Privacy and Security Policy

Thank you for placing your trust and confidence in China National GeneBank DataBase (CNGBdb). As a third-party platform providing scientific services to global users, when you interact with our website (https://db.cngb.org/) or use our services, we collect and process your personal information in accordance with the principles of lawfulness, legitimacy necessity, and good faith. We outline in our Privacy and Security Policy (hereinafter referred to as "Policy") on this page how CNGBdb collects, protects, uses your personal information, and what your rights are. In particular, please pay attention to the sensitive personal information, which is marked in bold and underlined. This Policy applies to all services provided by CNGBdb.

Please read this Policy carefully before registration and use of our website and make sure you understand it. By using or accessing our content and services, you acknowledge that you accept the practices and policies outlined in our "Terms and Conditions", "Data Sharing Policy", this Policy and agree to be subject to user agreements of related external databases, and comply with all applicable laws and regulations, ethical principles, scientific research specifications, and other requirements.

If you register or continue to use our website, it signifies that you have read and fully understood the "Terms and Conditions", "Data Sharing Policy", and this Policy, and agree to be bound by all the terms in the "Terms and Conditions", "Data Sharing Policy", and this Policy. If you do not agree to the "Terms and Conditions"，"Data Sharing Policy", or this Policy, please do not access or use any of our services.

In the event that the above terms are translated into other languages, including English, any conflicts or ambiguities shall be resolved in accordance with the Chinese version as the authoritative version.

 

Your Visit to the CNGBdb Website

When you visit the CNGBdb websites, we promise to make reasonable efforts to protect your personal information. We do not collect any personal information about you, unless you explicitly provide it to us or according to applicable laws and regulations.

 

What Type of Personal Information CNGBdb Collects

CNGBdb collects and stores your personal information from your Interaction with CNGBdb platform. includes, but not limited to, log in or register an account on CNGBdb, fill in the submitter and applicant information form when using the data archiving service.

According to the services you use, we mainly collect personal information as follows:

• Basic personal information: name, e-mail address, and contact number.
• Personal education & work information: the name, contact information, and postal address of the department/organization.
• Personal internet access records: user operation log records, including access IP, website browsing records, click records, frequency of searched keywords, time spent on each search, execution error message, etc. You understand and agree that website browsing records and click records belong to sensitive personal information, which may easily cause harm to the dignity of natural persons and grave harm to person or property security once that information was leaked or illegally used.

Please understand that, to provide you with the data services on this platform, registering an account and providing your email or phone information are necessary personal details for the registration functions based on the real-name system requirements for information services. If you are unwilling to provide this information to our platform, it will not affect your ability to browse and search the content on this platform. However, you may not be able to access certain features that require a registered account, such as uploading your own data. Additionally, website browsing records are technically collected automatically while you browse webpages, and if you refuse to allow us to collect your personal internet records, it may affect your experience using this platform.

 

How CNGBdb Uses Your Personal Information

We will use the personal information (name of the submitting party, organization, email, telephone) from basic personal information, personal work information, and personal education & work information to provide data services or develop new functions for you, including:

1. Create CNGBdb account;
2. Fulfill user's data service request (including: data archiving service, controlled data download application, data calculation and analysis service);
3. CNGBdb users satisfaction survey;
4. Send you version update and notification email;
5. Check the errors when you agree to send the error details to CNGBdb;
6. Reply to the inquiry request sent by the user;
7. Improve our product;
8. Statistical analysis of organization supported by CNGBdb Services.

Personal internet access records will be used for the following purposes:

1. Conduct data analysis to improve existing services;
2. Analysis of operation efficiency;
3. Check if users follow the terms of service.

 

How CNGBdb Stores and Protects Your Personal Information

CNGBdb takes appropriate security measures following ISO27001 and level III of Classified Protection of Cybersecurity to protect your personal information according to their technical requirements.

CNGBdb has used industry-standard security protection measures (sensitive information encryption, authority management, etc.) to protect your personal information from unauthorized access, use, and modification, public disclosure, and damage or loss.

In the event of a personal information security incident, CNGBdb will promptly contact you by email or phone, according to the requirements of laws and regulations, and inform you about the overall situation and possible impact of the incident, measures that CNGBdb has taken or will take to address the situation, suggestions for you to prevent the loss and reduce the risk, and remedial measures to be taken, etc. When it is difficult to inform users one by one, we will release an announcement reasonably and effectively. We will also comply with the requirements and report the incident handling to regulatory authorities.

