Usage Policy
Whilst we want you to enjoy the use of our services, we also want to make sure that they are used in a manner that doesn’t harm the rights or safety of others. This Policy sets out rules for using our Services in an acceptable way, and for keeping the network we use to provide our Services secure. It also sets out uses of our Services which we consider unacceptable and what we might do if you break the rules in this policy.
ABOUT US
Commworx Ltd is a limited company registered in England and Wales under company number 011146728and our registered office address is at 20-22Wenlock Rd, London, N1 7GU.
RESPONSIBILITY FOR USE
In this Policy, when we “we”, “us” or “our” we mean Commworx and when we use “you” and “your” this also includes any other person (for example, anyone at your business premises or home (your “Premises”)) using your account to access our Services.
You’re responsible for any use of our Services made through your account with us (your “Account”), whether this is with your permission or not. You’re also responsible if this use breaks the rules of this this policy. This would be an “unacceptable use” and is your responsibility even if it happens or is attempted (i) without you knowing or agreeing to it, or (ii) by you contributing to it, or (iii) by you allowing it to happen or (iv) by you acting alone or with others.
Commworx isn’t responsible for any of your activities in using the Network. You must decide whether any content or communications you access using our Services is appropriate for children or others at your Premises to view or use.
You must always follow the rules in this policy when you use our Services (as well as all other terms that apply to your agreement for Services with us). This means you also need to make sure that anyone else accessing our Network through your Premises or accessing our Services through your account knows about and follows these rules.
When using our Services, you must follow all laws, regulations and other “Applicable Laws” (these are defined more fully in our Customer Terms of Service) that apply to you, and have any authorisations or permissions required by them.
Some types of material infringe certain laws or regulations. These materials may be illegal to possess as well as to send or publish on the internet. You mustn’t post material which (i) infringes the intellectual property rights (e.g. trademarks or copyright) of others (ii) is false and could harm someone’s reputation, or (iii) makes us legally liable for hosting that material on our servers. More information on things you’re not allowed to use our Services for is set out in the “Unacceptable Usage” section below.
When using our Services, you may end up on other networks or using other services that we don’t own or operate. If this happens, you must follow the acceptable use policies and other terms and conditions set by the operators of those networks and services. We aren’t responsible or liable for the content of any other person’s website, even if there’s a link to it from our own website (commworx.co.uk) (“Website”).
When you place an order for our Services, you’ll have to provide us with an email address. You must keep this email address active and notify us of any changes to it within 3 working days of the changes happening. You should do this by contacting customer support. You’ll be treated has having read and accepted any email we may send to you at the email address you’ve provided to us.
If you have any comments or questions about this policy, or there’s any part of it that you don’t understand, please feel free to let us know by email at support@commworx.co.uk
UNACCEPTABLE USAGE
It isn’t possible to set out exactly what makes for an “acceptable use” or an “unacceptable use” of our Services. Our Policy is meant to help you understand the types of use that are unacceptable. The list below doesn’t include every use that may be unacceptable to us (there may be others) but should help you understand the sort of behaviour we don’t allow or which is illegal.
You may only use our Network and Services for lawful purposes. You can’t use them:
in any way that breaks any laws or regulations that might apply (whether in the UK or elsewhere);
in any way that’s criminal, illegal, unlawful or fraudulent, or that has any criminal, illegal, unlawful or fraudulent purpose or effect;
to harm or try to harm children or other vulnerable people in any way;
to send, knowingly receive, publish, post, contribute, distribute, disseminate, collect, access, encourage the receipt of, use, upload, download, record, review or stream, use or re-use any material that doesn’t follow our “Content Standards” section below;
to send, or cause the sending of, anything related to pyramid selling schemes or any unsolicited communications or unauthorised advertising (like spam or nuisance calls). (If you do this we can block these materials or communications and you’ll have broken the rules of this Policy);
to intentionally or negligently send any data, or send or upload material containing viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time-bombs, keystroke loggers, spyware, adware, corrupted files, or any other harmful programs or similar computer code designed to harm computer software, hardware or telecommunications equipment owned by us or anyone else. (But you are allowed to pass samples of malware in a safe way to appropriate agencies in order to stop its spread);
to carry on activities that infringe someone else’s rights. This includes (i) downloading, installing or distributing software that isn’t properly licensed (e.g. pirated software), (ii) deleting any author attributions, legal notices or labels/notices of ownership in any file that’s uploaded, (iii) falsifying the origin or source of any software or other material or (iv) not properly following the Data Protection Act 1998 (and any laws or regulations that change, add to or replace it in any way) when collecting or using an individual’s personal data, as set out in that Act;
to monitor or record the actions (i) of any person, who’s allowed to be at your Premises, without their knowledge or (ii) of any person or thing outside your Premises including, among other things, any public highway or roadway or another person’s home or business premises; or
to collect, stream, distribute or access any material that you know or should reasonably know, is illegal to collect, stream, distribute or access.
