Agreement: privacy_policy_2023

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, 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 Alliance Federation collects, stores, transmits, and uses Personal Information of Federation account holders. This policy outlines the Alliance 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, Compute Ontario; Calcul Québec; ACENET.

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

• Alliance Federation DRI Professional (ADP): any individual employed by or working on behalf of any institution or organization within the Alliance Federation.

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

• Partner: a member institution or regional DRI-serving organization that is operating infrastructure or providing services as part of Alliance 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 Alliance 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@tech.alliancecan.ca.

4 Policy Statements

1. The Alliance 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 Alliance 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 Alliance 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 Alliance 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 Alliance Federation will notify all affected Account Holders.