Terms of Service

Terms of Service

Updated 10/04/2022

Thank you for using ReefCloud. ReefCloud is an initiative of the Australian Institute of Marine Science (“AIMS”). These Terms of Service (or “Agreement”) are between you and the AIMS. By accessing or using the ReefCloud service (at https://reefcloud.ai and certain other *.reefcloud.ai domains that may be incorporated from time to time), you agree to and are bound by this Agreement.

Summary

Under this Agreement:

(a) AIMS owns ReefCloud, but we allow you to use it in line with ReefCloud’s mission and goals (but not for commercial purposes)

(b) You own any content you upload to ReefCloud, but you allow AIMS to use it forever

(c) You have options for how you manage sharing your data within ReefCloud

1. You can access parts of ReefCloud using APIs, so long as you meet our requirements, and

2. AIMS describes the warranties it gives over ReefCloud, and the liability AIMS accepts. You give AIMS a release and indemnity.

This summary is for convenience only and is no substitute for reading the full Agreement.

1. Mission and goals of ReefCloud

ReefCloud is a web application for coral reef data collection, analyses and sharing. Its mission is to advance the assessment of coral reefs that informs sustainable management practices. Users can register, create profiles, and join projects with their teams as they collect field data offline through common transect methods.

ReefCloud’s goal is to provide users with access to clean and standardized monitoring data, processed quickly and stored centrally and securely, to transform and accelerate coral reef conservation. ReefCloud allows users to collect, manage, make use of automated tools for analyses, and export their data in secure projects. ReefCloud also allows users to perform simple analysis and visualization on the data they have access to.

1. Your use of ReefCloud

You agree to use ReefCloud solely for the mission and goals outlined in section 1 above and never for commercial purposes unless otherwise agreed in advance in writing by AIMS. You agree to use ReefCloud in compliance with all applicable laws, rules, statutes, and regulations, and you acknowledge that you are solely responsible for such compliance, including with any local laws. You agree not use ReefCloud to defame, harass, or threaten anyone or make available any material that is obscene, pornographic, or offensive; is intentionally deceptive; is discriminatory or abusive toward any individual or group; violates applicable law or promotes any such violation; contains or installs any malware, viruses, or other harmful components; or infringes the proprietary or personal right of any third party. While AIMS reserves the right to remove any content AIMS determines is in violation of law, this Agreement or AIMS’ policies, AIMS does not commit to review all content.

1. Using your ReefCloud account

ReefCloud is organized on a per-project basis. Each project will have at least one administrator who creates and manages the project as it exists on ReefCloud. To use ReefCloud, you must register for an account by creating a password-protected login or using an authentication provider offered by ReefCloud. You are responsible for the security of your login and password, and for all content provided, profiles created, projects implemented and any other activity occurring under your account. You agree to promptly notify AIMS if you become aware of any actual or suspected unauthorized use of or access to ReefCloud.

1. Rights in ReefCloud

a. AIMS owns ReefCloud

Your use of ReefCloud does not give you any ownership rights in the intellectual property in ReefCloud or in its contents. AIMS owns and will continue to own ReefCloud and all the rights to ReefCloud, including without limitation all copyrights, trademarks, patents, and other proprietary rights. All rights not expressly granted herein are reserved to AIMS.

b. AIMS gives you a right to use ReefCloud

Through this Agreement, AIMS grants you the limited, non-transferable right to use ReefCloud solely as permitted under this Agreement.

c. Using the ReefCloud name and logo

You may use the “ReefCloud” name and/or logo solely in and in connection with your permitted use of ReefCloud and solely in a manner that accurately portrays ReefCloud and your use of ReefCloud.

d. Using AIMS’ name and logo

You can only use AIMS’ name, logo or other mark with AIMS’ prior written consent.

e. AIMS can revoke permissions

AIMS reserves the right to revoke any of the permissions in this Agreement at any time by written notice to you.

f. Use of third party providers

AIMS may use third-party providers (including but not necessarily limited to Amazon Web Services) to host and serve data for ReefCloud.

