Terms of Service

These Terms of Service (the “Terms”) govern your access to and use of the Galaxy Service provided by the Freiburg Galaxy Team and the European Galaxy Project. The “Galaxy Service” (“Service”) is defined on our Definitions / Scope page and comprises the interactive European Galaxy Sites at usegalaxy.eu and other *.usegalaxy.eu sites that link to these Terms. It does not include the Project Website at galaxyproject.eu, which is governed separately. By using the Service you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, you must not use the Service.

Personal data is processed as described in our Privacy Policy. Your rights under the GDPR are described on our User Rights under the GDPR page.

Acceptable Use

The Galaxy Service is a free, public, Internet-accessible resource for science, research, and education in the broadest sense. Data transfer is encrypted unless you choose to use unencrypted FTP access. Data storage is not encrypted. If there are restrictions on the way your research data may be stored or used, please consult your local institutional review board or the project principal investigator before uploading it to any public site, including this Service. If you have protected data, large data compute requirements and short deadlines, you are encouraged to set up your own local Galaxy instance instead of using this Service.

You may use the Service only for purposes related to science, research, and education. You are strictly prohibited from using the Service:

• to run non-scientific cryptography applications;
• to store and/or process data obtained from illegitimate sources;
• to execute software that leverages the Service’s compute resources for the sole purpose of generating revenue; or
• to carry out any activity that constitutes a (cyber)crime under the laws of the Federal Republic of Germany, the European Union, or any other jurisdiction whose laws apply to you, to the data, or to the intended use.

You are responsible for any data you choose to make public via the Service’s sharing features; published histories, datasets, and workflows become publicly accessible and may be indexed or cached by third parties. Ensure you have the right to share such data before publishing it.

The Service offers thousands of tools, many of which are contributed and maintained by third parties. The Service does not warrant the correctness or fitness of any individual third-party tool. You are responsible for the data you bring into the Service and for ensuring that your use of the Service complies with applicable law and with these Terms.

Accounts and Account Maintenance

You may register an account with the Service. Your registration data is used so you may persistently store data on the Service and use advanced Galaxy features such as sharing and workflows. The Service will not provide your registration data to any third party, unless required by law.

You are responsible for safeguarding the credentials associated with your account and for all activity that occurs under your account. You must notify us promptly at contact@usegalaxy.eu if you become aware of any unauthorized use of your account or any other security breach. We may suspend or terminate access to your account following a suspected compromise of your account.

Your access to the Service is provided under the condition that you abide by any published quotas on data storage, job submissions, or any other limitations placed on the public Service. Attempts to subvert these limits by creating multiple accounts or through any other method may result in termination of all associated accounts.

Because Galaxy Europe provides sustainable infrastructure for shared data usage, you are responsible for transferring data and results you wish to archive or publish to suitable public repositories, in line with the FAIR principles. For options please refer to https://galaxyproject.org/eu/storage/

You must keep your registered email address valid and active. We use it, together with in-Galaxy notifications shown when you next log in to the Service, for service notices including the inactivity warnings described under “Data Retention”. Email delivery cannot be guaranteed; messages may be delayed, filtered, or marked as spam. For this reason the in-Galaxy notification is the authoritative channel, and we recommend that you log in to the Service periodically to review any notices. If email messages to your address bounce or go undelivered, we will additionally treat the address as unreachable and proceed with the steps described under “Data Retention”. To update your email address, please go to User → User Preferences after logging in to your account.

Account Suspension and Automated Measures

Your access to the Service may be revoked or suspended at any time for reasons deemed necessary by responsible persons of the Service, including users who misuse Service.

When our systems detect abusive behavior originating from your account, we may temporarily disable access automatically to protect the integrity and availability of the Service. This temporary protective measure is based on our legitimate interests in preventing abuse and securing the Service (GDPR Article 6(1)(f)). We will inform you by email about the action and your possibilities to lodge an objection.

You may request human review by contacting contact@usegalaxy.eu. A human reviewer will reconsider the suspension and may confirm, modify, or reverse it. We will not make a final account termination decision solely by automated means. Until the review is complete, your account will remain disabled to protect the Service.

Compliance with Laws

You acknowledge that you are responsible for ensuring that all of your data processing activities carried out on the Galaxy Service comply with the applicable laws and regulations of the Federal Republic of Germany, the European Union, and any other jurisdictions whose laws apply by reason of the provenance, intended use, legal ownership of, or any licensing or other legal restrictions imposed on the data being processed.

