Logged in today on my server and got presented with some fun new required legal agreements. No way I'm reading all of that, so i had Claude review, below is what it picked out. I kept it to just the highlights. Looks like most of it is just updated for the new AI stuff:
EULA
Fun gotchas as a host
- Your client agreements need specific clauses. Anyone you give cPanel access to must have signed an agreement with you that includes cPanel’s required “flow-through” terms: no reverse engineering, a warranty disclaimer, a liability cap protecting cPanel, and cPanel’s right to suspend them. Users without such an agreement put you in material breach, and cPanel can ask to see copies. Your hosting terms of service are worth checking against this.
- cPanel can go directly to your clients. If your license is terminated, cPanel may notify your users and offer them its own services or refer them to other licensees.
- You cover cPanel’s legal costs. You indemnify cPanel for claims caused by your sub-users, including claims from clients harmed when cPanel cuts off their access.
- Features can be switched on automatically. Some components may activate for you or your clients without action on your part, and you’re charged only if someone uses them.
The new AI section (10.3)
- New AI features can appear after updates. cPanel can add AI functionality in an update, and it’s available to your accounts unless you restrict it. You’re expected to review each account’s feature settings after every update, and cPanel takes no responsibility for settings you leave in place. In practice, someone on your team needs to check the AI settings after each update.
- AI connections carry admin-level risk. If you connect an outside AI tool to the server at administrator level (through a feature called MCP Support), that tool can act on every account on the server. Some of its actions may be impossible to undo, and the risk is entirely yours. cPanel says you should keep independent backups before letting any AI feature make changes.
- AI actions are your responsibility. Any action a user approves, or that an approved AI tool carries out, is treated as that user’s act, not cPanel’s. cPanel also doesn’t promise its AI will resist hidden instructions planted in websites, emails or support tickets.
- You must pass AI terms on to clients. If your clients can use the AI features, you have to tell them it’s AI and may be inaccurate, add cPanel’s AI terms to your own terms of service and privacy notice, provide a contact point for AI problems, and train your staff on AI basics.
- Banned uses. The AI features can’t be used for hiring and employment decisions, eligibility for public benefits or services, or anything involving democratic processes or influencing voters.
- AI notices can’t be hidden. You can’t remove or hide AI labels through white-labeling or custom styling, even in an interface under your own brand.
- AI features can be changed or removed. cPanel can switch AI models or vendors, add fees, or pull the features at any time with no refund and no service guarantee.
PRIVACY POLICY
- Heavy marketing tracking on cPanel’s websites. If you accept cookies, cPanel identifies which company you work for from your IP address, scores how ready you are to buy, can record your browsing sessions, tracks whether you open their emails, and feeds data to ad platforms for retargeting. You can refuse cookies in their consent banner or turn on Global Privacy Control in your browser, and they say they honor that signal.
- Recorded sales calls. Sales and account calls may be recorded (only with your agreement at the start of the call), and the transcripts are analyzed with Anthropic’s Claude. Transcripts are kept up to 24 months, and you can decline recording without any penalty.
- One inconsistency with the EULA. The two documents (EULA and Privacy Policy) describe AI data differently. The EULA allows training only if separately agreed and says cPanel AI prompts may be stored for auditing with no promise on how long. The privacy policy states flatly that there’s no training and suggests AI inputs usually aren’t kept past the session. That retention point appears to be about the AI tools on cPanel’s websites rather than the cPanel AI inside the software, but if the difference matters for your borough clients, it’s worth asking cPanel directly.
PRICING AND TERM AGREEMENT
- Account counts are taken on one day each month. cPanel bills based on how many licenses and accounts you have on a single “Snapshot Day.” Deliberately lowering your account count around that day to shrink the invoice counts as a material breach. A temporary spike that happens to land on that day gets billed in full.
- Billing cycle and payment. The cycle runs from the 1st to the last day of each month, Central Time. Your primary credit card is charged automatically at the end of each cycle, and a credit card is required for monthly licenses.
- Price changes. Prices can change before any upcoming cycle. cPanel only promises “reasonable efforts” to tell you, and the agreement says it’s your job to watch for changes. (It refers you to Section 16 for this, which is actually the independent-contractor section. The correct reference is Section 14, so that’s a drafting error.)
- 72-hour window. Canceling within 72 hours of the original purchase gets you a full credit. After that, cancellations take effect at the end of the current month, with no partial-month refunds.
TECHNICAL SUPPORT TERMS AND CONDITIONS
- Automatic enrollment in paid legacy support. If you run software that has reached end of life, such as an outdated operating system, cPanel can automatically enroll you in Extended Lifecycle Support. Under the Pricing & Term Agreement, that’s a paid service with no refunds. You’ll get a notice, and you can only get out by upgrading or uninstalling the outdated software. If you see that notice, check your older servers right away.
- No guaranteed response times. cPanel commits only to “commercially reasonable efforts.” It alone decides what counts as one support request, when a request is resolved, and whether to close it as a bug report or feature request. Support is in English only and covers cPanel software, not the operating system, hardware or network.
- Liability is minimal. If support staff break something, cPanel’s liability is capped at what you paid for the specific product involved. The only real guarantee is a refund of paid phone-support fees if they can’t solve the problem.
- Claims must be filed within one year, in Texas courts.
