Anti-Spam Policy
Over the past several years, the rapid development of new technology has accelerated growth of the Internet from simply a data repository into a dynamic platform for communication and commercial activity. The breaking down of barriers between persons across geographical and social boundries has transformed the nature of our interactions.
We at Farmer Host are proud to support responsible commerce on the Internet as reflected in our service offerings and friendly support. Unfortunately, the same environment fostering this trend has also contributed to numerous cases of fraud and abuse of network resources. In particular, “spam” has become an issue for many internet service providers and the Internet at large. Spam is a common slang term referring to the sending of unsolicited email, instant messaging, or other communication to a large group of people at once. Variations on this practice include off topic (and usually promotional) messages on bulletin boards, guestbooks, Usenet newsgroups, or chat rooms. Farmer Host sets forth the following anti-spam policy for the protection of its clients.
The following policy dictates what is considered acceptable use of bulk email/messaging:
Farmer Host does not authorize the harvesting, mining or collection of e-mail addresses or other information from or through the website or its services (together, “Services”).
Users are not permitted or authorized to use the Services to collect, compile or obtain any information about its clients or subscribers, including but not limited to subscriber e-mail addresses. Users are not permitted or authorized to use the services in a manner that could damage, disable, overburden or impair any aspect of any of the Services, or that could interfere with any other party’s use and enjoyment of any Service.
Spam is strictly against our Terms of Service, and will result in the immediate disablement without refund of any customers who are found to have used spam in conjunction with their Farmer Host account.
Subscriptions
Mailing list subscribers must specifically opt-into the list they are subscribed to. This applies to both new subscriptions and the bulk addition of addresses already subscribed via other means. Confirmation is handled using a single confirmation message sent to the subscriber’s email address. This mailing must contain a URL to the site’s privacy policy, a brief description of the mailing list, and a URL that the user must follow to confirm the subscription.
Mailing list subscriber information must include the date and time that the subscription was confirmed, as well as the IP address of the subscriber at the time of the confirmation. The user must be able to present this information upon request.
The nature of email address use must be fully disclosed, either on the page the subscription is made from or with a prominent link to the site’s Privacy Policy. It must be made reasonably clear how a user’s email address will be used and in what circumstances it will be shared.
Lists shall not be procured from outside parties unless the email sender has procured a list from an organization that sells or otherwise shares email distribution lists, and all of the following conditions are met:
- The selling organization maintains a publicly viewable privacy policy disclosing that such sales may occur.
- The privacy policy is prominently linked to from the page the subscriber signed up from.
- The privacy policy has not changed substantially since the user signed up.
- Records are kept of the date, time, IP address, and form location where the subscribing user signed up from.
- Lists procured from outside parties must have been consistently handled in a manner comparable to Farmer Host policies.
- Users may not populate lists with addresses obtained for a substantially different purpose than was originally disclosed to the user.
- All subscriptions must be re-confirmed in the manner described in Subscriptions (Section 1) before being sent bulk email messages.
Mailing Practices
Users must not modify the headers of any message in such a way that purposefully obfuscates the origin of the message.
Undeliverable addresses must be removed from all future mailings after no more than 5 bounces.
Users using either outside advertising companies or 3rd party mailing programs must abide by the same policies and practices as those using bulk mailing list tools provided at Farmer Host.
All mailings must provide instructions for opting-out of future mailings. All reasonable attempts must be made to facilitate the removal of a mailing list subscriber upon their request.
Spamware
The sale or proactive distribution of software designed to facilitate the practice of spamming in conjunction with your Farmer Host account is strictly prohibited.
Other
Overly promotional messages must not be posted to bulletin boards, discussion forums, guestbooks, Usenet newsgroups, or any other similar service unless the operator of that service explicitly allows such messages. In the case of Usenet newsgroups, such messages must be specifically allowed in that group’s charter.
Disablement
Farmer Host reserves the right to disable any account at any time should it feel there is a reasonable suspicion that it is being used in conjunction with the practice of spamming.
If it is believed that unauthorized or improper use is being made of any Service, we may, without notice, take such action as we, in our sole discretion, deem appropriate, including blocking messages from a particular internet domain, mail server or IP address. We may immediately terminate any account on any service which we determine, in our sole discretion, is transmitting or is otherwise connected with any e-mail that violates this policy.
Customers are required to substantially address all spam related inquiries within 72 hours. Failure to respond within a reasonable period of time may result in the disablement of the user’s account.
Nothing in this policy is intended to grant any right to transmit or send e-mail to, or through, this website and/or services. Failure to enforce this policy in every instance does not amount to a waiver of rights.
Unauthorized use of this website services in connection with the transmission of unsolicited e-mail, including the transmission of e-mail in violation of this policy, may result in civil, criminal, or administrative penalties against the sender and those assisting the sender.
By following these guidelines and respecting the privacy of your visitors, you can take a proactive stance to reduce spam. If you would like to report a suspected spammer, please contact us.
