Terms of use

Definitions

In these Terms:

‘Administrator’ means the administrator of the APPD;
‘APPD’ means the Australian Plant Pest Database;
‘APPD Steering Committee’ means the committee that governs the operation of the APPD;
‘Confidential Information’ means information on, or contained in, APPD that is either marked as “Confidential” or that a reasonable person would understand to be confidential or proprietary given the terms of its disclosure, but does not include information that:
- you independently developed;
- was rightfully given to you by a third party without any confidentiality obligation; or
- becomes public through no fault of your own.
‘Data Provider’ means a person who provides data, or makes data available, through the APPD, from time to time;
‘Permitted Use’ has the same meaning given in the Data Sharing Agreement;
‘privacy policy’ means the privacy policy of APPD found at https://privacy.appd.net.au/#privacy-policy;
‘PHA’, ‘we’, or ‘us’ refers to Plant Health Australia;
‘Prohibited Use’ has the same meaning given in the Data Sharing Agreement;
‘Terms’ means these terms of use; and
‘you’ or ‘your’ refers, as the context requires, to either or both of:
- the individual accepting these Terms; and
- the organisation, business or entity on behalf of which an individual accepts these Terms.

Acceptance of these Terms

You accept, and agree to be legally bound by, these Terms. If you are accepting these Terms on behalf of an organisation, you are:

accepting and agreeing to these Terms on your own behalf and on behalf of that organisation; and
warranting to us that you are an agent of that organisation and that you are properly authorised by your organisation to bind it to these Terms.

Compliance with law

All use of the APPD by you, including the provision of data through the APPD and use of data obtained from the APPD, must be done in accordance with:

these Terms;
the relevant Data Sharing Agreement that applies to that data; and
all applicable Commonwealth, State and Territory laws, including laws relating to biosecurity, privacy and intellectual property.

Access to the APPD

The APPD is a restricted access website to which insect and disease reference collection managers upload records of the specimens in their collections. The website is designed to allow for access to records of collections for future diagnostic purposes.

Access to the APPD is restricted to authorised users, who will be determined at the sole discretion of the System Administrator or the APPD Steering Committee. The APPD is made available by PHA and PHA may suspend or terminate your access to the APPD at its sole discretion and at any time. Each user is subject to the Data Sharing Agreement that applies to that data, as well as these Terms.

Your account

As the holder of a user account that can access the APPD, you may be a recipient of data and you agree to:

be responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account and password;
accept responsibility for all activities that occur under your account or password; and
only use your own account and password when accessing the APPD.

If you become aware of unauthorised access to your account, you must notify PHA immediately on:

02 6215 7700
[email protected]

Your rights as a user

If granted access to the APPD:

You will be given a password and account to securely access the APPD.
You will be entitled to access data in the APPD, in accordance with the terms of a Data Sharing Agreement, for the purposes of undertaking diagnostic and risk analysis activities on records contained within the APPD.
Unless stated otherwise, you may export in a CSV format the results of searches for the purposes of undertaking diagnostic and risk analysis activities that cannot be completed within the APPD.

Your obligations as a user

As a user of the APPD, you:

must comply with the terms of the applicable Data Sharing Agreement;
accept that the APPD Steering Committee may determine all matters related to your access permissions;
allow us to collect data about your use of the APPD for reporting purposes. This will not include personal information which, instead, will be collected in accordance with our privacy policy;
confirm that any documentation that you submit to the APPD will contain the type of information required to be contained in that particular type of documentation;
must comply with any guidance documents or user documents we publish on APPD or provide to you;
must respect the rights of the Data Providers and must not share, publish or distribute the data of a Data Provider, unless you have the Data Provider’s explicit consent; and
must not access or attempt to access or use information on, or contained in, APPD that you are not authorised to access or use.

Your rights as a Data Provider

If you are a Data Provider, you:

will be entitled to have a secure login to the APPD for one or more specified individuals (who will have individual logins to allow tracking of system access and use);
will remain responsible for all individuals with logins for your account, and you must ensure that they comply with these Terms;
will continue to own all rights in respect of the data that you provide through the APPD;
may set publication conditions on the use of your data;
will be entitled to view and download data from the APPD subject to your compliance with these Terms and the applicable Data Sharing Agreement;
may delete records uploaded to the APPD by you; and
may edit your existing records on the APPD, which must be done by:
- updating the existing records (without modifying the unique record identifier); or
- re-uploading a modified data record using the same unique record identifier.

Your obligations as a Data Provider

If you are a Data Provider, you:

will be responsible for the quality of all data provided to the APPD;
accept that the APPD Steering Committee may determine all matters related to your access permissions;
must respect the rights of other Data Providers and must not share, publish or distribute the data of another Data Provider, unless you have the other Data Provider’s explicit consent;
will be entitled to upload data into the APPD, for the purposes of disclosing, or providing access to, that data to a user in accordance with the terms of a Data Sharing Agreement with that user;
must ensure that data records provided by you conform to the requirements of any applicable legislation, the APPD policies and procedures and national biosecurity governance processes; and
must obtain all necessary rights, consents, permissions and approvals as required by any applicable law to provide the data to:
- PHA, for PHA to collect the data you upload to the APPD and to use and disclose it to users in accordance with the applicable Data Sharing Agreement; and
- users, for them to use and disclose the data in accordance with the applicable Data Sharing Agreement.

