Fair and Acceptable Use Policy

1. Philosophy and Intent

At Heavy Data Backup (TM), we strive to offer powerful, reliable, and straightforward backup solutions. Our "unlimited" and high-capacity plans are designed for the backup of data actively used and generated by a single user, computer, or server in the course of normal personal or business activities.

This Fair Use Policy (FUP) is intended to ensure the consistent, high-quality performance of our services for all customers. It prohibits uses that are excessive, abusive, or outside the intended purpose of personal and commercial computer backup. We aim to be transparent about these limitations to foster a sustainable service for everyone.

2. Acceptable Use Guidelines

Our services are designed for the backup of data you own, control, or have the right to store. The following guidelines define the spirit of acceptable use for our "unlimited" and high-capacity plans:

• Source of Data: Data must originate from and be attached to the computer(s) or server(s) directly registered to your account.
• Normal Use: Your backup should consist of files, documents, applications, and system data that are created and used in the normal operation of your computer(s) or server(s).
• Active Data: The service is intended for backing up data that you are actively using and need to protect. It is not designed as a primary file syncing service, a content delivery network (CDN), or for the long-term archiving of data you do not control.

3. Prohibited and Abusive Activities

The following activities are strictly prohibited and are considered a violation of this policy:

• Data Hoarding / Archiving of Third-Party Data: Using your backup as a repository for large collections of data you did not create and do not actively use.
• Commercial File Hosting or Sharing: Using your allocated storage to host files for a website, serve files to the public, or as a shared drive for multiple unregistered users.
• Reselling Storage: Reselling, sublicensing, or otherwise redistributing your storage capacity to third parties.
• Syncing and Sharing: Using the backup client's continuous backup feature as a file synchronization tool between multiple unrelated computers.
• Malicious Content: Storing content that is illegal, infringes on copyrights, or contains malware, ransomware, or phishing materials.
• Circumventing Limits: Any attempt to circumvent our pricing model, storage limits, or software controls.

4. Service-Specific Fair Use Provisions

For "Unlimited" Computer Backup Plans:

While we do not enforce a hard cap on storage, we monitor accounts for statistical outliers. If your backup set is significantly larger than that of 99.9% of our other customers, we may classify it as abusive. As a guideline, backup sets exceeding 50 TB for a single computer are extremely rare and will likely trigger a manual review to ensure the data complies with this policy.

5. Data Deletion and Retention

Deleted Files: Files you delete from your source computer will be removed from our servers after a 30-day grace period. Extended Version History options are available for purchase to retain data for one year or forever.

6. Enforcement

We prioritize being fair and transparent. Our enforcement process is as follows:

1. Identification: Our systems automatically flag accounts that exhibit extreme usage patterns.
2. Review: A member of our team will manually review the account to confirm a violation of this policy.
3. Notification: We will contact the customer via email to discuss the usage and potential solutions.
4. Resolution: In nearly all cases, we will work with the customer to bring their usage into compliance. We reserve the right to throttle bandwidth, suspend, or terminate accounts only in cases of repeated, unresolved violations or blatant abuse.

7. What This Means For You

If you are using our service to back up the data from your personal computer, business servers, or creative projects, you will almost certainly never encounter these limits. This policy is designed to protect our service from the less than 0.1% of users who would attempt to use it in an unintended way, ensuring a high-quality experience for everyone else.

This Fair Use Policy is an integral part of our Terms of Service. By using our services, you agree to the terms outlined in this policy.