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Acceptable Use Policy
By accessing this website, or by contracting with us for service, you agree, without
limitation or qualification, to be bound by this policy and the terms and conditions
it contains, as well as any other additional terms, conditions, rules or policies
which are displayed to you in connection with this service/website.
Reflex Solutions respects the rights of our customers and users of our services
to freedom of speech and expression; access to information; privacy; human dignity;
religion, belief and opinion in accordance with our constitution. We undertake not
to interfere with any of those rights unless required to do so by law; unless those
rights are exercised for unlawful purposes; or unless the exercise of those rights
threatens to cause harm to another person or affect the integrity of our network.
ISPA membership and Code of Conduct
Reflex Solutions confirms that in compliance with section 72 of the Electronic Communications
and Transactions Act 25 of 2002, Reflex Solutions is a member of the Internet Service
Providers' Association (ISPA) and has adopted and implemented the association's
official Code of Conduct, which can be viewed at http://www.ispa.org.za/code
Unlawful Use
Reflex Solutions’ services may only be used for lawful purposes and activities.
We prohibit any use of our website/network including the transmission, storage and
distribution of any material or content using our network that violates any law
or regulation of the Republic. This includes:
- Any violation of local and international laws prohibiting child pornography; obscenity;
discrimination (including racial, gender or religious slurs) and hate speech; or
speech designed to incite violence or hatred, or threats to cause bodily harm.
- Any activity designed to defame, abuse, stalk, harass or physically threaten any
individual in the Republic or beyond its borders; including any attempt to link
to, post, transmit or otherwise distribute any inappropriate or defamatory material.
- Any violation of Intellectual Property laws including materials protected by local
and international copyright, trademarks and trade secrets. Moreover Reflex Solutions
cannot be held liable if you make any unlawful use of any multimedia content accessed
through the search facility provided by Reflex Solutions’ network, or otherwise
available through access to our network, whether for commercial or noncommercial
purposes.
- Any violation of the individual's right to privacy, including any effort to collect
personal data of third parties without their consent.
- Any fraudulent activity whatsoever, including dubious financial practices, such
as pyramid schemes; the impersonation of another subscriber without their consent;
or any attempt to enter into a transaction with Reflex Solutions on behalf of another
subscriber without their consent.
- Any violation of the exchange control laws of the Republic.
- Any activity that results in the sale, transmission or distribution of pirated or
illegal software.
- Failing to respond to a request by a recipient of unsolicited mail to be removed
from any mailing or direct marketing list and continuing to send unsolicited mail
following such a request for removal.
Where any user resides outside of the Republic, permanently or temporarily, such
user will be subject to the laws of the country in which s/he is currently resident
and which apply. On presentation of a legal order to do so, or under obligation
through an order for mutual foreign legal assistance, Reflex Solutions will assist
foreign law enforcement agencies (LEA) in the investigation and prosecution of a
crime committed using Reflex Solutions resources, including the provisioning of
all personal identifiable data.
Prohibited Activities
The following sections outline activities that are considered an unacceptable use
of Reflex Solutions’ services/network/website and also detail the guidelines for
acceptable use of certain facilities/services, as the case may be.
Threats to Network Security
Any activity which threatens the functioning, security and/or integrity of Reflex
Solutions’ network is unacceptable. This includes:
- Any efforts to attempt to gain unlawful and unauthorised access to the network or
circumvent any of the security measures established by Reflex Solutions for this
goal;
- Forging of any TCP-IP packet header (spoofing) or any part of the header information
in an email or a newsgroup posting;
Any effort to breach or attempt to breach the security of another user or attempt
to gain access to any other person's computer, software, or data without the knowledge
and consent of such person;
- Any activity which threatens to disrupt the service offered by Reflex Solutions
through "denial of service attacks"; flooding of a network, or overloading a service
or any unauthorised probes ("scanning" or "nuking") of others' networks;
- Any activity which in any way threatens the security of the network by knowingly
posting, transmitting, linking to or otherwise distributing any information or software
which contains a virus; Trojan horse; worm, lock, mail bomb, cancelbot or other
harmful, destructive or disruptive component.
- Any unauthorised monitoring of data or traffic on the network without Reflex Solutions’
explicit, written consent.
- Any unsolicited mass mailing activity including direct marketing; spam and chain
letters for commercial or other purposes, without the consent of the recipients
of those mails.
- Any effort to use Reflex Solutions’ equipment to circumvent the user authentication
or security of any host, network or account ("cracking" or "hacking");
Public Space and Third Party Content and sites
In reading this AUP or in signing a service contract with Reflex Solutions, you
acknowledge that Reflex Solutions has no power to control the content of the information
passing over the Internet and its applications, including e-mail; chat rooms; news
groups; or other similar fora, and that Reflex Solutions cannot be held responsible
or liable, directly or indirectly, for any of the abovementioned content, in any
way for any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of, or in connection
with your use of, or reliance on, any such content.
Our services also offer access to numerous third party webpages. You acknowledge
that we exercise absolutely no control over such third party content, or sites and
in such cases, our network is merely a conduit or means of access and transmission.
