ELIXIR operates under the data protection framework provided by the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) - known as Internal Policy 68 (IP68) on General Data Protection - which is adapted to the needs of international scientific research and reflects the principles of European data protection law.
The ELIXIR Hub is the data controller of any data collected by the BioHackathon website.
What data we collect
We collect data about activity on the site, such as:
- which pages have been visited
- how long people spend on each page
- which browsers and devices people use to view the site
- which country people view the site from.
The information is collected anonymously and aggregated. We cannot identify you from the information gathered, or track your web browsing outside of this site.
How we collect the data
We use Matomo Analytics to collect this data. We have our own instance of Matomo, hosted in Germany, and we use Matomo without setting analytics cookies. See the Matomo statement on its GDPR compliance.
Purposes of processing
We collect the data so that we can then generate reports about the site for our funders. We also collect the date to help us improve the site, and ensure we design the site for the browsers and devices that most people are using.
Legal basis
We process your data for the achievement of the aims laid down in the ELIXIR Consortium Agreement, for example, the legitimate interest to manage and administer ELIXIR activities, coordinate services and provide support to the ELIXIR Nodes and the user community (ECA Article 3.3).
Who has access to the data
ELIXIR website administrators may share aggregated reports with ELIXIR Hub Staff, such as those on the BioHackathon organising Committee, as well as the event Programme Committee.
External data processors
GitHub
The website is hosted on GitHub, and GitHub collects the IP addresses of site visitors for security purposes (see their Data Collection statement). This enables them to detect and block attacks on the sites hosted by them e.g. by blocking the IP address of the attacker.
YouTube
The YouTube videos embedded in this site are embedded using privacy-enhanced mode.
Unfortunately this does not stop YouTube tracking your viewing habits. Instead of a cookie, YouTube saves a snippet of data in another part of your browser, called local storage. We cannot stop this, and it is not covered by cookie regulations. When you start playing a video on this site, YouTube will then set some cookies in your browser to track your viewing habits, without asking for your consent. Again, we cannot turn this off. We have put a warning above each video so you can make an informed choice about whether to play the video or not.
Data retention
Your anonymised data will be stored by ELIXIR in the form of generated graphs and aggregated reports indefinitely.
How to contact us
If you wish to contact the data controller regarding any other data protection related matters, you can contact us via email (data-protection@elixir-europe.org) or by sending a letter to:
ELIXIR Hub
Wellcome Genome Campus
Hinxton
Cambridgeshire CB10 1SD
UK