Has anyone else had issues with their account getting suspended every time they edit a file?
After the first time, the response to my support ticket told me my site violated the terms of use, without saying what the actual violation was.
After the next few times, they said it was a specific file I was working on and told me to delete it, again without saying what the actual problem was. The file was just a basic web site with some php and html code in it. I read through the terms of service and found nothing my site would be in violation of.
Finally, I was told automated Fraud/Abuse alert system falsely flagged my site and that my site had been whitelisted to prevent it happening again.
Then it happened again, and I was told if I changed the file it would keep happening.
So, I don’t think InfinityFree will work for me if I can’t edit files without my site getting suspended every time. Also, I don’t appreciate that the first few service ticket responses I got lied to me and said my file was at fault, only to tell me later when I pushed the matter that their detection system was at fault. I know it’s a free service, but that interaction certainly doesn’t make me feel comfortable paying for their services.
Your file is probably triggering something in the abuse system. So both your file and the abuse system are at fault. For obvious reasons, support can’t disclose why the file is getting flagged, hence the reason they asked you to remove it.
I’m not sure I follow the logic there. If the abuse system erroneously flagged my file (as I believe it did, since I can find nothing in my code that should trigger the system), then how is my file at fault?
Also, it does not seem obvious why support can’t disclose why the file is flagged. Does the system not provide a specific reason? Does the system operate as a black box? Are support not authorize to view files? If any of this is the case, what method is used to evaluate suspensions?
And, related to the last point, if my file was at fault in anyway, why would support then whitelist it? That at least tacitly suggests a lack of fault on the part of my file. How and why did they arrive at the decision to do this if, as you suggest, my file is at fault for some reason?
Ultimately, I decided to use a different service, but I thought this an issue worth raising. I would imagine I am not the first to encounter this issue.
They intentionally aren’t allowed to tell you that. The automated abuse scanner is important for taking down harmful/illegal content, while still making InfinityFree’s service viable. The worry is that if they told anyone what specifically triggers the scanner, it’ll allow people trying to abuse the service to find ways around it.
Not exactly. The specific file that triggered the suspension was whitelisted. We don’t disable specific filter rules for an entire account.
The automatic abuse detection filters are critical to be able to provide a free hosting service, because unfortunately free services tend to get abused a lot.
As with any detection system, there are false positives. And unfortunately, our system doesn’t have an effective way to deal with false positives.
There doesn’t appear to be a clear policy or consensus between support staff members on how to deal with such false positives. Some reactivate the account and just apologize for the false positive, others try to whitelist the content, and some just tell you to remove the flagged file.
So regarding the question of which file was flagged, you have already been told that indirectly in the message. As for why that file was flagged, that’s not shared because the exact workings of the abuse detection system is a closely guarded secret. Because the more that’s known about it, the more tools we give to abusers to try to avoid it.
This is indeed an issue, and you’re definitely not the first to run into it. But the reality is that it’s an extremely hard problem to solve and balance usability with security.