You publish a website, an online shop or documents on your SwissCenter hosting, or you send emails through our servers. Who is responsible for that content, and what happens if someone challenges it? Here is what our general terms and conditions provide.
In short: you are responsible for the content you host, publish or send with our services, including the content of your own customers. SwissCenter does not monitor that content and is not its author. On a well-founded report or on the order of an authority, we may remove it or block access to it.
Who is responsible for the content of your website?
You are, as the account holder. You are responsible for everything you host, publish or transmit through our services: pages, images, downloadable files, the content of your online shop, emails and mailing lists.
Publishing on the Internet commits you just as publishing on paper does. Your content must comply with the law, in particular:
- copyright and trademark law: texts, photos, software or videos you do not have the right to distribute;
- the personality rights and privacy of third parties: defamatory, insulting or threatening statements, personal data published without the right to do so;
- criminal law: illegal content or child sexual abuse material.
If a person or a company makes a claim against you because of your content, it is up to you to answer it. If they turn to SwissCenter, our general terms and conditions provide that you compensate us for the resulting costs and damages.
Content of your customers and of your webmaster
You are also responsible for the content of your own customers. If you host other people's websites with a Reseller plan, we turn to you if there is a problem, not to your customer. To find out when a Reseller plan is required, see Individual account or Reseller account: what is the difference?.
The same applies to an agency or a webmaster working on your website: you are responsible for what is done with the access you give them. See Give your webmaster or agency access to your hosting.
What SwissCenter does, and does not do, with your content
- We do not monitor your content. We check neither its accuracy nor its legality before it goes online, and we do not modify it.
- We are not the author of your website. Our support covers the hosting service, not the content or the code of your website: see What your hosting includes, and what remains your responsibility.
- We act on reports. When content is reported to us on reasonable grounds, or on the order of an authority, we may remove it or block access to it.
- We report child sexual abuse material to the authorities. This is a legal obligation.
What happens if your content is challenged?
As a rule, we first warn you by email at your account's contact address and ask you to correct the problem. If nothing is corrected, or if it happens again, we may block the item concerned (a file, a website, a mailbox), suspend your service, or even terminate the contract.
Blocking can be immediate when the harm is ongoing or serious: a hacked website spreading malware, or a mailbox sending spam. The service is restored once the problem is fixed. See My website was hacked: what happens and what you need to do.
Answer our messages quickly: this is usually what avoids a suspension.
Report content hosted at SwissCenter
You notice that a website hosted at SwissCenter publishes illegal content, infringes your rights, or sends spam or malware? Write to abuse@swisscenter.com and include:
- the exact address (URL) of the page or file concerned, or the email you received with its full headers;
- what the problem is, and why;
- if you hold the right concerned (author, trademark, person targeted), what it is based on.
We examine every report and, if it is well-founded, we take action with our customer as described above.
The binding text
This article summarises our rules. The text that applies to your contract is our general terms and conditions, with their rules of use.
Further reading