These terms are plain-English where possible. Key things to know upfront: payment is monthly in advance; overdue accounts are locked after 14 days and wiped after 30 days; crypto mining, spam, and CSAM are automatic termination; and our liability is capped at the fees you've paid in the last 3 months. English law governs.

1. The service

Halfpenny Mac ("we", "us", "our") provides managed Apple silicon Mac mini rentals to individuals and businesses ("you", "your"). The service includes dedicated hardware, remote access via Tailscale, a managed base macOS image, and nightly snapshots. We are based in England.

By signing up and paying for access you agree to these Terms of Service in full. If you do not agree, do not use the service.

2. Payment and billing

Billing cycle

Subscriptions are billed monthly in advance, on the same calendar date each month. Annual billing is available at a discount (saving up to ~25% off the monthly list price, paid upfront); annual subscriptions are non-refundable after the first 14 days.

Payment method

Billing is handled by Stripe. We accept all card types Stripe supports. Your card is charged automatically on each renewal date; we do not see or store your card number. You can update your payment method, view past invoices, or cancel at any time from /account/billing on your dashboard.

Failed or late payment

  • Renewal date: Stripe attempts the charge automatically. If it succeeds, your subscription renews and you keep access.
  • On failure: Your subscription is marked past due. Stripe retries the charge over the following 1–2 weeks. While past due, you cannot reveal credentials for the affected machine from your dashboard — the Mac itself stays running so you don't lose work in progress.
  • After Stripe exhausts retries (~Day 21): Subscription is cancelled. Account locked. Your Mac mini is preserved for a further 14 days while you resolve the situation.
  • Day 30 from initial failure: Account terminated. Your Mac mini is wiped and reallocated. All data is permanently deleted. This is irreversible.

If you need extra time, email us before day 21. We will work with you in good faith.

Refunds

Monthly subscriptions are non-refundable once a billing period has begun. If you cancel mid-month you retain access until the end of the current billing period; no partial refunds are issued. Annual subscriptions are refundable on a pro-rata basis within the first 14 days only.

If we are at fault (e.g. the Mac is offline for more than 72 hours in a single incident due to our error), we will issue a pro-rata credit for the affected days on request.

Price changes

We may change subscription prices with 30 days' notice. If you do not cancel before the new price takes effect, you accept the new price.

3. Acceptable use policy

Your Mac mini is for your legitimate personal and business use only. The following are strictly prohibited and will result in immediate suspension and termination:

  • Cryptocurrency mining — including but not limited to Monero (XMR), RandomX, proof-of-work mining of any kind, or participation in any distributed mining pool.
  • Spam and bulk email — sending unsolicited email, operating bulk mailing infrastructure, or using the machine as a relay. Outbound SMTP ports are blocked by default.
  • Phishing and malware — hosting phishing pages, distributing malware, operating command-and-control infrastructure, or any activity designed to deceive or compromise third parties.
  • Child sexual abuse material (CSAM) — any creation, storage, distribution, or facilitation of CSAM. This results in immediate termination, account reporting to relevant authorities, and referral to law enforcement. No exceptions.
  • Reselling access — sharing, subletting, or reselling your Mac mini access or credentials to any third party without our written consent.
  • High-volume scraping — automated scraping of third-party websites at a volume that violates their Terms of Service or causes disruption.
  • Illegal activity — any activity that violates applicable UK law or the laws of the jurisdiction in which you operate.

We monitor for abuse including CPU anomalies (sustained high CPU may indicate mining), outbound traffic spikes, and known malicious domain requests. Detection of prohibited activity will result in immediate isolation of your Mac mini pending investigation.

If we receive a credible abuse report from a third party or upstream provider, we will isolate your Mac mini and contact you with a 24-hour window to respond. Failure to respond, or if the report is substantiated, results in termination.

4. Service level

We operate a best-effort service. We target 99.5% monthly uptime across our fleet but this is an aspiration, not a contractual guarantee. We are not an enterprise-grade service and do not offer financially-backed SLAs.

We monitor uptime and will notify you proactively if your Mac mini is unreachable. Planned maintenance will be announced with at least 24 hours' notice where possible.

For mission-critical workloads requiring guaranteed uptime, a dedicated enterprise service level agreement may be available on request.

5. Data handling and security

Backups and snapshots

We take a nightly snapshot of your home directory (not full-disk images) and store it encrypted on Backblaze B2. Snapshots are retained for 14 rolling days. You can request a restore via a support ticket; we will aim to complete restores within 4 hours during business hours.

Snapshots are provided for disaster recovery. They are not a substitute for your own backup strategy for critical data.

Access

Your Mac mini is yours during your subscription. We retain a separate admin account for maintenance, updates, and abuse response. We will not access your account or data except:

  • To perform routine maintenance (patching, hardware checks) with reasonable notice;
  • In response to an abuse report or suspected policy violation;
  • As required by law or court order.

Data on termination

On account termination (whether by you or by us), your Mac mini is wiped using a secure erase process. Backups associated with your account are deleted within 14 days of termination. We do not retain copies of your data beyond this period.

Privacy

We collect the personal data necessary to operate the service (name, email, payment information). We are registered with the ICO as a data controller. Our full Privacy Policy is available on request.

6. Termination

By you: You may cancel your subscription at any time via the Manage billing button at /account/billing (this opens the Stripe Customer Portal). Cancellation takes effect at the end of your current billing period — you keep access to your Mac mini until then.

By us for cause: We may suspend or terminate your account immediately, without notice, for violation of the Acceptable Use Policy, non-payment beyond day 30, or any other material breach of these terms. In such cases no refund is due.

By us without cause: We may terminate the service on 30 days' written notice if we cease to offer the service. In this case we will provide a pro-rata refund for any unused prepaid period.

7. Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law:

  • Our total aggregate liability to you for any claim arising under or in connection with these terms is capped at the fees you have paid to us in the 3 months immediately preceding the event giving rise to the claim.
  • We exclude all liability for indirect, consequential, or special loss including lost profits, lost data, or loss of business opportunity.
  • We do not exclude liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for any other liability that cannot be excluded under applicable law.

The service is provided "as is". We make no warranty that it will be uninterrupted, error-free, or fit for any particular purpose beyond what is stated in these terms.

8. Governing law

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales. Any dispute arising out of or in connection with these terms shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.

If you are a consumer based in another part of the UK, you retain any rights afforded to you by the law of your jurisdiction that cannot be waived by contract.

9. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms from time to time. For material changes we will give 30 days' notice by email. Continued use of the service after notice constitutes acceptance. If you do not accept the new terms, you may cancel before they take effect.

10. Contact

Questions about these terms? Email team@halfpennymac.com or reach out via the homepage.