Terms of use / Data protection

(Vers. 4 - 2023-05-15)

The EAN (European Aeroallergen Network) is licensed to AZ Pollen Research Gmbh (software and intellectual property) and administered and hosted by the Austrian Polleninformation, located at 1010 Vienna, Tuchlauben 7a. Due to continued expansion of the EAN it is felt that the terms and conditions of using the database should be updated and clarified to avoid confusion.

Members of EAN can access data from other stations and to follow the development of pollen seasons in different areas. The data can also be used for bona fide academic research, e.g. comparing characteristics and trends of pollen seasons, and for calibrating their own models and pollen forecasts. Furthermore, EAN offers the possibility of a free backup of uploaded datasets.

Data providers hold the full copyright of their data. Data is protected by personal user ID and password. In order to prevent abuse of the database, EAN members must also agree to the rules governing the use of the data.

Data providers shall have full read access to the entire database for internal purposes unless the owner withdraws permission for specific users. Whenever someone makes use of these data for publications (including audio, visual and digital presentations) it is mandatory to ask for permission, adhere to any conditions placed on the use of the data and offer acknowledgement or co-authorship.

In addition, it is understood that data from other colleagues must never be handed out to third parties or sold. If members of EAN receive such requests from third parties, they should pass the request to AZ Pollen Research. Detection or suspicion of misuse will result in immediate deactivation of the account.

Every time a user accesses the database the action is logged; this is independent of whether it came via the web interface or e-mail. The username, action, URL of the host, time and date, mode of access, stations, and Pollen types/period of request is logged and saved. This allows the identification and tracking of suspicious activities.

Apart from cases where EAN members have explicitly stated that their data should not be made available to others, AZ Pollen Research GmbH has permission to act as an intermediary for supplying data for scientific use to third parties. This includes scientific organizations (e.g. phenologists, climate research units, etc.) for academic research. In case of commercial use AZ Pollen Research GmbH is solely responsible for handling remuneration negotiations with data suppliers. This includes pharmaceutical companies for studies and data selling for commercial use. When appropriate, AZ Pollen Research will attempt to acquire a fee for providing data. Income resulting out of data selling will be primarily handed over to the data providers based on individual agreements and secondly used for maintenance of the database.

In order to facilitate negotiations between data providers and potential clients, AZ Pollen Research GmbH has authorization to access data so that it can be assessed for suitability. Once stations have been selected to be included in a given trial, the data providers must be contacted by AZ Pollen Research GmbH. Data selling must be covered by contracts with data owners.

On behalf of EAN
Dr. Markus Berger
Dipl.-Ing. Christoph Jäger
Uwe E. Berger MBA

On behalf of AZ Pollen Research
Mag. Sonja Berger