Terms of Service

ALPHA INTERNET LIMITED – TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF SERVICE

Version 2.4.0 – Last updated 9th December 2020. Replaces all prior versions.

PLEASE READ THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS CAREFULLY BEFORE USING THIS SITE OR OUR SERVICES

1. Terms of website use

1.1 This terms of use (the “Terms”, “Terms of Service”, “Terms and Conditions”, “Terms and Conditions of Service”, “Terms of Use” or “Conditions”), together with the documents referred to in it (the “Terms”, “Documents” or “Policies”), tells you the terms of use on which you may make use of our website gnu-host.com (our site), and the services provided by us (our services), whether as a guest or a registered user. Use of our site or our services includes accessing, browsing, or registering to use our site or services.

1.2 We collect and use your information to enable us to provide you with our web hosting and domain registration services (collectively referred to as “Services” or the “Service”). Alpha Internet Limited, trading as Gnu Host in this instance, provides services via its website, gnu-host.com (collectively referred to as the or our “Site”).

1.3 Alpha Internet Limited is the controller and responsible for your personal data (collectively referred to as “Company”, “we”, “us”, “our” or “Gnu Host” in this document). Our registered address is Grosvenor House, 3 Chapel Street, Congleton, Cheshire, CW12 4AB, United Kingdom, our Company Registration Number is 11162310 and our Data Protection Officer’s email address is privacy@gnu-host.com.

1.4 ‘Gnu-Host.com’ is a site operated by Alpha Internet Limited (“We”). We are registered in England and Wales under company number 11162310 and have our registered office at Grosvenor House, 3 Chapel Street, Congleton, Cheshire, CW12 4AB, United Kingdom. We are a limited company.

1.5 Please read these terms of use carefully before you start to use our site, as these will apply to your use of our site. We recommend that you print a copy of this for future reference.

1.6 By using our site, you confirm that you accept these terms of use and that you agree to comply with them.

1.7 If you do not agree to these terms of use, you must not use our site or our services.

2. Other applicable terms

2.1 These terms of use refer to the following additional terms, which also apply to your use of our Site and Services:

• 2.1.1 Our Privacy Policy [https://gnu-host.com/terms/privacy/], which sets out the terms on which we process any personal data we collect from you, or that you provide to us. By using our site, you consent to such processing and you warrant that all data provided by you is accurate.
• 2.1.2 Our Acceptable Use Policy [https://gnu-host.com/terms/aup], which sets out the permitted uses and prohibited uses of our site. When using our site, you must comply with this Acceptable Use Policy.
• 2.1.3 Our Cookie Policy [https://gnu-host.com/legal/Cookies.pdf], which sets out information about the cookies on our site.
• 2.1.4 Our Unlimited Usage Policy [https://gnu-host.com/terms/aup], which sets out the permitted used and prohibited uses of our ‘Unlimited Hosting Plans’.

3. The contract between us

3.1 These Terms, together with the documents referred to in it, constitute the entire agreement between you and us (the “Contract”, the “Contractual Agreement”, the “Agreement” or the “Hosting Agreement”). You agree that you have not relied on any statement, promise or representation made or given by or on behalf of us which is not set out in these Terms or the documents referred to in them. Nothing in these Terms will affect these legal rights.

3.2 Our order process allows you to check and amend any errors before submitting your order to us. Please take the time to read and check your order at each page of the order process. After you place an order, you will receive an email from us acknowledging that we have received your order. However, please note that this does not mean that your order has been accepted. We must receive payment of the whole of the price for the services that you order before your order can be accepted. Payment of the price for the services represents an offer on your part to purchase the services. Our acceptance of your order will take place when we email you a payment confirmation,  at this point a legally binding contract will come into existence between us.

3.3 To enable us to process your order, you will need to provide us with your e-mail address. We will notify you by e-mail as soon as possible to confirm receipt of your order and to confirm details. For the avoidance of doubt, this correspondence does not constitute a contract between us.

3.4 If we are unable to supply you with the Service ordered, for example, because of an error in the price on our site, we will inform you of this by e-mail but we may still process your order. If you have already paid for the Service, we will refund you the full amount.

4. Changes to these terms

4.1 We may revise these terms of use at any time by amending this document or page to comply with the law or to meet our changing business requirements.

4.2 Please check this page from time to time to take notice of any changes we made, as they are binding on you.

5. Changes to our site

5.1 We may update our site from time to time and may change the content at any time. However, please note that any of the content on our site may be out of date at any given time, and we are under no obligation to update it.

5.2 We do not guarantee that our site, or any content on it, will be free from errors or omissions.

6. Payments

6.1 Renewal invoices are generated 14 days in advance of renewal date and sent to your registered e-mail address. It is your responsibility to ensure this email address is kept up to date and can receive emails from “support@gnu-host.com”.

