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DAFNI Terms and Conditions

Outline​

Using DAFNI requires a user to agree to a number of terms and conditions. This page gives users a central place to view these terms and conditions and to refer to when signing up for DAFNI.

The terms and conditions are listed below by title. Please read each carefully before using DAFNI.

Data Policy​

Scope​

DAFNI is the National Platform to satisfy the computational needs in support of data analysis, infrastructure research, and strategic thinking for the UK’s long term planning and investment needs. As a platform, DAFNI does not itself produce datasets or the tools to process and analyse them, but it hosts this type of content (hereafter referred to as assets) and as custodian assumes corresponding responsibilities and rights over it. The assets include datasets, models, workflows and visualisations.

This policy statement pertains to the curation, access, ownership, use and storage of the assets. The intent is to seek to maximize the scientific impact of the assets through maximizing opportunities for reuse and validation, while respecting restrictions on access where appropriate, for example while research work is ongoing within a particular group of users.

This is not an acceptable use policy nor a policy on privacy and data protection, though there is some overlap. Separate policy statements deal with these aspects.

In what follows, the owner of an asset is defined as a user of the DAFNI platform who is responsible for the asset (often its creator), to whom questions on the asset would be directed, and (as specified below) may choose who has access to it.

Submission policy​

An asset is submitted to the DAFNI platform by the owner of the asset (or an authorised representative of the owner). There is no transfer of ownership on submission. However, the DAFNI platform may need to take control of the asset after its submission, for example to maintain dependencies or for curation (see below).

It is the responsibility of the creator to ensure that the DAFNI platform is permitted to host the asset.

Submissions should not contain any material that is offensive, defamatory, violates intellectual property rights of third parties, includes identifiable personal information, or contains a virus or other malware.

Submissions should have an associated licence governing the use of the asset1.

Submissions will be checked for compliance with the above conditions.

Access policy​

The separate Acceptable Use Policy also governs conditions of access; the statements below relate specifically to access to assets.

Access to a particular asset may be either open to all registered users of the DAFNI platform, or restricted by the owner of the asset to particular individuals.

Licences on assets must be respected by users of the asset.

There is no transfer of rights or ownership on access.

DAFNI accepts no liability for the correctness of the content of assets or for its interpretation or use.

Retention, deletion and curation policy​

The normal expectation is that assets submitted to the DAFNI platform will be retained indefinitely throughout the lifetime of the platform itself, even if the owner ceases to be a user of the platform, in order to maintain possible dependencies between assets.

Assets may be removed from the platform without notice if they are found to contravene the submission policy.

In some circumstances, after discussion and agreement with DAFNI management, assets may be removed from the catalogue (though not the platform) at the request of the owner.

The DAFNI platform has the right to curate the assets to enhance their value and ensure their continued usability in future. Such curation includes but is not limited to assigning persistent identifiers (PIDs), indexing and (possibly in future) file format migration.

Privacy Policy​

The Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC, “we”) is one of nine Councils within UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). We will store your data securely and handle it in line with UK data protection legislation. If you would like to know more, including how to exercise your data protection rights, please see the UKRI privacy notice.

Users of the DAFNI website​

The personal data we collect in relation to the DAFNI website includes, but may not be limited to, your name, email address, your relevant employer, association or organisation.

Your personal data will be processed if you register to use our services or attend events, if you have subscribed to our news and events updates, or if you contact us using the website form.

You can request at any time to be removed from our mailing lists by contacting us as indicated at .

The website uses cookies1 to track usage and to compile statistical reports on website activity to help us improve our website to make it easier for you to access the services you require.  In this case we use Google Analytics to provide this tracking information. We do not use cookies for collecting personal information from this site. You may refuse to accept cookies by activating the setting on your browser, however this will affect the quality or functionality of the service.

Users with an account on the DAFNI platform​

The personal data we collect in relation to your use of the DAFNI platform includes, but may not be limited to, your name, email address, your relevant employer, association or organisation, your job title, username, password, reason for access, details of your research, and your activity on DAFNI.

Your personal data will be used to facilitate and maintain secure access to the DAFNI platform, to monitor use of the platform in order to detect and mitigate potential or actual security threats, to provide email notifications from the platform, to improve the performance and useability of the platform, to provide users with news and events updates, to facilitate and manage events that you have signed up for, and to add you to our Community User channel located on Slack.

Your personal data will only be shared with other platform users after you have chosen to allow it using the platform settings.

On the DAFNI platform we issue a personal token identifier to help ensure the security and authenticity of registered users. These tokens are used to improve services for you through, for example:

  • enabling a service to recognise your device so you don`t have to give the same information during multiple tasks,

  • recognising that you have already given a username and password so you don`t need to enter it for every service requested,

  • measuring how many people are using services, so there is enough capacity.

The tokens do not identify you personally.

Other collection of personal data​

DAFNI may acquire personal data through other channels not directly connected with the website or platform. For example:

  • social media links such as DAFNI LinkedIn site (), DAFNI YouTube Channel () and DAFNI Twitter Account (@dafnifacility),

  • developing partnership agreements and engaging in funding proposals and grants,

  • participating in a DAFNI Committee or taking part in a DAFNI Pilot programme,

  • use of online survey tools to improve our services.

