General Terms and Conditions of Pl@ntNet

These Terms and Conditions govern the conditions in which you may access and use the different services available. Any and all users of the services offered by Pl@ntNet accept the present General Terms and Conditions.

Pl@ntNet trademark

The Pl@ntNet trademark is a protected trademark owned by CIRAD, INRAE, INRIA and IRD. Any use, for any purpose, of the trademark Pl@ntNet and the associated logo are strictly prohibited and may be subject to judicial proceedings.

User account

Using Pl@ntNet identification service and consulting data do not require creation of a user account, but this action is necessary to participate to the project’s enrichment. When you create an account, we collect your e-mail address (useful for password reset ; might be used very ocasionnally to contact users), your name and first name (optionally) and a username (to log in). If you give your name and first name, they will be displayed next to the licence associated to the contributed images ; otherwise your username will be displayed. For security reasons, passwords are not directly stored in the database. They pass through a cryptographic hash function whose result is stored (the hashing action cannot be reversed). A unique numeric identifier is attributed to each account and will be associated to every data contributed with this account (observations, votes...).

Main Pl@ntNet features

Identify a plant with a query The query correspons to one or many photos of the plant to identify, the date and time of observation, and optionally the GPS coordinates of the location of observation and the locality name, if those options are enabled on your terminal. When modifying a query (adding or removing an image for example), history of queries and associated results is stored. Our identification services are available on different platforms (Web, Android, iOS). In order to optimize our developments, we store the terminal type used for each query. We store query data as well as results suggested by our identification engine because those data play a crucial rôle in the set up of a partipative observatory of vegetal biodiversity, which is one of the main goals of the Pl@ntNet platform. Moreover, those data allow following the evolution of our system’s performance through time. They also lead to an improvement of this performance. Those data might be used as part of ecology and/or IT research work by Pl@ntNet team members. So we can assess wild vegetal species distribution, evolution of phenology (blooming, fructification dates...), the apparition of invasive species... or teach the identification engin to automatically reject inappropriate images (blur floues, photos which subject is not a plant...). If the user ha a Pl@ntNet account and is logged in, the numer of the associated account will be stored along with the query.

Contribute your observations Users having a Pl@ntNet account can contribute their botanical observations (the observation is linked to the account of the contributing user). This means they are made public and may be consulted by any user. If the observation comes from a previously ran query, it will be linked to this query in order to retrieve the results suggested by the identification engine, to monitor performance. An observation contains the same data as a query (image(s), date and time, GPS coordinates and location name if those features are enabled on the terminal). Additionally, the user name at contribution time is associated to the licence applied to these data (cc-by-sa). As for queries, qhared observations might be used as part of research work. If the user has an account on Tela Botanica (collaboratif network of french speaking botanists), his/her observations will automatically be shared with this partner. The goal of this exchange is to promote feedback from an expert community to Pl@ntNet observations.

Pl@ntNet data revision Users having a Pl@ntNet account may (i) revise all shared observations. They may vote for pictures quality (best ones will be promoted on species descriptive sheets and will be used as a learning basis by the identification engine), (ii) suggest or validate a determination (so that the observation is associated to the right species), and (iii) specify the plant organ (leaf, flower, fruit, branch, habit or other) that is visible on the pictures (the goal is to classify the images per organ to ease comparisons dureing identification queries). When a vote is added, the date, value, observation identifier and account identifier are stored. Data associated to observations (pictures quality, visible organs, determination) thus evolve depending on all Pl@ntNet users’ actions, and revisions made by Tela Botanica network.

Use of the Pl@ntNet application

Your personal account and your login information provided by Pl@ntNet are placed under your exclusive responsibility. You will not share your password nor let anyone else access your account, or do anything else that might jeopardize the security of your account. You are solely responsible for the use made of your login information. You are solely responsible for any loss, diversion or non-authorized use of your login information and their consequences. All remarks and images submitted on this application must be in compliance with French laws and regulations in force. You expressly commit not to using any racist, pornographic or slanderous words on the application. It is reminded that you are entirely responsible for the content you spread and that Pl@ntNet will not be considered responsible for the content you have issued.

Limitation of liability

You acknowledge having been informed and accept the fact that under no circumstance whatsoever shall Pl@ntNet be liable for the creation, modification, suppression of your personal data, which is under your full responsibility. You use Pl@ntNet at your own risks. Under no circumstance whatsoever shall Pl@ntNet be liable for any direct or indirect damages, in particular material prejudice, data loss or financial prejudice related to the access or use of this application. The Pl@ntNet's contents are displayed without any warranty whatsoever. You are entirely responsible for any damage caused to your smartphone or for any data loss that may incur as a result of the use of the application. In no event shall Pl@ntNet be liable for the accuracy of the results obtained by the use of the Pl@ntNet software. Pl@ntNet shall by no means be responsible for any direct or indirect damages that may incur as a result of the use of the application.

Users' rights and obligations

The contents of this site are protected under literary and artistic property law, the Bern Convention, EU directive 96/9/CE and book 1 of the French Code de la propriété intellectuelle . All reproductions other than for the personal use of visitors to the site, notably with a view to publication in any form, are strictly forbidden without the express written permission of Pl@ntNet. Visitors are responsible for their interpretation and use of the information consulted, and for the data they provide on forms included in the site. They are bound by the prevailing rules and regulations.

Intellectual property rights

No element of the Pl@ntNet application shall be copied, reproduced, modified, republished, downloaded, distorted, transmitted or distributed, howsoever done, partially or integrally, without the written and prior authorization from Pl@ntNet, except for the strict needs of the press and provided that the intellectual property rights and any other mentioned property rights are being respected. The content and information you post on Pl@ntNet belong to you. You guarantee Pl@ntNet that the content and information you publish in Pl@ntNet do not infringe any third parties' rights, such as but not limited to, any intellectual property rights or privacy rights. Meanwhile, you agree to grant Pl@ntNet your data, as described above, with Creative-Common Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license. By using the Pl@ntNet application, you accept to transfer content and information (photographs and associated user name, date and location of shooting) to the Pl@ntNet team, and then accept to make them available to all Pl@ntNet users under a Creative-Common Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license. Under this Creative Commons license any person shall be free to reproduce, modify, distribute and transmit your data, as described above, to the public under the following conditions:

• Mention the name of the original author of the work and that of Pl@ntNet who edits,
• If there is a change, transformation, or adaptation, you give the right to distribute the resulting work only under a license identical to this one.

Personal data

By registering to the Pl@ntNet application, you accept that your identity, under the names, surnames and email address you specified when registering, is published in association with the content and information you post through the Pl@ntNet application. Therefore, you agree that other Pl@ntNet users can send you, via your email address, any comments, questions or suggestions regarding the content and information you post through the Pl@ntNet application. These data will be stored until the account is cancelled.

The legal basis for the processing is:

• the execution of the Pl@ntNet service contract.

In accordance with Articles 49 and following of Law No 78-17 of 6 January 1978 on data processing, files and freedoms and Articles 15 and following of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (RGPD or GDPR), any person may:

• have confirmation that personal data relating to him/her are or are not processed and, where they are processed, access to such personal data,
• request the correction or deletion of his/her personal data,
• request that the processing of his/her personal data be limited,
• request the portability of his/her personal data if the processing is based on consent or a contract.

Any person may also, for legitimate reasons, object to the processing of data concerning him/her. Any person may give general or specific instructions regarding the storage, erasure and communication of your personal data after your death.

Personal Data Protection:

• https://www.cirad.fr/en/personal-data-protection
• dpo@cirad.fr

Warning relative to use of Google Analytics

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