6.2 It is important that we receive payment on time. All services must be paid for by the due date shown on the invoice unless a written adjustment has been agreed. Failure to complete payment after this time will result in an automatic reminder when the invoice is overdue. This applies to all hosting accounts, VPS and Dedicated servers. Domain names expire on the day immediately after their renewal date. As such we strongly recommend renewing a minimum of 72 hours before the expiration date.

6.3 If an invoice is unpaid, after approximately 72 hours the related services will be suspended until such time that payment is received and you inform us by email that you have paid. At this point we will use all reasonable endeavours to restore service within 24 hours, however, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to fully restore your service.

6.4 Unless otherwise stated, all payments must be received in UK Pounds sterling (£). If you pay by foreign bank transfer, then you must be responsible for all foreign currency charges.

6.5 We use all reasonable endeavours to keep your renewal price unchanged. However, we reserve the right to alter our prices or introduce additional charges at any time and will notify you of any alteration by providing you with a written notice. Notice of any price alteration will be sent via email to the email address that we hold for you in our account. If you have already purchased a service, then the price alteration will only become effective when the service reaches the end of its current term.

6.6 You warrant that you are lawfully authorised to make payment using the payment card or facility you disclose to us. In the event where you are not the named cardholder, you acknowledge that you and the named cardholder both accept these terms and conditions and are jointly and severally liable for any payment(s) due. You hereby indemnify us in the event that the cardholder or issuer declines any transaction for payment, including our costs in recovering the outstanding amount due.

6.7 If you attempt a chargeback or dispute a transaction with your bank, we reserve the right to suspend all services provided to you with immediate effect. Services will remain suspended and until such time as the chargeback has been fully reversed in our favour.

6.8 You can only pay for the Services using a debit or credit card, PayPal or Bank Transfer. We accept the following cards: Visa, MasterCard, American Express.

6.9 Account credits and account funds are not refundable. Unused funds will expire after 3 years.

7. Money Back Guarantee

7.1 When purchasing any service, you give your express consent for us to begin the supply of the Service immediately.

7.2 If you are dissatisfied for any reason within the first 14 days of registering your client account, you are free to cancel and receive a full refund including the time already used, less domain registration fees or dedicated IP addresses which are non-refundable. We would prefer if you could contact us prior to requesting a refund, as we will be able to resolve your problem 99% of the time.

7.3 Only your first service is eligible for the Money Back Guarantee. If you purchase multiple services in one order, only the cheapest service will be eligible for our Money Back Guarantee. The service will only be eligible for the Money Back Guarantee if the service is cancelled within 14 days of opening your client account. The Money Back Guarantee does not apply if you have, or at some point have had, another client account or service.

7.4 Please note that VPS orders, dedicated server orders, SSL certificates, domain costs, IP addresses and any other items except Shared and Reseller Hosting services are not refundable. If you purchase a bundle offer which contains Shared Hosting alongside one of the non-refundable items listed above, we will refund the cost of the bundle minus the retail cost for the non-refundable item.

7.5 Any item purchased using a discount code or via an affiliate link is not eligible for a refund. Only items ordered directly via our website, ‘gnu-host.com’, without the use of a discount code or an affiliate link are eligible for a refund.

7.6 Please note that refunds can take 30 working days, plus the time taken for your bank to process the refund.

7.7 This policy does not cover accounts which have violated our Acceptable Usage Policy or Terms of Service.

8. Charges

8.1 Alpha Internet Limited, at their sole discretion, reserves the right to charge an additional charge to the client, equal to the amount incurred to us as a direct or indirect result of the actions of the customer, including but not limited to a breach of Terms of Service or Acceptable Use Policy, or abuse of the services provided by Alpha Internet Limited. We also reserve the right to charge an additional administrative charge of £50GBP to the customer.

8.2 Failure by the customer to pay any additional charge requested by Alpha Internet Limited before the due date may result in suspension or termination of the Customer’s Account and termination of the Hosting Agreement. We may also choose to execute immediate, temporary or permanent withdrawal of your right to use our site and services, and if commercially viable, pursue legal action.

9. Over usage

9.1 Account usage is checked frequently. All accounts will receive a notification when bandwidth usage is nearing the account’s limit. Overusage will result in automatic account suspension unless a prior agreement has been reached. Usually the cheapest option is to upgrade to the next package where available, otherwise, the account may be suspended with immediate effect. Upon suspension please contact us to arrange upgrade pricing.

9.2 If not specifically stated to the contrary, our services are intended to be used for the purposes of hosting websites and email. Batch processing, video encoding/transcoding, web crawling/spidering, archiving and online backup systems and any system designed to consume CPU or disk resources for purposes other than hosting a website are not permitted on our shared hosting servers. However, you may use such tools on a VPS or dedicated server. We reserve the right to enact defensive movements to maintain the stability of our systems for all clients.

9.3 If you believe your website may be susceptible to high or otherwise abnormal usage you must contact us to discuss the suitability of your hosting environment.

