Agreements

Definitions

• Academic Principal Investigator: faculty member (full- and part-time), adjunct faculty member, or librarian at a Canadian university, college, or research hospital that is eligible to hold Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) grants;

• Research Institute Principal Investigator: lead researcher at a Canadian research institute that is eligible to hold CFI grants.

• Non-Academic Principal Investigator: industry, non-profit, and government researcher, who, in specific circumstances, may apply to access Federation resources and services through regional Digital Research Infrastructure (DRI)-serving organizations: BC DRI Group; Prairie DRI Group; Compute Ontario; Calcul Québec; ACENET.

• Sponsored User: any individual whom a Principal Investigator has identified and approved for access to resources and services.

Academic Principal Investigators may apply to access, free of charge, Federation resources and services.

Limited access to Federation resources and services may also be made available, free of charge, to Research Institute Principal Investigators.

There are circumstances in which a Non-Academic Principal Investigator can apply to access Federation resources and services directly through regional Digital Research Infrastructure (DRI)-serving organizations. This access may or may not be free of charge. Please visit their websites for more information, including their contact details: BC DRI Group; Prairie DRI Group; Compute Ontario; Calcul Québec; ACENET.

Any Principal Investigator can identify and approve Sponsored Users to assist with their research.

For further information on access and eligibility, please visit the following webpage.

Canada’s national advanced research computing (ARC) platform is delivered through the Federation, which is a partnership of the Digital Research Alliance of Canada (the Alliance), regional Digital Research Infrastructure (DRI)-serving organizations (BC DRI Group, Prairie DRI Group, Compute Ontario, Calcul Québec and ACENET) and academic institutions across Canada. Together, the Federation partners provide computing infrastructure and services to a wide variety of academic disciplines from virology to astrophysics and literary analysis.

Definitions

• Account Holder: an individual who has a CCDB account.

• The Federation: a partnership of the Alliance, regional DRI-serving organizations (BC DRI Group, Prairie DRI Group, Compute Ontario, Calcul Québec, and ACENET), and academic institutions across Canada.

1. Access to Resources

1.1 You will never access or attempt to access any Federation resources (or any other user’s data on the Federation resources) other than those resources or data to which you have been granted access

1.2 You will always abide by any policies, protocols, or requirements that are in effect at institutions with which you are affiliated, such as an Acceptable Use Policy. In a situation in which a conflict exists between the Federation Terms of Use and the policies at institution(s) with which you are affiliated, you must notify¹ the Federation staff and comply with any requirements identified by the Federation staff.

1.3 You will not allow any other individual to use your account to access Federation resources. If others require access as part of your research, these individuals must apply for their own account.

1.4 Any Federation account credentials and information used for authentication are confidential and you are responsible for keeping them secure.

1.5 You will provide and keep up-to-date user information in the Compute Canada Database (CCDB). [Updates can be made by logging into your account at https://ccdb.computecanada.ca/security/login.]

2. Conduct Requirements

2.1 You are responsible for the activities associated with your account and for the use of resources assigned to you.

2.2 You are responsible for understanding and meeting any privacy, confidentiality and acceptable use policies, requirements, laws or regulations that apply to your research and data. This includes, for instance, any provincial privacy laws or ethics board requirements affecting any data that you store on Federation systems.

2.3 In the event, your account is compromised, or suspicious activity is detected related to resources assigned to you, you agree to work with Federation staff and any institution with which you are affiliated to resolve the issue.

2.4 At no time will you use Federation resources for any activity that contravenes any applicable laws or regulations. You are responsible for identifying all applicable laws and regulations that may apply.

2.5 You agree that should you ever be investigated or found liable for any contravention of Canadian law, or any other applicable laws, the Federation is in no way responsible or liable for such contraventions or for any penalties associated with it. If anyone attempts to make the Federation liable for anything related to your research or your use of Federation resources, you agree to work with Federation staff to address the issue.

2.6 You must immediately notify² the Federation if you become aware of any unauthorized access or use of Federation resources or data or of any event that might affect Federation information security or privacy.

2.7 You will complete an annual account renewal process to retain access to resources assigned to you.

2.8 The Federation reserves the right to define abuse of resources and take appropriate action where and if necessary. For example, it has the right to monitor use of its systems, deactivate an account, or block access to Federation resources.