This includes, but is not limited to, third party content contained on or accessible
through the Reflex Solutions network websites and web pages or sites displayed as
search results or contained within a directory of links on the Reflex Solutions
network. It remains your responsibility to review and evaluate any such content,
and that any and all risk associated with the use of, or reliance on, such content
rests with you.
Access to public Internet spaces, such as bulletin boards, Usenet groups, chat rooms
and moderated forums is entirely voluntary and at your own risk.
Reflex Solutions employees do not moderate any of these services, or your communications,
transmissions or use of these services. We do not undertake any responsibility for
any content contained therein, or for any breaches of your right to privacy that
you may experience as a result of accessing such spaces.
Usenet Newsgroups
The customer is responsible for determining and familiarizing himself or herself
with the written policies of a given newsgroup before posting to it.
The customer must comply with these guidelines at all times which can be obtained
from other users of the newsgroup upon request, or from the group's administrators/moderators.
The following are prohibited practices with regard to Usenet newsgroups and Reflex
Solutions reserves the right to delete and/or cancel posts which violate the following
conditions:
- Excessive cross-posting of the same article to multiple newsgroups.
- Posting of irrelevant or off-topic material to newsgroups (also known as USENET
spam).
- Posting binaries to a non-binary newsgroup.
- Posting adverts, solicitations, or any other commercial messages unless the guidelines
of the newsgroup in question explicitly permit them.
Unsolicited, Spam and Junk mail
Spam and unsolicited bulk mail are highly problematic practices. They affect the
use and enjoyment of services by others and often compromise network security. Reflex
Solutions will take swift and firm action against any user engaging in any of the
following unacceptable practices:
- Sending unsolicited bulk mail for marketing or any other purposes (political, religious
or commercial) to people who have not consented to receiving such mail;
- Operating or maintaining mailing lists without the express permission of all recipients
listed;
- Failing to promptly remove from lists invalid or undeliverable addresses or addresses
of unwilling recipients or a recipient who has indicated s/he wishes to be removed
from such list;
- Using Reflex Solutions’ service to collect responses from unsolicited e-mail sent
from accounts on other Internet hosts or e-mail services, that violate this AUP
or the AUP of any other Internet service provider;
- Including Reflex Solutions’ name in the header or by listing an IP address that
belongs to Reflex Solutions in any unsolicited email whether sent through Reflex
Solutions’ network or not;
- Failure to secure a customer's mail server against public relay as a protection
to themselves and the broader Internet community. Public relay occurs when a mail
server is accessed by a third party from another domain and utilised to deliver
mails, without the authority or consent of the owner of the mail-server. Mail servers
that are unsecured against public relay often become abused by unscrupulous operators
for spam delivery and upon detection such delivery must be disallowed. Reflex Solutions
reserves the right to examine users' mail servers to confirm that no mails are being
sent from the mail server through public relay and the results of such checks can
be made available to the user. Reflex Solutions also reserves the right to examine
the mail servers of any users using Reflex Solutions’ mail servers for "smarthosting"
(when the user relays its mail via a Reflex Solutions mail server to a mail server
of its own or vica-versa) or similar services at any time to ensure that the servers
are properly secured against public relay. All relay checks will be done in strict
accordance with Reflex Solutions’ privacy policy.
Spam/virus Filtering
Reflex Solutions provides a spam and virus filtering system to protect customers
from unsolicited mail and viruses. The customer acknowledges that this system might
incorrectly identify a valid message as spam or as a virus and consequently this
message might not be delivered to the customer. The customer acknowledges and agrees
that Reflex Solutions shall without limitation have no responsibility for, or liability
in respect of any data lost as a result of this system.
Reflex Solutions reserves the right to examine incoming or outgoing mail to the
extent necessary to determine if it is classified as spam.
Webmail
Webmail and other web based email services made available by Reflex Solutions are
provided on an "as is" basis without representations, warranties or conditions of
any kind, and the customer acknowledges and agrees that Reflex Solutions shall have
no responsibility for, or liability in respect of, any aspect of the Webmail services,
including without limitation for any lost or damaged data or any acts or omissions
of Reflex Solutions. As webmail storage space is limited, some Webmail messages
may not be processed due to space constraints or message limitations.
Webmail is provided to individuals and for personal use only. Any unauthorised commercial
use of the Webmail service, or resale of the Webmail service is expressly prohibited.
Protection of Minors
Reflex Solutions prohibits customers from using Reflex Solutions’ service to harm
or attempt to harm a minor, including, but not limited to, by hosting, possessing,
disseminating, distributing or transmitting material that is unlawful, including
child pornography.
Privacy and Confidentiality
Reflex Solutions respects the privacy and confidentiality of our customers and users
of our service. Please review our privacy policy which details how we collect and
use personal information gathered in the course of operating this service.
User Responsibilities
Customers are responsible for any misuse of Reflex Solutions’ services that occurs
through the customer's account. It is the customer's responsibility to ensure that
unauthorised persons do not gain access to or misuse Reflex Solutions’ service.