10. Refusal of Service

10.1 Alpha Internet Limited reserves the right, in its sole and absolute discretion, to suspend or terminate your Account for any reason, with immediate effect. We reserve the right to refuse our services to any client. If the client already has an active service, as long as the client is compliant with our policies, we will make every effort to contact the client and provide a backup of data before terminating their service. We may also ask any client to produce proof of identity and proof of address. If a client fails to provide this verification, we may cancel and refund their order. We may choose to ban a client by the immediate, temporary or permanent withdrawal of your right to use our site and services. Should this be the case, we will inform them via email, live chat, phone, or in some cases in person. In the case of a ban, the client will not be entitled to a refund for the unused portion of their service. Should the client continue to place orders, we may ban their IP address from accessing Alpha Internet Limited’s servers. Alpha Internet Limited reserves the right to terminate the Hosting Agreement at any time, at our sole discretion.

10.2 Please note, should a client violate any of our Policies, including those referred to in these terms, this will result in immediate termination without notification or reimbursement, as stated in our Terms of Service.

10.3 Alpha Internet Limited reserves the right to suspend or terminate the customer’s account, terminate the Hosting Agreement and refuse service to the customer if he/she violates any of our rules, including but not limited to:

• the customer uses offensive or violent actions against others;
• the customer uses threatening behaviour towards others;
• the customer takes part in activities relating to illegal drugs, gambling, weapons and arms, dishonesty, pyramid schemes, chain mail, or any other activity we deem to be illegal or unethical at our sole discretion;
• the customer violates copyright law;
• the customer acts in an aggressive, threatening or violent manner towards Alpha Internet Limited or any of its employees, directors and affiliates;

10.4 In the event a client violates any of our Policies, we will store a permanent record of their account details at the time of the violation and the account will be marked as closed. Under no circumstances will this account be used to place orders, modified or deleted.

11. Cancellation, termination, and disputes

11.1 Cancellation notices for all services must be given at a minimum of 30 days in advance of the next billing date. For Shared and Reseller Hosting services, we only enforce a 14-day cancellation policy, however, SSL certificates, Domains, VPS and Dedicated servers require a cancellation notice at least 30 days before the next billing date. No cash refunds will be granted. Refunds for prepaid dedicated servers and VPS will only be granted where there is a genuine irreconcilable problem with the service and at management’s discretion. All unpaid or outstanding invoices must be paid before cancellation can be processed.

11.2 A breach of any of our terms and conditions will result in immediate termination with no refund. If any client uses our service for purposes deemed unlawful, we reserve the right to immediately terminate the service, and no refund will be provided.

11.3 Setup fees are non-refundable. Any disputes should be expressed in writing via a valid written contact method as listed on our contact page.

11.4 Termination of this agreement does not affect your pre-existing liability, if any or affect our right to recover damages or pursue any other remedy in respect of any breach of this agreement by you.

11.5 In the event of us terminating this agreement due to a breach of these conditions by you, we shall be entitled to the balance of all payments which would but for such termination have accrued up to the earliest date on which this agreement could have been terminated by you.

12. Client Conduct

12.1 Under no circumstances will we tolerate threatening or abusive behaviour towards our staff. Should this occur, we reserve the right to terminate the Hosting Agreement with immediate effect.

12.2 Should the client, during the course of a telephone or live chat conversation, email or support ticket, make reference to “legal action” or say anything we might reasonably understand to imply or infer that the client may intend to pursue a legal claim against us, we reserve the right to suspend or terminate the customer’s Account with immediate effect, terminate the Hosting Agreement and execute immediate, temporary or permanent withdrawal of your right to use our site and services. In addition, we will refuse telephone support going forward. Any further correspondence must then be sent by email.

12.3 If a staff member or client feels in any way threatened through the direct or indirect actions of another client, we reserve the right to provide all evidence, including chat logs and phone call recordings, to the police or other relevant authority. We will use reasonable endeavours to ensure threatening and abusive clients are reported to the relevant authority, and if commercially viable, pursue legal action.

12.4 Should we feel that your needs would be better served by another provider, we reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to terminate the Hosting Agreement. Where it is reasonable to do so, we will provide a 7-day notice of termination and provide a backup of all website content and emails, however, under certain circumstances, there may be no required notice period.

13. Changes to the service

13.1 We have the right to change any username, password, IP address, server location or server resources allocated to you for the purpose of network maintenance, enhancement or modernisation.

13.2 We also have the right to alter the hosting environment where your site runs, and features provided therein, to one with similar features, as long as reasonable notice is given.

13.3 We may make changes to the Service to reflect changes in relevant laws and regulatory requirements, or to implement technical adjustments and improvements, for example to address a security threat.

14. Domains Registrations and Free Domains

14.1 Some hosting packages include a free domain registration for a standard domain such as .co.uk or .com. The registration period is one year.

