Service Incident Policy

01Purpose and scope

This policy explains how Ident.ink handles material availability, integrity and security incidents. It applies to the platform services we operate. It does not turn public status information into a guaranteed service level or replace a separately signed service-level agreement.

02Incident classification

• Platform-caused: a defect, deployment, configuration or operational action within Ident.ink’s reasonable control materially degrades service.
• Provider or dependency: a payment, email, DNS, network, connected platform or other independent supplier fails or restricts service.
• External or non-human event: weather, fire, flood, power-grid failure, natural disaster, widespread internet routing fault or other event not caused by a person acting for either party.
• Hostile or user-caused: attack, abuse, compromised customer credential, unlawful workload, misconfiguration or action by a customer or third party.

03Evidence and independent verification

Classification is based on monitoring, immutable or access-controlled logs, provider notices, network evidence, deployment records and other reliable data. A claimed external or non-human cause is not accepted merely because it is asserted; where material to responsibility, we seek corroboration from an independent provider, public authority, monitoring source or other technically credible evidence.

A mixed-cause incident is allocated according to the contribution of each cause. Evidence can change the preliminary classification.

04Response priorities

We first protect people, contain security risk and prevent data loss; then restore the safest core path; then recover dependent features and reconcile delayed work. Risky workloads may remain isolated after general recovery. Temporary degraded operation may be used when it is safer than full restoration.

Containment may revoke sessions, rotate credentials, block a request class, isolate a tenant or workload, suspend publishing, or restrict an integration while evidence is preserved. Such action is not a finding of wrongdoing and is reviewed against proportionality, contractual duties and applicable law.

05Status communication

Material incidents are posted to status.ident.ink when confirmed and operationally safe to disclose. Updates describe affected services, observed impact and current stage without publishing details that would enable attack or compromise an investigation. Estimates are best current assessments, not guarantees.

A resolved notice means normal monitoring shows service restored; follow-up work or a retrospective may continue. Historical status entries may be corrected when evidence changes.

06Backups and recovery

Ident.ink uses layered process supervision, health checks, database backups and recovery procedures appropriate to the service. These controls reduce risk but cannot guarantee zero loss or immediate restoration. Customers must retain independent copies of critical content, keys and financial records.

07Customer continuity and critical use

Unless a signed service level expressly says otherwise, Ident.ink must not be the customer’s only copy, emergency communication channel, statutory record, safety system, payment evidence or business-continuity mechanism. The customer must maintain tested exports, alternative contacts and provider credentials appropriate to its risk.

Enterprise orders may define measured components, recovery objectives, support priority, failover cooperation and service credits. A target is not a guarantee unless the signed order expressly makes it one and identifies the remedy.

08Events outside reasonable control

Neither party is responsible for delay or failure caused by an event outside its reasonable control to the extent it could not reasonably be avoided or overcome, including independently evidenced non-human events, widespread infrastructure failure, government action, conflict, epidemic or major hostile attack. The affected party must take reasonable mitigation steps and resume performance when practicable.

This clause does not excuse payment already due, weakens no mandatory consumer right, and does not protect a party to the extent its inadequate preparation or own conduct caused the loss.

09Service credits

Credits are available only where an applicable plan or signed service-level agreement expressly promises them. Unless that agreement says otherwise, credits are calculated against the affected service fee, are not cash, cannot exceed that fee, and are the contractual availability remedy for a business customer without limiting liability that cannot lawfully be excluded.

Free, trial, promotional and partner access has no service-credit entitlement. Fraudulent, duplicate or incident-causing claims are rejected.

10Incident claim process

Submit the affected account, service, timestamps, observed error, region or network, and relevant evidence through Support. Never include passwords, complete card details or private keys. Claims are compared with monitoring and provider records. A status-page entry is useful evidence but does not by itself decide legal cause or entitlement.

11Customer-caused incidents

A business customer that causes a material incident through an unlawful workload, deliberate attack, credential sharing, grossly unsafe configuration or breach of an agreed technical limit is responsible for reasonable evidenced direct containment and restoration costs to the extent legally recoverable and caused by it. Ordinary mistakes handled within normal support do not create an automatic charge.

Ident.ink must mitigate avoidable loss and provide an itemised basis before seeking recovery. No disputed incident cost is automatically charged to a saved payment method, and mandatory consumer rights remain unaffected.

12Post-incident improvement

For significant incidents we review detection, containment, recovery and prevention. Actions may include tests, fail-safes, dependency changes, capacity work and documentation. Security-sensitive detail may remain confidential. Material platform changes are summarised through transparency records where appropriate.