Sue over data loss?
- Thread starter pnguyen
- Start date
You can sue for pretty much anything, but the bigger question is, what are your chances of winning the suit? Most provider's contracts limit your damage to a percentage of their hosting fees - not the value of your data.
I think it most serious cases, this will be up to the judge to decide.
In order to have a good chance you need: good reason (and valuable content), a good team of legal advisors and lots of free money laying around.
You can sue, but most likely they will have a well written TOS. Its also a waste of money hiring lawyers to handle your case, its very time consuming and expensive. I dont think its worth it on your part to sue the host.
You should always keep your own backup, thats the number one rule when it come down to hosting.
You should always keep your own backup, thats the number one rule when it come down to hosting.
I wouldn't agree with that.
If someone is paying a company money to keep their website online and running and then they go ahead and ruin that experience with costly downtime or data loss - there is a question of liability.
handsonhosting
New member
You'll want to pay close attention to TOS and AUP. If a site is shut down for abuse, then there's no fault on the host. If the host offers an SLA (Service Level Agreement) then you can usually get SOME sort of reimbursement, but usually only for hosting fees, not loss of revenue.
I don't know of any web host that has a TOS that allows you to sue them for potential money or data lost. Almost every TOS I've ever read states that users are responsible for their data and are responsible for making backups of said data. Hands-on is no exception to this. Depending on the incident we may refund up to 100% of that month's hosting fees, but it's a case by case basis.
I don't know of any web host that has a TOS that allows you to sue them for potential money or data lost. Almost every TOS I've ever read states that users are responsible for their data and are responsible for making backups of said data. Hands-on is no exception to this. Depending on the incident we may refund up to 100% of that month's hosting fees, but it's a case by case basis.
Zachary McClung
New member
My friend I'm going to back you up on this. When a client agrees to a terms of service, the client agrees that data backup is on the responsbility of the client. Due to the fact that most data cannot have a value put on to it, courts tend to not rule on it. Plus, if the data was worth that much to you that it was worth suing over, you should of had a disaster recovery plan and personal backup methods.
From cases and rulings I have seen, a judge will not rule on loss of revenue due to the fact that this cannot be easily determined.
csn-uk
CSN-UK | Charlie
I haven’t seen a court hearing regarding data loss or ever been present in one however as far as TOS is considered I’m yet to see any company who has not outlined their limitations of liability including that of data loss and responsibility for data backup and also forced agreement before allowing said client to purchase.
As far as backups and stability goes, from a legal stand point the client pays for the hard drive space and bandwidth space allocated over a set period of time that is based on no other SLA or agreements from the provider. Thus if the service is down between that set period then the cost of said service would be refundable and this is common practice with most providers.
Though unless there is a specific TOS or similar agreement ensuring the safety of data as well as its integrity I can’t see a judge based on most current TOS’s awarding damages even if this where quantifiable especially if such data loss was caused by an issue out of the hosts control (attacks, multiple hard drive or hardware failures) and many companies also include within their TOS that their full legal costs will be payable by the other side (client) upon the company winning said legal battle thus making it even more difficult to take said company to court.
The reason for this view is that of most TOS’s outline that there is no guarantee imposed, or implied by the company thus they are not held liable for data loss or corruption or subsequent loss of earnings, buildings or damages.
So as such id agree with both handsonhosting and Zachary, yet I cannot see any company look into webhosting without forward planning data recovery and backup, however many still seem to be of the impression “it will not happen to me” though they never seem to be bitten twice.
Though this is a very touch and go area, as without such TOS’s providers would be in court loosing thousands daily, however with which certain clients are left standed however the more important question to ask is “Do you read before you accept a TOS, Privacy Policy or any similar agreement?”
As far as backups and stability goes, from a legal stand point the client pays for the hard drive space and bandwidth space allocated over a set period of time that is based on no other SLA or agreements from the provider. Thus if the service is down between that set period then the cost of said service would be refundable and this is common practice with most providers.
