Portal Terms of use – MSF Data Sharing Portal

Last Modified: 29 October 2023

1. GENERAL
   1. MSF is an independent, non-profit, international medical humanitarian organisation that delivers emergency aid to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics, natural or man-made disasters, or exclusion from health care, in more than 70 countries. MSF carries out and supports operational research studies, as well as epidemiological and medical research for the benefit of developing countries, and MSF field interventions.
   2. These terms of use (the "Terms") govern your access and use of MSF Data Sharing Portal (the “Portal”) which is offered to you by Artsen zonder Grenzen (Médecins Sans Frontières), an association registered with the trade register of the Dutch Chambers of Commerce under registration number 41215974, with its offices located at Plantage Middenlaan 14, 1018 DD Amsterdam, The Netherlands (MSF, our, we, or us).
   3. The MSF Data Sharing Portal is an MSF project that aims to increase data utility to improve patient safety and patient health outcomes by providing evidence to advance science through data collaborations that will help change policy and global best practice.
   4. Please read these Terms carefully before using the Portal: By using the Portal, you indicate that you accept these Terms of Use, and you agree to abide by them. If you do not agree to these Terms, you may not use this Portal. We recommend that you print a copy of these Terms for future reference.
2. REGISTRATION
   1. You are required to provide us with complete, accurate and up to date information about yourself insofar such information is requested. You are further responsible for submitting correct account data, organisational data and/or contact data, and for keeping this information up to date.
   2. To the extent applicable, you must keep your login information (e.g. user name and password) confidential at all times and must not allow others to use your account.
   3. You are responsible for all activity that occurs under your account, including any activity by authorised or unauthorised users. If you know or suspects that anyone other knows your login information and/or uses your account, you must promptly notify us.
3. ACCESSING THE PORTAL AND ITS CONTENT
   1. Access to the Portal is granted on a temporary basis, and MSF reserves the right to withdraw or amend the service it provides on the Portal without notice.
   2. MSF is entitled to terminate, restrict and/or suspend access to the Portal, or parts of it, at any time without any liability and may further limit access to certain content on the Portal at any time and/or subject it to certain requirements, such as finalisation of a registration procedure.
   3. If you choose, or are provided with, a user identification code, password or any other piece of information as part of the Portal’s security procedures, you must treat such information as confidential, and you must not disclose it to any third party. MSF shall have the right to disable any user identification code or password, whether chosen by you or allocated by MSF, at any time, if in its opinion you have failed to comply with any of the provisions of these Terms. You should notify MSF immediately at dsp_admin@msf.org if you become aware of any unauthorised use of your identification code or password.
   4. You are responsible for making all arrangements necessary for you to access the Portal.
4. UPLOADING MATERIAL TO THE PORTAL
   1. Anything you upload or insert on the Portal is referred to as "User Content". To the extent the (intellectual property rights pertaining in the) User Content is not owned by MSF, you hereby grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sub-licensable, and transferable license to use, share, reproduce, distribute, create derivative works of and display the User Content that you upload, submit, store or send on or through the Portal. We shall own any data and results generated based on your User Content.
   2. By posting or submitting User Content through the Portal, you represent and warrant that you have, or have obtained, all rights, licenses, consents, permissions, power and/or authority necessary to grant the rights granted in these Terms for our use of the User Content.
   3. MSF will have the right to disclose your identity to any third party who claims that any material posted or uploaded by you to the Portal constitutes a violation of their intellectual property rights, or their right to privacy.
   4. MSF will not be responsible, or liable to any third party, for the content and accuracy of any materials uploaded by you or any other user of the Portal.
   5. You represent and warrant that the User Content does not infringe any rights of third parties.
5. PROHIBITED USES
   1. You may use the Website only for lawful purposes. In particular, you may not use the Website:
      1. in any way that breaches any applicable local, national or international law or regulation;
      2. in any way that is unlawful or fraudulent, or has any unlawful or fraudulent purpose or effect;
      3. for the purpose of harming or attempting to harm vulnerable individuals and communities as well as minors in any way;
      4. to transmit, or procure the sending of, any unsolicited or unauthorised advertising or promotional material or any other form of similar solicitation (spam); and
      5. to knowingly transmit any data, send or upload any material that contains viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time-bombs, keystroke loggers, spyware, adware or any other harmful programs or similar computer code designed to adversely affect the operation of any computer software or hardware.
   2. You agree not to reproduce, duplicate, copy or re-sell any part of the Portal in contravention of these Terms.
   3. You also agree not to access without authority, interfere with, damage or disrupt:

      a) any part of this Portal;

      b) any equipment or network on which the Portal is stored;

      c) any software used in the provision of the Portal;

      d) any equipment or network or software owned by or used by any third party.

6. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
   1. MSF is the owner or licensee of all intellectual property rights on the Portal and in the content published on it, except for the User Content. Those works are protected by national and international laws. All such rights are reserved.
   2. You hereby warrant that you own, or are authorised to distribute, all rights to the User Content and hereby grant MSF a fully paid-up, non-exclusive, royalty-free, irrevocable, licence to use the User Content for the sole purpose of offering our services via the Portal. Furthermore, MSF will have the right to collect, extract and analyse any content, in an aggregated and anonymised form and will be the owner of all such data.
   3. Subject always to the remaining provisions of this clause 6, you may copy, modify, distribute and generally re-use the content on this Portal, unless expressly stated otherwise.
   4. Any identified contributors as the author(s) and MSF as rights holder of the content on this site must always be acknowledged in any publication, research or any other form of derived work.
   5. If you breach any provision of this clause 6, your right to use the Portal and any content will cease immediately and you must, at MSF’s request, return or destroy any copies of the content you have made.
7. RELIANCE ON INFORMATION

   The commentary and other content published on the Portal are provided in the spirit of making the results of research freely available and are not intended to amount to advice on which reliance should be placed. No responsibility for its accuracy and correctness is assumed by MSF, and MSF disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on such commentary or content by any visitor to the Portal, or by anyone who may be informed of any of its content.

8. CHANGES TO PORTAL

   MSF aims to update the Portal regularly and may change content at any time. If the need arises, MSF may suspend access to the Portal, or close it indefinitely. Any of the material on the Portal may be out of date at any given time, and MSF is under no obligation to update such material.