As for the personal information you provide, such as your working address and contact information, because the information is directly related to the authenticity and validity of your account, we will retain the personal information until you send an email to CNGBdb@cngb.org to delete your account; we will delete or anonymize your personal information immediately after you delete your account. For the personal information stored in server logs, such as your Personal internet access records, we will store it in accordance with the requirements of the "Cybersecurity Law" to monitor and maintain the security of network operations, or to provide personalized content and services with your consent. We will delete or anonymize your personal information after the statutory period expires or you withdraw your consent.

Your personal information will be stored in CNGBdb's servers, which are located in the People's Republic of China, and we will not transmit your personal information overseas without fulfilling specific legal obligations and obtaining your separate consent. (For the purpose of this policy, the term "located in the People's Republic of China" does not include the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, and Taiwan Province of China.)

We will regularly update and disclose the security assessment reports, such as the personal information security report. We will proactively disclose security risks if our security assessment affects your personal information-related rights. 

The Internet will never be completely secure, but we will protect any information from you. We will bear the corresponding legal responsibility if your legitimate interests are breached by the unauthorized access, public disclosure, tampering with, or destruction of information, caused by the physical, or technical damage to our facilities.

 

When does CNGBdb Disclose Your Personal Information

CNGBdb only discloses your personal information in accordance with this Policy to the extent permitted by applicable laws and regulations, such as:

1. If disclosure of your personal information is necessary according to applicable laws and regulations the People's Republic of China;
2. If sharing and public disclosure of your personal information is mandatory according to regulatory authorities;
3. If you need to disclose your specified personal information in a manner that you agree to separately;
4. To enable functionality and services, we share personal information including but not limited to the name and affiliation, for purposes of public data display and communication during data applications;
5. To ensure the secure and stable operation of CNGBdb's related functions and applications, we may integrate SDKs provided by third parties for specific purposes (Baidu Analytics SDK, privacy policy link: https://tongji.baidu.com/web/help/article?id=330&type=0).

 Unless you agree or specified in this Policy, we will not provide your personal information to any unrelated third parties. 

 

How CNGBdb Uses Cookies

To ensure the normal operation, CNGBdb stores small data files(cookies) on computers or mobile devices. A cookie is a plain text file stored on a computer or mobile device by a web server. The content of a cookie can only be retrieved or read by the server that created it. Each cookie is unique to your web browser or mobile application. Cookies usually contain identifiers, site names, and some numbers and characters. With the help of cookies, websites can store user preferences and related data to improve user experience in following cases:

1. With the help of cookies, the website can save settings, such as computer or mobile device language, font size and other browsing preferences. This means that users do not need to reconfigure user preferences every time they visit.
2. Statistical analysis: We may use cookies to count the number of user visits and learn about the source of visits.
3. Login authentication: When you visit CNGBdb, we will generate a separate ID for you to identify your identity. If the website does not use cookies with this function, the user will be regarded as a new visitor every time he opens a web page. For example, if you log in to CNGBdb and then go to another webpage, you will be regarded as a new visitor and need to log in again when you come back.

Other third parties may set cookies on our website, such as Google and Baidu. They use cookies to receive information about your IP address, your browser configuration, and access information, but they do not collect your personally identifiable information. They use cookies to understand how you interact with the website. You can visit their websites to learn how these third parties use cookies.

You can manage or delete cookies according to your preferences, see AboutCookies.org for details. You can clear all cookies saved on your computer, and most web browsers have a cookie blocking function. But if you do this, you need to change the user settings each time you visit our website. To learn more about how to change your browser settings, please visit the following link:

1. Internet Explorer
2. Google Chrome
3. Mozilla Firefox
4. Safari

 

Your Rights

Following the People's Republic of China laws and regulations, scientific research norms, ethical principles, and common practices in other countries and regions, CNGBdb strives to ensure your following rights for your personal information:

Access / correct your personal information

You have the right to access/correct your personal account information at any time, except as otherwise required by laws and regulations.

If you want to access/change your name, contact number, email address, the name or contact information of department/organization/unit in your account, please visit the following URLs:

1. CNGBdb: https://db.cngb.org/account/settings
2. CNSA: https://db.cngb.org/mycngbdb/submitter

If you are unable to access the above links, you can always contact our administrator via CNGBdb@cngb.org and we will process it as soon as possible.

Delete your personal information

In the following circumstances, you can request CNGBdb to delete your personal information:

1. If the processing purpose of CNGNdb has been achieved, cannot be achieved, or is no longer necessary to be achieved;
2. If CNGBdb no longer provides services to you, or the storage period has expired;
3. If you withdraw your consent or cancel your account follow the way in this policy;
4. If the way that CNGBdb handles personal information violates applicable laws and regulations or the consent with you;
5. Other circumstances stipulated by applicable laws.

