Specops Authentication Terms of Service

Specops Software (“Specops”) is happy to welcome your (“Licensee”) organization to the Specops Authentication cloud and the services (“Services”) offered via its platform. Your use of Specops Authentication and its Services, whether trial (free) or subscription (paid) is subject to the following terms. By using Specops Authentication and any related Services you agree to be bound by these terms.

Customer Account

In order to use the Specops Authentication Services you must register a customer account (“Account”). The Account represents the Licensee, and the Licensee’s organization, and enables the use of the Services in an associated Active Directory domain. The Account registration details must always contain:

  1. A customer name accurately reflecting the name of the Licensee or Licensee’s organization.
  2. An associated email domain(s) registered to the Licensee, the Licensee’s organization, or an authorized agent or representative of the organization.
  3. A valid email address where Specops can reach the contact responsible for the Licensee’s Account.

If you are creating an Account on behalf of a legal entity other than yourself, this represents and warrants that you are authorized to do so. Specops holds the Account responsible for any actions taken in Specops Authentication by the users or administrators registered to the Account. The Terms of Service may change, as required, in response to changes in Specops Authentication or any associated services and technologies. Notifications of such changes will be sent to the registered administrator for each Account.

Specops Authentication Services

The Specops Authentication Services include Specops Authentication for O365, Specops Key Recovery, Specops Secure Service Desk, and Specops uReset. The Services are made available to the Licensee and the Licensee’s organization for evaluation purposes, or as part of a paid subscription agreement. The Licensee is only entitled to use the Services as is permitted according to the Licensee’s subscription agreement with Specops.

Using the functionality in Specops Authentication may require the Licensee to access other services not provided by Specops. Such Services, and the Licensee’s relationship with them, are the sole responsibility of their respective owners, trademarks, and the entities that make them available.

The Licensee may not intentionally misuse or interfere with the operation of the Specops Authentication platform, or attempt to access the Services through means other than the tools provided by Specops. Furthermore, the Licensee may only use Specops Authentication and the associated Services as permitted by applicable law. Specops may modify, limit, suspend or terminate the Licensee’s access to Specops Authentication and the Services at any time if the Licensee does not comply with our Terms of Service, or while Specops is investigating suspected misconduct.

Service Availability

Specops makes every commercially reasonable effort to ensure that the Services are available for use at all times. Acceptable exceptions to availability may still be caused by:

  1. Planned downtime (as communicated to the registered administrator for the Licensee’s Account at least 24 hours in advance).
  2. Circumstances beyond Specops’ reasonable control, including, but not limited to, disasters such as fire, flooding or earthquakes, civil unrest, acts of government, acts of terror, internet service provider failures or denial of service attacks.

In the event of a service interruption, Specops will make every reasonable effort to quickly restore full service availability.

Free Evaluation

The Specops Authentication Services can be trialed for up to 10 Active Directory user accounts registered to the Licensee’s customer account. During such conditions, Specops grants the Licensee and the Licensee’s organization a limited, nonexclusive, non-assignable and non-transferable subscription to access the Services in Specops Authentication and utilize the underlying software for the sole purpose of evaluating any of the supported Services.

This license is offered free of charge, however, Specops reserves the right to modify, limit, suspend or terminate such access at any time, without notice to the Licensee or the Licensee’s organization. Should your Account exceed 10 registered Active Directory user accounts, the Licensee’s trial subscription will no longer be valid, and the Licensee will be asked to contact Specops to obtain a paid subscription agreement in accordance to the Specops License Agreement and the Specops Support and Maintenance Agreement.

Privacy

Specops considers the privacy of the Licensee and the Licensee’s organization to be of the upmost importance. In order to create a customer account or trial any of the Specops Authentication Services, the following information is collected in order for the Licensee to gain access to the service:

  • Organization’s name
  • Organization’s domain name
  • Primary Contact Name and Email
  • Cloud Account(s) Email, Mobile Number, and Password Hash

This collected information is never shared with third-parties. It is only collected for the sole purpose of activating and maintaining the service. Registering or enrolling organization’s users to any of the Specops Authentication Services, may require the Licensee to register information to connect the organization’s Active Directory user account with user accounts belonging to other systems and services. Such information is not stored in the Specops Authentication server environment, but rather in the Active Directory service where the Licensee’s user accounts reside.