Access and use by Administrator

PHA or the Administrator may routinely log, monitor and analyse your use of the APPD for any attempted or actual misuse of the APPD. You consent to the Administrator accessing, downloading and/or uploading your data, and managing it, as required to conform to the policies, procedures, styles and formats of the APPD.

Acceptable use policy

You agree that you:

must use the APPD in a manner that does not infringe the rights, or inhibit the use, of the system by any third party. This includes a prohibition of any conduct that is unlawful, or that may harass or cause distress or inconvenience to any third party, including the transmission of obscene or offensive content or disruption to any part of the APPD;
must not use text or information provided via the APPD, including data sets or data it contains, in a manner that misleads or is incorrect, that supports a criminal or illicit activity or in any other ways to defame any person; and
must not do anything that has an impact on the performance of the APPD nor interfere with the operation of the APPD or the display of information on the APPD. This includes attempting to gain unauthorised access to the secure areas of the APPD. The inclusion of any email addresses on the APPD does not amount to consent from that person to receiving unsolicited commercial electronic messages or spam.

APPD access

You acknowledge that your access to the APPD:

may not be continuous or uninterrupted at all times; and
may be interfered with by factors or circumstances outside of PHA’s control.

If you experience problems with the APPD not related to your computer or other device, communications line or internet service provider, please contact PHA immediately on:

02 6215 7700
[email protected].

Privacy

Please refer to the privacy policy in relation to access, use and storage of any personal information you provide when accessing and using the APPD. This policy is available on the APPD home page. Notwithstanding the terms of the privacy policy, you agree that PHA may:

make a record each time you visit the APPD and may log the following information:
- browser search engines used;
- pages viewed;
- number of visits;
- information uploaded or downloaded;
- usernames used;
- queries lodged;
- access paths; and
- platforms used; and
use the information supplied by your browser for analysing usage of the APPD and monitoring or investigating security breaches, provided that the information is not disclosed to a third party without your consent (except if the Administrator is required or permitted by law to disclose the information).

The Administrator will, upon request, give you access to any information that it has collected about you through the APPD in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and PHA’s privacy policy at https://privacy.appd.net.au/#privacy-policy.

Downloadable documents

If you download material from the APPD, you agree to:

comply with the terms of any licence applying to that material;
conduct such virus scanning and take appropriate and adequate precautions (including up-to-date firewall and anti-virus software) as may be necessary to ensure that the downloaded material is free of viruses or other contamination and will not corrupt or damage your property (including damage to software, hardware or data) or that of any other person; and
only provide the downloaded material to a third party if you have received explicit consent from the relevant Data Provider.

Confidentiality

You must:

use Confidential Information only for the purpose(s) specified by the owner of that Confidential Information;
not disclose the Confidential Information to anyone without the prior written consent of the owner of that Confidential Information; and
protect the Confidential Information from unauthorised use and disclosure.

You may disclose Confidential Information:

when compelled to do so by law, provided that you must give us reasonable prior notice, unless a court orders that we are not to receive such notice; and
if you are a government entity, to comply with governmental, parliamentary or ministerial reporting requirements; or
if you are a listed company, to comply with any stock exchange rules, provided that you must give us reasonable prior notice.

Intellectual Property

All intellectual property rights in material made available through the APPD remain the property of the owners of that material. You are licensed to use material made available through the APPD only for the purposes permitted by these Terms or the Data Sharing Agreement. You agree that the provision of access to the APPD does not confer any intellectual property rights (other than the licence referred to above) on you, and that you will not act in a manner that infringes those rights.

You grant to us an irrevocable, non-exclusive, licence-fee free and worldwide licence (including a right to sub-license) to use, reproduce, adapt and modify your material in order to exercise our rights under these Terms.

Notification service

PHA will use all reasonable efforts to ensure that the information in notifications and alerts provided by us through the APPD are accurate and up to date. However, events may occur that delay the transmission of notifications and alerts or otherwise cause the information in those notifications and alerts to be inaccurate or out of date. Accordingly, PHA makes no guarantee that notifications and alerts will be accurate or received in a timely manner.

DISCLAIMER

Warranties

The information available on the APPD is made available for information purposes only and has been provided without warranties of any kind either express or implied except as expressly set out in these terms. You acknowledge and agree that you must:

exercise your own skill and care with respect to your use of the APPD; and
carefully evaluate the accuracy, currency, completeness and relevance of information on the APPD.

Users should contact the Data Provider directly if there are any issues with the data contained on the APPD.

PHA does not warrant or make representations about any of the following:

uninterrupted or error free transmissions to and from the APPD;
the accuracy, currency, reliability or integrity of material available from the APPD or the sites of any third parties;
the security of your computer when accessing the APPD; and
uptime (continuity) and security of the APPD or any linked site.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, PHA expressly excludes all terms and warranties expressed or implied by legislation, the common law, equity, trade, custom or usage, including but not limited to implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose that might otherwise apply to your use of the APPD.

