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= Vultr =
{{ToneWarning|Needs to be written in a more neutral tone of voice.}}
{{InfoboxProductLine
{{CompanyCargo
| Title = Vultr
|Founded=2014
| Release Year = 2014
|Industry=Cloud computing
| Product Type = Cloud Hosting
|Logo=Vultr.png
| In Production = Yes
|ParentCompany=
| Official Website = https://www.vultr.com
|Type=Private
| Logo = Vultr.png
|Website=https://vultr.com/
|Description=
}}
}}


* Vultr is a company established in 2014 that provides a plethora of cloud hosting services.
'''{{Wplink|Vultr}}''', founded in 2014, is an American cloud service company. Among those cloud services are storage, servers, and databases.
==Consumer impact summary==
{{Ph-C-CIS}}


As quoted from their website:
'''Privacy:''' Vultr collects industry-standard information necessary to provide the service, including registration and billing information, as well as IP addresses. It also collects usage data when interacting with their services (this does not include the user's data stored on their servers). Vultr's privacy policy states that the information is used to improve their services and shared with third parties for marketing purposes, including targeted advertisements.<ref>{{Cite web |author= |title=Legal: Privacy |url=https://www.vultr.com/legal/privacy/ |website=Vultr |date=10 Dec 2025 |access-date=22 Feb 2026 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20260115003714/https://www.vultr.com/legal/privacy/ |archive-date=15 Jan 2026}}</ref>


"Vultr, founded in 2014, is on a mission to empower developers and businesses by simplifying the deployment of infrastructure via its advanced cloud platform. Vultr is strategically located in 32 datacenters around the globe and provides frictionless provisioning of public cloud, storage and single-tenant bare metal.
'''Transparency:''' Vultr has had major issues regarding its transparency in the past.{{Citation needed}} Their compliance with information security best practices, verified routinely by external audits, has earned the company multiple industry-recognized certifications and attestations such as [https://secureframe.com/hub/soc-2/what-is-soc-2 SOC 2 Type II] and [https://www.iso.org/standard/27001 ISO 27001].<ref>{{Cite web |author= |title=Security and Compliance |url=https://www.vultr.com/legal/compliance/ |website=Vultr |date= |access-date=15 Mar 2025 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250328093828/https://www.vultr.com/legal/compliance/ |archive-date=28 Mar 2025}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |author= |title=Announcing Vultr's New ISO Certifications |url=https://blogs.vultr.com/Announcing-Vultrs-New-ISO-Certifications |website=Vultr |date= |access-date=15 Mar 2025 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241213132458/https://blogs.vultr.com/Announcing-Vultrs-New-ISO-Certifications |archive-date=13 Dec 2024}}</ref> As explained below, Vultr is quite suspicious due to the rights it claimed in the past over user content and the license it granted itself to manage that data, which users store on Vultr's servers. Right now, the wording of those policies is unclear.


Vultr has made it our priority to offer a standardized highly reliable high performance cloud compute environment in all of the cities we serve. Launching a cloud server environment in 32 cities around the globe has never been easier."
==Incidents==
===Vultr amends its terms of service (''2024'')===
<!-- This likely should be changed to a summary and the majority moved to an incident article. -Sojourna -->
Initially, Vultr's [[terms of service]] (TOS) declared the following content policy for users in clause 5.1:<ref name="tos_2016">{{Cite web |author= |title=Legal |url=https://www.vultr.com/legal/tos/ |website=Vultr |date= |access-date= |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160419054251/https://www.vultr.com/legal/tos/ |archive-date=19 Apr 2016}}</ref>
<blockquote>“As between You and Vultr, Vultr acknowledges that it claims no proprietary rights in or to the content (including, without limitation, text, software, music, sound, audio visual works, motion pictures, photographs, animation, video, and graphics) supplied by You for use on Your website ("Your Content"). You hereby grant to Vultr a non-exclusive, worldwide and royalty-free license to copy, make derivative works, display, perform, use, broadcast, and transmit on and via the Internet Your Content, solely for the benefit of You and to enable Vultr to perform its obligations hereunder.”</blockquote>