1. Your content in ReefCloud.

a. Warranties about your content

You represent and warrant that you own all content you upload to or manually input into ReefCloud (for the purposes of this Agreement referred to as “data” and “metadata” as the case may be) and all content you provide to or make available on ReefCloud, and/or possess all rights in the content necessary to consent to this Agreement, and that no part of the content will infringe or violate any copyright, trade secret, trademark, patent, invention, or other proprietary or personal right of any third party. You represent and warrant that the content will be true, accurate, and complete to the best of your knowledge. You are solely responsible for all your content.

b. You own your content

Content you provide to ReefCloud will remain your project and will not be shared or released by ReefCloud without your explicit permission, subject to the data sharing provisions below.

c. Rights to use your content

Through this Agreement, you grant AIMS the royalty-free, nonexclusive, irrevocable worldwide right, but not the obligation, to use, copy and store your content in perpetuity. You also grant AIMS the royalty-free, nonexclusive, irrevocable worldwide right, but not the obligation, in perpetuity to share your content with AIMS’ selected ReefCloud collaborators for the purpose of continually improving ReefCloud.

1. Third-Party Content

ReefCloud incorporates content from your project and the projects of others. If you wish to access or use any third-party data, you should examine the licenses and restrictions in the per-project, per-protocol metadata pertaining to such data (see “Data Sharing” below). You must comply with the per-project, per-protocol licenses and restrictions associated with each third-party dataset.

1. Data Sharing

a. Data privacy

AIMS and ReefCloud are committed to protecting the data privacy of users and offers three privacy options for each protocol implemented in each individual project. Privacy settings can be set at both the project and survey level, and they can be set independently.

“Private”

Collected observations and site-level summary statistics are private, but metadata for project, protocol, and site, including site location and type and count of sample unit at each site, are public. While location-specific data will remain private, these data will be used in statistical models to integrate observations across projects and sites and produce regional summary estimations of coral and macroalgae cover across large management regions (See definition of large management regions, for details).

“Public summary”

ReefCloud is designed to support the integration and scalability of coral reef monitoring data to inform on the status and trends of these ecosystems. To enable such integration, statistical models have been developed to produce aggregated summaries of coral and macroalgae cover across large management regions and over time.

Under this option, collected observations are private, aggregated summary statistics are public, along with metadata for project, protocol, and site location. This option is the default for all projects.

“Public”

All collected observations are public.

b. Metadata privacy

To maintain transparency as to who collected the original data, data is always associated with the names of, and a mechanism to contact, project administrators (but email addresses are never public).

Project-level information	Description	Private	Public Summary	Public
Contact info	Organisation name	YES	YES	YES
Contact info	Users’ name and email address	NO	NO	NO
Metadata	Project name and description, country, site name and location, survey dates, depth and methodology.	YES	YES	YES
Regional summary*	Hard Coral and Macroalgae cover summarised across large management regions (Country-level and administrative boundaries). See the definition of statistical aggregates for details.	NO	YES	YES
Site-level summary	Average benthic cover for all labels at each site.	NO	YES	YES
All-level	Metadata, imagery, and image annotations	NO	NO	YES

Regional summary and site-level summary data will be made available on a public facing dashboard once AIMS has reviewed the data for standardisation to meet the requirements for statistical aggregation.

1. Using APIs

a. Access and restrictions

Subject to this Agreement, you may access allowed components of ReefCloud’s APIs.

You agree not to:

(i) sell, rent, lease, sublicense, redistribute, or syndicate access to any APIs;

(ii) use any APIs in violation of any applicable law or regulation, including privacy laws;

(iii) use APIs in any manner that:

(1) compromises, breaks or circumvents AIMS’ or ReefCloud’s technical processes or security measures

(2) poses a security vulnerability to AIMS or other users of ReefCloud, or

(3) tests the vulnerability of AIMS’ systems or networks;

(iv) attempt to reverse-engineer or otherwise derive source code, trade secrets, or know-how of any APIs;

(v) use automated systems or software to extract (i.e., “scrape”) data from any API; or,

(vi) attempt to use any APIs in a manner that exceeds the usage or rate limits determined by AIMS.