You must also not:
reproduce, duplicate, copy, sell or re-sell any part of our Website, Network or Services;
access without our permission, interfere with, damage or disrupt:
(i) any code or any part of our Website;
(ii) The Network or any equipment or network from which our Services or Website are provided;
(iii) any software used in providing our Services or Website; or
(iv) any equipment, network or software owned or used by someone else, if this is outside what we’d expect of someone using our Services under a residential or business contract (whichever applies to you);
do anything that may disrupt or interfere with the Network or Services or cause the Network, or any computer or other device connected to our Network, to crash;
launch “denial of service” attacks, “mailbombing” attacks or “flooding” attacks against a network, or a device or computer connected to a network, (including, among other things, port scans, ping floods, packet spoofing, forged routing information, deliberate attempts to overload a service, or any otherwise unspecified form of “denial of service” attack);
let people, who don’t live or who aren’t at your Premises, access your Services;
make excessive use of, or overload, our Network;
avoid the user authentication or security process of a network or a computer or device connected to a network;
create, send, store or publish any virus, Trojan, corrupting programme or corrupted data using the Network or Services; or
give false information on our on-line applications, sign-up forms or contracts. This would include (but isn’t limited to) giving wrong or fraudulent details or information (i) about direct debits, bank accounts or credit card numbers or (ii) in relation to a wayleave or other permission to install our Services at your Premises. If you do this, we can immediately end your agreement for our Services. You may also have criminal or other liability under law.
TELEPHONE SERVICES
If you use our Telephone Service under your Agreement with us, the following terms also apply.
You can make free UK calls subject to fair use policy of 2000 Uk Mobile minutes and 5000 Uk local and national in any one month period. Other call types will be charged as per the pricing schedule. To be free of charge, your making these calls should be within what we’d expect from you as a residential user or small business (with 10 or fewer employees) customer, using our telephone service at home or for “Home Working” (as described in our Customer Terms of Service)..
Certain types of call aren’t included in the free calls described above. We’ll charge you for these at our standard rates. These are:
(i) calls to the Channel Islands (e.g. numbers beginning in 01534 and 01481);
(ii) all calls to mobile phones (e.g. numbers beginning in 07);
(iii) all international calls (e.g. all numbers beginning in 00 except 0044 (UK));
(iv) all Premium Rate Service calls (e.g. all numbers beginning in 09);
(v) calls to Number Translation Services (e.g. numbers beginning in 0845, 0870, 0871, 0844);
(vi) all directory enquiry services beginning in 118;
(vii) all other dialling codes, not listed above as free of charge and/or dialled without following this Policy.
Our telephone service mustn’t be used for (i) auto-dialling, (ii) continuous or extensive call forwarding or call diversion, (iii) fax or voicemail broadcasting or (iv) continuous or extensive incoming-only calls.
We can immediately stop or change your telephone service if we think you’re not using it in a normal way.
All our call charge rates are published.
INTERACTIVE SERVICES
We may from time to time provide interactive services on our Website, for example, Support Chat conversations, social media and Customer Forums (“Interactive Services”). Where we provide any Interactive Services, we’ll give you clear information about the kind of service offered, whether it’s moderated and, if it is, the sort of moderation that’s being used (e.g. whether it’s human or automated).
We’ll do our best to work out any possible risks for users (especially for children) from other people when they use any Interactive Services, and will decide in each case whether to use moderation (and what kind this should be). However, we don’t have a duty to keep an eye on or moderate any Interactive Services. We also accept no responsibility for any loss or damage caused by someone who uses an Interactive Services but doesn’t follow the “Content Standards” section below (whether the Interactive Service is moderated or not).
A child can only use an Interactive Service if their parent or guardian agrees to this. We advise parents or guardians who allow their children to use an Interactive Service to talk to their children about the risks involved with this and about staying safe online.
Where we moderate an Interactive Services, we’ll normally tell you how you can contact the moderator, if there’s a problem.
CONTENT STANDARDS
This section sets out our content standards. These are rules which apply to all material you send, receive, communicate, publish, post, contribute, distribute, disseminate, collect, access, encourage the receipt of, use or re-use, upload, download, record, review or stream using the Network or Services and to any Interactive Services (as mentioned in the above section). We call these “contributions”.
As with unacceptable use, the list below doesn’t set out every standard which we may apply to your contributions but helps you understand what your contributions can and can’t contain. The standards apply to each part of any contribution, as well as to the whole contribution.
