Acceptable use policy

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages) This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Acceptable use policy" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (August 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this message) This article possibly contains original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations. Statements consisting only of original research should be removed. (February 2009) (Learn how and when to remove this message) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

An acceptable use policy (AUP), acceptable usage policy or fair use policy (FUP) is a set of rules applied by the owner, creator, possessor or administrator of a computer network, website, or service that restricts the ways in which the network, website or system may be used and sets guidelines as to how it should be used. AUP documents are written for corporations,^[1] businesses, universities,^[2] schools,^[3] internet service providers (ISPs),^[4] and website owners,^[5] often to reduce the potential for legal action that may be taken by a user, and often with little prospect of enforcement.

Acceptable use policies are an integral and critical part of the framework of information security policies; it is often common practice to ask new members of an organization to sign an AUP before they are given access to its information systems, just in case. For this reason, an AUP must be concise and clear. While at the same time covering the most important points about what users are, and are not allowed to do with the IT systems of an organization, it should refer users to the more comprehensive security policy where relevant. It should also, and very notably define what sanctions will be applied if a user breaks the AUP. Compliance with this policy should as usual, be measured by regular audits.

In some cases a fair usage policy applied to a service allowing nominally unlimited use for a fixed fee simply sets a cap on what may be used. This is intended to allow normal usage but, prevent what is considered excessive. For example, users of an "unlimited" broadband Internet service may be subject to suspension, termination, or bandwidth limiting for usage which is continually excessive, unfair, affects other users enjoyment of the broadband service. Also, it is not consistent with the usage typically expected on a particular access package.^[6] The policy is enforced directly, without legal proceedings.