Acceptable Use Policy

1.0     SUMMARY

This policy establishes the acceptable use requirements for products, services and the technology infrastructure used by E-Tech to provide them.  This policy may be amended by E-Tech.

2.0     SCOPE AND APPLICATION

2.1     This policy applies to all users.  Any person who accesses or uses the technology infrastructure or uses a product or service provided by E-Tech is a “user”.  A “person” includes any individual, person, estate, trust, firm, partnership or corporations, government or any agency or ministry of any government, and includes any successor to any of the foregoing.

3.0     ACCOUNTABILITY

3.1     Each user is responsible for how it accesses or uses any product or service provided by E-Tech.

3.2     Each user who is not an individual is a “client organization”.

3.3     Each client organization is responsible for any access or use any product or service provided by E-Tech made by any user who is an individual and who obtained his or her user ID and password to access any product or service provided by E-Tech from that client organization or at the direction of that client organization.

4.0     INAPPROPRIATE AND ILLEGAL USES

4.1     Unacceptable use refers to any illegal use or any inappropriate use as defined in this policy.   An inappropriate use may also be an illegal use.

4.2     Illegal use is the creation, collection, transmission, storage or exchange of any material in violation of any applicable law or regulation. The following are examples of illegal use:

(1)     Breaching copyright, trade secret, or other intellectual property rights (e.g., breaching software licences, pirating recorded music or movie videos, stealing trade secrets).

(2)     Wilfully promoting hatred against any identifiable group or individual by communicating such statements outside of private conversations.

(3)     Possessing, viewing, downloading, transmitting, or storing any child pornography or any involvement whatsoever with the traffic of such material.

(4)     Defaming other persons (e.g., spreading false allegations or rumours about others).

(5)     Unlawfully accessing, destroying, encrypting or altering information.

(6)     Harassing other persons electronically (e.g., making threats to a person’s safety or property).

4.3     Inappropriate use includes any of the following behaviours or any other behaviour that may jeopardize E-Tech’s products or services, may expose E-Tech to civil liability or is adverse to E-Tech’s business interests:

(1)     Using someone else’s password.

(2)     Wilfully bypassing or subverting E-Tech’s or any other person’s physical, logical or procedural safeguards such as firewalls or other access controls.

(3)     Vandalism, which is defined as any malicious attempt to harm or destroy the information of another user, the Internet or other networks. This includes but is not limited to:

(a)      Creating and/or uploading computer viruses or other harmful code. Harmful code is any computer programming code which is designed to adversely affect or interfere with the use or operation of software, equipment or computer systems, including without limitation, time bombs, Trojan horses, timelocks and viruses.

(b)     Mail bombing and subscription bombing (i.e., attacks on e-mail account holders by bombarding them directly with unwanted mail, or indirectly by subscribing them to high-volume lists).

(c)      Denial of Service (DoS) and other attacks, including any attempts to disrupt services and any other activity resulting in E-Tech users being deprived of products and services to which they are entitled.

(4)     The sending of unwanted e-mail or unsolicited commercial or advertising material to any other person (i.e., spamming).

(5)     Sending anonymous messages or impersonating any other person.

(6)     Selling, sharing or otherwise redistributing E-Tech products or services without written authorization from E-Tech.

4.4     Users must not use E-Tech services in any manner that constitutes an unacceptable use or that is otherwise prohibited under the terms of this policy.

5.0     SECURITY

5.1     Users must ensure that any passwords and other identifiers used by Client to directly or indirectly gain access to E-Tech products or services are safeguarded including but no limited to:  (i) protecting them from theft, loss and unauthorized use, (ii) not divulging them to anyone (including any other user), (iii) not writing them down; or (iv) storing them in a place where they may be discovered.

5.2     Secure tokens, if any, provided by E-Tech are considered the property of E-Tech.  User must return any secure tokens provided by E-Tech to E-Tech upon request.

6.0     MANAGEMENT OF BREACHES AND INCIDENTS

6.1     Users and Client organizations must:

(1)     Co-operate with E-Tech on the management of breaches of this policy including but is not limited to, participating in investigations; and

(2)     reporting all breaches of this policy or other incidents that involve E-Tech products or services to E-Tech.

7.0     VIOLATIONS OF THIS POLICY

7.1     Violation of this policy may result in criminal or civil liability.

7.2     E-Tech reserves the right to investigate suspected violations of this policy.

7.3     Although E-Tech is not obligated to monitor content and assumes no responsibility for any information or material that is stored or transmitted by users of E-Tech’s products or services or the Internet, E-Tech reserves the right, subject to all applicable laws, to investigate content stored, posted or transmitted through use of the services and may block access to, refuse to post, or remove any information or material that it deems to be in violation of this policy.

7.4     E-Tech may report violations of this policy committed by a user to the applicable client organization, if any.

7.5     E-Tech assumes no liability for enforcing or not enforcing this policy, and failure by E-Tech to enforce any part of this policy shall not constitute waiver by E-Tech of any right to do so at any time.

7.6     If any provision of this policy is found to be invalid or unenforceable, then that provision will be enforced to the extent permissible, and all other provisions will remain in full force and effect.