Acceptable Use Policy

This Acceptable Use Policy explains how our website, contact forms, hosting services, managed services, customer portals, APIs, downloads and other digital systems may be used. It is intended to protect our clients, our systems, our infrastructure, other users and the wider internet community.

By accessing our website, submitting an enquiry, using any service we provide, or allowing another person to access our systems on your behalf, you agree to comply with this policy. If you do not agree with this policy, you must not use our website, systems or services.

1. Purpose of this policy

We provide digital services including web design, website development, e-commerce development, SEO, web hosting, domain name management, email hosting and management, website maintenance and related technical services. Some of these services involve access to websites, hosting environments, content management systems, staging websites, managed infrastructure, business email systems, forms, support channels or technical tools.

This policy sets out the standards of conduct we expect when those systems are used. It also gives us rights to act where misuse creates risk, disruption, legal exposure or security concerns.

2. Who this policy applies to

This policy applies to:

• visitors to our website;
• people who submit enquiries or information through our contact forms;
• clients who use our hosting, domain, email, maintenance, SEO, website development or managed services;
• staff, contractors or authorised representatives of our clients;
• users with access to any customer portal, content management system, staging website, API, file download, support system or managed environment we provide;
• any person who uses our services through a client account, with or without permission.

If you are a client, you are responsible for ensuring that your staff, contractors and authorised users comply with this policy.

3. Acceptable use of our website and systems

You may use our website and digital systems for lawful, ordinary and reasonable business purposes. This includes viewing information about our services, submitting genuine enquiries, reviewing project materials, accessing approved website content management functions, using agreed hosting services and communicating with us about your project or account.

You must use all access we provide in a manner that is reasonable, secure and consistent with the purpose for which access was granted. Access to one part of a system does not give you permission to access, test, copy, interfere with or modify any other system, code, data or infrastructure.

4. Prohibited activity

You must not use our website, systems, hosting, managed services or any connected infrastructure for unlawful, harmful, misleading, abusive or disruptive activity. Prohibited activity includes, but is not limited to:

• using our systems for any unlawful purpose or in breach of any applicable law;
• sending, hosting, publishing or distributing spam, unsolicited bulk messages or deceptive communications;
• phishing, impersonation, identity misuse or attempts to obtain credentials by deception;
• uploading, transmitting or distributing malware, ransomware, spyware, viruses, worms or harmful code;
• attempting credential stuffing, brute-force attacks, password guessing or unauthorised login attempts;
• scraping, crawling, harvesting or extracting data from our website or systems without written permission;
• using automated tools in a way that creates excessive requests, service degradation or security alerts;
• attempting denial of service attacks, distributed denial of service attacks or traffic flooding;
• probing, scanning, penetration testing or vulnerability testing without our prior written permission;
• reverse engineering, decompiling, copying or attempting to derive the source code of our proprietary systems, including our content management software, development tools or platform components;
• interfering with, bypassing or weakening access controls, authentication systems, rate limits, firewalls, security headers or monitoring tools;
• uploading or publishing material that infringes copyright, trade marks, moral rights, confidentiality obligations or other rights of a third party;
• publishing content that is defamatory, abusive, harassing, threatening, discriminatory, obscene, offensive or otherwise inappropriate;
• using our systems to mislead customers, search engines, regulators, payment providers or other third parties;
• using our services to promote unlawful, fraudulent, misleading or unethical activities;
• attempting to access another client’s data, website, account, staging environment, email, files or infrastructure;
• using any service in a way that may damage our reputation, infrastructure, security posture or relationships with providers.

5. Website forms and enquiries

Our website forms must be used only for genuine enquiries and legitimate communication. You must not submit false, misleading, abusive, automated or malicious form entries.

You must not use our forms to send spam, test vulnerabilities, inject code, upload harmful files, scrape responses, overload systems or impersonate another person. We may disregard, block, delete or report form submissions that appear suspicious, unlawful or abusive.

6. Customer portals, CMS access and staging websites

Where we provide access to a customer portal, content management system, staging website or similar system, that access is provided for the approved purpose only. Access may be limited to the permissions we consider appropriate to protect website integrity, security and functionality.

You must keep login details secure and must not share accounts unless we have approved that arrangement. Each authorised user should use their own credentials where individual accounts are provided. You must notify us promptly if you suspect that login details have been lost, shared without permission, compromised or misused.

You must not use CMS or portal access to interfere with system functionality, remove security controls, upload unsafe files, create unauthorised integrations, modify technical settings outside your approved access level or attempt to access administrative functions not assigned to you.

7. Hosting and managed services

If we provide hosting, maintenance, domain, email or other managed services, you must use those services for ordinary and lawful business purposes. You must not use hosted websites, mail services, storage, scripts, databases or related infrastructure in a way that places unreasonable load on systems, creates security risk, disrupts other users or breaches third-party provider rules.

You are responsible for the content, data and activity associated with your website, domain, email account or managed environment, except to the extent an issue is caused directly by services under our control. Third-party systems, registrars, payment gateways, email providers, cloud services, APIs, plugins and external software may affect availability, performance or security.

We may take reasonable steps to protect our infrastructure and other users if hosted content, scripts, traffic patterns, email behaviour or account activity appears to present a security, operational or legal risk.

8. APIs, integrations and automated access

Where we make an API, integration, feed, automated workflow or technical connection available, it must be used only for the purpose we have approved. You must not overload, bypass, resell, copy, monitor, test or interfere with any API or integration without written permission.

You must not use automated tools to extract data, create excessive requests, avoid access controls, duplicate functionality, reverse engineer services or disrupt normal operations. We may apply rate limits, revoke access, block requests or require changes if automated use creates risk or exceeds reasonable use.

