Privacy Policy¶
The PATRIC Bioinformatics Resource Center is provided as a public resource for the research community. This Privacy Policy describes the ways PATRIC collects, stores, uses, discloses and protects the personal information about users and how they use PATRIC. PATRIC never collects information for commercial marketing or any purpose unrelated to PATRIC functions.
Information PATRIC collects
Many functions of PATRIC, such as data browsing, may be used without a PATRIC User Account. PATRIC uses Google Analytics to accumulate this type of web traffic information in order to measure and report overall usage of the website portion of the resource. More information can be found in Google Analytics data practices.
If you choose to have a PATRIC User Account, you are asked to provide your name and an email address so that we may contact you if needed, for instance, if there is a problem with your account. This information is stored in your private personal profile. You are also required to provide a Username, which is used for logging in and appears along with data that you choose to share. PATRIC Usernames are not treated as personal information and it is recommended that you not include personal information in your Username.
User-provided personal information and data
You may at your discretion also provide in your personal profile further biographical information including your organization, organisms of interest, and other research interests. This information may be used in aggregate to understand the PATRIC userbase in order to improve the resource.
PATRIC does not track information in your personal research data. Access to this information is strictly under your control to share or make public. If you are having problems with your data in the private workspace or in using PATRIC services and you request our help, we may access your workspace and data files to troubleshoot and help resolve the problem for you.
Once you share data or workspaces with others PATRIC users or make it public, be aware that other users will be able to access the data. You can turn off the sharing at a later time if you desire.
User behavioral profile
When you use PATRIC services that require login (such as Genome Annotation), usage information is automatically recorded by your Username including what services you used, time of submission, service input parameters, and input/output file locations.
How information collected by PATRIC is used
Private personal information such as email address is only accessible to PATRIC staff and will only be used individually in the event we need to contact you. If you choose to provide that information to PATRIC independently (for example when emailing to request help), again it will only be used by PATRIC staff for the purpose of responding. PATRIC will produce project reports that include aggregate information such as the number of help requests, statistics on the topics of requests and resolutions. Additionally, the ways users interact with the system are analyzed when errors occur and in aggregate for analysis of PATRIC operation and improvement.
Aggregated usage information based on user behavior is used by PATRIC to produce overall statistics such as to show users which services are most popular. Usage information is also used by PATRIC for internal purposes such as to manage and improve capabilities and services, the website and related features and content, and to enable users to easily and productively navigate the website and utilize PATRIC capabilities for research benefit.
Information PATRIC discloses PATRIC is committed to maintaining the confidentiality, integrity and security of users’ personal private information and data. Usage information is used in aggregate for reporting to our funding agency, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for the purpose of evaluating the performance of the overall project. Aggregate usage information is also used in presentations and reported publicly through the Usage Metrics page on the PATRIC website. No individually identifiable information is reported or disclosed.
How information PATRIC collects is protected
PATRIC restricts access to nonpublic, personal information to those staff and service providers involved in administering and servicing user accounts. Physical, electronic and procedural safeguards are in place that comply with Federal standards to protect such information.
Changes to this policy
This PATRIC Privacy Policy may change from time to time. Your rights under this policy will not be reduced without your explicit consent. Changes will be posted on this page, and if significant, will be provided more prominently via email or notification when you sign in.
Users may at any time review, update, correct or delete the personal information in their profiles by signing in to their PATRIC account and using the edit or remove functions available from their personal profile page.
Other Information