Acceptable use policy

1. Scope

This policy applies to everyone who uses the ecosphere website, console, data files or API (together, the “services”) provided by [registered company name] (“ecosphere”, “we”, “us”). For clients it forms part of the client agreement; if the two conflict, the client agreement prevails.

2. Use the services lawfully

You must not use the services in breach of any applicable law or regulation, including data protection law such as POPIA and, where it applies, the GDPR, or to infringe anyone’s rights.

3. Keep the services secure

You must not:

• attempt to gain access to any account, organisation, data or system you are not authorised to use, including another organisation’s data in the console;
• probe, scan or test the vulnerability of the services, or bypass authentication or security measures, except under a written agreement with us;
• introduce viruses, malware or any other harmful code;
• place an unreasonable load on the services, including by automated requests beyond documented API limits or high-volume scraping of the website;
• share sign-in credentials or API keys with anyone who is not an authorised user in your organisation.

4. Use data responsibly

• Upload only data that you have the right to upload, and only the personal information you need for the purpose. Please do not send client or portfolio data by email.
• Use data delivered through the services only within the scope of your organisation’s licence, and keep the attribution and provenance that comes with it, including the licence terms of third-party sources such as ERA5, CMIP6, NGFS scenarios, Copernicus DSM, FABDEM and Natural Earth.
• Do not remove or obscure labels that mark data as synthetic, stand-in or illustrative, and do not present such data, or exploratory runs, as observed data or official results.
• Do not resell, redistribute or publish data from the services except as your licence allows.

5. The assistant

The console assistant answers questions about your organisation’s own published data. If you connect your own model provider, you are responsible for that provider’s terms and for what you send to it. You must not use the assistant to try to reach data outside your organisation, or to generate content that is unlawful, deceptive or harmful.

6. Do not misrepresent ecosphere

You must not use the ecosphere name or logo in a way that suggests endorsement, partnership or certification we have not given, or present figures from the services as having been reviewed or approved by us when they have not.

7. Reporting a problem

If you find a security vulnerability or believe the services are being misused, please tell us at info@ecosphere.africa [or a dedicated security address]. Please give us reasonable time to investigate before disclosing it publicly.

8. Enforcement

If we reasonably believe this policy has been breached we may investigate, suspend or restrict access to the services, and, where the law requires or permits, report the matter to the relevant authorities. Where we can, we will tell the affected organisation first and work with it to resolve the issue.

9. Changes

We may update this policy from time to time. The date at the top of this page shows when it last changed; material changes will be notified to clients as the client agreement provides.