to any user, host or network including, without limitation, mail bombing, flooding, deliberate attempts to overload a system and broadcast attacks. Forging any TCP-IP packet header or any part of the header information in an email or a newsgroup posting.

Effective security is a team effort involving the participation and support of every Digital Zoo employee and affiliate who deals with information and/or information systems.  It is the responsibility of every computer user to know these guidelines and to conduct their activities accordingly.

Server Resource:

Any website that uses a high amount of server resources (such as but not limited to, CPU time, memory usage, and network resources) will be given an option of either paying extra for a dedicated server / semi-dedicated server (which depends on the resource needed) or reducing the resource used to an acceptable level. Digital Zoo shall be the sole arbiter of what is considered to be a high server usage level.

Chat Rooms:

Digital Zoo does not provide nor allow chat rooms in shared hosting environments. You may elect for a Dedicated Server to run a chat room efficiently

Background Running Programs:

Digital Zoo does not allow background Daemons such as IRC bots; eavesdrop; BitchX; XiRCON; and any other program that interferes with normal server operation.

Internet Relay Chat (IRC):

Digital Zoo does not allow IRC or IRC bots to be operated on our servers.

Backups:

Digital Zoo performs daily backups on all servers to ensure critical files are never lost. However, Digital Zoo is NOT responsible for lost data, time, income or any other resource due to faulty backups or non-existent backups. Please always back up your own data for redundancy.

Client Responsibility:

The client is responsible for all activity originating from the account unless proven to be a victim of outside hacking or address forgery. The client is responsible for securing their username/password. The client assumes responsibility for all material on their site that may be put on by a third party (such as the usage of Free for All links pages). Use of Digital Zoo’s service requires a certain level of knowledge in the use of Internet languages, protocols, and software. This level of knowledge varies depending on the anticipated use and desired content of the web space by the client.

The following examples are offered:

Web Publishing: requires knowledge of HTML, properly locating and linking documents, FTP’ing Web contents, Graphics, text, sound, image mapping, etc. FrontPage web publishing: knowledge of the FrontPage tools as well as Telnet and FTP understanding and capability. CGI-Scripts: requires knowledge of the UNIX environment, TAR & GUNZIP commands, Perl, CShell scripts, permissions, etc. Mail: a use of mail clients to receive and send mail, etc. The client agrees that he or she has the necessary knowledge to create and maintain their web space. The client agrees that it is not the responsibility of Digital Zoo to provide this knowledge or support outside matters specific to Digital Zoo servers.

Unsolicited Commerce Email (UCE) – SPAM:

Spamming, or the sending of mass unsolicited email, from or through a Digital Zoo server or using an email address that is maintained on a Digital Zoo machine is STRICTLY prohibited. Digital Zoo will be the sole arbiter as to what constitutes a violation of this provision. If you engage in any of the foregoing activities using the service of another ISP or IPP, but channelling activities through a Digital Zoo server as a maildrop for responses, you are in violation. Violators will be fined a minimum of R5000.00 and will face an immediate suspension or termination.

Server Abuse:

Any attempts to undermine or cause harm to a Digital Zoo server or customer of Digital Zoo are strictly prohibited.

Any sub-networks of Digital Zoo and dedicated servers must adhere to the above policies. The failure to meet or follow any of the above guidelines is grounds for account deactivation. We reserve the right to remove any account without prior notice.

Software Distribution:

Digital Zoo’s shared Web Hosting accounts are not to be used for the purposes of distributing software and multimedia products. If you wish to distribute software and/or multimedia files, please contact info@digitalzoo.co.za for a special arrangement.

Multimedia Files:

Multimedia files are defined as any graphics, audio, and video files. Digital Zoo accounts are not to be used for the purposes of distributing and storing unusual amounts of multimedia files. Any Website whose disk space usage for storing multimedia files exceeds 70% of its total usage, either in terms of total size or number of files, will be deemed to be using an unusual amount of multimedia files.

Domain Names:

Digital Zoo will take the necessary steps to register domain names on behalf of the client when requested. However, clients are responsible for renewing their domain names. Digital Zoo does not take responsibility for failing to renew domain names. If your domain name was registered via Digital Zoo, we will notify you about renewal 60 days prior to the renewal date.

Actions Taken by Digital Zoo:

When Digital Zoo becomes aware of an alleged violation of its AUP, Digital Zoo will initiate an investigation. During the investigation, Digital Zoo may restrict a customer’s access in order to prevent further potentially unauthorised activity. Depending on the severity of the violation, Digital Zoo may, at its sole discretion, restrict, suspend, or terminate your web hosting account and/or pursue other civil remedies. If such a violation is a criminal offence, Digital Zoo will notify the appropriate law enforcement authorities of such violation.

Digital Zoo does not issue credits for outages incurred through service disablement resulting from AUP violations.

You indemnify and hold harmless Digital Zoo from any claims resulting from the use of our services that damages them or any other party. The Digital Zoo service is provided on an as-is, as-available basis without warranties of any kind, either express or implied, including, but not limited to, warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose or non-infringement.

Digital Zoo expressly denies that any representation or warranty of the Digital Zoo service will be error-free, secure or uninterrupted. No oral advice or written information was given by Digital Zoo, its employees, licensors, or the like, will create a warranty, nor may you rely on any such information or advice. Digital Zoo and its partners and suppliers will not be liable for any cost or damage arising either directly or indirectly from any transaction or use of the service.

Refusal of Service:

We reserve the right to refuse, cancel, or suspend service at our sole discretion within human reason.