www.roarproject.org
The Alliance for the
Prudent Use of Antibiotics, Inc. (“APUA”) has created this web site to
provide an online platform for information relating to antibiotic resistance
research in commensal bacteria, including providing scientific network and
funding opportunities, relevant links, an annotated bibliography (“ROAR
Literature Database”) and raw commensal isolate data for analysis (“ROAR
Isolate Database”).
To assist you in using our www.roarproject.org
web site (the “Web Site” or the “Site”), and to ensure a clear
understanding of the relationship arising from your use of our Site, we have
created a Privacy Policy and a set of Terms and Conditions of Use. Our Privacy Policy explains how we protect and treat
contact and other information you provide to us through the Site,
and our Terms and Conditions of Use govern your use of
our Site generally. Please read our Privacy Policy and
our Terms and Conditions of Use carefully – they impose
legal obligations on you. By using or accessing our Site, you are
acknowledging that you have read and understood these terms and agree to be
legally bound by them.
Privacy Policy
We respect your privacy.
This Privacy Policy (“Privacy Policy”) constitutes the agreement between
you and APUA regarding your provision, and our collection and use, of contact
and other information you may provide while using our Site. In this Privacy
Policy, the words “you” and “your” refer to any person accessing the Site, and
the words “we,” “us,” and “our” refer to APUA.
By using our Site, you
consent to this Privacy Policy.
We have organized the
elements of our Privacy Policy in sections. To access a particular topic,
please click on the link below.
The Types Of Information You
Potentially May Provide
Information That Identifies You:
Personally Identifiable Information
Registration Information
Surveys and Questionnaires
Email And Other Direct
Communications
Information That Does Not
Identify You: Aggregate Information
Cookies
Disabling Cookies
IP Addresses
How We Use The Information You
Provide
Use of Personally
Identifiable Information
We Use Aggregate Information
Only In Ways That Do Not Identify You
Any Information Linked With Your
Personal Information Is Treated As
“Personally
Identifiable Information”
How We Safeguard Information We
Collect
How To Obtain Access to
Information You Have Provided, And How To Remove
Your Information From Our Database
Additional General Provisions
Participation
in Online Discussions
Links To Other Web Sites
Court Orders, Subpoenas, And
Other Required Disclosures
Changes in Our Privacy Policy
Relationship to Terms of Use
Your Consent
Contact Us
We have also included a
variety of links in the body of our Privacy Policy to connect related
provisions and further assist you in navigating and understanding the Policy.
If after reading through the Privacy Policy you still have questions, please
feel free to contact us by clicking on the following link: contact
us.
2.
The Types Of Information You Potentially
May Provide
This
Privacy Policy only applies to information you provide to us online while
visiting or using our Site. It does not apply to information we have obtained
offline or through other traditional means. Our privacy policy covers information
you provide in visiting or using our Site that falls into two broad categories:
personally identifiable information, and aggregate information. “Personally Identifiable Information” is information
that can be used to identify or contact you, such as your name, phone number,
email address, or mailing address. “Aggregate
Information” is information that does not identify you, and may include,
for example, statistical information concerning the web pages on our Site that
users most frequent. Our Privacy Policy governs both categories of
information, as detailed below. Our privacy policy does not cover posted
manuscripts, submitted original data, or information disclosed in online
discussions. The voluntary submission of manuscripts, survey responses,
comments, and original data constitutes permission to post them on the Web
Site.
2.1.
Information That Identifies You:
Personally Identifiable Information
APUA provides this Web Site
as a public service. You may visit our Site and review a range of information
relating to antibiotic resistance research without revealing your identity or
providing any Personally Identifiable Information, in which case we will
collect only Aggregate Information that does not identify you in any way.
However, in order to establish
a ‘My ROAR’ account and enjoy related customized functions including access to
the ROAR databases, including browsing, uploading (submitting) data, and
downloading data, we require that you provide Personally Identifiable
Information by becoming a registered user (‘Member of the ROAR Scientific
Network’). This involves providing us with contact and other information, as
provided below. Additionally, you may provide us with Personally Identifiable
Information under several other circumstances, also provided below.
2.1.1.
Registration Information
In order to establish a ‘My ROAR’ account and obtain access to the ROAR
databases, including browsing data, uploading (submitting) data, and
downloading data, we require that you become a registered user (‘Member of the
ROAR Scientific Network’). This involves providing us with contact and other
information.
Our
registration forms will specify the information you must provide in order to
access the databases, and the information that you may, at your option, choose
to provide or withhold. Our obligations concerning, and permitted uses of, any
Personally Identifiable Information that you provide
during the registration process are set out below.
As indicated above, you may
use our Site exclusive of the databases without registering or submitting any
information to us. In that case, the only information we collect from your
visit will be Aggregate Information that does not
identify you in any way. Our obligations concerning, and permitted uses of,
Aggregate Information are also set out below.
2.1.2.