AIMS reserves the right to audit, limit or block your use of any API if AIMS reasonably suspects any violation of these restrictions. Please contact [email protected] if you are interested in using ReefCloud APIs for additional purposes.

b. Attribution

Subject to this Agreement, you may implement allowed components of ReefCloud’s API components for your site(s), application(s) or service(s). If you use any ReefCloud APIs, you must credit ReefCloud. The ReefCloud attribution and/or ReefCloud logo must appear reasonably prominently, in a form acceptable to AIMS, in conjunction with any site, application or service that incorporates any API component or data obtained from ReefCloud. You may not display or use ReefCloud or ReefCloud name or logo in any manner that implies a relationship or affiliation with, sponsorship, promotion, or endorsement by ReefCloud.

1. Warranty and disclaimers

Subject to any terms, conditions and warranties which the law expressly provides may not be excluded, restricted or modified, or may be excluded, restricted or modified only to a limited extent (“Prescribed Terms”), AIMS provides ReefCloud under this Agreement “as is” and “as available” and all conditions, warranties, terms and obligations expressed or implied by law or otherwise relating to the performance of AIMS’ obligations, or any goods or services supplied or to be supplied by AIMS, under this Agreement are excluded.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, AIMS does not warrant that any intellectual property rights are or will be valid, nor that the use of ReefCloud will not infringe the rights (including intellectual property rights) of any person.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, AIMS does not warrant that ReefCloud will meet your requirements; that ReefCloud will be uninterrupted, timely, secure, or error-free; that the information provided through ReefCloud is accurate, reliable, or correct; that any defects or errors will be corrected; that ReefCloud will be available at any particular time or location; or that ReefCloud is free of viruses or other harmful components.

AIMS makes no representation that ReefCloud is appropriate or available for use at all locations, and access to ReefCloud from territories where ReefCloud is illegal is prohibited.

1. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, AIMS’ liability to you for a breach of a Prescribed Term implied into this Agreement is limited, at AIMS’ option, to the repair or replacement of the goods, the cost of repairing or replacing the goods, the re-supply of the services or the payment of the cost of re-supplying the services.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, AIMS will have no liability to you, however arising and under any cause of action or theory of liability, in respect of special, indirect or consequential damages, loss of profit (whether direct or indirect) or loss of business opportunity.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, AIMS will have no liability related to any content arising under intellectual property rights, libel, privacy, publicity, obscenity or other laws.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, AIMS also disclaims all liability with respect to the misuse, loss, modification, or unavailability of any data

1. Release and indemnification

Through this Agreement, to the fullest extent permitted by law, you agree to release AIMS from all claims, demands and damages (actual and consequential) of every kind and nature, known and unknown, arising out of or in any way connected with your access to or use of ReefCloud. To the fullest extent permitted by law, you agree to indemnify, defend and hold AIMS and any directors, trustees, officers, employees, independent contractors and agents of any AIMS entity harmless from any and all third-party claims, including reasonable legal fees, due to or arising from:

(a) your access to or use of ReefCloud;

(b) your breach of any part of this Agreement;

(c) content that you may submit, post to or transmit to ReefCloud (including a third party’s use of such content (e.g., reliance on the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of your data));

(d) content that you may access or use using ReefCloud, including your reliance on the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any data; or

(e) your infringement of any third party’s copyright, trademark, or other proprietary right, violation of privacy right or publicity right, and libel or violation of any other law in connection with this Agreement.

1. Privacy notice

The Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) is Australia’s tropical marine research agency. AIMS was established under the Australian Institute of Marine Science Act 1972 (Cth) and is covered by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).