Delete your account

You have the option to deactivate your registered account at any time. To proceed with this action, kindly log in to https://db.cngb.org/account/settings/account. Following the deactivation of your account, CNGBdb will discontinue the provision of products or services to you, and your personal information will be permanently deleted. Please be advised that account deactivation is irreversible, and it is advisable to ensure necessary data backup. This process is subject to compliance with legal regulations.

Request a copy of personal information

If you want to request a copy of your personal information in our system, you can contact us via CNGBdb@cngb.org, and we will follow up on your request according to the actual situation at once.

Withdrawal

You may withdraw your consent. When you withdraw your consent, we will no longer process the corresponding personal information. According to the legal requirements, your decision to withdraw your consent will not affect the previous personal information processing based on your consent, but your account may be invalid due to the lack of necessary information (such as email address).

Respond to your above requests

To ensure safety, you may need to provide a written request or prove your identity in other ways. CNGBdb may require you to verify your identity before processing your request. CNGBdb will generally reply within 7 working days. If you are not satisfied with this, you can lodge a complaint by emailing to CNGBdb@cngb.org.

Exceptions

In the following situations, CNGBdb will not be able to respond to your request:

1. Where the request is related to CNGBdb's fulfillment of obligations stipulated by laws and regulations;
2. Where the request is directly related to national security and national defense security;
3. Where the request is directly related to public safety, public health, and major public interests;
4. Where the request is directly related to a criminal investigation, prosecution, trial and execution of judgments;
5. Where there is sufficient evidence from CNGBdb that the user has subjective malice or abuse of rights;
6. Where refusing the request is to protect the life, property and other major legal rights of users or other individuals, while it is difficult to obtain other individual’s authorization and consent;
7. Where responding to the user's request will cause serious damage to the legitimate rights and interests of the user or other individuals or organizations;
8. Where the request involves trade secrets.

Protection of Personal Information of Deceased Users

For the legitimate and rightful interests of close relatives of deceased users, they have the right to access, copy, correct, delete, and perform other actions related to the personal information of the deceased user as stipulated in this clause. This right excludes any arrangements made by the deceased user during their lifetime.

 

How does CNGBdb Transfer Your Personal Information

In principle, personal information collected by CNGBdb within the People's Republic of China will be stored within the People's Republic of China.

 

How CNGBdb Processes Personal Information of Minors

The data services provided by CNGBdb are mainly for adult scientific researchers. Minors are not allowed to create their user accounts without the consent of their parents or guardians. If minors provide personal information with the consent of their parents or guardians, CNGBdb will only use or disclose this information where permitted by law, by the parent’s or guardian's explicit consent, or necessary to protect the minors.

If minors provide us with their personal information without parental consent, their parents or guardians can contact us to stop collecting, using, or disclosing their personal information.

 

Visit Third-Party Websites via CNGBdb

If you are redirected to CNGBdb from a third-party site, the commitments made in the third-party privacy policy are unrelated to CNGBdb. Please carefully review the privacy statement of the third-party website.

You can log in to CNGBdb through third-party platforms. By doing so, you authorize the use of your publicly available information (avatar, nickname, and other authorized information) from the third-party platform to link to your CNGBdb account. You can also unlink the third-party platform from your CNGBdb account through the CNGBdb personal center.

 

Visit Third-Party Websites via CNGBdb

This Policy only applies to the services provided by CNGBdb. If you visit a third-party website through CNGBdb and use the services provided by it, please check the privacy policy of the website before using it to ensure that you understand how the website uses your information and adjust the privacy settings of the third-party website according to your preferences.

 

How We Update This Policy

CNGBdb's Privacy and Security Policy will be revised and updated at any time depending on the actual situation. The latest revision date will be displayed on this page.

 

Contact Us

All inquiries about personal information, including requests to access, edit, delete your personal information, request a copy of your personal information, withdraw your consent, and delete your account, or questions or complaints about the Policy, please send a written request to China National GeneBank (CNGB) (post address: China National GeneBank, Jinsha Road, Dapeng District, Shenzhen, postcode: 518121) or email to CNGBdb@cngb.org. If you want to contact us by phone, please contact Ms Li (phone: 0755-33945586; Monday to Friday: 9:00 to 13:00, 14:00 to 18:00 CST. Saturday, Sunday, and public holidays: closed).