Terms of Service

1. Introduction and parties

These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern access to and use of the OSS Cloud customer portal and related services operated by OSS Technologies (Pty) Ltd ("OSS", "we", "us"), including Secure DNS and any other services we make available through portal.oss.co.za.

By registering an account, completing a purchase, or using any service, you agree to these Terms and our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not use the services.

Company registration number will be stated on tax invoices when available. This document is not a substitute for independent legal advice.

2. Eligibility and account registration

• You must be at least 18 years old, or use the service under the authority of a parent/guardian or juristic entity that accepts these Terms.
• You must provide accurate registration information and keep it current.
• You are responsible for safeguarding login credentials. DNS access tokens (DoH path identifiers) are credentials: treat them as secrets and do not publish them.
• Notify us promptly of suspected unauthorised access to your account or tokens.
• We may suspend or terminate accounts that provide false information, fail payment validation, or abuse the service.
• Registration may be protected by automated abuse controls (for example Cloudflare Turnstile).

3. Services

OSS Cloud is a multi-service platform. Services offered through the portal include Secure DNS and Domain Hosting for .za names. Secure DNS is encrypted DNS resolution (DNS-over-HTTPS) accessed using a customer-specific path credential (the "DNS access token" or DoH path ID), as documented in the portal Help guides. Domain Hosting is described in section 3.3.

• Services are provided on a prepaid subscription basis for a defined period (currently annual for Secure DNS unless stated otherwise at checkout).
• A DNS access credential is issued or extended only after verified payment confirmation from our payment provider.
• Registration alone does not activate paid DNS access.
• We may introduce additional services (including higher-capacity or business tiers); service-specific terms and pricing will be shown at purchase.

3.1 Secure DNS — Standard plan (scope of use)

The Standard Secure DNS plan is intended for ordinary residential or small single-site use: typically one household or one primary network location using the DNS access token on a reasonable number of end-user devices under your control (for example devices behind a single home or small office router).

• You must not share, sell, publish, or redistribute the DNS access token to third parties, or use it to provide DNS resolution as a service to others.
• You must not use the Standard plan token as a shared credential across multiple independent servers, data centres, sites, or commercial multi-user platforms.
• Concurrent use from many distinct public source addresses, high concurrent connection counts, or sustained query rates that are inconsistent with ordinary single-site use may be treated as outside the Standard plan.
• Where we reasonably determine that use exceeds Standard plan limits, we may require you to move to a Business (or other higher) tier with capacity and support appropriate to that use, and/or apply rate limits, warnings, suspension, or revocation of the token until the account is aligned with an appropriate plan.

3.2 Secure DNS — support level

Unless a separate written service level agreement (SLA) is agreed for your account, Secure DNS on the Standard plan is provided on a commercially reasonable efforts / best-effort basis. OSS aims to operate resilient, redundant infrastructure, but the Standard plan does not include a contractual uptime guarantee, guaranteed response times, or dedicated support desk commitments.

Support for Standard plan customers is limited to reasonable assistance via the published support channels during ordinary business handling of tickets, without guaranteed resolution times. Higher support commitments, if any, apply only under a Business or other plan that expressly includes them.

3.3 Domain Hosting

Domain Hosting lets you register, renew, transfer and manage DNS for names we sponsor or host, currently .co.za and the other .za second-level domains shown at checkout. OSS Technologies is an accredited registrar with the .ZA Registry Consortium (ZARC). The registry, not OSS, is the final authority on a name.

• A new registration or a renewal is R99 including VAT for one year, unless the portal shows a different price at checkout. Transfer in from another registrar is R0 at ZARC. Hosting the DNS on our nameservers does not by itself make OSS the registrar.
• Payment is prepaid, by Paystack or bank EFT. The name is created at ZARC only after payment is confirmed. A declined, cancelled or incomplete payment does not create the name and does not entitle you to a second charge.
• You are the registrant (owner). Your email must already be verified on the account. OSS is the admin and technical contact. You warrant that you are authorised to register the name and to use any trade or service marks associated with it.
• We create the DNS zone on our nameservers before we send the create to ZARC. ZARC may place a new name on serverHold until those nameservers answer from the internet. That hold is cleared by ZARC, not by the portal. Contact updates are blocked while it is in place.
• A change to registrant details is subject to ZARC's mandatory 5-day pending period before it completes. OSS may reverse a registrant update that was made without the consent of the authorised registrant.
• A transfer in requires the name to be unlocked at the current registrar and the EPP authorisation code. ZARC emails the current registrant. The transfer completes only after that approval and the registry window. A name that was just created cannot be transferred immediately.
• Renewal is one year and requires the expiry we hold to match ZARC. A mismatch stops the renew. We do not auto-renew.
• Delete is sent to ZARC first. The name leaves your portal list only after ZARC confirms. A grace period applies. Cancelling a pending action is available from the portal where ZARC allows it.
• DNS records you publish may point anywhere. A parked name points at our default park page. That page is not website hosting.
• Domain Hosting is provided on a best-effort basis. We do not guarantee that ZARC will accept a create, transfer or update, or that a name will leave serverHold within a stated time.