* Among those cloud services are storage, servers, and databases.
In June 2021, Vultr rewrote large portions of its TOS, moving clause 5.1 to 15(c), and adding the following content policy under clause ''12.1(a)''<ref name="tos_2021">{{Cite web |author=
|title=Legal Section 12: User Content |url=https://www.vultr.com/legal/tos/#tos_12 |website=Vultr |date= |access-date= |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210729200233/https://www.vultr.com/legal/tos/#tos_12 |archive-date=29 Jul 2021}}</ref>, which would become highly controversial:
<blockquote>“You hereby grant to Vultr a non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, fully paid-up, worldwide license (including the right to sublicense through multiple tiers) to use, reproduce, process, adapt, publicly perform, publicly display, modify, prepare derivative works, publish, transmit and distribute each of your User Content, or any portion thereof, in any form, medium or distribution method now known or hereafter existing, known or developed, and otherwise use and commercialize the User Content in any way that Vultr deems appropriate, without any further consent, notice and/or compensation to you or to any third parties, for purposes of providing the Services to you.”</blockquote>


== Consumer Protection Profile ==
In addition to this, a new statement appeared in the ''Terms of Service Highlights'' which strongly implies that users implicitly "agree" to any existing or new terms every time they use Vultr's services:<ref name="tos_2021" />
<blockquote>“Each time you access and/or use the Services, you agree to be bound by these Terms and any Additional Terms that apply to you.”</blockquote>


==== Privacy<ref>https://www.vultr.com/legal/privacy/?__cf_chl_jschl_tk__=8910af59e90ae80f4503ba6a9ee8f3916fcba7a6-1608455691-0-ATlJ5idbCUsgq1JDcdebhpsz5ie8GidxxT2GaSAyUz71kTeD7x0I3BLOzikTpbJWGvhaZ-CF2zWPtgVTrK0M1oM8IxZAU-YUC_Vju7m0mmywzoTA6shTPv----7dCfUqiUWlAI29zOcldW_1Cc-4hZhqUXPXBm83kk4F9XqZXFG4Kp_jTlWfJpUVUSNiw2n4i6nNpSYA1MPi5iqNgGkjHqTswtDb2915Of6Izm-_lweiTOcTHuCbnXOKt9jiovRyxu0ChJ-mUSr67p-0JJw8MWaMXzHn8GuOwXoBFU5SK0E-ZKRdvJo91V6UDb4oMHvjkqJoPaXZJ2cRvZuUeZRzXYPi8tN4nMfmtWxNMLppr3Cy66YXuMIxrgFZZvBusRHYqQ</ref> ====
Despite this remark, Vultr occasionally asks users to reaffirm their acceptance of those terms.


* Vultr collects industry standard information necessary to use the service such including registration information, billing information, and IP addresses.
In March 2024, Vultr asked users to accept its new terms, including clause 12.1(a) mentioned above.<ref name="vultr_blog">{{Cite web |author= |title=A Note About Vultr's Terms of Service |url=https://blogs.vultr.com/a-note-about-vultrs-terms-of-service |website=Vultr |date=29 Mar 2024 |access-date=22 Feb 2026 |url-status=live |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20250708192330/https://blogs.vultr.com/a-note-about-vultrs-terms-of-service |archive-date=8 Jul 2025}}</ref> This sparked outrage among users, who hadn't noticed the 12.1(a) policy until 2024, three years after its debut (as is typical for [[hidden EULA language]]). The most notable complaint came from a [[Reddit]] post claiming that Vultr has the right to use user data for training artificial intelligence.<ref>{{Cite web |author=WyvernCo |title=Warning: Vultr (a major cloud provider) is now claiming full perpetual commercial rights over all hosted content |url=https://old.reddit.com/r/selfhosted/comments/1bouuv7/warning_vultr_a_major_cloud_provider_is_now/ |website=[[Reddit]] |date=27 Mar 2024 |access-date=15 Mar 2025 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250520082633/https://old.reddit.com/r/selfhosted/comments/1bouuv7/warning_vultr_a_major_cloud_provider_is_now/ |archive-date=20 May 2025}}</ref> In response to the criticism, Vultr's legal team altered clause 12.1(a) the next day (after the post) to delete the offending paragraph.<ref>{{Cite web |author= |title=Legal Section 12: User Content |url=https://www.vultr.com/legal/tos/#tos_12 |website=Vultr |date= |access-date=15 Mar 2025 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240328233729/https://www.vultr.com/legal/tos/#tos_12 |archive-date=28 Mar 2024}}</ref>
* Vultr also collects usage data when interacting with their services. This does not seem to include the user's data stored on their servers.
* Vultr uses cookies to college information when the user visits their website.
* Information Vultr collects is used to improve their services and shared with third-parties for marketing purposes including targeted advertisements.


