UK ALMA ARC NODE

Privacy statment

This statement describes how and what data we collect and use as part of the OST's normal operation.

Information we collect

For normal use of the OST, you as a user complete the webform at http://almaost.jb.man.ac.uk. To complete a simulation with the OST we require an email address. This is used to you send a link to a webpage where you can find the result of your simulation. In addition to this, you as a user can also upload a FITS image, this may also contain personal identifying information in the FITS header created when that FITS image was made.

How we use your personal information

The full email addresses we collect are used solely to communicate with you in the following ways:
  1. To send you an acknowledgement of your simulation being submitted and then a link to the results of you simulation.
  2. In the case that the OST crashes during completing your simulation, we will use that email address to contact you if the crash was a result of your simulation input parameters
Each OST simuation is assigned a "Job ID" which is a time stamp and a sequence of 5 randomly generated characters, e.g. 20180420162000JrTqQ. This is associated with the email address and any FITS files you submit.

For the purposes of monitoring international OST usage the domain of your email address is also collected. This allows to say where in the world the OST is being used, but not by whom. We use this to show funding agencies how and where the OST is being used to ensure is continued finacial support.

Data retention

For every OST simulation initiated we take an email address as described above. Each night (UK Greewich Mean Time) at 23:59 data associated with simulations greater than 48 hours old is deleted from the system. This includes the simulation inputs with the associated email address and any uploaded FITS image (which can potentially contain personal identifying information). The anonomymous email address domains are retained for the purposes of usage statistics, but after the initial 48 hours there is no information retained to associate this with a full email address.

The OST Team.