14.2 Hosting package renewals do not include a further free domain renewal, transfer or registration.

14.3 We will always register, transfer and renew domain names in our client’s name – never in our own. You are always in control of every aspect of your domain name(s) and can manage your domain’s WHOIS data through the Gnu Host client area. It is your responsibility to keep this data correct.

14.4 Please find the ICANN Registrant Educational Materials here: http://www.icann.org/en/resources/registrars/registrant-rights/educational, and the Registrant Benefits and Responsibilities here: http://www.icann.org/en/resources/registrars/registrant-rights/benefits

15. Account Support / Emergency Contact

15.1 We provide support via e-mail, live chat and ticket. To provide efficient service and comply with data protection laws, any requests for changes to your account (including billing changes, password changes or any other technical changes) must be submitted by ticket or e-mail from your registered address.

16. Migration

16.1 We will use reasonable endeavours to help you move your site to us. Transfers are provided as a courtesy service. We do not make any guarantees regarding the availability, possibility, or time required to complete an account transfer. Each hosting company is configured differently, and some hosting platforms save data in an incompatible or proprietary format, which may make it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to migrate some or all account data. In some cases, we may not be able to assist you in a transfer of data from an old host. The free transfer service is available for 7 days from your sign-up date.

16.3 In the case that you are unable to provide root access to your old server, we reserve the right to charge a reasonable amount for the transfer. Alternatively, we may request you upload a backup for each cPanel account to your home directory on our server.

16.4 Regardless of the circumstances we reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to charge an appropriate fee for any transfer that may be requested.

16.5 We will not be held liable for any lost or missing data or files resulting from a transfer to or from us. You are solely responsible for backing up your data in all circumstances.

17. Backups

17.1 Alpha Internet Limited carries out daily backups of most Shared and Reseller Hosting accounts. These backups are generally used in the customer requesting a previous version of their hosting account is restored, or when moving customers data between servers. These backups are stored on secure servers.

17.2 If data is lost through the direct or indirect actions of the customer, Alpha Internet Limited or any other party, the customer can contact Support and ask for a backup. If the backup does not exist or function, Alpha Internet Limited cannot be held responsible or liable. It is the customer’s full responsibility to ensure backup of their own data.

17.3 Alpha Internet Limited does not take backups of user-generated backups made through the control panel. It’s the customer’s responsibility to keep these backups in other locations.

17.4 Alpha Internet Limited cannot be held responsible for lost data or lost revenue and has no liability what so ever. We recommend at any time to keep at least 2 backups externally for data safety.

17.5 Alpha Internet Limited does not take backups of any other data, except some Shared and Reseller Hosting accounts. For example, customers with a VPS service must be responsible for their own backups, as these are not provided by Alpha Internet Limited. We have no liability for lost data or lost revenue as a result of downtime, data loss or data corruption. It is the customer’s sole responsibility to ensure their data is backed up.

17.6 You are solely responsible for securing and backing up your content.

18. Customer Complaints Policy

18.1 At Alpha Internet Limited our primary focus is maintaining absolute customer satisfaction through sustainable pricing, proactively managed services and investment in hosting infrastructure.

18.2 Sometimes we may fall short of the high standards we and our customers expect from us. If this happens it’s important that we are able to take on customer feedback and concerns and use this to improve our service.

18.2.1 Step 1:

If you’ve not already been in touch regarding your concern, the first step is our standard support channels; most issues we can resolve very quickly as soon as you get in touch. You can get in touch via:
Post: Grosvenor House, 3 Chapel Street, Congleton, Cheshire, CW12 4AB, United Kingdom
Telephone: +44 (0)161 399 0489
Email: support@gnu-host.com

If you’re an existing customer, you can open a ticket from your Alpha Internet Limited account. Our average ticket response time is well under an hour and we will ensure that all tickets are replied to within 24hrs. All ticket submissions will receive an automatic email confirming that the ticket has been received successfully and the assigned ticket reference.

18.2.2 Step 2:

If you have already contacted us, and we’ve not been able to resolve your issue to your satisfaction, the next step is to submit a Formal Complaint. All complaints MUST be made in writing. This is to ensure we’re able to properly address and investigate your concerns and provide a full response. Complaints can be submitted by email to office@alphainternet.ltd

You should ensure you include as much information about the issue as possible, this might include:

• Name of the staff member you spoke with on the phone or support tickets
• Ticket reference IDs
• Date & time when issues occurred or when you called
• Details about the problem, how it started, what you did and any other relevant details
• Providing as much information as possible helps us to quickly investigate and fully understand the situation, what happened, what/if anything went wrong and how we can then try to resolve your complaint.

Usually, our Head of Customer Support will review all complaints within 72 hours and provide an initial response while they investigate the issue. Depending on the type of issue, it may be necessary for the complaint to be passed to a more appropriate Manager, Head of Department or Director. You will be informed of who is handling your complaint and their role in the investigation. We will then provide a full reply to the complaint within 10 working days.

