Policy to protect the privacy and security of users’ personal data and the sharing of data concerning the scientific use users make of SESAME
All persons seeking to register on SESAME’s database of users are informed that SESAME is committed to protecting the privacy and security of the personal data of its users and the data concerning the scientific use they make of SESAME.
It has adopted a policy that strengthens the rights users have relating to the use of personal data that concerns them, and lays down what data concerning the use they make of the Laboratory SESAME may communicate to its Members. It also sets in place a mechanism to ensure that any information concerning users that SESAME communicates to its Members is not in any way used to harm the users and their interests.
This policy governs the nominative and aggregated confidential data concerning the users that the SESAME Members need in order to monitor the scientific use made of SESAME and to undertake all actions required to ensure that their respective national scientific community derives maximum benefits from the opportunities SESAME offers (see Scientific use of SESAME below). It allows the users to indicate whether in certain well-defined situations they would withhold authorization of disclosure of their name and/or affiliation to the relevant SESAME Member(s).
This policy does not concern the communication of anonymized data which does not allow a user to be identified and does not therefore raise issues of confidentiality.
SESAME does not communicate nominative and aggregated confidential data concerning its users to any person/entity other than one Recipient of Annual Statistics in each of its Members (see Scientific use of SESAME below).
Use of personal data
Notwithstanding the foregoing policy, users are informed that SESAME may internally use their personal data for the purpose of evaluating and administering their proposal, experiment and/or visit to SESAME, and for facilitating operation of the Laboratory. This includes inter alia organization of their entrance to the SESAME campus and their use of all the facilities on site to which they are eligible, including, but not limited to, the dining hall and Guest House. Where relevant, this also includes their travel, accommodation away from the Guest House and reimbursement of costs. In order to satisfy the users’ travel and accommodation requests, SESAME may, if required, communicate their personal data to companies providing such services, e.g. airline companies, hotels, taxis, etc.
So as to facilitate communication between them, SESAME may also share the users’ contact details (name, affiliation and address, including e-mail address) with the members of the Proposal Review Committee, which is responsible for advising SESAME on the distribution of user beam time.
Users are informed that SESAME may use their e-mail address to send them important information concerning the Centre, as well as to draw their attention to user-specific SESAME events and relevant announcements, and to enquire about their use of SESAME’s facilities.
Registered users may at any time verify and/or update the personal data they will have provided that are held by SESAME. For this they should log into SUP (SESAME User Portal) with their user name and password and verify/update this data in the section Personal data.
Scientific use of SESAME
Each year SESAME provides one authorized person (referred to as the Recipient of Annual Statistics) in each of its Members with Official Annual Statistics on the Scientific Use of SESAME, which contain selected nominative and aggregated confidential data concerning the users registered on its database and the use they made of SESAME.
These Statistics do not contain data relating to proposals for proprietary research where all information remains strictly confidential.
The Statistics cover the period 1 March of the previous year (year n-1) to 28 (or 29 in a leap year) February of the current year (year n). They contain the following information extracted from SESAME’s database of users:
- In the case of General Users having carried out experiments at SESAME and/or submitted proposals:
- the proposal number and title of the project;
- the name and affiliation of the Principal Investigator and Co-investigator(s);
- the requested and (as appropriate) assigned beamline(s); and
- the requested, allocated and (as appropriate) delivered beam time (in number of shifts of eight hours).
- In the case of users registered on SESAME’s database of users not having carried out experiments at SESAME and/or submitted proposals:
- the name and affiliation of the users;
- the SESAME Users’ Meeting in which the users participated (number in the series of annual Users’ Meetings, plus the date and place of venue of the meeting); and
- the role played in the SESAME Users’ Meeting (participant having given an oral presentation, participant having presented a poster, simple participant).
Each SESAME Member may only receive Statistics concerning General Users and users based in that Member and, in certain well-defined cases, General Users and users not based there but having the nationality of that Member if this is authorized by the users concerned.
Registered users will find detailed information about the data SESAME communicates to its Members and the restrictions General Users and users may set on disclosure of their name and/or affiliation linked to the form they will be invited to complete when first logging back into SUP (see the section below). Scientists not yet registered on SESAME’s database of users will find this information when starting to register on the database.
Users’ authorization to disclose their name and/or affiliation to the relevant SESAME Member(s)
While the data recapitulated in points 1 and 2 above is automatically included in the Official Annual Statistics on the Scientific Use of SESAME that SESAME communicates to the SESAME Member where a user is based, the data that it communicates to the SESAME Member of a user having the nationality of this Member who is not based there is subject to the authorization(s) provided by the user.
The affiliation of a Co-investigator based in a SESAME Member, or another country, that is different to that of the Principal Investigator with whom the Co-investigator is partnering (or to partner) is automatically included in the Official Annual Statistics on the Scientific Use of SESAME that SESAME communicates to the SESAME Member in which the Principal Investigator is based, but communication of the Co-investigator’s name to that Member is again subject to the authorization he/she will have given.
Users are to indicate in the form specially prepared for this in which cases they would authorize, or withhold authorization of, disclosure of their name and/or affiliation when this is disclosure to a SESAME Member where they not are based. This form will appear on the screen when starting to register on SESAME’s database of users. In the case of users already registered on the database, it will appear when the users first log back into SUP (SESAME User Portal). As usual, they should log into SUP with their user name and password. So as to ensure that a user’s wishes are always followed, completion of this form is a prerequisite for validation of a request for registration on SESAME’s database of users or use of SUP by users already registered on the database.
Registered users may at any time verify and/or modify the authorizations and/or restrictions they will have provided that are held by SESAME. For this they should log into SUP with their user name and password and verify/modify this data in the section Personal data.