Reflex Solutions urges customers not to reply to unsolicited mail or "spam", not
to click on any suggested links provided in the unsolicited mail. Doing so remains
the sole responsibility of the customer and Reflex Solutions cannot be held liable
for the Customer being placed on any bulk mailing lists as a result.
Where the customer has authorised a minor to use any of the Reflex Solutions’ services
or access its websites, you accept that as the parent/legal guardian of that minor,
you are fully responsible for: the online conduct of such minor; controlling the
minor's access to and use of any services or websites; and the consequences of any
misuse by the minor, including but not limited to transactions entered into by the
minor using such access.
Reflex Solutions cannot be held liable for any business dealings you have
with any third parties on the Internet, including any vendors, or advertisers found
on, or through, the Reflex Solutions network. Further, Reflex Solutions assumes
no responsibility whatsoever for any charges you or any user of your account incurs
when making purchases or other transactions in this manner. Further, the responsibility
for ensuring compliance with all applicable customs and exchange control laws in
connection with any such transactions shall be the customer's.
Notice and Take-down Procedures
Reflex Solutions confirms that it has a procedure in place for the notice and take-down
of illegal material. In compliance with section 77 of the Electronic Communications
and Transactions Act (No. 25 of 2002) Reflex Solutions’ designated agent for this
process is the Internet Service Providers’ Association. ISPA can be reached at 010
500 1200 or takedown@ispa.org.za. The notice and take-down procedure can be viewed
at http://www.ispa.org.za/code.
Customers are also notified of the content and procedures of the ISPA Code of Conduct
which may be used against any Internet service provider who fails to comply with
the code of conduct. We urge you to familiarise yourselves with this code.
Complaints and procedures
It is the customer's responsibility to familiarise himself or herself with the procedure
set out below and report any cases of violation of this AUP to Reflex Solutions’
designated complaints handling agent.
Please note that Reflex Solutions cannot handle complaints concerning networks or
users that do not have service contracts with us or our affiliates, or are outside
of our control.
In order for Reflex Solutions to thoroughly investigate the complaint and take appropriate
action, all complaints must be in writing, via fax or e-mail and contain as much
information as possible, including, but not limited to:
- the origin of abuse or offence, including the website, full mail headers, relevant
logfile extracts etc;
- any contact details for the source of the complaint;
- a brief explanation why the incident is considered to be an offence.
Reflex Solutions discourages anonymous complaints being made via this service, and
urges complainants to supply their name and contact details to us. Such information
will not be released, except where required by law enforcement. Anonymous complaints
will however be acted upon as long as sufficient detail as outlined above is supplied.
Action following breach of the Acceptable Use Policy Upon receipt of a complaint,
or having become aware of an incident, Reflex Solutions may take any of the following
steps:
- In the case of a network, inform the user's network administrator of the incident
and request the network administrator or network owner to deal address the incident
in terms of this AUP and the ISPA Code of Conduct;
- In severe cases suspend access of the user's entire network until abuse can be prevented
by appropriate means;
- In the case of individual users, warn the user; suspend the user's account and/or
revoke or cancel the user's network access privileges completely;
- In all cases, charge the offending parties for administrative costs as well as for
machine and human time lost due to the incident;
- Assist other networks or website administrators in investigating credible suspicions
of any activity listed in this AUP;
- Institute civil or criminal proceedings;
- Share information concerning the incident with other Internet access providers,
or publish the information, and/or make available the users' details to law enforcement
agencies
Reservation and Non Waiver of Rights
Reflex Solutions reserves the right to amend or alter this policy at any time, and
without notice to you.
Reflex Solutions reserves the right to take action against any individuals, companies
or organizations that violate any of the prohibited activities set out herein, or
engage in any illegal or unlawful activity while accessing our services, to the
fullest extent of the law.
Reflex Solutions reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to act against other
types of abuse not listed in this document and to investigate or prevent illegal
activities being committed over our network.
Reflex Solutions reserves the right to monitor user and network traffic for site
security purposes and prevent any unauthorised attempts to tamper with our site
or cause damage to our property.
Reflex Solutions reserves the right to suspend, revoke or cancel Reflex Solutions’
services to the customer/user if the safety and integrity of Reflex Solutions’ resources
are placed at risk in continuing to provide service to the subscriber/user.
Reflex Solutions reserves the right to remove any information or materials in whole
or in part, that, in Reflex Solutions’ sole discretion, is deemed to be offensive,
indecent, or otherwise objectionable.
Reflex Solutions does not undertake to guarantee the security of any data passing
through its networks. Although Reflex Solutions will provide a "best effort" service,
including regular updates on computer viruses and other threats to security of data,
it is the responsibility of the communicating parties to safeguard their data, and
Reflex Solutions cannot be held liable for any loss or damage arising as result
of the failure to do so.
Reflex Solutions does not waive its right to enforcement of this AUP at any time,
or prejudice its right to take subsequent action, should Reflex Solutions fail,
neglect or elect not to enforce a breach of the AUP at any time.
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