9. AI chat and automated tools

If we make an AI chat, automated assistant or similar tool available, it must be used responsibly and for genuine business communication. You must not use such tools to submit unlawful content, confidential information you are not authorised to disclose, malicious prompts, excessive automated requests, abusive material or attempts to bypass system controls.

AI or automated responses may not be a substitute for professional advice, project approval, contractual terms or service instructions. You should contact us directly where a matter is important, technical, legal, urgent or account-specific.

10. Security testing

You must not conduct penetration testing, vulnerability scanning, security research, scraping, load testing, exploit testing or similar activity against our website, systems, infrastructure, client websites, staging environments, APIs or managed services unless we have given prior written permission.

Unauthorised security testing can cause outages, false alerts, data exposure, provider action or legal risk. If you believe you have found a security issue, you should report it to us using the contact details below and avoid further testing unless we authorise it.

11. Content standards

You must ensure that any content you provide, upload, publish or ask us to use is lawful, accurate and authorised. This includes text, images, videos, logos, trade marks, product information, service claims, testimonials, reviews, documents, downloadable files and third-party materials.

You must not provide or publish content that infringes intellectual property rights, breaches confidentiality, misleads customers, contains unlawful claims, includes malicious code or causes us to breach a third-party platform policy.

12. Intellectual property and proprietary systems

Unless otherwise agreed in writing, our proprietary website source code, content management software, frameworks, development tools, templates, platform components, workflows and related intellectual property remain owned by us or our licensors.

You must not copy, reproduce, adapt, reverse engineer, decompile, resell, licence, disclose, distribute or attempt to obtain unauthorised access to our proprietary systems. Any licence to use a website, CMS or managed system is limited to the access and use agreed with us.

You retain ownership of content you provide, such as your logos, branding, text, images and business assets, subject to you having the necessary rights to provide and use that content.

13. Third-party services and provider rules

Our services may interact with third-party providers, such as domain registrars, DNS providers, email platforms, cloud infrastructure providers, payment gateways, analytics tools, APIs or other external systems. Those services may have their own rules, acceptable use terms, security requirements and availability limits.

You must not use our services in a way that causes us, our infrastructure or another client to breach a third-party provider’s terms. We are responsible only for services and systems directly under our control. Where practical, we may assist with third-party issues, but additional charges may apply where the issue falls outside the agreed scope or applicable service arrangement.

14. Availability and service protection

We take reasonable steps to protect our systems and managed environments. However, digital services may be affected by maintenance, emergency work, third-party outages, DNS propagation, provider failures, cyberattacks, client actions, internet connectivity issues and events outside our reasonable control.

Nothing in this policy creates a promise of uninterrupted, error-free or risk-free service. Where hosting services are managed on our infrastructure, any uptime target or service commitment is subject to the applicable agreement and its exclusions.

15. Our rights if this policy is breached

If we believe this policy has been breached, or that use of our systems creates risk, we may take action we consider reasonable in the circumstances. This may include:

• blocking or limiting access to our website, systems or services;
• blocking IP addresses, user accounts, scripts, requests or traffic sources;
• suspending or restricting hosting, CMS, portal, API, email or managed service access;
• removing, disabling or quarantining content, files, scripts or functionality;
• requiring you to change passwords, remove content, update systems or stop particular conduct;
• refusing to process suspicious enquiries or requests;
• notifying affected providers, registrars, platforms or infrastructure partners;
• reporting unlawful activity to relevant authorities;
• cooperating with lawful investigations, notices or requests;
• terminating services where permitted by the applicable agreement.

We are not required to give advance notice before taking urgent action to protect security, availability, data, infrastructure, users or legal rights.

16. Client responsibility for users

If you are a client, you are responsible for all activity carried out through accounts, credentials, domains, email services, websites, hosting environments or systems associated with your business, unless the activity is caused directly by our error or by systems under our control.

You should ensure that only authorised people have access, that passwords are strong and kept confidential, and that access is removed when a staff member, contractor or supplier no longer needs it.

17. Indemnity

To the maximum extent permitted by law, you agree to indemnify us against losses, claims, costs, expenses, damage or liability arising from your breach of this policy, your unlawful conduct, your misuse of our systems, your content, your users, or your failure to obtain necessary rights or permissions.

This indemnity does not limit any rights you may have under the Australian Consumer Law or other laws that cannot be excluded.

18. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, we are not liable for loss arising from misuse of our website, systems or services, unauthorised access caused by compromised credentials, third-party provider failures, client actions, unlawful content, excessive usage, security incidents outside our reasonable control, or breach of this policy by you or your users.

Nothing in this policy excludes, restricts or modifies any consumer guarantee, right or remedy that cannot be excluded under the Australian Consumer Law.

19. Privacy and confidential information

When you use our website, forms or services, we may collect and handle information in accordance with our Privacy Policy. You must not submit personal information, confidential information or third-party data unless you are authorised to do so.

If you provide access credentials, business information, website content, technical records or other confidential information, you are responsible for ensuring that disclosure to us is authorised and appropriate for the service requested.

20. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, systems, risks, legal requirements or business practices. The updated version will apply from the time it is published on our website, unless a different effective date is stated.

You should review this policy periodically. Continued use of our website, systems or services after changes are published will be treated as acceptance of the updated policy.

21. Severability

If any part of this policy is found to be invalid, unlawful or unenforceable, that part will be read down or severed to the extent necessary. The remaining parts will continue to apply.

22. Contact us

If you have questions about this Acceptable Use Policy, need to report suspected misuse, or believe a security issue has occurred, contact us using the details below.

Phone: +61 4 23 016 104

Email: [email protected]