Surveys, Questionnaires, Reviews, and Comments
If you choose to
participate in surveys or questionnaires or to provide user reviews or
comments, we ask that you also provide contact and other Personally
Identifiable Information. If we link, or combine in any way your responses
with your Personally Identifiable Information, we will treat the combined
information as Personally Identifiable Information under our Privacy Policy, as
provided below. If we separate your responses from,
and they are independent of any Personally Identifiable Information, such that
a third party reviewing your responses would be unable to link the responses to
you or your practice, the responses will be treated as Aggregate Information
under our Privacy Policy, again as provided below.
2.1.3
Submitted Data
If you choose to submit
original data, we ask that you provide associated contact and other Personally
Identifiable Information. Our Privacy Policy covers this Personally
Identifiable Information. We will not separate submitted datasets from your
Personally Identifiable Information.
2.1.4 Email And Other Direct Communications
Periodically we may
communicate with you directly by email or telephone for development,
clarification, or other professional purposes. By communicating with us for
these purposes, you may provide us with your email address and other Personally
Identifiable Information. We will handle such information that you provide in
this manner in accordance with our Privacy Policy for Personally Identifiable Information,
set out below.
2.2.
Information That Does Not Identify
You: Aggregate Information
When you browse our Site,
the choices you make may provide information concerning your interests and
concerning the appeal and efficacy of associated Site features.
Information concerning our
visitors’ activities at the Site – which pages they visit, and how long they
view these pages, for example – is Aggregate Information.
This information does not identify a particular user, but does provide
potentially useful data concerning our users’ preferences and the efficacy and
interest of our Site’s features. The manners in which we collect Aggregate
Information are set out below.
2.2.1.
Cookies
We collect Aggregate
Information about your use of our Site through cookies and similar Internet
technologies. “Cookies” are small text files that a web site can use to
recognize repeat users, to facilitate the user’s ongoing access to and use of
the site, and to compile aggregate data to improve the site and focus
advertising. Cookies work as follows: a web site will send a cookie to your
browser that uniquely associates your computer with information stored at the
site. Your browser places the cookie in its cookies file. When you next
access that site on your computer, the site recognizes the cookie, makes the
stored information available, and adds new information based on the present
visit.
Our cookies do not collect
or retain your name or other Personally Identifying Information. In addition,
no third parties are permitted to use cookies created at our Site for their own
purposes.
We treat all information
collected through cookies and similar Internet technologies as Aggregate
Information; our obligations concerning, and permitted uses of, Aggregate
Information are set out below.
2.2.2
Tracking Registered
Users
Additionally, we collect Aggregate Information about your use of our Site by
using software to track length and frequency of logins by registered users.
This system tracks users by email address, name, and possibly other Personally
Identifiable Information. All personal information associated with tracking
usage is treated as Personally Identifiable Information under our Privacy
Policy, as provided below. All usage information not
linked to Personally Identifiable Information is considered Aggregate
Information.
2.2.3
Disabling Cookies
You may choose not to allow us to collect information through cookies.
If you wish, you can set your browser software to reject cookies, and most
browsers provide instructions for disabling the cookies feature in their “Help”
section. Because cookies provide certain functionality, such as the ability to
create, access, and use your ‘My ROAR’ account, if you disable your browser’s
cookies feature, certain elements of our Site will be unavailable to you.
2.2.4 IP
Addresses
An
“Internet Protocol” (IP) address is associated with your computer’s connection
to the Internet. We use your computer’s IP address to maintain contact with
you as you navigate through our Site. We also use your computer’s IP address
to provide you with personalized content. Similar to cookies, your computer’s
IP address by itself does not identify you personally. We treat IP addresses,
therefore, as Aggregate Information, as provided below.
If we combine your IP address with any Personally Identifiable Information, the
combined information will be treated by us as Personally Identifiable
Information, as set out below.
3.
How We Use The Information You
Provide
The following section
describes how we use the information you provide, and details the specific
obligations we undertake to preserve your privacy.
3.1.
Use of Personally Identifiable Information
We use Personally Identifiable Information
you provide to us on our Site to give you access to the ROAR databases, to
identify and quantify users for reporting and development purposes, to approve
and provide customized access and features to individual users, and to provide
customized information including newsletters, funding opportunities, updates,
and other materials. We do not provide your personal information to third
parties or the public with the following exceptions:
Personally
Identifiable Information you provide in association with submitted original
data during the data submission process will be posted on our Web Site,
referenced by any datasets you submit, and accessible to all registered users.
We may additionally use this Personally Identifiable Information to correspond
with you regarding your submitted data for quality control and data entry
purposes.
Personally
Identifiable Information you provide in association with your responses to
surveys or questionnaires and/or your comments may be linked to your provided
responses and provided to third parties only with your explicit permission
(generally for the purpose of reporting to our funding agencies). Otherwise
such Personally Identifiable Information will not be shared with third parties.
We also will use
your information to respond to questions and comments from you, and to inform
you of changes to our Privacy Policy or Terms and Conditions of Use.
3.2.