3. Use of Resources

3.1 You will not use the Federation resources in any situation in which failure or fault of the use of the resources could lead to death or serious injury of any person or animal, or serious physical or environmental damage.

3.2 You will not introduce software into the Federation environment that may damage, interfere with, or capture any system, program, or data outside of your own assigned resources. The Federation reserves the right to identify, quarantine or delete any such software, as well as any related data.

3.3 You will not attempt to probe, scan, penetrate or test any Federation services or systems for vulnerability nor to probe, scan, penetrate or test any external services or systems.

3.4 You will not try to access or intercept data not intended for yourself or for the resources that are assigned to you.

3.5 You will not send or assist with unsolicited bulk communications.

3.6 You will not use applications without valid and appropriate licensing.

3.7 You will not use software services that would override Federation authentication or policy enforcement.

3.8 You will not use software or services that provide unprotected access to shared Federation resources.

3.9 You will not knowingly use Federation resources in a manner that impedes or denies the ability of others to use the resources to which they have been granted access.

3.10 You are expected to use Federation resources efficiently.

4. Acknowledgement and Reporting

4.1 In any publication or communication related to your use of Federation resources, you agree, where possible and appropriate, to acknowledge the Federation’s contribution as prescribed in the Federation Acknowledgement Policy.

5. Termination

5.1 Failure to abide by these Terms of Use may result in the revocation of access privileges as well as legal action against you or your institution.

5.2 If access is revoked or expired, the Federation will archive or retain your data for a one- year period. Temporary data³ will not be preserved and may be deleted at any time. After a year, if no action has been taken to reactivate the account, the Federation reserves the right to permanently delete all of your data.

6. Provision of Service

6.1 The Federation reserves the right to move data that is stored in the Federation systems and has been inactive for at least one year to manage and improve overall system performance.

6.2 The Federation reserves the right to request documentation that demonstrates that proper authorization is in place for the use of Federation resources.

6.3 The Federation reserves the right to audit and monitor the usage of, performance, and security posture of its systems to manage service stability, integrity, accessibility, and confidentiality.

6.4 To maintain overall system performance, the Federation reserves the right to manage system load. This may include deactivating logins or deleting jobs without notice.

1 Objectives

Canada’s national advanced research computing (ARC) platform is delivered through the Federation, which is a partnership of Digital Research Alliance of Canada (the Alliance), regional Digital Research Infrastructure (DRI)-serving organizations (BC DRI Group, Prairie DRI Group, Compute Ontario, Calcul Québec and ACENET), and academic institutions across Canada. Together, Federation partners provide computing infrastructure and services to a wide variety of academic disciplines from virology to astrophysics and literary analysis.

In the course of its operation, the Federation collects, stores, transmits, and uses Personal Information of Federation account holders. This policy outlines the Federation’s commitment to protecting this Personal Information, as well as the policies that apply to it.

2 Definitions

• Account Holder: an individual who has a CCDB account.

• Academic Principal Investigator: faculty member (full- and part-time), adjunct faculty member, or librarian at a Canadian university, college, or research hospital that is eligible to hold Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) grants.

• Research Institute Principal Investigator: lead researcher at a Canadian research institute that is eligible to hold CFI grants.

• Non-Academic Principal Investigator: industry, non-profit, and government researcher, who, in specific circumstances, may apply to access Federation resources and services through regional Digital Research Infrastructure (DRI)-serving organizations: BC DRI Group, Prairie DRI Group, Compute Ontario; Calcul Québec; ACENET.

• Federation: a partnership of the Alliance, regional Digital Research Infrastructure (DRI)-serving organizations (BC DRI Group, Prairie DRI Group, Compute Ontario, Calcul Québec and ACENET), and academic institutions across Canada.

• Federation Team Member: any individual employed by or working on behalf of any institution or organization within the Federation.

• Funder: an organization or government that provides funding to support Federation operations.

• Partner: a member institution or regional DRI-serving organization that is operating infrastructure or providing services as part of Federation operations.

• Personal Information: any information about an account holder for which there is a serious possibility that the individual could be personally identified through the use of that information, alone or in combination with other available information.

