Acceptable Usage Policy

Last revised: 15 May 2026

This Acceptable Use Policy (“AUP”) sets out the rules governing acceptable use of all services provided by Maxa Cloud Ltd t/a HostMaxa. It applies to all Customers and is incorporated by reference into the Terms of Service. By using any HostMaxa service, you agree to comply with this AUP.

HostMaxa reserves the right to update this policy at any time. Material changes will be notified via email with at least 14 days’ notice. Continued use of services after the effective date of a revision constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

Violations and enforcement
Prohibited content
Spam and email policy
Resource usage – Shared hosting
Storage and bandwidth
Prohibited processes and applications
Security and network integrity
Intellectual property
GDPR and data protection
Reporting abuse

1. Violations and enforcement

Violation of this AUP is strictly prohibited. HostMaxa will be the sole arbiter as to what constitutes a violation. Any confirmed or suspected violation may result in one or more of the following actions, at HostMaxa’s sole discretion and without prior notice:

Removal of offending content
Throttling or restriction of service resources
Temporary suspension of the affected service
Suspension of all services on the account
Permanent termination of the account without refund
Referral to law enforcement authorities
Legal action to recover damages or costs caused by the violation

You remain solely responsible for all content uploaded, stored, transmitted, or distributed through your account, and for all activity originating from your account whether authorized by you or not.

2. Prohibited content

The following content is strictly prohibited on HostMaxa infrastructure. HostMaxa does not host, and will remove without notice, any of the following:

2.1 Illegal and harmful content

Any content that is illegal under Irish, EU, or applicable international law
Content that facilitates, promotes, or enables illegal activities including fraud, drug trafficking, human trafficking, or money laundering
Child sexual abuse material (CSAM) or any content that sexualizes, exploits, or endangers minors
Content that incites or promotes violence, terrorism, or extremism
Malware, ransomware, viruses, Trojans, exploit kits, or any malicious code
Hacking tools, cracking software, or resources designed to enable unauthorized access to systems
Phishing pages, credential harvesting sites, or spoofed login pages

2.2 Hateful and discriminatory content

Hate speech, content promoting discrimination based on race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or national origin
Content designed to harass, threaten, or intimidate individuals or groups
Content that defames or unlawfully impersonates any person or organization

2.3 Adult and restricted content

Pornographic or sexually explicit content of any kind
Content that depicts or promotes gratuitous violence
Gambling services or online betting platforms (unless licensed under applicable Irish/EU law and disclosed to HostMaxa in advance)

2.4 Other prohibited categories

Pirated software (warez), ROMs, emulators, or unauthorized copyrighted material
Torrenting portals, peer-to-peer file-sharing hubs, or BitTorrent trackers
“Get rich quick” schemes, pyramid schemes, or chain letter operations
Unsolicited commercial communications infrastructure (spam-sending platforms)
Cryptocurrency mining operations using shared hosting resources

3. Spam and email policy

HostMaxa maintains a strict zero-tolerance policy toward spam and unsolicited commercial email (UCE).

You may not use, or permit others to use, HostMaxa services to:

Send unsolicited bulk email (spam) regardless of the sender address used
Operate open mail relays or proxies that can be used to send spam
Distribute email to addresses harvested without consent
Send email to recipients who have not provided prior confirmed opt-in consent in accordance with GDPR and the EU ePrivacy framework
Forge email headers or use fictitious sender addresses
Conduct mail bombing (sending excessive messages to a single address)
Subscribe individuals to mailing lists without their confirmed consent

HostMaxa defines spam as the sending of unsolicited commercial or bulk email to recipients who have not expressly opted in to receive it.

Confirmed spam violations may result in immediate account suspension or termination. HostMaxa reserves the right to recover damages and costs arising from spam violations, including costs associated with blacklist remediation, abuse complaints, and infrastructure impact.

Email sending limits on shared hosting

To protect the shared email infrastructure, accounts on shared hosting plans are subject to an email sending limit of 100 emails per hour per hosting package. Customers requiring higher sending volumes should use a dedicated transactional email service (e.g. Mailgun, SendGrid, Amazon SES) rather than shared hosting SMTP.

4. Resource usage – Shared hosting

Shared hosting services provide resources shared among multiple customers. To ensure fair performance for all, the following limits apply:

CPU and memory: No single process or script may consume more than 20% of available CPU or memory for longer than 60 consecutive seconds. Processes exceeding this threshold may be throttled or terminated automatically.
Cron jobs: Scheduled tasks (cron jobs) may not run more frequently than once every 5 minutes.
Concurrent connections: Scripts generating an unusually high number of simultaneous database or server connections may be restricted.
Email disk usage: Hosted email accounts should not be used as primary long-term email archives. Email storage exceeding 50% of total account disk allocation may trigger a review.