Contributions must:
be accurate (where they give facts);
be genuinely held (where they give opinions); and
follow the laws and regulations of the UK (and of any country they come from) that apply to them;
Contributions mustn’t:
contain false statements that harm anyone’s reputation;
contain any material which is indecent, obscene, offensive, hateful or meant to stir up anger;
promote sexually explicit material;
encourage violence;
encourage discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age;
infringe any copyright, database right, intellectual property right or trade mark of any other person.
be likely to deceive any person;
be made by breaking a legal duty owed to another person, (like a duty under a contract or a duty to keep material secret);
encourage any illegal activity;
be threatening, abuse or invade someone else’s privacy, or cause annoyance, trouble or unnecessary stress;
be likely to trouble, upset, embarrass, alarm, scare or annoy any other person;
be used to impersonate any person, or be dishonest about your identity or connection to any person;
give the impression that they come from us, if this isn’t true; or
encourage or help an unlawful act, like (as an example only) copyright infringement or computer misuse.
SECURITY
You’re responsible for protecting the customer ID and password(s) you use to access our Services and your account with us. You’re also responsible for any use of your password (even if you didn’t allow it).
You shouldn't disclose your customer ID or password(s) to anyone else. If you do, you’re responsible for their use of your account. If your customer ID or password is disclosed or used without your permission, you must tell us immediately. You mustn’t use your customer ID or password(s) to use the Network, in a way that we’d find unacceptable. Nor should you use them to access or try to access other parts of the Network or Services where we haven’t given you permission to do this.
You’re responsible for taking all reasonable steps necessary to stop someone else accessing our Network through your account, where you’ve not given them permission to do this.
You must protect your computer from viruses, adware, malware and spyware by installing and updating suitable anti-virus and security software. We’re not responsible for security problems with your computer, its files, or its applications.
You must keep copies of your own data. We’re not responsible for any loss of your files or data.
You must tell us immediately if you think that any part of this “Security” section has been breached.
EXCESSIVE USAGE
We don’t have a traffic management policy, although we may choose to use one in the future (with or without notice). But our system does flag excessive use and if we believe that your use of the internet, our Network or Services is so excessive that other customers’ Services are being harmed, then we may give you a written warning (by email or otherwise) to reduce your use. If you don’t do this, we may suspend or end your Services.
If we reasonably think that your use of our telephone service (including, but not limited to, the total number of calls you make to UK numbers) is excessive and unreasonable, we can, if we wish, limit further the free calls you can make to UK numbers. We can also, if we wish, charge you, at our standard rate, for all the calls you make to UK numbers, which we think are excessive compared to the number of calls we’d expect of a residential user or small business (with 5 or fewer employees) customer, using our telephone service at home or for “Home Working” (as described in the “Telephone Services” section above).
Before we start charging you for these calls, we’ll let you know by phone or email (using the contact information you’ve provided to us).
HOW WE WILL DEAL WITH BREACHES
We can use either human or automated methods to see if you’re following this Policy. When you use our Services, you give us (or our agents or subcontractors) permission do this this by checking your networks and/or machines and your use of our Network and/or Services.
If we think you haven’t followed this Policy, we may investigate this. We’ll try to act reasonably and fairly when we do. If we decide that you haven’t followed this Policy, we can take any action (as set out in the next paragraph) that we think is suitable.
If we find that you haven’t followed this Polivcy, you would also have broken your Customer Terms of Service , This means we can either deal with the matter under the Terms of Service document that applies to you or take any of the following actions (with or without notice):
(i) immediate, temporary or permanent suspension or ending of your Services;
(ii) immediate, temporary or permanent removal of any posting or material uploaded by you to the internet using our Services;
(iii) the issue of a warning to you;
(iv) legal proceedings against you to fully compensate us for all costs to us (including reasonable administrative and legal costs) resulting from you not following this Policy (this is called an indemnity and makes you 100% responsible for the full amount of any claim we have against you);
(v) further legal action against you; and
(vi) the disclosure of any information to law enforcement or other appropriate authorities or regulators that we reasonably think is necessary.;
We aren’t limited to the actions we’ve just set out – we can take any other action we think is reasonably appropriate. We don’t accept any liability resulting from actions we take because of you not following this policy.
NOTIFICATIONS AND COMPLAINTS
If you’re reporting any illegal or unacceptable use of our Services or Website, please give us as many details and as much evidence as possible to help us understand and investigate the problem. This could mean copies of messages and/or headers, full URLs or log files depending on the type of unacceptable use you’re telling us about. Please always make sure you include a short description of why you’re making the report, together with your name and full contact details.
If you have any comments or queries about our Policy, or want to report an unacceptable use of our Network or Services, please contact our Customer Support by sending an email to support@commworx.co.uk or phoning 02038754353.
JURISDICTION AND APPLICABLE LAW
Your Agreement with us is made under English and Welsh law. If a dispute arises that we can’t settle between us, despite following our Complaints Code of Practice, it’ll be decided in the English and Welsh courts. If we choose to, though, we can use the courts where you live (if this isn’t England or Wales) or in any other country we think is appropriate.
CHANGES TO THESE TERMS
We may update or change this AUP at any time. You should check it (on this page) from time to time to take notice of any changes we made, as they’re legally binding on you. Sometimes a notice or other provision on another part of our Website might replace part of this Policy.
This Policy is effective from 14 August 2018.