9. MSF’S LIABILITY
   1. MSF will make every effort to operate this Portal with reasonable care and skill. However, MSF will not be liable for any consequences for any reason if the Portal is unavailable at any time or for any period, for any reason.
   2. MSF provides the Portal on an "as is" basis without warranty of any kind related to the Portal or the materials showed to you in the context of the Portal. MSF does not warrant that the Portal will be operational, error free, secure, or that the Portal will function without disruptions, delays, or imperfections.
   3. In as far as allowed under applicable law, in no event shall MSF, nor any of its officers, directors and employees, be liable for any direct, indirect or consequential losses or damages (explicitly including liability for loss of income or revenue, loss of business, loss of profits or contracts, loss of anticipated savings, loss or corruption of data, loss of goodwill or wasted management or office time) incurred by any user in connection with these Terms, the Portal or in connection with the use, inability to use, or results of the use of the Portal, any Portal linked to it and any materials posted on it.
   4. You undertake to make no claim in connection with the Portal or in connection with the use of the Portal against any employee, student, agent or appointee of MSF (except for claims in relation to fraud or wilful misconduct). This undertaking is intended to give protection to individuals: it does not prejudice any right which you might have to claim against MSF.
10. INFORMATION ABOUT YOU
    1. MSF processes information about you in accordance with this clause 10, and the Portal’s Privacy Policy. By using the Portal, you consent to such processing, and you warrant that all data provided by you is accurate.
    2. This clause 10 does not apply to data that you may upload to the Portal in accordance with clause 4.
    3. MSF may collect and process the following information about you:
       1. information you provide by filling in forms on the Portal: this includes information provided at the time of registering to use the Portal, uploading material or requesting further services;
       2. any correspondence between MSF and you; and
       3. details of your visits to the Portal and the resources that you access.
    4. MSF may collect information about your computer, including (where available) your internet protocol address, operating system and browser type, for system administration. This is statistical information about our users’ browsing actions and patterns and does not identify an individual.
    5. MSF may obtain information about your general internet usage by using a cookie file which is stored on the hard drive of your computer. Cookies contain information that is transferred to your computer’s hard drive. They help MSF to improve your use of the Portal.
    6. You may refuse to accept cookies by activating the setting on your browser which allows you to refuse the setting of cookies. However, if you select this setting, you may be unable to access certain parts of the Portal. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, the Portal will issue cookies when you log on to it.
    7. MSF will use information held about you in the following ways:
       1. to ensure that the Portal’s content is presented in the most effective manner for users’ computers;
       2. to allow you to participate in the interactive features of the Portal, when you choose to do so; and
       3. to contact you in the event of an enquiry relating to any data you may choose to upload in accordance with clause 4 and the Terms of Submission.
    8. MSF shall not use your personal information for commercial or marketing purposes.
    9. We may disclose your personal information to third parties:
       1. if the MSF Data Sharing Portal is transferred to another entity, in which case personal information held by MSF about the Portal’s users will be transferred to that entity; and
       2. if MSF is under a duty to disclose or share your personal information to comply with any legal obligation; or to enforce or apply these Terms; or to protect the rights, property or safety of MSF or others.
    10. If clause 10.9.1 applies, the information that MSF collects from you may be transferred to, and stored at, a destination outside the European Economic area (“EEA”). It may also be processed by staff operating outside the EEA who work for the new entity or for one of its contractors. By submitting information about yourself, you agree to this transfer, storing and processing. The new entity shall take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this clause 10, and the Portal’s Privacy Notice.
    11. You have a right to access information that MSF holds about you. Your right of access can be exercised in accordance with Article 15 of the General Data Protection Regulation ("GDPR").
11. TRANSMISSION OF DATA

    The transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although MSF will use its best endeavours to protect any information you may submit to the Portal, it cannot guarantee the security of any information in transmission: any transmission is at your own risk. Once MSF has received your information, it will use appropriate procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.

12. LINKING TO THE PORTAL
    1. You may link to the Portal’s home page, provided you do so in a way that is fair and legal and does not damage MSF’s reputation or take advantage of it, but you must not establish a link in such a way as to suggest any form of association, approval or endorsement on MSF’s part where none exists.
    2. You must not establish a link from any Portal that is not owned by you.
    3. The Portal must not be framed on any other site, nor may you create a link to any part of the Portal other than the home page. MSF reserves the right to withdraw linking permission without any notice. The Portal from which you are linking must have appropriate content standards.
    4. If you wish to make use of any material on the Portal, other than set out above, please address your request to dsp_admin@msf.org.
13. LINKING FROM THE PORTAL

    Where the Portal contains links to other sites and resources provided by third parties, these links are provided for your information only. MSF has no control over the content of those sites or resources and accepts no responsibility for them or for any loss or damage that may arise from your use of them.

14. JURISDICTION AND APPLICABLE LAW
    1. These Terms and any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with them or their subject matter or formation (including non-contractual disputes or claims) shall be governed by and construed in accordance with Dutch law.
    2. The district court of Amsterdam, the Netherlands shall have exclusive jurisdiction over any claim (whether contractual or non-contractual) arising from or in connection with these Terms, although MSF retains the right to bring proceedings against you for breach of these Terms in your country of residence or any other relevant country.
15. VARIATIONS

    MSF reserves the right to unilaterally amend the Terms from time to time. If MSF amends the Terms, MSF will update the "Last Modified" date at the top of these Terms. Your continued use of the Portal confirms your acceptance of these Terms, as amended.

16. YOUR CONCERNS

    If you have any concerns about these Terms of use or any material which appears on the Portal, please dsp_admin@msf.org.