18.2.3 Step 3:

If the response does not meet your satisfaction, you may request that the complaint is escalated to a Company Director for review. One of our directors will then assess your complaint and the steps taken so far by our staff; they will then provide a response within 15 working days of the complaint escalation.

All complaints are taken seriously and will be reviewed, investigated and responded to fairly and thoroughly. We understand that monitoring, and dealing with complaints promptly enables us to identify areas of weakness and we will then work to address these and continue to improve our service.

19. Force Majeure

19.1 We will not be responsible for any failure to provide any services or perform any obligation because of any act of God, strike, lock-outs or other industrial disputes.

20. Disclaimer, Limitation of Liability and Copyright

20.1 Our Liability

20.1.1 We are unable to assert fitness for any specific purpose and as such the Company cannot be held liable for any form of consequential loss or damage caused directly or indirectly by use of our service, misuse of our service, downtime, service issues, data loss or any other event.

20.1.2 Our maximum aggregate liability to you under or in connection with this agreement in respect of any direct loss, whether such claim arises in contract or in tort shall not exceed a sum equal to the fees paid by you for the services in relation to which your claim arises during the one-month period prior to such claim.

20.1.3 None of the clauses herein shall apply so as to restrict liability for death or personal injury resulting from our negligence, the negligence of our employees or our sub-contractors. We will not be liable for any interruptions to services arising directly or indirectly from:

• Interruptions to the flow of data to or from the internet
• The effects of the failure or interruption of services provided by a third party
• Factors outside our reasonable control
• Your actions or omissions
• Problems with your equipment and/or third-party equipment

20.1.4 No action or proceedings against us arising out of or in connection with this agreement shall be commenced more than one year after services rendered, and both parties acknowledge that this clause constitutes an express waiver of any rights under any otherwise applicable statute of limitations.

20.1.5 Our liability will not exceed the total amount paid for one month of the service. If you have sensitive or mission-critical data to host, you must seek your own insurance and independent legal advice.

20.1.6 Our backups are intended as a convenience service and are not guaranteed or intended to replace your backup procedures. It is your sole responsibility to ensure you have a backup of all your important data.

20.1.7 Nothing in these terms of use excludes or limits our liability for death or personal injury arising from our negligence, or our fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or any other liability that cannot be excluded or limited by English law.

20.1.8 To the extent permitted by law, we exclude all conditions, warranties, representations or other terms which may apply to our site or any content on it, whether express or implied.

20.1.9 We will not be liable to any user for any loss or damage, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty, or otherwise, even if foreseeable, arising under or in connection with:

• use of, or inability to use our site; or
• use of or reliance on any content displayed on our site.

20.1.10 If you are a business user, please note that in particular, we will not be liable for:

• loss of profits, sales, business, or revenue;
• business interruption;
• loss of anticipated savings;
• loss of business opportunity, goodwill or reputation; or
• any indirect or consequential loss or damage.

20.1.11 If you are a consumer user, please note that we only provide our site for domestic and private use. You agree not to use our site for any commercial or business purposes, and we have no liability to you for any loss of profit, loss of business, business interruption, or loss of business opportunity.

20.1.12 We will not be liable for any loss or damage caused by a virus, distributed denial-of-service attack, or other technologically harmful material that may infect your computer equipment, computer programs, data or other proprietary material due to your use of our site or to your downloading of any content on it, or on any website linked to it.

20.1.13 We assume no responsibility for the content of websites linked on our site. Such links should not be interpreted as endorsement by us of those linked websites. We will not be liable for any loss or damage that may arise from your use of them.

20.2 Third Party Services

20.2.1 Some of the services we provide (domain names, SSL certificates) are fulfilled by a third-party provider. For instance, an SSL certificate is provided by a root certificate provider (e.g. Thawte, Comodo, Verisign, Geotrust…), and domain names are provided by the organisation in charge of that namespace (e.g. Nominet for UK domain names). Whilst we always pass your orders on to these third-party entities in a timely fashion, we, unfortunately, cannot be held liable for any failings on their behalf.

20.2.2 All third-party software and hardware shall be sold subject to your acceptance of the relevant supplier’s software licence for such third-party software. Where possible, we shall forward to you any and all representations and warranties we receive from the respective third-party software supplier.

21. Other Important Terms

21.1 Phone calls may be monitored and recorded for training or quality control purposes.

21.2 Any notice or communications required or permitted to be delivered by us to you shall be deemed to have been given if delivered by mail in accordance with the contact information that you have provided.

21.3 You shall not assign, transfer, charge or deal in any other manner with this Agreement or any of its rights under it nor purport to do the same without our prior written consent.