4. Acceptable use and abuse monitoring

You may use the services only for lawful purposes. You must not:

• Attempt to probe, bypass, or reverse engineer access controls, tokens, or infrastructure.
• Share, sell, publish, or circulate DNS access tokens except as permitted under the applicable plan (see section 3.1).
• Use the service to distribute malware, operate botnets, conduct phishing, or attack third parties.
• Generate abusive, automated, or excessive query volumes that degrade the service for others or that exceed plan limits.
• Misrepresent affiliation with OSS or use our marks without permission.
• Violate applicable South African or other binding law.

OSS monitors service usage (including query rates, concurrent connections, and source-address patterns associated with a DNS access token) to protect the platform, enforce plan limits, and investigate abuse. We may suspend access immediately where we reasonably believe abuse, fraud, non-payment, plan-limit breach, or security risk exists.

Where excess use appears to be legitimate commercial or multi-site demand rather than malicious abuse, we will ordinarily invite an upgrade to an appropriate tier before permanent revocation, but we may apply interim rate limits to protect the service.

5. Fees, payment, and invoices

• Prices are in South African Rand (ZAR) and are shown inclusive of VAT unless we state otherwise.
• Secure DNS standard plan is currently billed as a prepaid annual fee as displayed at checkout (currently R138.00 incl. VAT unless updated on the portal).
• Domain registration and domain renewal are currently R99.00 incl. VAT for one year, as displayed at checkout. Domain transfer in is R0.
• Payment may be collected via Paystack or bank EFT, or another provider we nominate. Payment is due before activation or renewal of the relevant service period.
• Card and other sensitive payment details are collected by the payment provider. OSS does not store full card numbers on the portal.
• A successful payment generates a transaction record; a tax invoice may be issued electronically for download in the portal.
• Failed, cancelled, declined, or incomplete payments do not activate or extend service.

6. Refunds and cooling-off

Where the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 (CPA) or other mandatory law grants a cooling-off or refund right, that right applies. Subject to mandatory law:

• Digital services that have been fully provisioned (credential issued and service usable) may be non-refundable after activation, except where required by law or where OSS agrees otherwise in writing.
• If payment is taken in error, or service cannot be provisioned for reasons attributable to OSS, we will refund or re-provision within a reasonable time.
• Chargebacks initiated without contacting support may result in suspension pending investigation.

Refund requests: accounts@oss.co.za or support@oss.co.za, with your payment reference and account email.

7. Service levels and changes

Unless a separate written SLA states otherwise, services (including Standard Secure DNS) are provided on a commercially reasonable efforts / best-effort basis as described in section 3.2. We do not guarantee uninterrupted DNS resolution, zero false positives or negatives in any filtering, or fitness for a particular high-availability design, even where infrastructure is engineered for resilience.

We may modify features, endpoints, filters, or plan limits to maintain security, performance, or legal compliance. Material adverse changes to paid features will be communicated via the portal or email where practical.

8. Privacy and data protection

Personal information is processed as described in our Privacy Policy, which forms part of these Terms.

9. Intellectual property

The portal, documentation, software, trademarks, and related materials remain the property of OSS or its licensors. You receive a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable right to use the services for your internal purposes during a paid term.

10. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by South African law (including the CPA where applicable):

• OSS is not liable for indirect, incidental, special, or consequential loss, including lost profits, lost data, or business interruption.
• OSS is not liable for third-party network failures, client misconfiguration, or disclosure of tokens by the customer.
• Our aggregate liability arising out of these Terms or the services in any 12-month period is limited to the fees you paid to OSS for the affected service in the three (3) months preceding the claim.
• Nothing in these Terms excludes liability that cannot lawfully be excluded.

11. Suspension and termination

• You may stop using the service at any time; prepaid periods generally run to expiry unless refunded under these Terms or law.
• We may suspend or terminate for non-payment, breach, legal compulsion, or material security risk.
• On termination or expiry, DNS tokens may be revoked and portal access to paid features removed.

12. Notices

Notices may be given via the portal, email to the address on your account, or publication on oss.co.za / portal.oss.co.za.

13. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa. Courts of South Africa have jurisdiction, without limiting any mandatory consumer dispute mechanisms available to you.

14. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. The "Last updated" date will change. Continued use after notice constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms to the extent permitted by law.

15. Contact