A Cloud Account is required to complete the setup of the service before the Gatekeeper is installed in Active Directory. This account facilitates Gatekeeper management and can only be used to register (or unregister) the Gatekeeper, or to create additional Cloud Accounts. It does not have access to Active Directory.

All the information stored in this way is encrypted in order to further protect the Licensee’s personal privacy, even from administrators within the Licensee’s organization. All network traffic within the solution is encrypted to ensure that outside parties cannot intercept them. Specops does not use or access any information supplied by the Licensee for any purpose other than enabling the Licensee to use the Services provided by Specops Authentication. For further clarification, Specops Authentication or any of its Services do not:

  1. Control or intercept any user credentials passed between the identity services they choose to use to identify with the Specops Authentication Services.
  2. Collect or store any passwords.
  3. Monitor user activity in the identity services they choose to use to identify with the Specops Authentication Services.

Specops strongly urges the Licensee to audit the information used to register with Specops Authentication and related Services to ensure that information not being used is not maintained in the system.

Intellectual Property Rights

Access to Specops Authentication, regardless of the licensing option, does not transfer any intellectual property rights in the underlying software or the content of the Services to the Licensee or the Licensee’s organization. All logotypes, trademarks and other content in Specops Authentication is protected by copyright law, and belongs to their respective owners.

SMS Messages and Other Consumable Services

Depending on the configuration made by the administrator of an Account, the Specops Authentication Services may need to communicate with registered users of the Account by SMS messages sent to their mobile phones.

By registering with the Specops Authentication Services, each individual consents to receiving such messages as configured by the administrator of the Account. SMS messages and other consumable services in the Specops Authentication Services also carry a fee per usage. Such fees are normally included in the License Agreement, which also regulates the number of included messages per license on a monthly basis. Organizations exceeding the included number of messages will be billed separately for excessive traffic.

Specops cannot assume any responsibility for the accuracy of the SMS configuration in your Account. Specops strongly urges the Licensee to plan such configurations carefully and consider the full implications before enabling these settings.

Disclaimer of Warranty

At Specops we always use our best effort to ensure that our software and services work as documented. However, we cannot guarantee that the Licensee will find them useful for purposes, or requirements. The Services are provided “as is” and “as available”. At all times, the Licensee remains responsible for their use of our Services and assume all risk and liability for all consequences following from it.

SPECOPS DISCLAIMS ALL EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, REPRESENTATIONS AND/OR CONDITIONS, HOWSOEVER ARISING, TO THE FULL EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.

Limitation of Liability

TO THE FULL EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, SPECOPS SHALL NOT BE LIABLE TO ANY PERSON FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR ECONOMIC LOSSES OF ANY KIND ARISING FROM OR RELATING IN ANY WAY TO THE POSSESSION, INSTALLATION OR USE OF OUR SOFTWARE AND SERVICES.

IN NO EVENT SHALL SPECOPS’ LIABILITY, HOWSOEVER ARISING, EXCEED THE AMOUNT OF THE LICENSE FEE PAID FOR USING SPECOPS AUTHENTICATION AND ITS RELATED SERVICES.

For greater certainty, the word “Specops” as used herein, shall mean Specops, its related companies and affiliates, its and their shareholders, officers, agents and employees.

Severability

The invalidity in whole or in part of any of these terms shall not affect the validity of any other term, which shall remain in effect and be revised and interpreted as may be required to make it lawful and enforceable.

Governing Law and Dispute Resolution

Any dispute surrounding the use of the Services shall be handled in accordance with the governing law and dispute resolution terms laid out in the Software License Agreement between Specops and your organization.