This Acceptable Use Policy ("AUP") sets out the rules that govern use of all services provided by Hostease, including shared hosting, VPS, dedicated servers, domain registration, email hosting, and any other product or service offered by Hostease (collectively, "Services"). Violations of this AUP may result in suspension or termination of your account, without refund, and may be referred to law enforcement where appropriate. This AUP is incorporated by reference into the Hostease Terms of Service. Capitalized terms not defined here have the meaning given in the Terms of Service.
1. Scope
This AUP applies to all Hostease Services, including but not limited to shared web hosting, VPS hosting, dedicated servers, domain name registration and transfer, business email, SSL certificates, and any ancillary or add-on services. It applies to you as the account holder and to any person, organization, script, or automated process that you permit to access or use the Services under your account. You are responsible for ensuring that everyone you grant access to your account complies with this AUP.
The restrictions in this AUP apply regardless of whether the content or activity originates directly from your account or is facilitated through your account by a third party.
2. Prohibited content
The following categories of content are prohibited on Hostease infrastructure. Hosting, transmitting, distributing, or making available any of the following will result in immediate action, up to and including termination of the account:
- Child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Any content that sexually exploits minors is absolutely prohibited. Hostease has a zero-tolerance policy: accounts found hosting or distributing CSAM will be terminated immediately, all related data preserved for law enforcement, and the matter reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) and relevant authorities. No warning will be issued and no refund will be provided.
- Non-consensual intimate imagery. Content commonly referred to as "revenge porn" or any intimate imagery of a person distributed without that person's explicit, ongoing consent is prohibited.
- Content promoting or facilitating violence or terrorism. Content that promotes, glorifies, incites, recruits for, or provides material support to acts of terrorism, mass violence, genocide, or hate crimes targeting individuals or groups on the basis of protected characteristics (including race, religion, national origin, gender, or sexual orientation) is prohibited.
- Export-controlled material. Content that violates applicable export control laws and regulations, including those administered by the U.S. Department of Commerce (EAR), the U.S. Department of State (ITAR), and the U.S. Department of the Treasury (OFAC), is prohibited. This includes providing controlled technology, software, or services to sanctioned countries, entities, or individuals.
- Phishing, fraud, and impersonation. Sites or content designed to deceive users into surrendering credentials, financial information, or personal data; impersonation of legitimate organizations or individuals for fraudulent purposes; advance-fee fraud; and any other scheme intended to defraud third parties are prohibited.
- Intellectual property infringement. Content that infringes the copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret, or other intellectual property rights of any third party is prohibited. Hostease will respond to valid notices under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and other applicable intellectual property laws.
3. Prohibited activities
The following activities are prohibited when using Hostease Services, regardless of whether the underlying content itself would otherwise be permitted:
- Spam and unsolicited bulk email. Sending unsolicited commercial email (UCE), unsolicited bulk email (UBE), or any other form of spam is strictly prohibited. This includes sending messages to harvested or purchased address lists, using your Hostease account to relay spam originating elsewhere, and any other practice that violates the CAN-SPAM Act, CASL, or equivalent anti-spam laws. Accounts found sending spam will be suspended or terminated without notice and without refund.
- Forging email headers. Falsifying, altering, or removing email message headers, return-path addresses, or IP information to conceal the true origin of a message is prohibited.
- Network attacks and unauthorized access. Port scanning, network probing, brute-force login attempts, credential stuffing, denial-of-service (DoS or DDoS) attacks, and any other attempt to gain unauthorized access to systems, networks, or accounts you do not own or have explicit permission to test are prohibited.
- Malware and attack infrastructure. Hosting, distributing, or operating malware, ransomware, spyware, adware, rootkits, keyloggers, botnet command-and-control (C&C) servers, exploit kits, phishing kits, or any other malicious software or infrastructure designed to compromise, surveil, or damage systems or users is prohibited.
- Anonymous proxy and VPN-for-hire scripts. Running open proxy servers, anonymous proxy scripts, or commercial VPN-for-hire services that are used primarily to mask the origin of traffic or facilitate prohibited activity is prohibited. This includes, but is not limited to, anonymizer scripts, proxy relay scripts, and open-relay mail servers.
- Cryptocurrency mining. Using Hostease servers for cryptocurrency mining (including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Monero, or any other digital currency) is prohibited. Mining operations consume disproportionate CPU, memory, and power resources that degrade service for all users on shared infrastructure.
- High-yield investment programs and financial fraud schemes. Operating high-yield investment programs (HYIPs), Ponzi schemes, pyramid schemes, multi-level marketing (MLM) programs that are structured as pyramid schemes, or any other scheme whose operation is inherently fraudulent or whose primary business model depends on deceiving participants about returns is prohibited.
- IRC bots, auto-surf, PTC, and warez. Running IRC bots, automated traffic exchange (auto-surf) sites, pay-to-click (PTC) or pay-per-surf (PPS) sites, warez distribution sites, or unauthorized file-sharing hubs that distribute copyrighted material without authorization is prohibited.
- DDoS-for-hire (stresser and booter) services. Offering or operating network stress-testing, stresser, or booter services that are made available to third parties for the purpose of launching denial-of-service attacks is prohibited, regardless of any claimed legitimate purpose.
- Using hosting space as a backup or file-storage service. Hostease accounts are provisioned for website hosting. Storing backups, personal file archives, media libraries, or other bulk data as the primary or substantial use of allocated disk space — where such data is not directly served as part of a functioning website — is prohibited and may result in throttling or account suspension.
- Excessive resource consumption on shared hosting. Continuously consuming more than 25% of a shared server's CPU resources for more than 90 seconds, opening an excessive number of concurrent database connections, or otherwise consuming resources in a manner that materially degrades performance for other users on the same server is prohibited. Hostease may throttle or temporarily suspend processes that exceed these thresholds.