You are entitled to protection of the personal information you provide to us when signing up for a ReefCloud account. AIMS collects your personal information for the purposes of issuing your ReefCloud account, recording your use of ReefCloud and contacting you about matters relating to your ReefCloud account.

If AIMS is unable to collect this personal information you will be unable to sign up for a ReefCloud account. You cannot access or use ReefCloud without an account.

AIMS may disclose some personal information we hold to some other organisations. For example, we may share the information with our selected ReefCloud collaborators for the purposes of continual improvement of ReefCloud. AIMS is unlikely to disclose this personal information to overseas recipients.

AIMS’ Privacy Policy (https://www.aims.gov.au/docs/privacy-policy.html) contains information about how you may access or seek correction of your personal information AIMS holds, how you can raise any concerns or complaints you have about your personal information AIMS holds, and how AIMS will respond.

By continuing to sign up for a ReefCloud account, you consent to AIMS collecting, using, and disclosing your personal information as described above and in AIMS’ Privacy Policy.

For more information, please call AIMS’ Privacy Officer on [phone] or email [email protected].

General.

a. Choice of Law

Except to the extent applicable law provides otherwise, this Agreement and any access to or use of ReefCloud are governed by the laws the State of Queensland, Australia. You agree and submit to the exclusive personal jurisdiction and venue of the courts located in Queensland, Australia. AIMS reserves the right to seek equitable or injunctive relief in any jurisdiction in the world.

b. Survival

The provisions of this Agreement that by their nature should survive termination will survive termination, including, without limitation, ownership provisions, warranty disclaimers, indemnity, and limitations of liability.

c. Notices

To the fullest extent permitted by law, you:

(i) consent to receive communications AIMS in an electronic form via the email address you have submitted or via ReefCloud; and

(ii) agree that all Terms of Service, agreements, notices, disclosures, and other communications that AIMS provides to you electronically satisfy any legal requirement that those communications would satisfy if they were on paper.

Legal notice to AIMS must be made in writing to the address provided below.

d. Modification

AIMS may, in its sole discretion, modify all or any portions of this Agreement at any time. AIMS will notify you of any changes by posting notice of such modifications in the terms of service or sending notice via e-mail, or other means. Your continued use of ReefCloud following notice of such modifications shall be deemed to be your acceptance of any such modifications to the Agreement.

e. Termination of Service or Access

AIMS reserves the right at any time and from time to time to modify or discontinue, temporarily or permanently, ReefCloud, in whole or in part, or your access thereto, with or without notice. You may terminate your access to ReefCloud at any time by following the process set out in ReefCloud or contacting AIMS. You will have the choice to remove or retain any data that you have uploaded to ReefCloud following termination of your account. Upon termination, any licenses, rights, or permissions granted to you hereunder shall terminate immediately.

f. No Assignment.

You may not assign or delegate any rights or obligations under this Agreement without AIMS’ prior written consent, and any unauthorized assignment and delegation by you will be null and void.

g. Severability, No Waiver, and Survival.

If any part of this Agreement is held invalid or unenforceable, that portion of the Agreement will be construed to reflect the parties’ original intent. The remaining portions will remain in full force and effect. Any failure on the part of AIMS to enforce any provision of this Agreement will not be considered a waiver of AIMS’ right to enforce such provision. AIMS’ rights under this Agreement will survive any termination or expiration of this Agreement.

h. Titles and summary

Section headings within this Agreement and the section of this Agreement entitled “Summary” are for convenience only.

i. Entire Agreement.

This Agreement constitutes the entire agreement between you and AIMS relating to the subject matter and supersedes all prior or contemporaneous understandings, communications, or agreements, written or oral, regarding such subject matter.

j. Questions.

If you have questions about this Agreement, please contact: [email protected].

Direct legal notices to the Australian Institute of Marine Science, Legal Services Team, 1526 Cape Cleveland Road, Cape Cleveland 4810, Queensland, Australia.

1. Consent.

By using ReefCloud, you consent to these Terms of Service.

END OF TERMS OF SERVICE