Acceptable Use Policy

Scope and Responsibility

This Acceptable Use Policy applies to hosting, email, domains, DNS, websites, reseller accounts, servers, technical services and related services provided by Padroni Hosting (“Padroni”). It forms part of our Terms & Conditions.

You must use services lawfully and responsibly and ensure that authorised users, staff, contractors and reseller-managed clients comply. This policy also applies where our services facilitate, advertise or support prohibited activity carried out through an external platform.

Serious or repeated material breaches may result in termination and exclusion of refunds for the affected service, to the extent permitted by law. The investigation, notice, refund and data provisions in our Terms & Conditions govern enforcement.

Prohibited Activity

You may not use our services for:

• Spam, unsolicited bulk email, mail bombing or abusive sending.
• Phishing, scams, fraud, identity theft, deceptive payment demands or impersonation.
• Malware, ransomware, credential harvesting or harmful scripts.
• Unauthorised access, brute-force attacks, exploitation or interference with another system.
• Copyright infringement, unlawful file sharing or other infringement of third-party rights.
• Unlawful content or activities, threats or harassment.
• Excessive or prohibited resource use that materially affects server stability or other clients.
• Evading security controls, sending limits, suspensions or other abuse restrictions.

A technically functioning website, paid invoice or successful domain registration does not authorise prohibited activity.

False Identities and Fraudulent Signup

You must not obtain or use services through a deliberately fabricated identity, fictitious company details, impersonation, forged documents or a false claim that you are authorised to act for another person or organisation. Provide accurate account and registrant information and cooperate with reasonable verification requests.

Established fraudulent signup may result in immediate cancellation or termination without prior warning, where legally permitted. No discretionary refund, account credit or money-back guarantee applies to a service lawfully cancelled or terminated for fraudulent signup or intentional fraudulent use. Our Terms & Conditions govern cancellation, any lawful rescission, financial consequences and mandatory legal rights. An innocent administrative error or unverified suspicion is not automatically treated as fraud.

Scams and Deceptive Conduct

Services may not be used to obtain money, credentials, personal information or another benefit through deception about identity, authority, affiliation, a charge, an obligation, a product, a service or an entitlement.

Examples include pretending to be a bank, registrar, government body, employer or supplier; issuing fabricated invoices or payment demands; fraudulent investment offers; fake verification requests; and misleading collection of banking or login information.

The restriction covers mailboxes, websites, forms, hosted documents, links, redirects and scripts. A low message volume does not make fraud, phishing or deceptive conduct permissible. An external sender or payment service does not remove responsibility for prohibited content hosted with us.

Spam and Direct Marketing

Unsolicited bulk campaigns, deceptive messages, forged sender details, open relays and deliberate evasion of filtering or sending limits are prohibited. Harvested or purchased contact lists must not be used for unsolicited campaigns.

Electronic direct marketing must comply with applicable law, including POPIA where it applies, and our service restrictions. You must keep evidence of consent or an applicable lawful exception and provide relevant evidence on reasonable request. A publicly listed email address or an unsubscribe link does not, by itself, establish permission to send marketing.

Marketing must accurately identify the sender, provide a functional and accessible way to opt out and respect objections or withdrawal of permission. Transactional messages must be legitimate and must not disguise prohibited marketing or deceptive payment requests.

Ordinary hosting email is not approval to operate a bulk marketing platform. Bulk campaigns require our prior written approval and an appropriate sending service. Approval does not waive the law, this policy or provider restrictions. Published sending limits are maximum technical limits, not permission to send prohibited messages.

Email Reputation and Protective Controls

We may filter or reject messages, limit sending or restrict an affected mailbox or account where there are reasonable grounds to identify abuse, compromise, harmful sending patterns or a material risk to shared email reputation.

We consider logs, message headers, content, credible complaints and provider reports in context. A blacklist entry, spam score, delivery rejection or unsupported complaint alone is not conclusive proof of deliberate misconduct. These indicators may justify investigation or temporary proportionate controls.

Compromised Accounts and Security

Keep passwords, software, plugins, themes, scripts and access under your control secure and current. Report suspected compromise promptly and cooperate with reasonable steps to contain it.