Though unless there is a specific TOS or similar agreement ensuring the safety of data as well as its integrity I can’t see a judge based on most current TOS’s awarding damages even if this where quantifiable especially if such data loss was caused by an issue out of the hosts control (attacks, multiple hard drive or hardware failures) and many companies also include within their TOS that their full legal costs will be payable by the other side (client) upon the company winning said legal battle thus making it even more difficult to take said company to court.
The reason for this view is that of most TOS’s outline that there is no guarantee imposed, or implied by the company thus they are not held liable for data loss or corruption or subsequent loss of earnings, buildings or damages.
So as such id agree with both handsonhosting and Zachary, yet I cannot see any company look into webhosting without forward planning data recovery and backup, however many still seem to be of the impression “it will not happen to me” though they never seem to be bitten twice.
Though this is a very touch and go area, as without such TOS’s providers would be in court loosing thousands daily, however with which certain clients are left standed however the more important question to ask is “Do you read before you accept a TOS, Privacy Policy or any similar agreement?”
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You guys might be right, and there is no reason for me not to agree. But I am just dreaming on a much larger scale. For example, an ecommerce site like TigerDirect.com losing its data or going down for a couple of days due to provider's error. Are you saying that TigerDirect.com cannot take their provider to court and sue for damages if they pay them thousands of dollars to ensure website's security? Are you saying that whatever provider says in their terms is where their liability stops?
Hmmm.... this makes me want to research for some news stories or cases when I have some time. Just for competing spirit sake.
Hmmm.... this makes me want to research for some news stories or cases when I have some time. Just for competing spirit sake.
Good luck on your search, Artashes. The limitation clause isn't only in web hosting contracts. I've seen it in every contract cross industry going back to repairing typesetters in the 70's and 80's. If your data is that important, you absolutely need redundancy.
handsonhosting
New member
Tigerdirect is a great example. This is why they have a whole team of IT personel to take care of their own servers, and they have multiple servers all over the place so even if one did fail, others could pick it up. But I've never heard of someone being successful on prosectuion (other than in cases of hacking - but even then they hardly ever press it seems).
Zachary McClung
New member
You guys might be right, and there is no reason for me not to agree. But I am just dreaming on a much larger scale. For example, an ecommerce site like TigerDirect.com losing its data or going down for a couple of days due to provider's error. Are you saying that TigerDirect.com cannot take their provider to court and sue for damages if they pay them thousands of dollars to ensure website's security? Are you saying that whatever provider says in their terms is where their liability stops?
Hmmm.... this makes me want to research for some news stories or cases when I have some time. Just for competing spirit sake.
Artashes, I love dreams and arguments with them. I'm sure an enterprise level provider like Rack Space or Hosted Solutions (aka enterprise level) have different setups. I'm sure if you have enough money to burn that you can see anyone you want. The thing about it at the end of the day, if a client sues me, its not my lawyers going to the court room. Its the insurance company with my general liability policy. They aren't going to sit back and let a client win.
Now if a company was negligent and the client could prove negligent there is no doubt there is a suite there. Negligent is tough to prove in situations like this.
That's such a broad question. How much data are you talking about and what are your critical timelines?
The one HostingDiscussion.com has with HandsOnHosting.com is continuous backup (runs on R1Soft software), priceless when you need it.
It took us out of trouble a few times already (totally unexpected!)
Other that that, I HIGHLY advise to choose a hosting company that does daily backup, and preferably keeping the data on another server elsewhere.
Hydro_Host
New member
I think it could be a waste of time. It is in the terms and conditions of most hosting companies that they are not responsible for any loss of data. And you should probably take regular backups.
It's a pain but this is why the paperless office doesn't work!
It's a pain but this is why the paperless office doesn't work!
I love the term "Paperless Office." The advent of the personal computer was supposed to reduce the amount of paper used in offices, but it had the reverse effect for decades. The last few years have seen that trend reversed, and paper use is finally on the decline.
We do everything we can to protect the data of our customers offering both nightly onsite and offsite backups. Even though we go these lengths to protect the data it is still written in our TOS that we are not liable for the loss of data. There are just too many things that can happen. You should always keep a backup of your data. If your hosting provider is using cPanel its very simple to make a backup and download it to your home computer once a week or so.
John
John
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