Accounts consistently exceeding resource limits may be contacted to discuss an upgrade to a more appropriate plan. In cases of severe or repeated abuse, services may be suspended without prior notice.

5. Storage and bandwidth

5.1 Storage use

Hosting accounts must not be used primarily as storage, backup, or file distribution platforms. The following are prohibited:

Storing compressed archive or backup files for longer than 3 days
Using a hosting account as personal or business cloud storage (e.g. replacing Dropbox, Google Drive)
Operating file-sharing websites, download portals, mirror sites, or media distribution hubs
Storing or serving large media libraries (audio, video) not directly related to an active website

Hosting that legitimately incorporates downloadable content (e.g. a software product you own, a podcast you produce) is permitted provided you are the copyright owner and the content is integral to your website’s purpose.

5.2 Bandwidth and fair use

Where plans are advertised with “unlimited” or “unmetered” bandwidth, this is subject to fair use – defined as bandwidth consistent with a normally operating website of the type described at sign-up. If your bandwidth usage is found to have an adverse effect on other customers or HostMaxa infrastructure, we may:

Contact you to discuss the usage pattern and explore solutions;
Temporarily restrict bandwidth pending discussion; or
Require you to upgrade to a plan appropriate for your actual usage.

HostMaxa will endeavor to contact you before taking restrictive action where practically possible.

6. Prohibited processes and applications

The following processes and application types are not permitted on shared hosting infrastructure:

IRC servers, IRC bots, or any software interfacing with IRC networks
Persistent background daemons or long-running unattended processes not directly related to website functionality
Real-time chat application backends requiring persistent server-side connections (e.g. Node.js socket servers) – use a VPS for these workloads
Gaming servers of any kind (e.g. game multiplayer backends)
Proxy servers, VPN endpoints, or traffic relay services
Cryptocurrency mining scripts or distributed computing clients
Streaming media servers (audio or video streaming infrastructure)
CGI-based message forums using flat-file databases (PHP/MySQL forums are permitted)
Any application that establishes persistent connections to external servers in a manner that consumes disproportionate server resources

These restrictions do not apply to Cloud VPS plans, where Customers have full control of their server environment subject to the Prohibited Content provisions in Section 2.

7. Security and network integrity

You must not use HostMaxa services to:

Conduct denial-of-service (DoS) or distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against any target
Attempt to breach, circumvent, or probe authentication or security measures of any system
Gain unauthorized access to any account, host, network, or data
Conduct port scanning, network mapping, or vulnerability scanning of third-party systems without authorization
Intercept or monitor network traffic without authorization
Introduce malware, exploits, or malicious payloads into any system

Customers are responsible for keeping their websites, applications, and content management systems (including WordPress plugins and themes) up to date and free from malware. Websites found to be infected with malware or actively sending spam or participating in attacks will be suspended. Repeated failures to remediate infections may result in account termination.

HostMaxa may implement technical controls, including rate limiting, IP blocking, and traffic filtering, to protect the integrity of its network and other customers. These controls may be applied without notice where an active threat is identified.

8. Intellectual property

You must not use HostMaxa services to infringe the intellectual property rights of any third party, including copyright, trademarks, patents, or database rights. This includes:

Hosting, distributing, or streaming content you do not own or have a license to use
Operating sites that aggregate, republish, or redistribute third-party copyrighted material without authorization
Using HostMaxa services to facilitate piracy or circumvention of digital rights management (DRM) technologies

HostMaxa will respond to valid notices of copyright infringement in accordance with applicable law. To submit a copyright infringement notice, email [email protected] with full details of the claimed infringement, the infringing material’s location, and your contact information.

9. GDPR and data protection

Where you use HostMaxa services to collect, store, or process personal data belonging to third parties (your customers, users, or contacts), you are the data controller for that data. You must ensure that your use of HostMaxa services complies with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and applicable Irish data protection law, including:

Having a valid lawful basis for all personal data processing activities
Providing appropriate privacy notices to individuals whose data you collect
Implementing appropriate technical and organizational security measures to protect personal data
Not collecting or retaining personal data beyond what is necessary for your stated purpose
Ensuring any third-party tools or plugins installed on your hosted website handle personal data lawfully

HostMaxa accepts no liability for personal data collected, stored, or processed by Customers through hosted services. Customers who experience a personal data breach affecting data stored on HostMaxa servers must notify HostMaxa immediately at [email protected] to enable us to meet our own regulatory reporting obligations.

10. Reporting abuse

If you become aware of any misuse of HostMaxa services, including spam, malware distribution, phishing, copyright infringement, or any other AUP violation, please report it to:

[email protected]
Please include: the nature of the abuse, the URL or IP address involved, and any supporting evidence (e.g. email headers, screenshots).

All abuse reports will be acknowledged within 24 hours and investigated promptly. HostMaxa takes abuse seriously and will take appropriate action where violations are confirmed.