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April 14, 2017

Update to Our Terms of Service and Unlimited Bandwidth Policy

This is an update to tell you about some recent changes to our Terms of Service. The changes are all in Sections 2 and 4.

Here is a summary of the changes:

  1. We added new acceptable payment methods. We now accept VISA, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, PayPal, mailed check (US Dollars only), ACH transfer (US Dollars only), SEPA transfer (Euro only), and FPS (UK/GB Pound Sterling only). We removed wire transfer as an acceptable payment method because we now support ACH, SEPA, and FPS, and most of our customers who use wires can also use one of those other methods. We have written to all our wire payees in the past informing them of this change. If you wish to switch your payment method to one of the new methods (ACH, SEPA, and FPS), please just reply to this email and let us know. We can help you get set up.

  2. We improved our SLA to account for SFTP. One piece of feedback we got from our recent SFTP cipher change was that our SLA does not include SFTP. That is simply a holdover from before we supported SFTP. We have updated our SLA to include SFTP as one of the services covered by the SLA. We also updated the language for the SLA to clarify that it applies to custom IPs as well.

  3. We created a new Unlimited Bandwidth Policy and incorporated it into our Terms of Service. Our Unlimited Bandwidth offer is designed to attract typical office workers who use BrickFTP for typical office tasks, such as file sharing, and backing up their office computer.

However, we have had an increasing number of customers using BrickFTP for large-scale distribution of files, similar to a CDN. BrickFTP was never designed to be a CDN, but we recognize that some people are having success using it as one. So the new policy was written to enable them to still use BrickFTP while ensuring that the Unlimited Bandwidth offer fulfills its intended purpose of fulfilling the needs of office employees using our desktop and web apps.

Our new policy makes it clear that Unlimited Bandwidth applies to access from an authenticated user account that is used by a single named person on a desktop computer, tablet, or smartphone.

If a single username is shared by multiple people, or if a username is used by devices outside of that single named person’s immediate control/possession, or if that username is used by a server in a rack or datacenter (as opposed to a desktop computer), or if files are made publicly available through BrickFTP, all of the uploads and download bandwidth associated with your entire site will be billed.

Bandwidth is billed at a rate equal to your storage rate for one month and your storage quota can be applied to the charges. For customers on our Corporate or Enterprise plan paying in US Dollars, that rate is $0.10 per GB. The rate is similar if you are paying in another currency.

We enforce this new rule manually, based on a review of your account activity. If it appears that your account is not eligible for unlimited bandwidth, we will let you know at the time we update your account. You will be able to appeal the decision by telling us more about your use case.

We are not concerned with small time sharing of accounts, and we aren’t worried about users who have a few different computers and maybe a phone or two. What we are concerned about is companies who, for example, configure 10,000 devices to all connect to BrickFTP using the same username and password. Or media companies using BrickFTP to stream large movies to thousands of viewers.

Consistent with the 30-day notice provision of our Terms of Service, we will not enforce the new Unlimited Bandwidth policy until May 15.

If you have any questions about the changes, please email support@brickftp.com or give us a call at 1-800-286-8372.

Questions? Need help?

Please let us know how we can assist you. We’re here and glad to help. Please contact us by email, chat (in your web interface when logged in), or phone (1-800-286-8372 ext. 2).

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