Acceptable Use Policy

The purpose of this policy is to outline the acceptable use of computer equipment and the network at CodeREADr. These rules are in place to protect our employees and customers. Inappropriate use exposes our information systems to risks including virus attacks, compromise of network systems and services, data loss, intellectual property theft, and legal liability.

This policy applies to the use of information, electronic and computing devices, and network resources to conduct our business or interact with our internal networks and business systems, whether owned or leased by our company, the employee, or a third party. All employees, contractors, consultants, temporary, and other workers at CodeREADr and its subsidiaries are responsible for exercising good judgment regarding appropriate use of information, electronic devices, and network resources in accordance with our published policies and standards, and local laws and regulation.

1. Our proprietary information stored on electronic and computing devices whether owned or leased by our company, the employee, or a third party, remains the sole property of CodeREADr. You must ensure through legal or technical means that proprietary information is protected in accordance with the Information Security Policy.

2. Employees have a responsibility to promptly report the theft, loss, or unauthorized disclosure of our information assets to the DPO.

3. Employees may access, use or share our proprietary information only to the extent it is authorized and necessary to fulfill your assigned job duties.

4. Employees are responsible for exercising good judgment regarding the reasonableness of personal use.

5. For security and network maintenance purposes, authorized individuals within our company may monitor equipment, systems, and network traffic at any time, per CodeREADr Information Security Policy.

6. We reserve the right to audit computers, networks, and systems on a periodic basis to ensure compliance with this policy.

1. All mobile and computing devices that connect to the internal network must comply with the Vendor Access Policy in the Information Security Policy and Network Usage Policy.

2. System-level and user-level passwords must comply with the Password Policy. Providing access to another individual, either deliberately or through failure to secure its access, is prohibited.

3. All computing devices must be secured with a password-protected screensaver with the automatic activation feature set to 10 minutes or less. You must lock the screen or log off when the device is unattended.

4. Postings to newsgroups should contain a disclaimer stating that “The opinions expressed are strictly their own and not necessarily those of CodeREADr” unless posting is in the course of business duties.

5. Employees must use extreme caution when opening e-mail attachments received from unknown senders, which may contain malware.

The following activities are, in general, prohibited. Employees may be exempted from these restrictions during the course of their legitimate job responsibilities. Under no circumstances is an employee of CodeREADr authorized to engage in any activity that is illegal under local, state, federal, or international law while utilizing company-owned resources. The lists below are by no means exhaustive, but attempt to provide a framework for activities that fall into the category of unacceptable use.

A) Prohibited System and Network Activities

The following activities are strictly prohibited, with no exceptions:

1. Violations of the rights of any person or company protected by copyright, trade secret, patent or other intellectual property, or similar laws or regulations, including, but not limited to, the installation or distribution of software products that are not appropriately licensed for use by our organization.

2. Unauthorized copying of copyrighted material including, but not limited to, digitization and distribution of photographs from magazines, books, or other copyrighted sources, copyrighted music, and the installation of any copyrighted software for which our organization or the end-user does not have an active license are strictly prohibited.

3. Accessing data, a server, or a customer account for any purpose other than conducting company business, even if you have authorized access, is prohibited.

4. Exporting software, technical information, encryption software, or technology, in violation of international or regional export control laws, is illegal.

5. Introduction of malicious programs into the network or server (e.g., viruses, worms, Trojan horses, e-mail bombs, etc.).

6. Revealing your account password to others or allowing the use of your account by others. This includes family and other household members when work is being done at home.

7. Using a company computing asset to actively engage in procuring or transmitting material that is in violation of sexual harassment or hostile workplace laws in the user’s local jurisdiction.

8. Making fraudulent offers of products, items, or services.

9. Making statements about warranty, expressly or implied, unless it is a part of normal job duties.

10. Effecting security breaches or disruptions of network communication. Security breaches include, but are not limited to, accessing data of which the employee is not an intended recipient or logging into a server or account that the employee is not expressly authorized to access unless these duties are within the scope of regular duties. For purposes of this section, “disruption” includes, but is not limited to, network sniffing, pinged floods, packet spoofing, denial of service, and forged routing information for malicious purposes.

11. Port scanning or security scanning is expressly prohibited unless prior notification to the DPO is made.

12. Executing any form of network monitoring which will intercept data not intended for the employee’s host, unless this activity is a part of the employee’s normal job/duty.

13. Circumventing user authentication or security of any host, network, or account.

14. Introducing honeypots, honeynets, or similar technology on our corporate network.

15. Interfering with or denying service to any user other than the employee’s host (for example, denial of service attack).

16. Using any program/script/command, or sending messages of any kind, with the intent to interfere with, or disable, a user’s terminal session, via any means, locally or via the Internet/Intranet/Extranet.

17. Providing information about, or lists of, our employees to parties outside our company.

18. Cryptocurrency mining or trading with personal accounts

19. File sharing on a file-sharing network.

B) Email and Communication Activities

When using company resources to access and use the Internet, users must realize they represent the company. Whenever employees state an affiliation to the company, they must also clearly indicate that “the opinions expressed are my own and not necessarily those of the company”.

1. Sending unsolicited email messages, including the sending of “junk mail” or other advertising material to individuals who did not specifically request such material (email spam).

2. Any form of harassment via email, telephone, or paging, whether through language, frequency, or size of messages.

3. Unauthorized use, or forging, of email header information.

4. Solicitation of email for any other email address, other than that of the poster’s account, with the intent to harass or to collect replies.

5. Creating or forwarding “chain letters”, “Ponzi” or other “pyramid” schemes of any type.

6. Use of unsolicited email originating from within CodeREADr’s networks of other Internet/Intranet/Extranet service providers on behalf of, or to advertise, any service hosted by our organization or connected to our network.

7. Posting the same or similar non-business-related messages to large numbers of Usenet newsgroups (newsgroup spam).

C) Blogging and Social Media

1. Blogging by employees, whether using company property and systems or personal computer systems, is also subject to the terms and restrictions set forth in this Policy. Limited and occasional use of company systems to engage in blogging is acceptable, provided that it is done in a professional and responsible manner, does not otherwise violate any company policy, is not detrimental to our best interests, and does not interfere with an employee’s regular work duties. Blogging from company systems is also subject to monitoring.

2. Our Confidential Information policy also applies to blogging. As such, employees are prohibited from revealing any company or customer confidential or proprietary information, trade secrets, or any other material covered by our Confidential Information policy when engaged in blogging.

3. Employees shall not engage in any blogging that may harm or tarnish the image, reputation, and/or goodwill of CodeREADr and/or any of its employees. Employees are also prohibited from making any discriminatory, disparaging, defamatory, or harassing comments when blogging or otherwise engaging in any conduct which is prohibited.

4. Employees may also not attribute personal statements, opinions, or beliefs to CodeREADr when engaged in blogging. If an employee is expressing his or her beliefs and/or opinions in blogs, the employee may not, expressly or implicitly, represent themselves as an employee or representative of CodeREADr. Employees assume any and all risks associated with blogging.

5. Apart from following all laws pertaining to the handling and disclosure of copyrighted or export controlled materials, our trademarks, logos, and any other  intellectual property may also not be used in connection with any blogging activity

The DPO will verify compliance to this policy through various methods, including but not limited to, business tool reports, internal and external audits, and feedback to the policy owner. Any exception to the policy must be approved by the DPO in advance. An employee found to have violated this policy may be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination of employment.