Acceptable use policy generator for apps, hosting and online services

How to use the acceptable use policy generator

1. Enter Business or legal name, Website, Contact email, an optional Postal address and the Effective date.
2. Type the Service name, such as “Northwind Cloud”. The policy uses it instead of your website address.
3. Untick any of the ten activities that do not fit, for example Scraping or Overloading or disrupting the Service. All are ticked by default.
4. Add your own rules in Other prohibited activities (one per line).
5. Choose Enforcement (Graduated (warning first) or Immediate suspension), set the Abuse reports email, then copy or download acceptable-use-policy.md.

What it does and when to use it

Use it for a SaaS product, hosting or cloud service, community forum, API or any service where users can upload content or use your resources. The policy states the prohibited activities, then adds fixed sections on account security (including private reporting of vulnerabilities), enforcement, reporting illegal activity to authorities where required, and how to report misuse.

It does not cover content-moderation procedures, appeals, notices to users whose content is removed, rate limits in numbers, or law-enforcement request handling. For EU users, Article 14 of the Digital Services Act asks intermediary services to explain the grounds for restricting their service, including their moderation policies, in their terms. Write that part yourself. For copyright complaints you send to others, see the DMCA notice generator.

How it works

Each ticked box adds one full sentence to the “Prohibited activities” list; your extra lines follow in the order you typed them. The tool runs in your browser and nothing is uploaded. If Abuse reports email is empty, the reporting section uses your contact email. The Enforcement choice selects one of two paragraphs.

Worked examples

Cloud host, defaults. All ten activities are listed, followed by your extra rule - Mining cryptocurrency on shared servers. Enforcement is graduated, and the reporting section reads “To report a breach of this policy, email [abuse@northwind.example]”.

Strict service. Enforcement Immediate suspension, Scraping and the child-safety item unticked, no extra rules and no abuse email. The list shrinks to eight items, and enforcement reads: “If we believe you have broken this policy, we may remove content and suspend or terminate your access immediately, without notice.” Reports now go to the contact email.

Limits and tips

• Keep the child-safety item. Untick it only if you replace it with your own stronger wording.
• Add a full stop. Extra rules are copied exactly, so end each line with a full stop to match the built-in items.
• An empty selection falls back to one general line. With every box unticked and no extra rules, the section says only that the Service must not be used in a way that breaks the law or your terms of service; add your own rules instead.
• Laws differ by country. Treat the output as a draft for review.