A compromised mailbox or website may be restricted immediately to protect recipients, our systems and other clients. Compromise alone is not automatically treated as intentional client misconduct. Restoration may depend on credential changes, access revocation, malware removal, updates or other reasonable remediation.

Failure to address a material risk after the applicable notice, repeated unresolved compromise or evasion of controls may result in termination under the Terms & Conditions. Cleanup or other additional work outside the service scope requires an agreed charge or separate authorisation.

Unauthorised Access and Attacks

Do not attempt to access another person’s accounts, devices, servers, networks or information without permission, or run attacks, password theft, unauthorised scans or exploitation through our services.

Security testing of resources you are authorised to test must also comply with our hosting and provider restrictions. Obtain prior written approval where testing could affect shared infrastructure or other clients. Permission from one client does not authorise testing another client’s services.

Website Content and Rights

You are responsible for content and material you host or supply, including necessary permissions, licences and lawful handling of personal information. We may restrict access to content where there is a substantiated breach, a credible material risk or a lawful removal requirement.

We assess reports on the available information and act proportionately. Removal or restriction does not transfer ownership of lawful client content to Padroni. Any investigation and disclosure of information remain subject to our Privacy Policy and applicable law.

Resources and Storage

Use must remain within the disclosed package, server and resource limits. Do not run unauthorised processes, harmful or insecure scripts, deliberate resource-exhaustion activity or applications that materially disrupt performance, security or other clients.

Hosting is intended for websites, email and related hosting functions. General backup repositories, unrelated archives, file-distribution platforms and similar storage uses require our written agreement and a suitable service.

Where appropriate, we may ask you to clean up, secure the account, upgrade, migrate or use another suitable solution. Urgent proportionate restrictions may be imposed to contain a material operational or security risk.

Reseller Accounts

Resellers must communicate these rules to their clients, maintain accurate account information and promptly act on abuse notices. You remain responsible for ensuring compliance within the services you create or manage.

We may act directly against the affected subaccount. Wider action against a reseller account or related services must be proportionate to a documented connection to the abuse or material shared risk. Repeated failure to address client abuse can constitute a material breach.

Circumvention and Related Accounts

You may not bypass a restriction by creating replacement accounts, using false identities, changing mailbox or domain names, routing prohibited activity through another account, or concealing the relationship between services.

Related-service action requires a supported connection or risk assessment. Shared ownership alone does not justify treating every service as abusive.

Suspension and Termination

Where there are reasonable grounds to suspect a material threat or prohibited activity, we may immediately block sending, isolate content, restrict access or suspend affected services. Prior warning is not required for urgent protective action.

An established serious or repeated material breach may lead to termination without a further warning where legally permitted. Applicable contractual and statutory notice and remedy rights remain in force, including the relevant fixed-term cancellation requirements explained in our Terms & Conditions.

We will communicate the general reason and relevant next steps as soon as reasonably practicable, subject to lawful disclosure restrictions. Mandatory breach notifications remain unaffected. A criminal conviction is not required to enforce a substantiated contractual breach.

Refunds and Financial Consequences

No hosting refund, credit or compensation for unused prepaid time will be issued for an affected service lawfully cancelled or terminated because of established fraudulent signup, intentional scams, fraud, phishing, deliberate spam or another serious or repeated material breach, to the extent permitted by law. This includes unused time under annual prepaid hosting. Discretionary refunds and money-back guarantees do not apply to those breaches.

The Terms & Conditions govern the financial outcome, including mandatory refunds, lawful deductions and treatment of unrelated credit or mistaken payments. Suspicion alone does not automatically trigger the exclusion. We do not impose arbitrary abuse fines or remove statutory remedies.

Evidence and Review

We may preserve relevant logs, message headers, complaints, content samples and account records where lawful and necessary to investigate abuse, secure services, resolve a dispute or meet a legal obligation. Access, retention and disclosure follow the Privacy Policy.

You may request review by emailing support@padroni.info with the affected account or domain, your explanation and supporting material. A review does not automatically restore a service while a necessary protective restriction remains. Your right to an external complaint or legal remedy is not removed.

Policy Changes

Material changes will be notified and applied through the process in our Terms & Conditions. The version date below identifies this text; it does not retrospectively change the rules applicable to an earlier incident.

Related Legal Policies

Terms & Conditions · Acceptable Use Policy · Privacy Policy & POPIA Notice