An acceptable use policy (AUP; also known as acceptable usage policy or Fair Use Policy) is a set of rules applied by the owner/manager of a network, website or large computer system that restrict the ways in which the network site or system may be used. AUP documents are written for corporations, businesses, universities, schools, internet service providers, and website owners 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 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. 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.
Read more about Acceptable Use Policy: Terminology, Common Elements of AUP Statements, Enforceability
Famous quotes containing the words acceptable and/or policy:
“Our lives laid down in war and peace may not
Be found acceptable in Heaven’s sight.
And that they may be is the only prayer
Worth praying. May my sacrifice
Be found acceptable in Heaven’s sight.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“We are apt to say that a foreign policy is successful only when the country, or at any rate the governing class, is united behind it. In reality, every line of policy is repudiated by a section, often by an influential section, of the country concerned. A foreign minister who waited until everyone agreed with him would have no foreign policy at all.”
—A.J.P. (Alan John Percivale)