• Sponsored User: any individual whom a Principal Investigator has identified and approved for access to resources and services.

3 Scope

The Federation collects Personal Information about Account Holders that is necessary to operate, maintain, and provide resources and services in the pursuit of its duties, the fulfillment of its mandate, or as part of its obligations to its funders.

Personal Information covered by this policy is Personal Information that is used to:

1. manage and administer accounts, including tracking system usage and allocations;
2. manage the Resource Allocation Competition (RAC), Rapid Access Service, and other allocation processes;
3. communicate with Account Holders, including through the creation of mailing lists; and
4. comply with funder requests and requirements, including those from the Digital Research Alliance of Canada (the Alliance).

Account Holders can view their Personal Information by logging into their account. Email addresses and phone numbers can be changed by users directly by logging into their account. Other changes to Personal Information can be requested through support@computecanada.ca.

4 Policy Statements

1. The Federation collects, stores, transmits, and uses only Personal Information that is essential to the pursuit of its duties, the fulfillment of its mandate, or as part of its obligations to its funders.
2. Consent related to the collection, storage, transmission, and use of Personal Information will be obtained each time an account is created and from time to time, as policy may change.
3. For Personal Information that is held on servers, access is shared on an as needed basis to Team Members who require access for the purposes identified above in Section 3 - Scope.
4. Access to Personal Information for Sponsored Users is shared with anyone who has sponsored, identified, and approved them for access to resources.
5. The Federation will not disclose Personal Information to external entities without the prior consent of the individual concerned or as required by law. However, Personal Information may be shared with appropriate law enforcement authorities, if suspected criminal activities are detected.
6. In some circumstances, the Federation may use a third party that may store data on servers located outside Canada. The use of these third parties will be identified in advance.
7. The Federation uses reasonable and appropriate security measures to protect against loss, theft, or unauthorized access, disclosure, use, or modification of the Personal Information that it collects, stores, transmits, and uses. In the event of unauthorized disclosure of Personal Information, the Federation will notify all affected Account Holders.

The Federation may, in the course of its operations, collect, store, transmit, and use Personal Information to operate, maintain, and provide resources and services in the pursuit of its duties, the fulfillment of its mandate, or as part of its obligations to its funders.

This applies to the following Personal Information:

• identity information (e.g. CC Identifier, username, CC role(s), etc)
• session information (e.g. login IP, geo-localisation, session preference, etc.)
• contact information (e.g. telephone number, email address)
• academic information (e.g. institution, department, field of research, etc.)
• Curriculum Vita (CV) information as contained in Canadian Common CV (CCV) or similar
• Resources Allocation Competition (RAC) information
• project information (e.g. project identifier, project membership, project title, project description, research area, etc.)
• usage information (e.g. allocation identifier, allocation membership, resource utilization, service utilization, event attendance, etc.)

The Federation retains the right to store any of the Personal Information listed above. If you do not consent to this policy, the Federation will not be able to offer you its services.

There are organizations and individuals with which the Federation may share your Personal Information. These are:

• Federation team members
• Digital Research Alliance of Canada
• Regional Digital Research Infrastructure (DRI)-serving organizations (BC DRI Group, Prairie DRI Group, Compute Ontario, Calcul Québec and ACENET)
• Canadian academic institutions operating a service on behalf of the Federation
• Institutions with which you are affiliated
• External reviewers who take part in RAC
• Funders, to comply with funding requirements, reports, or requests
• Principal Investigators who require access to verify and approve sponsored users to whom they have provided access to their Federation resources
• Law authorities, in cases in which the Federation or law enforcement suspect or discover a security-related event

The Digital Research Alliance will never disclose any Personal Information to third parties for the purposes of profit or advertisement.

When you open a support request, the Federation team members may be able to help you more quickly if they are allowed to access your files. In most cases, read-only access to a limited number of files is all that will be needed. On rare occasions, providing support may require altering some of your files (write access). Such changes will always be limited to what is strictly necessary to resolve the issue. In the case of minor changes, our team will always inform you of any action that they have taken. In the case of more significant changes, they will ask explicitly for your consent before making the change.

Do you agree to allow Federation team members to access the files as described above without explicitly asking for your consent each time the files need to be accessed?