- Exceeding plan resource limits. Knowingly or persistently exceeding the storage, bandwidth, database, or other resource limits specified in your plan description in a manner that impairs service for other customers is prohibited. Resource overages should be addressed by upgrading your plan, not by sustained over-limit use.
4. Email rules
In addition to the prohibitions on spam set out in Section 3, all email sent using Hostease Services must comply with the following rules:
- CAN-SPAM and CASL compliance. All commercial email must comply with the U.S. CAN-SPAM Act and, where applicable, Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) and any other applicable anti-spam laws. This includes clearly identifying the message as a commercial communication, providing accurate sender information, and including a valid physical mailing address.
- Unsubscribe mechanism. Every bulk or commercial email must include a clear, functioning mechanism by which recipients can opt out of future messages. The unsubscribe mechanism must work, must be accessible without requiring the recipient to log in, and must not impose any fee or undue burden on the recipient.
- Honouring unsubscribe requests. All opt-out and unsubscribe requests must be honoured within ten (10) calendar days of receipt. Once a recipient has unsubscribed, they must not receive further commercial messages from you unless they subsequently re-subscribe.
- No header forgery or sender spoofing. Forging SMTP headers, falsifying the From or Reply-To address, or any other technique intended to misrepresent the origin of a message is prohibited. See also Section 3.
5. Security obligations
Customers are responsible for the security of their own accounts and the software running within them. As a condition of using Hostease Services, you agree to:
- Keep software up to date. Maintain all content management systems (CMS), plugins, themes, scripts, frameworks, and other software hosted under your account in a reasonably current state. Known security vulnerabilities that have available patches must be remediated promptly.
- Not run critically vulnerable software. You must not knowingly run software with publicly disclosed critical CVEs (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) for which a patch exists. Hostease may proactively disable or quarantine files associated with actively exploited vulnerabilities to protect the shared hosting environment.
- Report compromises immediately. If you discover or have reason to believe that your account has been compromised, you must notify Hostease promptly by contacting abuse@hostease.com or through the support portal. Early notification allows Hostease to contain any spread of the compromise to other customers.
- Cooperate with security investigations. You agree to cooperate fully and promptly with any Hostease security investigation, including providing information reasonably requested to diagnose or remediate a security incident affecting your account or the shared infrastructure.
6. Resource use
Hostease Services are provided subject to the resource limits (CPU, RAM, disk storage, bandwidth, database connections, email sending limits, and other parameters) specified in your plan description on the Hostease website at the time of purchase. Resource limits are not reproduced in this AUP, as they vary by plan and may be updated from time to time; the authoritative limits are those shown on your plan's product page and in your client area.
Disk space allocated under a hosting plan is intended for website files, code, databases, and email associated with the operation of a functional website or web application. It is not intended as a general-purpose file storage or personal backup service.
Hostease reserves the right to throttle, suspend, or terminate accounts that consistently exceed their plan limits or use resources in a manner that impairs the experience of other customers on the same server. Where feasible, Hostease will notify you before taking action and offer you the opportunity to upgrade your plan or reduce consumption.
7. Enforcement
Hostease enforces this AUP using a graduated response proportionate to the severity and nature of the violation:
- Warning notice. For first-time or minor violations, Hostease will typically issue a written warning by email describing the violation, the required remediation, and the timeframe for compliance.
- Traffic or resource throttling. For accounts consuming excessive resources in violation of Section 6 or Section 3, Hostease may throttle the offending process, connection, or traffic stream to protect other customers, without necessarily suspending the account.
- Suspension pending investigation. For more serious violations — including, but not limited to, complaints of spam, suspected malware hosting, or security compromise — Hostease may suspend the account or specific services while conducting an investigation. Hostease will notify you of the suspension as soon as reasonably practicable and give you an opportunity to respond, unless doing so would compromise the investigation or cause further harm.
- Immediate termination without notice. The following violations will result in immediate termination of the account without prior warning and without refund: hosting or distributing CSAM; conducting or facilitating active DDoS attacks or operating DDoS-for-hire services; running confirmed spam campaigns; hosting active botnet C&C infrastructure; and any other activity where continued operation poses an immediate risk to Hostease's infrastructure, other customers, or the public.
Termination for cause is governed by Section 8 of the Refund & Cancellation Policy: no refund will be issued where an account is terminated due to a violation of this AUP.
Hostease may cooperate with law enforcement agencies and regulatory authorities in any investigation relating to activity on or through Hostease's Services. Hostease may disclose account information, content, and records to the extent required by law or compelled by valid legal process, without prior notice to the customer unless prohibited by law from doing so.
8. Reporting violations
If you believe that content hosted on Hostease infrastructure violates this AUP, or if you have received spam or been subject to an attack that you believe originated from a Hostease customer's account, please report it to our abuse team:
Email: abuse@hostease.com
Please include as much detail as possible: the URL or IP address involved, a description of the violation, any relevant email headers, log excerpts, or screenshots that support your report. Hostease will investigate all credible reports and take action in accordance with this AUP. We will not disclose the identity of individuals who submit abuse reports except as required by law.
9. Changes to this Policy
Hostease may update this AUP from time to time to address new types of abuse, changes in technology, changes in applicable law, or changes in Hostease's services. Material changes will be announced by email and posted on the Hostease website at least thirty (30) days before taking effect. Your continued use of the Services after the effective date of a change constitutes your acceptance of the updated AUP. If you do not agree with a material change, you may terminate your account before the change takes effect.
10. Contact
Abuse reports: abuse@hostease.com
General support: support@hostease.com
Hostease LLC (Delaware, USA)