==== Transparency ====
The user backlash also provoked an official response from Vultr in which the company wrote:<ref name="vultr_blog" />
<blockquote>“We value the feedback we receive from our customers, and we want to assure you that Vultr claims no rights to your content. Vultr has never claimed any rights to, used, accessed, nor allowed access to or shared your content, other than as may be required by law or for security purposes.”</blockquote>


* Vultr has had major issues regarding their transparency in the past.
Despite Vultr's vow that access to users' content is for security purposes only, the wording of its TOS did not reflect this. It was widely criticized as a gross failure in transparency or, more cynically, as a stealthy attempt to seize the rights to users' personal data for any purpose, without consent.
* The encryption of Vultr services has met many industry know certifications such as SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001.<ref>https://www.vultr.com/legal/compliance/</ref>
* As elaborated on further below, Vultr does not make clear what rights Vultr had in the past and presently has over your data.


== Consumer Protection Incidents ==
As of February 2026, the older 15(c) clause remains in force:<ref>{{Cite web |author= |title=Legal Section 15: Intellectual Property Rights |url=https://www.vultr.com/legal/tos/#tos_15 |website=Vultr |date= |access-date=22 Feb 2026 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250124095655/https://www.vultr.com/legal/tos/#tos_15 |archive-date=24 Jan 2025}}</ref>
<blockquote>“As between You and Vultr, Vultr acknowledges that it claims no proprietary rights in or to Your Content. You hereby grant to Vultr a non-exclusive, worldwide and royalty-free license to copy, make derivative works, display, perform, use, broadcast, and transmit on and via the Internet Your Content, solely for the benefit of You and to enable Vultr to perform its obligations under these Terms.”</blockquote>


==== Vultr Claims a License to use Costumer Data in their new Terms of Service (Jan. 2024) ====
Note that the wording of this statement closely mimics Vultr's original 5.1 clause predating 2021. Despite the reassuring tone of this license, it remains unclear what "solely for the benefit of You" means in this context, as that phrase does not appear elsewhere in the TOS.
In January 2024, Vultr amended their TOS (Terms of Service) to include a clause (12.1a) stating the following:


''"You hereby grant to Vultr a non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, fully paid-up, worldwide license (including the right to sublicense through multiple tiers) to use, reproduce, process, adapt, publicly perform, publicly display, modify, prepare derivative works, publish, transmit and distribute each of your User Content, or any portion thereof, in any form, medium or distribution method now known or hereafter existing, known or developed, and otherwise use and commercialize the User Content in any way that Vultr deems appropriate, without any further consent, notice and/or compensation to you or to any third parties, for purposes of providing the Services to you.”''<ref name=":0">https://blogs.vultr.com/a-note-about-vultrs-terms-of-service</ref><ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20240305043015/https://www.vultr.com/legal/tos/</ref>
==Products==
{{Ph-C-P}}


This clause originally did not affect existing users, but in March asked users to accept their new terms including that clause. This sparked outrage including one [https://www.reddit.com/r/selfhosted/comments/1bouuv7/warning_vultr_a_major_cloud_provider_is_now/ Reddit post] claiming Vultr has rights to use user data for the purposes of training artificial intelligence.<ref>https://www.reddit.com/r/selfhosted/comments/1bouuv7/warning_vultr_a_major_cloud_provider_is_now/</ref>
==See also==
{{Ph-C-SA}}


This outrage prompted a response from Vultr in which the company states:
==References==
{{Reflist}}


''"We value the feedback we receive from our customers, and we want to assure you that Vultr claims no rights to your content. Vultr has never claimed any rights to, used, accessed, nor allowed access to or shared your content, other than as may be required by law or for security purposes."''<ref name=":0" />
[[Category:Vultr]]
 
12.1a was quickly altered to remove Vultr's claim to a license. Despite the companies denial the access of the users content is solely for security purpose, the TOS was not worded in such a way and was a major failure in transparency at best.
 
As of January 2025, the most modern terms of service by Vultr the following clause (15.1c) remains:
 
''"As between You and Vultr, Vultr acknowledges that it claims no proprietary rights in or to Your Content. You hereby grant to Vultr a non-exclusive, worldwide and royalty-free license to copy, make derivative works, display, perform, use, broadcast and transmit on and via the Internet Your Content, solely for the benefit of You and to enable Vultr to perform its obligations under these Terms."''<ref>https://www.vultr.com/legal/tos/?gspk=dHJveWNsYXJrNzM4Ng&gsxid=wQpnVuVRFBud</ref>
 
Despite withdrawing the original clause it is unclear what "for the benefit of You" means in this context as that phrase is used nowhere else in the TOS.
 
== References ==
<references />
Retrieved from "https://consumerrights.wiki/w/Vultr"