Acceptable Use Policy

Last Revised 3/15/12

groupSPARK may modify this Acceptable Use Policy at any time without notice.

CUSTOMER RESPONSIBILITY
Customer is solely responsible for all transmissions, use of, and all content distributed, copied, created, or obtained via groupSPARK services or in connection with the Customer Solution, in whole or in part, regardless of whether intentional or unintentional or made with or without Customer’s authorization or in violation of any internal Customer policy. Throughout this Acceptable Use Policy, all references to “Customer” refer to Customer, its employees, independent contractors, agents, and any third-party using the groupSPARK services or Customer Solution, in whole or part, through Customer’s computers, devices, networks, or systems.

INAPPROPRIATE USE
Customer will not engage in any unlawful or inappropriate activity, including without limitation misappropriation of trade secrets, wire fraud, invasion of privacy, defamation, or transportation or sale of tobacco, controlled substances and firearms. Without limiting the foregoing, Customer will not cause or contribute to interference or disruption with third-party users, services or equipment, including but not limited to distribution of unsolicited advertising, spam chain letters or other mass emails, harassment, improper impersonation, identity theft, propagation of computer viruses, or unauthorized entry to any computer, system, device, or network. In addition, and without limiting the foregoing, Customer will not (a) violate privacy rights, including but not limited to collecting and distributing information about persons without their permission and in violation of applicable law; (b) intentionally omit, delete, forge, or falsify address information or modify transmission of headers, return address information, IP addresses, or take any other action intended to destroy or modify the identity or contact information of a user, sender, or recipient.

Customer will comply with the terms of service or acceptable use policy of any website or network-enabled location that Customer visits via groupSPARK services or through the Customer Solution, in whole or in part.

In connection with VoIP service, violations of this Acceptable Use Policy include but are not limited to operating predictive dialers, continuous call forwarding, excessive calling to high-cost termination locations, auto-dialing, fax or voice blasting/broadcasting, telemarketing, call centers, any atypically high-volume calling operations, or violation of any laws.

CUSTOMER ASSISTANCE
Customer will support groupSPARK in maintaining the integrity of the network and will cooperate with groupSPARK in enforcing this Acceptable Use Policy. Customer further agrees that it will affirmatively notify groupSPARK of any material violations of this Acceptable Use Policy of which Customer becomes aware.

Users who violate systems or network security may incur criminal or civil liability. groupSPARK will cooperate fully with all investigations of violations of systems or network security, including but not limited to cooperation with law enforcement authorities in the investigation of criminal violations.

MONITORING OBLIGATIONS

Customer acknowledges that groupSPARK has no obligation to monitor services in any way unless otherwise specified by contract, but that groupSPARK has a right to monitor its networks or components of the Customer Solution from time to time and to disclose any information as necessary to satisfy any law, regulation, ordinance or other government request, to operate the service properly, or to protect itself or its other customers. groupSPARK may refuse to post, distribute, or remove any information or materials, in whole or in part, that, in groupSPARK’s sole discretion, is unacceptable, undesirable or in violation of this Acceptable Use Policy.

groupSPARK’s SHARED INFRASTRUCTURE PASSWORD COMPLEXITY POLICY

Effective January 31, 2012, groupSPARK implemented a password complexity policy (the “Policy”) for Customers who are deployed into the groupSPARK shared infrastructure, sometimes referred to as the groupSPARK US forest.  A complex password provides protection required by groupSPARK to minimize the risk that non-authorized personnel will gain access to your network. 
The Policy is that each Customer’s authorized users must each adopt a complex password that meets the following requirements:
  • Passwords must not contain the user's name or username.
  • Passwords must contain at least 8 characters.
  • Passwords must contain characters from three (3) of the following five (5) categories:
    • Uppercase characters of European languages (A through Z, with diacritic marks, Greek and Cyrillic characters)
    • Lowercase characters of European languages (a through z, sharp-s, with diacritic marks, Greek and Cyrillic characters)
    • Base 10 digits (0 through 9)
    • Non-alphanumeric characters: ~!@#$%^&*_-+=`|\(){}[]:;"'<>,.?/<mailto:~!@#$%^&*_-+=`|\(){}[]:;"'<>,.?/>
    • Any Unicode character that is categorized as an alphabetic character but is not uppercase or lowercase. This includes Unicode characters from Asian languages.
  • Example of a Complex Password: Cu$toM3r.