Policy for submission of complaints/notices to SiteGround
This Policy sets out the procedure for submission of complaints/notices to SG Hosting Inc. (“SiteGround”, “we”, “us”, “our”).
IMPORTANT:
All complaints/notices channels are confidential channels through which you can submit your complaint or report your concerns about actual or potential risks and violations of applicable legislation or misconduct.
Anyone may submit a complaint/notice. The complaint/notice may be forwarded to a third-party vendor for review under duty of confidentiality.
If we receive a complaint/notice, we may request additional information and/or evidence from the complainant/notifier in order to address it.
If you are contacting us on behalf of a public authority, judicial or investigative body, please refer to our notice available here, where you will find our contact points for the purposes of receiving removal orders in regard to terrorist content, and for addressing any other orders or subpoenas, including but not limited to such for provision or preservation of information.
I. DMCA notices of copyright infringement
If you think a website hosted by SiteGround contains materials that infringe your (or the entity you represent) copyright, you may invoke the protections provided by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) by submitting a DMCA notice to SiteGround’s designated agent only:
SiteGround Compliance Team
SG Hosting Inc.
700 N. Fairfax St, Suite 614, Alexandria, 22314 VA, USA
Phone: +1.800.828.9231
Email: compliance@sitegronund.com
Any such notice must include the following information:
(i) A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.
(ii) Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, or, if multiple copyrighted works at a single online site are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works at that site.
(iii) Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity and that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled, and information reasonably sufficient to permit SiteGround to locate the material.
(iv) Information reasonably sufficient to permit SiteGround to contact you (the complaining party), such as names, address, email address, phone number.
(v) A statement that the complaining party has a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
(vi) A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.
Sample notice may be found here.
Please note that upon receipt of а DMCA notice containing all elements mentioned above, we will forward a copy of it to the alleged infringer (our customer). If our customer does not remove the allegedly infringing material, we will suspend public access to that material. The customer has the right to submit a counter-notification in case they disagree with the claim.
The counter-notification must include all of the following:
(i) A physical or electronic signature of the customer submitting the counter-notification.
(ii) Identification of the material the removal of which is requested.
(iii) A statement under penalty of perjury that the customer (alleged infringer) has a good faith belief that the material was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or misidentification of the material to be removed or disabled.
(iv) Name, address, and telephone number of the customer (alleged infringer), and a statement that the customer (alleged infringer) consents to the jurisdiction of the Federal District Court for the judicial district in which the customer’s (alleged infringer) address is located, or if such address is outside of the United States, for any judicial district in which SiteGround may be found, and that the customer (alleged infringer) will accept service of process from the person who provided the DMCA notice or an agent of such person.
Sample counter-notification may be found here.
Please note that upon receipt of а counter-notification containing all elements mentioned above, we will forward a copy of it to the complaining party. If our customer does not remove the allegedly infringing material, we will suspend public access to that material. In such a case, the complaining party is provided with 10 days to file a lawsuit against our customer and provide proof of filing. If no such proof is submitted or a restraining order is not granted, SiteGround will reinstate access to the material.
II. Notices of illegal activity or illegal content
Apart of the process for submission of DMCA notices of copyright infringement described above, if you think a website hosted by us is associated with illegal activity or contains illegal content (other than copyright infringing one), you may send us your notice in writing by:
(1) email to compliance@sitegronund.com, or
(2) registered mail to the following address: SG Hosting Inc., 700 N. Fairfax St, Suite 614, Alexandria, 22314 VA, USA.
Any such notice must include the following: your full legal name, company name (if applicable), contact email address, country of residence/incorporation, clear indication of the exact electronic location of the information /URLs, additional information enabling the identification of the content/, a sufficiently substantiated explanation of the reasons why you deem the activity or information in question to be illegal. The notice must contain a statement confirming your bona fide belief that the information and allegations stated in your notice are accurate and complete. Anonymous notices will not be reviewed where the identity of the submitting person is of importance for determining the legitimacy of the notice. For your convenience you may use our template notice available here.
III. Complaints regarding our website/ Services / legal compliance / other matters
If for any reason you wish to file a complaint regarding the Services, the use of our website, our compliance with the applicable laws, and/or other matters, you may send your complaint to us via:
(1) email at compliance@sitegronund.com, or
(2) support ticket or chat through your Client Area (for Customers only) [Important: We highly recommend using this channel for any technical or other types of issues related to your use of the Services], or
(3) registered mail to the following address: SG Hosting Inc., 700 N. Fairfax St, Suite 614, Alexandria, 22314 VA, USA.
Complaints submitted via email or registered mail must include at least the following: your full legal name, company name (if applicable), contact email address, country of residence/incorporation, details (and supporting evidence) regarding the matter you are complaining about. Anonymous notices will not be reviewed. You may use the template available here for your convenience.
IV. Notices / Complaints regarding data protection matters
If for any reason you wish to file a data protection related notice, request or complaint regarding our processing of personal data or any other data protection related matter, you may send your complaint, request or notice to us via:
(1) email at privacy@sitegronund.com, or
(2) registered mail to the following address: SG Hosting Inc., 700 N. Fairfax St, Suite 614, Alexandria, 22314 VA, USA.
Any such notice or complaint must include at least the following: your full legal name, company name (if applicable), contact email address, country of residence/incorporation, details (and supporting evidence) regarding the matter you are complaining or notifying us about. We may request certain additional information or documents in order to verify your identity and address your notice or complaint. Additionally, please note that you may exercise any of your data subject rights by submitting a request to the following email address: privacy@sitegronund.com, as described in our Privacy Policy.
HOW DO WE PROCESS NOTICES AND COMPLAINTS?
We reserve the right to forward an anonymised copy of your complaint/notice to our affected customer (if any), unless you explicitly prohibit such action upon submission of your complaint/notice.
SiteGround is committed to the mission of combating terrorist content online. As per our Acceptable Use Policy, using our Services for purposes related to terrorism is strictly prohibited. Accordingly, where we have identified that such content is hosted by us, either by conducting our own monitoring or by receiving third-party complaints, we will take corrective actions, including without limitation removal and/or preservation of part or all of such content and/or website(s), suspending access to the Client Area, suspension or termination of any and all Services with no refund.
We do this by taking care that we will not block the access to material disseminated to the public for educational, journalistic, artistic or research purposes or for the purposes of preventing or countering terrorism, including material which represents an expression of polemic or controversial views in the course of public debate.
If you as our customer think that we have unjustly removed or blocked the access to your content, you are free to submit a complaint, as described above.
IMPORTANT: We will comply with removal orders and orders for provision of information issued by competent authorities under the applicable law within the timeframes, set out in such legal acts. We will inform you in case we have complied with such an order related to your content unless we have been instructed not to do so by the issuing competent authority or we are prohibited to do so by law.
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