Acceptable Use Policy
Effective from 12 February 2024
A downloadable version of this document can be found here
Introduction
We believe you are going to love using our new Services. Our full fibre broadband is many times faster than traditional copper or part-copper connections and up to five times more reliable too*¹
Cuckoo and Cuckoo’s Services centre around providing an experience that is fast, fair and easy. It’s therefore important to us that everyone using or affected by our Services is treated fairly; this includes respecting the rights and freedoms of other internet users.
This policy sets out important rules on your use of the Services, with the intention of helping to keep you, us, and other internet users safe, and covers how you can use our Services, and what you are not allowed to do. It applies to anyone you allow to use our Services. You will be responsible for any breach of this policy or our terms and conditions.
If you allow anyone under the age of 18 to use our Services, we recommend that you take reasonable precautions to ensure that they use them appropriately.
Prohibited Uses
You may only use our Services for lawful purposes. You may not use our Services:
a) to do anything that includes storing, sending, or distributing:
- i. any content or material which is restricted, prohibited or otherwise unlawful under any applicable law (or which is likely to be), including material and/or content which defames, harasses, threatens, abuses, menaces, offends, violates the privacy of, or incites violence or hatred against, any person or class of persons which could give rise to civil or criminal proceedings (or encourages conduct that would constitute a criminal offence or give rise to civil liability);
- ii. confidential information, copyright material, trademarks, trade secrets or other content, which is subject to third party intellectual property rights, unless you have a lawful right to do so, or that in any way breaches a third-party agreement (including but not limited to a non-disclosure agreement) or obligation; and/or
- iii. any content or material, which interferes with other users of any of our Services (or may do so) or restricts or hinders any person from accessing, using or enjoying the internet, our Services, our network or systems (or the networks or systems of our suppliers);
b) to do any other act or thing which is unlawful, illegal, fraudulent (or has any unlawful or fraudulent purpose or effect) or is otherwise prohibited under any applicable law or which is in breach of any code, standard or content requirement of any other competent authority;
c) to access, monitor or use any data, systems or networks, including another person's private information, without authority or attempt to probe, scan or test the vulnerability of any data, system or network or to violate the privacy, publicity or other personal rights of others or to impair the privacy of communications;
d) to compromise the security, tamper with, hinder the operation of or make unauthorised modifications to the integrity of any network or system including, but not limited to, our network or systems (or our suppliers' network or systems) or to cause technical disturbances to our network or to our suppliers' network);
e)to knowingly transmit any data, send or upload any material that contains viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time-bombs, keystroke loggers, spyware, adware or any other harmful programs or similar computer code designed to adversely affect the operation of any computer software or hardware;
f) to forge header information, email source address or other user information or use another person's name, username or password or otherwise attempt to gain access to the account of any other customer;
g)to transmit, or procure the sending of, any unsolicited or unauthorised advertising or promotional material or any other form of similar solicitation (spam), in breach of the Privacy and Electronic Communication Regulations 2003 or otherwise in any way that:
- i. degrades or interferes with other users’ use of any of our Services (or may do so) or disrupts or interferes with our network or Service or causes a host or the network to crash;
- ii. could, in our reasonable opinion, materially affect the quality or operation of any networks or services provided by us or any third party;
- iii. breaches any applicable local, national or international law, regulation or code of practice (including export control laws or regulations);
- iv. contravenes generally accepted standards of internet or other networks conduct and usage, including but not limited to denial-of-service attacks, web page defacement, port or network scanning and unauthorised access to systems;
- v. attempts to avoid incurring charges or to avoid otherwise being required to pay for such usage; and/or
- vi. harms or attempts to harm minors in any way, including but not limited to downloading, possessing or transmitting indecent images of children;
h) to assist, encourage or permit any persons in engaging in any of the activities described in this section in a way which could, in our reasonable opinion, bring our name, or the name of any third party, into disrepute.
If you become aware of any such activities, you must immediately notify Cuckoo and take all other appropriate actions to cause such activities to cease.
Communicating with us
We always aim to provide you with the best possible service but we understand sometimes things go wrong and that you may become annoyed or frustrated as a result. Whilst we will try to put the issue right as soon as possible, if your behaviour towards our staff, e.g. on the phone or online chat causes them to feel afraid, threatened, abused, or that unreasonable demands are being made of them, we reserve the right to terminate that conversation. Repeated behaviour of this type will be seen as a breach of this policy, and we may take any of the actions set out below.
Suspension and/or Termination
We will determine, in our sole discretion, whether there has been a breach of this policy through your use of our Services, or your interactions with our staff. When a breach of this policy has occurred, we may take such action as we deem appropriate.
We will normally warn you that you’re in breach of this policy and request you comply with its terms before taking any action set out below. However, we may not do this if there is a real risk of loss or harm to our other customers, our staff, our business, or our network.
We may, without prior notice, suspend all or part of the Services if, in our reasonable opinion, it is necessary to do so to stop or mitigate any problem or attack affecting our network, equipment, or services, or to deal with behaviour which, in our reasonable opinion, amounts to misuse of the Services.
The other actions we might also take in the event of your failure to follow this policy:
a) Issue a warning to you.
b) Immediate, temporary or permanent withdrawal of the Services.
c) Legal proceedings against you for reimbursement of all costs on an indemnity basis (including, but not limited to, administrative and legal costs) resulting from the breach.
d) Disclosure of such information to law enforcement authorities as we reasonably feel is necessary.
e) Take any other reasonable action.
We exclude liability for actions taken in response to breaches of this policy.
We will exercise the reasonable discretion and judgment in administering this policy.
Changes to the Acceptable Use Policy
Cuckoo may revise this policy at any time by posting the updated version of the policy on our website. You are expected to check this policy from time to time to take notice of any changes we make, as they are legally binding on you. Some of the provisions contained in this policy may also be superseded by provisions or notices published elsewhere on our site.