Sharing your data​

Your personal data will only be shared outside of UKRI with partner organisations to facilitate your attendance at events for which you have registered and to send you news and events updates that you have asked to receive. Currently these organisations are Eventbrite () and Sendinblue ().

Lawful basis​

We process personal data largely in pursuit of our purposes laid out in Article 93 of the Higher Education and Research Act 2017, in the most part, our lawful basis for processing your personal information falls under “public task”. However, depending on the nature of our relationship with you, we may also make use of contractual, legitimate interest, and consent based processing. Our legitimate interests are based in our need to maintain the security and integrity of the DAFNI platform.

How long will we keep your data?​

We will keep your personal data for as long as it is necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected and to comply with business requirements, legal, statutory or regulatory obligations and transactional purposes. After that the personal data will be deleted.

Users of the DAFNI website​

Your personal data will be retained for one year after our last communication with you as outlined above (concerning attendance at events, news updates etc.). If you request deletion of your personal data in accordance with GDPR, we will delete your personal data immediately.

Users with an account on the DAFNI platform​

When you register for a DAFNI account to use the platform, your personal data is associated with your DAFNI account and with any datasets or other assets that you publish with DAFNI. Assets associated with your account will be kept as long as your account is active. Your account may be closed after twelve months of inactivity: however, we will try to contact you three months prior to closing the account and you may request that we keep it open. If you request deletion of your personal data in accordance with GDPR, we will close your account and delete your personal data. If your account is closed, your personal data associated with the account is kept for a period of up to six months. This is done because we must retain logs of your activities for up to six months.

Personal data associated with publication of datasets or other assets is kept as long as the asset continues to be available. If you are named as the contact for the asset, you can change the contact to someone else that you nominate, who will then become the administrator. If you wish to change the organisation that is the data controller, please ensure there is appropriate agreement between the organisations, including with DAFNI itself for long-term archiving. If you delete the asset, the public record will disappear but we may still retain records internally for up to six months. If an asset is backed up, the backup may contain your personal data in its metadata, and we can provide no guaranteed timescale for either retention or deletion of the backups, which are managed to meet the purposes of scientific research and specifically the need to retain archived records of science.

1 Cookies​

Cookies are text files placed on your computer to collect standard internet log information and visitor behaviour information. They are widely used in order to make websites work (or work more efficiently). Cookies are also used to provide information to the owners of the website.

Acceptable Use Policy​

This Acceptable Use Policy and Conditions of Use (“AUP”) defines the rules and conditions that govern your access to and use (including transmission, processing, and storage of data) of the resources and services (“Services”) as granted by the DAFNI Governing Board for the use of the Data and Analytics Facility for National Infrastructure (DAFNI) for the purpose of for the purpose of conducting activities furthering the science goals and missions supported by the DAFNI and its partner organizations. More information about DAFNI, its goals, structure and partners can be found at https://www.dafni.ac.uk).

Your access to DAFNI is described and enabled through your application to the DAFNI operational management team and subject to approval by the DAFNI Governing Board.

To further define and limit what constitutes acceptable use, the community, agency, or infrastructure may optionally add additional information, rules or conditions, or references thereto, here or at the placeholder below. These additions must not conflict with the clauses 1-13 below, whose wording and numbering must not be changed.

  1. You shall only use the Services in a manner consistent with the purposes and limitations described above; you shall show consideration towards other users including by not causing harm to the Services; you have an obligation to collaborate in the resolution of issues arising from your use of the Services.

  2. You shall only use the Services for lawful purposes and not breach, attempt to breach, nor circumvent administrative or security controls.

  3. You shall respect intellectual property and confidentiality agreements.

  4. You shall protect your access credentials (e.g. passwords, private keys or multi-factor tokens); no intentional sharing is permitted.

  5. You shall keep your registered information correct and up to date.

  6. You shall promptly report known or suspected security breaches, credential compromise, or misuse to the security contact stated below; and report any compromised credentials to the relevant issuing authorities.

  7. Reliance on the Services shall only be to the extent specified by any applicable service level agreements listed below. Use without such agreements is at your own risk.

  8. Your personal data will be processed in accordance with the privacy statements referenced below.

  9. Your use of the Services may be restricted or suspended, for administrative, operational, or security reasons, without prior notice and without compensation.

  10. If you violate these rules, you may be liable for the consequences, which may include your account being suspended and a report being made to your home organisation or to law enforcement.

  11. You shall respect licensing conditions related to assets made available on the DAFN platform and published with those assets.

  12. You shall on request report the results of the use of DAFNI for the purposes of services performance monitoring and reporting usage to the DAFNI Governing Board.

  13. You shall provide appropriate acknowledgement of support for your use of the resources/services provided, in accordance with recommendations for acknowledgement referenced below.

The administrative contact for this AUP is: info@dafni.ac.uk

The security contact for this AUP is: info@dafni.ac.uk