Usegalaxy.eu is hosted out of an ISO 27001 certified data center operated by University of Freiburg IT Services, and the members of the Freiburg Galaxy Team do their due diligence to ensure information security and data protection. You, the end user, bear the full responsibility for the implications of using the Service.

Data Retention

We limit storage of personal data and user-generated data (uploaded datasets, histories, and derived results) to what is necessary for the Service, in accordance with Article 5(1)(e) of the GDPR (storage limitation).

• If you do not log in to the Service for 12 months, we will attempt to notify you via your registered email address and via an in-Galaxy notification shown when you next log in to the Service. If you do not log in within one month after we send the email notice or create the in-Galaxy notice, whichever occurs first, your account will be deactivated: your data remains stored for six months, but is no longer accessible to you or to automated jobs.
• If you do not log in within six months of deactivation, your user-generated data will be deleted. Your account record (username, email, and analysis metadata) is retained as an account shell, and may be reactivated on your request.
• If your account remains inactive for 10 years, the account record itself, including username and email, will be deleted.

You may delete your data and account at any time; see our User Rights under the GDPR page. These retention periods may change as described under “Changes to These Terms” below.

License to User Data

By uploading data to or generating data with the Service, you grant the Service a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, process, back up, and (where you choose to share or publish it) display that data solely for the purpose of operating, maintaining, and improving the Service. This license is limited to operational use and does not transfer ownership of your data to the Service.

The Service may also use anonymized or aggregated metadata derived from your use of the Service (such as job counts, tool usage frequencies, and aggregate storage statistics) for service monitoring, capacity planning, and reporting, provided that the result cannot be used to identify you.

Service Availability

The Service is provided on a best-effort basis. It does not guarantee uninterrupted or error-free availability. The Service, or any feature of it, may be modified, suspended, or discontinued at any time without notice. No responsibility for loss of data or access resulting from such modifications, suspensions, or discontinuations is accepted; you are encouraged to maintain your own backups of important data.

Disclaimer

The Service is provided to you on an “AS IS” BASIS and WITHOUT WARRANTY, either express or implied, including, without limitation, the warranties of non-infringement, merchantability, or fitness for a particular purpose. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY OF THE SERVICE IS WITH YOU. This DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY constitutes an essential part of this service agreement. The ISO 27001 certification referenced above does not constitute a warranty for fitness for any particular purpose.

Limitation of Liability

Under no circumstances and under no legal theory, whether in tort (including negligence), contract, or otherwise, shall the University of Freiburg or any other entity which provides resources for the Service be liable to anyone for any indirect, special, incidental, or consequential damages of any character arising as a result of the use of this Service, including, without limitation, damages for loss of goodwill, work stoppage, computer failure or malfunction, or any and all other commercial damages or losses. This limitation of liability shall not apply to the extent applicable law prohibits such limitation.

Changes to These Terms

We may amend these Terms from time to time. We will publish any revised Terms on this page at least 30 days before they take effect, with the revision date shown in the page history. Active users will additionally be informed via an in-Galaxy notice shown at login. We will also announce material changes through our usual communication channels (such as our blog and the project’s social media accounts).

We do not undertake to notify each user individually of changes. It is your responsibility to review these Terms periodically. Your continued use of the Service after the effective date of any revised Terms constitutes your acceptance of the revised Terms. If you do not agree to the revised Terms, you may stop using the Service and request deletion of your account and data as described on our User Rights under the GDPR page.

Governing Law

These Terms and any dispute arising out of or in connection with them are governed by the law of the European Union and, to the extent not preempted by EU law, the law of the Federal Republic of Germany. Nothing in these Terms deprives you of rights as a consumer under the mandatory provisions of the law of your country of residence that cannot be waived by contract.

Severability

If any provision of these Terms is held to be invalid, illegal, or unenforceable, the remaining provisions shall remain in full force and effect, and the invalid provision shall be replaced by a valid, enforceable provision that comes closest to the intent of the original.

Contact

If you have any questions or concerns about these Terms, please contact us at contact@usegalaxy.eu. You may also contact the Data Protection Representative of the University of Freiburg via datenschutzbeauftragter@uni-freiburg.de, and you have the right to lodge a formal complaint with the responsible supervisory authority, e.g. the Baden-Württemberg Data Protection and Information Freedom Commissioner.