We Use Aggregate Information Only
In Ways That Do Not Identify You
To measure our visitors’
interest in and use of various areas of our Site, and for other purposes set
out below, we collect Aggregate Information -- which is
information that does not identify you. Aggregate Information obtained through cookies, for example, allows us to monitor how many
users are visiting our Site, and what areas of the Site present the most
interest to our users. We are able then to use this information to improve the
functionality and interest of the Site. We also use Aggregate Information to
prepare statistical and other summary analyses of our users’ behavior and
characteristics for reporting purposes.
We may share Aggregate
Information, and reports based on this Information, with third parties related
to APUA, such as our funding agencies, Board of Directors, and Steering
Committees. We may also post Aggregate Information, such as survey results, usage
statistics, or anonymous reviewer comments, on our Web Site. No such Aggregate
Information that we provide to third parties or post on our Web Site will allow
anyone to identify you. We do not allow third parties to attempt to make
Aggregate Information personally identifiable by, for example, seeking to
combine it with other information.
3.3.
Any Information Linked With Your
Personal Information Is Treated As “Personally Identifiable Information”
To advance the goals of our
Site, we may link (a) the Personally Identifiable Information you have
provided; with (b) Aggregate Information concerning (for example) your
interests and preferences, as collected through our cookies,
software usage tracking, and surveys. Linking this information will allow us
to create information packages and services that are better tailored to your
interests and preferences. Among other effects, linking this information may
allow us generally to improve and focus our Site. If we combine or link any information
with your Personally Identifiable Information, the resulting combination will
be treated as Personally Identifiable Information under this Privacy Policy, as
set forth above.
4.
How We Safeguard Information We
Collect
We have put in place
security systems designed to prevent unauthorized disclosure of information you
provide to us. These systems are structured to deter and prevent hackers and
others from accessing this information. Due to the nature of Internet communications
and evolving technologies, however, we cannot provide, and disclaim, assurance
that the information you provide us will remain free from loss, misuse, or
alteration by third parties who, despite our efforts, obtain unauthorized
access.
5.
How To Obtain Access to
Information You Have Provided, And How To Remove Your Information From Our
Database
We allow you at any time to update, correct, or delete Personally Identifiable Information you have provided us.
After submitting your registration information or dataset-associated Personally
Identifiable Information, you can view and modify this information within the
“My ROAR” page of the Site. Contact us to change any other Personally
Identifiable Information posted on the site.
If you request, we will
remove your name and other Personally Identifiable Information from our
databases. Please understand, however, that it may be impossible to remove
this information completely, due to backups and records of deletions. If you
wish to remove your name and other Personally Identifiable Information from our
database, please contact us.
Because Aggregate
Information does not personally identify our users, we do not provide our
users with access to Aggregate Information, and users may not update, revise,
or delete any Aggregate Information.
6.
Additional General Provisions
6.1.
Participation in Online
Discussions
We may include a “Forum” feature on the Site. You may decide to
participate in an online discussion. Please keep in mind that any information
you provide while participating in an online chat or forum will be available to
all participants. These participants, and their transferees, may use
Personally Identifiable Information and other information you disclose in this
manner, to contact you and for other purposes. Accordingly, we ask that you
participate prudently, as this Privacy Policy will not cover the information
you disclose in online discussions at our Site.
6.2.
Links To Other Web Sites
To give you access to other
information relating to antibiotic resistance research, we include links to
other Web Sites. We provide these links as a convenience, and we do not
endorse the content or services offered by these other sites.
Our Privacy Policy covers
only information we collect at the Site, so once you enter another site you are
subject to the privacy policy of the new site. We encourage you to review the
privacy policies of sites you visit through our links. We are not responsible
for the conduct or policies of these third parties.
6.3.
Court Orders, Subpoenas, And Other
Required Disclosures
There are two exceptions to
our Privacy Policy. First, we may disclose Personally Identifiable Information
as may be required in legal proceedings, or in response to a subpoena, court
order, or administrative order compelling disclosure. Second, in cases
involving a threat of imminent harm to you or others, we may release such
information to prevent or mitigate the threat. In any such case, we will seek
to limit the scope of disclosure, and will disclose only such information as is
reasonably required to fulfill the purpose of the disclosure.
6.4.
Changes in Our Privacy Policy
We may revise our Privacy
Policy without notice to you. We will post these changes here, in our Privacy
Policy. Your use of our Site following any such change constitutes your
agreement to follow and be bound by the Privacy Policy, as changed.
6.5.
Relationship to Term of Use
In addition to this Privacy
Policy, your use of our Site is also subject to our Terms
and Conditions of Use (our “Terms of Use”). The provisions of our
Terms of Use are incorporated herein, including, without limitation, Sections
11 (Choice of Law and Jurisdiction), 13 (Assignment), 16 (Severability), 17
(Survival) and 18 (Complete Agreement).
7.
Your Consent
By using our Web Site, you
consent to our collection and use of information, in accordance with this
Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with some, or all of the terms of this
Privacy Policy, please refrain from becoming a registered user, and from
visiting or using our Site.
8.
Contact Us
You may contact us, for any reason, by e-mail as follows:
http://www.roarproject.org/ROAR/html/contact.htm
You may contact us by mail as follows:
Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics
75 Kneeland St.
Boston, MA 02111
Last
revised: March 19, 2006