21.4 We may at any time, assign (absolutely or by way of security and in whole or in part), transfer, mortgage, charge or deal in any other manner with the benefit of any or all of any other party’s obligations or any benefit arising under this agreement.

21.5 This agreement, and any documents referred to in it constitute the whole agreement between the parties and supersede any previous arrangement, understanding or agreement between them relating to the subject matter they cover.

21.6 Nothing in this agreement operates to limit or exclude any liability for fraud.

21.7 Each of the paragraphs of these terms operates separately. If any court or relevant authority decides that any of them are unlawful, the remaining paragraphs will remain in full force and effect.

21.8 If any invalid, unenforceable or illegal provision would be valid, enforceable or legal if some part of it were deleted, the provision shall apply with whatever modification is necessary to give effect to the commercial intention of the parties.

21.9 This agreement and any disputes or claims arising out of or in connection with its subject matter or formation (including non-contractual disputes or claims) are governed by and construed in accordance with the law of England.

21.10 The parties irrevocably agree that the courts of England have exclusive jurisdiction to settle any dispute or claim that arises out of or in connection with this agreement or its subject matter or formation (including non-contractual disputes or claims).

21.11  If we do not insist immediately that you do anything you are required to do under these terms, or if we delay in taking steps against you in respect of your breaking this contract, that will not mean that you do not have to do those things and it will not prevent us taking steps against you at a later date. For example, if you miss a payment and we do not chase you but we continue to provide the products, we can still require you to make the payment at a later date.

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ALPHA INTERNET LIMITED – DATA PRIVACY NOTICE

Version 1.2.0 – Last updated 9th December 2020. Replaces all prior versions.

1. Introduction

Alpha Internet Limited (“we”) are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy.

If you ever have any questions about our processes, the information we hold about you or your rights, you may reach dedicated data protection inbox by emailing them directly at privacy@gnu-host.com.  This inbox is actively monitored – contacting this address will not open a ticket, you will receive a direct and personal reply. This enables us to deliver an experience that you can confidently trust.

Purpose of this privacy notice

This privacy notice aims to give you information on how we collect and process your personal data through your use of this website, including any data you may provide through this website when you purchase a product or service, or use our client area or or contact us via phone, live chat, email or ticket.

The rules on collecting and processing personal data are set out in the General Data Protection Regulation (the “GDPR” or “EU GDPR”) until 11pm on 31st December 2020. The Retained General Data Protection Regulation (the “GDPR” or “UK GDPR”) in the United Kingdom will be in place from the end of the Brexit implementation period.

This website is not intended for children and we do not knowingly collect data relating to children.

You must read this privacy notice together with any other privacy notice we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal data about you so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your data. This privacy notice supplements the other notices and is not intended to override them.

Data controller and processor

Alpha Internet Limited, trading as Gnu Host in this instance, is the controller and processor responsible for your personal data (collectively referred to as Alpha Internet Limited, Gnu Host, “we”, “us” or “our” in this privacy notice).

We collect and use your information to enable us to provide you with our web hosting and domain registration services (collectively referred to as “Services” or the “Service”). Gnu Host provides services via its website, gnu-host.com or gnuhost.uk (collectively referred to as the or our “Site”).

For all data matters contact privacy@gnu-host.com.

Our registered address is Grosvenor House, 3 Chapel Street, Congleton, Cheshire, CW12 4AB, United Kingdom, and our Company Registration Number is 11162310.

Third-party links

This website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements.

When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy notice of every website you visit.

2. The personal data we collect about you

Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified.

We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you which we have grouped together follows:

• Identity Data includes first name, last name, username or account identifier, marital status, title, date of birth and gender.
• Contact Data includes billing address, delivery address, email address and telephone numbers.
• Financial Data includes card and bank account details.
• Transaction Data includes details about payments to and from you and details of products and services you have purchased from us.
• Technical Data includes internet protocol (IP) address, your login data, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system/platform and other technology on the devices you use to access this website.
• Profile Data includes your username and password, purchases or orders made by you, preferences, feedback and any survey responses.
• Usage Data includes information about how you use our website, products and services.
• Marketing and Communication Data includes your chosen preference to receive marketing information from us and your preferred communication method.

We also collect, use and share Aggregated Data such as statistical or demographic data for any purpose. Aggregated Data may be derived from your personal data but is not considered personal data in law as this data does not directly or indirectly reveal your identity. For example, we may aggregate your Usage Data to calculate the percentage of users accessing a specific website feature. However, if we combine or connect Aggregated Data with your personal data so that it can directly or indirectly identify you, we treat the combined data as personal data which will be used in accordance with this privacy notice.

We do not collect any Special Categories of Personal Data about you (this includes details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health and genetic and biometric data). Nor do we collect any information about criminal convictions and offences.

If you fail to provide personal data

Where we need to collect your personal data by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you (for example, to provide you with goods or services). In this case, we may have to cancel a product or service you have with us but we will notify you if this is the case at the time.

