This Acceptable Use Policy ("AUP") is part of the DrivenHost Terms of Service. It exists to protect our customers, our infrastructure and the wider internet. It applies to you and to anyone who uses the Services through your account, including your own customers if you resell. Capitalised terms have the meanings given in the Terms.
1. Lawful use
You may use the Services only for lawful purposes and in compliance with the laws of Canada, the United States and the European Union (where our infrastructure is located), the laws of the jurisdiction you operate from, and the laws of any jurisdiction your Content is directed at. We cooperate with law enforcement and regulators where required and may disclose account information in response to valid legal process.
2. Prohibited content and activities
You may not use the Services to store, publish, transmit or facilitate:
- Material that sexually exploits or endangers minors, in any form. This results in immediate termination and a report to the appropriate authorities.
- Content that infringes copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret or other intellectual property rights, including unlicensed software, media or "nulled" scripts.
- Malware, phishing pages, credential-harvesting forms, command-and-control infrastructure, or tools designed primarily for unauthorised access.
- Fraudulent schemes, counterfeit goods, pyramid or chain schemes, or deceptive marketing.
- Content that is defamatory, that constitutes harassment or threats, or that incites violence or hatred against a person or group.
- Unlicensed gambling, the sale of controlled substances without lawful authority, or any regulated activity without the required licence.
- Material that violates a person's privacy, including doxxing and non-consensual intimate imagery.
- Content that is illegal in the region where it is hosted, including content prohibited under the EU Digital Services Act or the terrorist-content regulation where hosted in the EU.
3. Email and messaging
We operate a zero-tolerance policy on unsolicited bulk email. You may not send, or cause to be sent, messages to recipients who have not given explicit, verifiable consent; use purchased, rented or harvested lists; forge headers or sender information; or send mail that violates Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL), the United States CAN-SPAM Act, the EU ePrivacy Directive and GDPR, the UK PECR, or equivalent laws where recipients are located. Where recipients are in Canada or the EU, consent must be obtained before the first message; an unsubscribe link alone is not sufficient. Mailing lists must honour unsubscribe requests promptly. Accounts that cause any of our IP addresses to be listed on a reputable blocklist may be suspended immediately while the cause is addressed.
4. Resources and fair use
Shared and reseller hosting is sized for websites and mailboxes of ordinary business use. To keep it fast for everyone you may not use shared plans for: file storage, backup or archival of data not related to a hosted website; large-scale media distribution or streaming; running proxies, VPNs, game servers, bots, crawlers or crypto-currency mining; or any process that continuously consumes a disproportionate share of CPU, memory, I/O or connections. We monitor real usage. If an account affects others we will throttle it and contact you; in urgent cases we may suspend first and contact you immediately afterwards. Workloads that outgrow shared hosting belong on a VPS or dedicated server, and we will help you move.
Mailboxes are for active correspondence, not long-term archive storage; plans state their storage limits.
5. Security and network integrity
You may not probe, scan or test the vulnerability of any system or network without the owner's written authorisation; attempt to gain unauthorised access to any account, system or data; interfere with service to any user, host or network, including by flooding, denial-of-service or mail-bombing; or forge any TCP/IP header or part of a message. You are responsible for keeping software on your account patched and for removing compromised content promptly when notified.
6. Resellers
If you resell, these rules flow down to your customers and you are responsible for enforcing them. You must provide first-line support to your customers and respond to abuse reports we forward to you within 24 hours.
7. Conduct toward staff
Our engineers will treat you with respect and we expect the same. Abusive, threatening or harassing communication toward staff may result in suspension or termination of the account.
8. Enforcement
We prefer to fix problems with you rather than switch things off. Where an issue is not urgent, we will contact you by email with what we found and what needs to change, and give you a reasonable time (normally 48 hours) to respond. Where an issue is causing active harm, we may suspend the affected site, mailbox or server immediately and tell you as soon as we have done so. Repeated or serious violations may result in termination without refund. We may remove or disable specific Content rather than an entire account where that is sufficient. We reserve the right to report unlawful activity to authorities and to preserve evidence as required by law.
9. Reporting abuse
We operate a notice-and-action process consistent with the EU Digital Services Act: anyone may report content they believe is illegal, we will acknowledge the report, assess it without undue delay, act where warranted, and tell both the reporter and the customer what we decided and why, including how to contest the decision. To report abuse originating from a DrivenHost service, email the support address published on the Contact page with "Abuse" in the subject line and include the URL, IP address or message headers involved and a short description. Copyright complaints should follow the Copyright and Takedown Policy.
10. Changes
We may update this AUP. Material changes will be announced at least 30 days in advance by email or in the client area.