THERMOS: Help: THERMOS Terms and Conditions of Use

This document sets out the terms and conditions on which you may use the full version of THERMOS at https://tool.thermos-project.eu/ (THERMOS), and the ways in which we (the THERMOS project consortium) may use data entered into a THERMOS installation.

To let you preview THERMOS without having to install it yourself, we are providing a restricted version for free public access running on the server available at https://tool.thermos-project.eu.

Use of the Public Access Version is subject to the terms available here: https://tool.thermos-project.eu/help/data-protection.html.

You may also run your own copy of THERMOS, in which case you will be in charge of your data. The source code is available under an open-source license from https://github.com/cse-bristol/110-thermos-ui. If you would like help with this, contact the Centre for Sustainable Energy (https://www.cse.org.uk / thermos@cse.org.uk).

I you would like unrestricted access to a thermos installation without having to set it up yourself, please see https://www.cse.org.uk/thermos-subscription for how to request a subscription.

This service

By using THERMOS, you acknowledge and accept these terms and conditions on behalf of yourself and all individual users from your organisation:
1. All use of THERMOS is subject to these terms and conditions and to you obtaining the appropriate Subscription. The number of individual users who are permitted to use THERMOS depends on the type of Subscription you obtain. Further information including fee structures is available at: https://www.cse.org.uk/thermos-subscription.
2. We have the right to immediately terminate this agreement and remove your access to THERMOS in the event that you (or any of your individual users) breach these terms. You will not be entitled to any refund.
3. Login details must not be shared with anybody else, either inside or outside your organisation.
4. We will take reasonable steps to ensure that THERMOS is available to you. However, we are not providing any warranty, guarantee, or representation of any kind. THERMOS is provided as is, and as available. We do not warrant that THERMOS is error free or that you will be able to operate it without problems or interruptions.
5. We may update any of the algorithms that comprise THERMOS at any time, and do not guarantee consistency with previous versions.
6. You assume sole responsibility for results and conclusions obtained from your use of THERMOS. We take no responsibility for, and make no guarantee of the accuracy of, any of the outputs from THERMOS: you are responsible for ensuring that the outputs are fit for whatever purpose you may have. We shall have no liability for any losses resulting from any use of THERMOS. Our total liability to you shall be limited to the amount of £1 plus the cost of the last Subscription you purchased.
7. Where possible we will endeavour to back up all user data on a daily basis, and store it securely off-site.
8. In the event of a technical fault, we will endeavour to restore the service within 7 days using the most recent available data backup, but we do not guarantee how recent this backup will be, and you are advised to download and backup any critical data on a regular basis.
9. Any bugs identified should be reported to thermos@cse.org.uk. We will consider all bug reports, but we will not be obliged to take any action in response.
10. You may provide suggestions, comments or other feedback regarding THERMOS, but we will not be obliged to take any action in response.
11. Publication of any results which have involved the use of THERMOS is done entirely at the user's risk. Any work produced as a result of your use of THERMOS, (including, for example an academic publication or commercial report) which incorporates or references outputs from THERMOS, must contain the following acknowledgement:
  
  This work uses results from the THERMOS (Thermal Energy Resource Modelling and Optimisation System) model. THERMOS was an EU Horizon 2020 funded research project (grant agreement No 723636) coordinated by the Centre for Sustainable Energy.
  
  THERMOS provides heat network data and modelling tools in a user-friendly open-source application which makes network planning faster, easier, and more cost effective.
  
  For more information about THERMOS see the THERMOS website at https://www.thermos-project.eu/ or contact the Centre for Sustainable Energy: https://www.cse.org.uk / thermos@cse.org.uk
12. Unless you have made separate arrangements, no user-support is available.
User Data
1. THERMOS does not process very much personal data. To the extent that it does, we will at all times comply with data protection laws. We are not interested in spying on you or building business leads.
2. The information you can enter about yourself is limited to (1) your name and (2) your email address (and those of your other individual users, if any). You must not provide us with any personal data which you don't have authority to share with us.
3. We may send emails to you and your registered users for the purpose of:
  1. Telling you about changes to the service
  2. Contacting you to ask you about your use of the service, for the purposes of assessing the impact and value of the project.
4. A session cookie will be stored on your computer when you login. Session cookies are a mechanism needed for the application to remember that you are logged in.
5. We also record about each user account:
  1. When you log in and out of the system,
  2. How many projects, maps, and network models you have run,
  3. Summary statistics about these data, specifically:
    1. How many participants are collaborating on projects,
    2. How large the maps and networks you create are, and
    3. The geographic location (bounding box) of your maps and networks.
      
      We will not otherwise process or look at your uploaded GIS files, except insofar as needed to provide the services you request.
  4. Diagnostic information about errors or faults in the system, and
  5. Which other accounts you have worked with; this information is only used for access control. We are not interested in building a picture of your social network.
6. To the extent that we act as a processor of personal data on your behalf, we shall:
  1. process personal data only in accordance with these terms and conditions, or on your documented instructions;
  2. implement appropriate measures to protect against unauthorised or unlawful personal data processing and against accidental loss or destruction of or damage to your personal data;
  3. ensure that anyone authorised by us to process your personal data have committed themselves to confidentiality or are under an appropriate statutory or common law obligation of such;
  4. provide reasonable assistance in responding to any request from a data subject and ensuring your compliance with your obligations under data protection laws;
  5. notify you without undue delay on becoming aware of a personal data breach;
  6. at your choice, delete or return personal data to you after the end of the provision of services relating to processing and delete existing copies unless otherwise required by applicable law;
  7. maintain records to demonstrate our compliance with our data protection obligations under these Terms and make these available to you on reasonable request, and allow for and contribute to audits to assess our compliance.
  8. You acknowledge that we may appoint processors to process your personal data, provided that we notify you of any changes and give you the opportunity to object to such changes, ensure that such processors are subject to substantially equivalent data protection obligations to those set out in these Terms and shall remain responsible for the acts and omissions of such processors.
Data Security
1. All data in THERMOS is stored in a physical server on site at CSE. We keep this server updated and secured to reasonable commercial standards. Server access is restricted to those indviduals who need access in order to manage the system.
2. If you extend project access to someone else, they will be able to see all the data in that project.
3. All communications to the server are encrypted, so an attacker with access to the network infrastructure between your computer and the server would not be able to view the data transmitted.
4. Your data is not encrypted at rest on the server, so an attacker who gained privileged access to the machine could view all data anyone has uploaded.
Acquiring your data
1. At the moment you can download your network diagrams and maps via the user interface. If you want to get hold of any other data, please contact us and we can work something out. We have no interest in holding onto your data so we can wring money out of you, and indeed, other than as identified above, are not interested in the data itself.
Removing Your Data
1. At the moment there is no button to delete your user account, but we can delete it for you if you drop us a line. We are looking to put in a button to do this, the only reason we haven't yet is that we're busy people. You can delete projects, maps, and networks through your user account. When you do this, they are genuinely deleted in an irrecoverable way.
General
1. You cannot assign, transfer, charge, sub-contract any of your rights or obligations under these Terms without us agreeing with you first.
2. We may assign, transfer, charge, sub-contract or deal in any other manner with all or any of our rights or obligations under these Terms.
3. These Terms and any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with them or their subject matter or formation (including non-contractual disputes or claims) shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the law of England and Wales and you agree that the courts of England and Wales shall have exclusive jurisdiction.