3. How we collect your personal data

We use different methods to collect data from and about you including through:

• You may give us your Identity, Contact and Financial Data by filling in forms or by corresponding with us by post, phone, email or otherwise. This includes personal data you provide when you:
  • Apply for our products or services;
  • Create an account on our website;
  • Subscribe to our service or publications;
  • Request marketing to be sent to you;
  • Place an order on our website;
  • Visit a page on our website;
  • Participate in a conversation with us;
  • Enter a competition, promotion or survey;
  • Report a problem with our site.

4. How we use your personal data

We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:

• Performance of Contract: this means processing your data where it is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party or to take steps at your request before entering into such a contract.
• Legitimate Interest: this means the interest of our business in conducting and managing our business to enable us to give you the best service/product and the most secure experience. We make sure we consider and balance any potential impact on you (both positive and negative) and your rights before we process your personal data for our legitimate interests. We do not use your personal data for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you (unless we have your consent or are otherwise required or permitted to by law). You can obtain further information about how we assess our legitimate interests against any potential impact on you in respect of specific activities by contacting us.
• Comply with a legal or regulatory obligation: this means processing your personal data where it is necessary for compliance with a legal or regulatory obligation that we are subject to;
• Consent of the data subject: this is when you consent to us processing your data, for example checking a box or clicking a button.

Generally we do not rely on consent as a legal basis for processing your personal data other than in relation to sending third party direct marketing communications to you via email or text message. You have the right to withdraw consent to marketing at any time by contacting us.

Purposes for which we will use your personal data

We have set out below, in a table format, a description of all the ways we plan to use your personal data, with the legal bases we rely on to do so.

Note that we may process your personal data for more than one lawful ground depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data. Please contact us if you need details about the specific legal ground we are relying on to process your personal data where more than one ground has been set out in the table below.

To register you as a new customer	(a) Identity (b) Contact	Performance of a contract with you
To process your order when you place an order on our site	(a) Identity (b) Contact (c) Financial (d) Transactional (e) Marketing and Communications	Performance of a contract with you
To maintain our own accounts and records	(a) Identity (b) Contact (c) Financial (d) Transactional	Performance of a contract with you Necessary for compliance with a legal obligation
To inform individuals of news, events, or activities	(a) Identity (b) Contact (c) Profile (d) Marketing and Communication	Performance of a contract with you Necessary for compliance with a legal obligation Necessary for our legitimate interests (gather feedback on customer experience to improve our products and services)
To improve and optimise the operation and performance of our Services	(a) Identity (b) Contact (c) Profile (d) Usage (e) Marketing and Communication	Necessary for our legitimate interests (gather feedback on customer experience to improve our products and services)
To diagnose problems and identify security risks, errors or required enhancements to our Site	(a) Technical (b) Usage	Necessary for our legitimate interests (to identify issues with our website and systems to improve security and our products and services)
To respond to an enquiry	(a) Identity (b) Contact	Consent of the data subject Legitimate interest (to communicate with and provide support to existing and prospective customers)
To manage billing and payments	(a) Identity (b) Contact (c) Financial (d) Transaction (e) Marketing and Communication	Performance of a contract with you
To allow you to enter a competition, promotion, or survey	(a) Identity (b) Contact (c) Profile (d) Usage (e) Marketing and Communication	Performance of a contract with you Necessary for our legitimate interests (to gather feedback from customers to improve our products and services)
To use feedback, analytics, and statistics about how individuals are using our Services to improve customer experience and our products/services	(a) Technical (b) Usage	Necessary for our legitimate interests (to gather feedback from customers to improve our products and services)

Marketing

We strive to provide you with choices regarding certain personal data uses, particularly around marketing and advertising.

Promotional offers from us

We may use your Identity, Contact, Technical, Usage and Profile Data to form a view on what we think you may want or need, or what may be of interest to you. This is how we decide which products, services and offers may be relevant for you.

You will receive marketing communications from us if you have requested information from us or purchased goods or services from us or if you provided us with your details when you entered a competition or registered for a promotion and, in each case, you have not opted out of receiving that marketing.

Third-party marketing

We will get your express opt-in consent before we share your personal data with any company outside of Alpha Internet Limited for marketing purposes.

Opting out

You can ask us or third parties to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by logging into the website and checking or unchecking relevant boxes to adjust your marketing preferences or by contacting us at any time.

Where you opt out of receiving these marketing messages, this will not apply to personal data provided to us as a result of a product/service purchase, warranty registration, product/service experience, or other transactions.

Cookies

You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this website may become inaccessible or not function properly. For more information about the cookies we use, please see our cookie policy.

Change of purpose

We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If you wish to get an explanation as to how the processing for the new purpose is compatible with the original purpose, please contact us.

If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.

Please note that we may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.

5. Who we share your personal data with

We may have to share your personal data with the parties set out below for the purposes set out in the table in paragraph 4 above.

