Acceptable Use Policy

1What this covers

This policy applies to everything served through Upfling: files hosted at an upfling.site subdomain, sites on custom domains you have connected, and anything you upload whether or not it is publicly linked.

It forms part of the Terms of Service. Breaking it is a breach of contract and is grounds for suspending or removing your site or account.

Two things worth saying plainly before the list. First, we would rather host your weird project than not. The point of this policy is to stop fraud and harm, not to police taste. Second, we are a small service and we enforce this in good faith with limited resources; if you think we have got a decision wrong, say so and we will look again.

2How we find out

There are two mechanisms, and they cover very different ground.

Automated scanning runs on every upload and again on live sites about every seven days. It looks for technical indicators: phishing forms, malware, obfuscated code, mining scripts, disguised executables, cloaking and spam. It is good at those and it acts instantly: a high-severity match suspends a live site automatically, with no human in the loop.

Reports from people cover everything else. This is why the reporting form exists and why we read every report.

3Fraud, malware and technical abuse

• Phishing and credential harvesting. Pages designed to collect passwords, card numbers, one-time codes or recovery phrases, including sign-in pages that post to somewhere other than the service they appear to belong to.
• Malware and malicious code. Droppers, exploit kits, obfuscated payloads, and code that decodes and executes itself to hide what it does.
• Executables disguised as other files. A Windows, macOS, Linux or Java binary uploaded under a document or image extension.
• Unauthorised cryptocurrency mining. Scripts that use a visitor's device to mine without their clear, informed consent.
• Brand impersonation. Passing your site off as a bank, payment provider, government service or well-known company, whether through page content or through a lookalike custom domain.
• Cloaking and deception. Hidden iframes, invisible text, doorway pages, automatic redirects to an unrelated destination, and content that differs between search engines and people. Individually these are treated as weak signals; three or more together are treated as a violation.
• Attacking others. Using a hosted site as infrastructure for denial-of-service, credential stuffing, botnet command and control, or scanning other networks.

4Illegal and seriously harmful content

• Child sexual abuse material. Absolutely prohibited. Sites are removed immediately, the account is terminated permanently, and we report to the relevant authorities. There is no appeal and no warning. If you find such material on Upfling, report it at abuse@upfling.host. We treat these reports ahead of everything else.
• Content that sexualises minors in any form, including drawn, generated or written material.
• Terrorist and violent extremist material, including material that promotes, celebrates or provides instruction for terrorism or mass violence.
• Incitement to violence against any person or group, and credible threats.
• Hate speech: content attacking or dehumanising people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, disability, sex, gender identity or sexual orientation.
• Content promoting self-harm, suicide or eating disorders in a way that encourages or instructs.
• Non-consensual intimate images, and material created to sexualise a real person without their consent.
• Harassment and doxxing: campaigns targeting an individual, or publishing someone's home address, phone number, workplace or identity documents without a lawful basis.
• Anything otherwise unlawful under the law of the United Kingdom or of the place your site is directed at.

5Adult content

Sexually explicit and pornographic content is not permitted on Upfling.

This is a capability decision rather than a moral one. Hosting adult content lawfully requires age assurance, content labelling and performer verification that we do not have and are not currently building. Until we do, the answer has to be no.

6Other people's rights and regulated goods

• Copyright and trademark infringement: publishing work you do not have the right to publish. See the copyright policy for how to send or answer a notice.
• Impersonating a person or organisation in a way designed to deceive.
• Regulated and restricted goods: sale or facilitation of controlled substances, prescription medicines without authorisation, weapons and their components, counterfeit goods, stolen data, or forged documents.
• Gambling without the licence the relevant jurisdiction requires.
• Financial deception: fake investment schemes, pyramid and Ponzi structures, fraudulent token launches, and "guaranteed return" offers.

7Spam and platform abuse

• Landing pages for bulk unsolicited email or SMS campaigns.
• SEO spam: link farms, keyword stuffing, hidden text, and doorway pages built to manipulate search rankings.
• Using Upfling as a content delivery network: hosting files here to embed on a site somewhere else, rather than publishing a site of your own.
• Circumventing plan limits: spreading one project across multiple accounts, or creating accounts to get more free storage.
• Automated bulk site creation. We limit new sites to five per IP address per hour. Scripting around that limit is abuse.

8What happens if you break this policy

What we do depends on what was found and whether it looks deliberate:

• Automatic suspension where a scan finds a high-severity indicator on a live site. This happens within minutes of an upload and without human review.
• Suspension after review where a report is upheld. The site stops being served but the files are kept, so it can be restored if you fix the problem or the decision is overturned.
• Removal for serious or repeated breaches.
• Account termination for illegal content, or for repeated breaches after warning. No refund is given where an account is terminated for breach.
• Blocking an IP address where abuse keeps coming from it.
• Reporting to authorities where content appears to be criminal.

Every one of these is recorded with a reason. If you think a decision was wrong, appeal (see the Terms). We aim to answer within 5 working days.

9Reporting a site

If you have found something on Upfling that breaks this policy, tell us. You do not need an account and you do not have to give your name, though an email address lets us confirm we received it.

Use the reporting form, or email abuse@upfling.host. Include the full address of the page and what is wrong with it. We acknowledge reports within 2 working days and act on the serious ones faster than that.

Copyright complaints have their own process (see the copyright policy).