• Internal Third Parties
• External Third Parties
  • Service Providers acting as processors who provide IT and system administration services.
  • Professional advisers acting as processors or joint controllers including lawyers, bankers, auditors and insurers who provide consultancy, banking, legal, insurance and accounting services.
  • HM Revenue & Customs, regulators and other authorities acting as processors or joint controllers based in the United Kingdom who require reporting of processing activities in certain circumstances.
•  Third parties to whom we may choose to sell, transfer, or merge parts of our business or our assets. Alternatively, we may seek to acquire other businesses or merge with them. If a change happens to our business, then the new owners may use your personal data in the same way as set out in this privacy notice.
• Specific third parties listed in the table below:

Name	Service type	Data processed
Intuit Inc.	Accountancy Software	Customer details, including name, address and email address. Payment details including transaction ID.
Freeagent	Accountancy Software	Customer details, including name, address and email address. Payment details including transaction ID.
Slack Inc.	Internal communications	Customer name and email address, as well as technical data including internet protocol (IP) address and error logs.
Google	Cloud storage, emails and analytics	Replications of customer data and occasional use of analytics tools.
Stripe	Payment processor	Customer name, address, email address, IP address and card details for the purpose of payment processing.
PayPal	Payment processor	Customer name, address, email address, IP address and card details for the purpose of payment processing.
Internet Domain Service BS Corp.	Domain name services	Customer name, address and email address.
NameSilo, LLC	Domain name services	Customer name, address and email address.
Nominet	Domain name services	Customer name, address and email address.
Trustpilot Inc	Customer feedback	Customer name, email address
MaxMind Inc.	Fraud prevention	Customer name, address email address and IP address for the purposes of fraud detection and prevention.
Helpcrunch	Live chat	Customer name, email address, IP address and any information the customer provides during the course of the conversation.
Yayyay Limited	Telecommunication provider	Customer name, phone number and recording of phone calls.
Mailchannels Corporation	Outbound emails	Customer outbound emails
Ascent Performance Group Limited	Debt recovery	Customer details including name and address.

We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

6. International Transfers

We share your personal data within Alpha Internet Limited and with external third parties. This may involve transferring your data outside the United Kingdom (UK) and European Economic Area (EEA).

Many of our external third parties are based outside the UK and EEA so their processing of your personal data will involve a transfer of data outside the UK and EEA.

Whenever we transfer your personal data out of the UK and EEA, we ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it by implementing safeguards:

• We will only transfer your personal data to countries that have been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for personal data by the European Commission. For further details, see European Commission: Adequacy of the protection of personal data in non-EU countries.
• We may use specific contractual clauses authorized by the competent supervisory authority or standard data protection contracts approved by the European Commission which give personal data the same protection it has in Europe. For further details, see European Commission: Model contracts for the transfer of personal data to third countries.

If the UK leaves the European Union without a withdrawal agreement on the day of exit (or the transitional period under a withdrawal agreement expires before the European Commission has adopted an adequacy decision for the UK):

Please contact us if you want further information on the specific mechanism used by us when transferring your personal data out of the UK and EEA.

8. Data security

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

9. Data Retention

We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.

To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

By law we have to keep basic information about our customers (including Contact, Identity, Financial and Transaction Data) for six years after they cease being customers for tax purposes.

In some circumstances you can ask us to delete your data: see Your legal rights below for further information.

In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.

10. Your legal rights

Unless subject to an exemption under the data protection laws, you have the following rights with respect to your personal data:

• The right to request a copy of the personal data which we hold about you;
• The right to request that we correct any personal data if it is found to be inaccurate or out of date;
• The right to request your personal data is erased where it is no longer necessary to retain such data;
• The right to withdraw your consent to the processing at any time, where consent was the lawful basis for processing your data;
• The right to request that we provide you with your personal data and where possible, to transmit that data directly to another data controller, (known as the right to data portability), where applicable 9i.e. where our processing is based on consent or is necessary for the performance of our contract with you or where we process your data by automated means);
• The right, where there is a dispute in relation to the accuracy or processing of your personal data, to request a restriction is placed on further processing;
• The right to object to our processing of personal data, where applicable i.e. where processing is based on our legitimate interests (or in performance of a task in the public interest/exercise of official authority); direct marketing or processing for the purposes of scientific/historical research and statistics).

If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact us.

No fee required – with some exceptions

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable admin fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.

What we may need from you

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.

Time limit to respond

We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.

11. Changes to this notice and your duty to inform us of changes

Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us. It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current.

12. Queries, Requests or Concerns

To exercise all relevant rights, queries or complaints in relation to this policy or any other data protection matter between you and us, please in the first instance contact us.

If this does not resolve your complaint to your satisfaction, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioners Office on 03031231113 or via email https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/email/ or at the Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF, England, UK.

Our ICO Registration Number is ZA323324.