Liabilities

To the maximum extent permitted by law, PHA excludes liability for any loss caused by or arising directly or indirectly from your use or reliance on the data contained within the APPD.

Additionally, PHA accepts no liability for any interference with, or loss or damage to, your computer system, software or data (including loss from viruses, disabling codes, worms or other devices or defects) occurring in relation to your internet connection or use of the APPD.

External websites

When the APPD provides links to external websites, PHA does not endorse that external website and does not warrant that it is accurate, authentic or complete. PHA does not control and accepts no liability for the content of external websites or for any loss arising from your use or reliance on those websites. Use by you of any external website is governed by the terms of that website and you are responsible for being aware of, and ensuring compliance with, any terms of use or privacy statements related to the external websites. The provision of a link within the APPD to an external website does not authorise you to reproduce, adapt, modify, communicate or in any way deal with the material on that external website.

Notices and changes

We may update these Terms from time to time and it is your responsibility to regularly review these Terms and remain up to date with any changes to these Terms.

Governing law and jurisdiction

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Australian Capital Territory. You agree to submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of the Australian Capital Territory.

Limitations to the data contained within APPD

The APPD presents digitised records of specimens in contributing collections. As such, care is needed when using and interpreting the data contained with the APPD.

The information in the APPD is provided ‘as is’ from the Reference Collections that submitted the data. In some cases, the identification of individual specimens may not have been updated to reflect current taxonomy and therefore the information in the APPD may not represent current nomenclature. Users may need to search for species synonyms to ensure they recover all relevant records. Users should check alternative names. Reference Collection managers are encouraged to ensure taxonomic information for specimens within their collections is current.

The APPD should not be used as the sole information source for inferring pest prevalence, presence or absence within Australia.

Where pests are not recorded in the APPD, it does not mean that there is not a specimen lodged within one of the contributing collections. It may be that: the pest is absent from Australia; that a specimen has not been preserved; that a specimen exists but the associated data have not yet been digitised; or that a specimen is recorded under another name.
Where pests are present in the APPD, users should not infer complete geographic distribution or host range using the APPD data as specimens may not have been collected from all areas, or hosts, where a pest is present within Australia. If you are looking for comprehensive distribution data you should contact the relevant state, territory or Commonwealth agriculture departments for relevant data.
Where pests are present in APPD, it does not necessarily infer that a pest is currently established in Australia or a particular jurisdiction and users should check the specimen location details and date of collection. A specimen of an exotic pest: may have been preserved during an incursion and the pest was subsequently eradicated; may represent an interception from overseas; or may have been collected outside Australia and deposited in an Australian collection. Further, some historical records exist for locations where a pest is now locally extinct.

Where there are doubts about a record (or any data comprising the record), users should contact the relevant Collection Manager(s) directly.

Data within the APPD are not to be shared without the explicit consent of the relevant Collection Manager(s) as per the Terms of Use of the system. Collections should be acknowledged individually for contributing data. Where data use is approved, the preferred citation is:

Australian Plant Pest Database, Plant Health Australia, https://www.appd.net.au/, online database, accessed .

Privacy Policy

This document is the Privacy Policy of Plant Health Australia Limited (PHA) (Privacy Policy). It applies to the collection, use and disclosure of information via the Australian Plant Pest Database (APPD) website (website).

PHA understands that your privacy is important and is committed to respecting your rights and complying with all privacy obligations under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act), including the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs). The APPs are designed to protect your privacy by regulating the way personal information is managed.

Under the Privacy Act, personal information is defined as information or an opinion about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable, irrespective of whether the information or opinion is true or is recorded in a material form (Personal Information).

This Privacy Policy sets out how and when PHA will collect, use and disclose Personal Information obtained via the website, and how you may access your Personal Information.

Collection of Personal Information

Purpose
1. PHA collects and holds Personal Information that is reasonably necessary for, or related to, the activities and services PHA provides, and to administrative functions associated with these services. Accordingly, PHA collects Personal Information of visitors to the website (visitors) for the primary purposes of improving its services. PHA will only use Personal Information for this purpose, or for a related biosecurity or governance purpose for which such information was collected.
Kinds of Personal Information collected
1. The kind of Personal Information collected and held by PHA may include your name, email address, home or work address and telephone number. They are stored in an encrypted database for your security.
2. The kind of computer hardware and software information collected and held by PHA may include IP addresses, browser type, domain names, access time, referring website addresses, average hits per day, most visited pages, length of visit, most and least active day/week/time/date, top referring URLs, top search engines, top search phrases, top search keywords, top browsers and versions and top operating systems.
3. Based upon this information, PHA may record statistics on successful site hits, page hits, document views, visitors who visit the website once and visitors who visit the website more than once.
Method of collection
1. PHA may collect Personal Information from a range of sources including:
  - directly from you, your use of the PHA
  - from your use of the website; and
  - from your use of standard forms.
Use and disclosure of information
1. PHA may use Personal Information to:
  - manage your account;
  - assess your eligibility for access to the website;
  - respond to any enquiries made or complaints lodged by you;
  - provide services that you have requested;
  - analyse usage and accuracy of the website; and
  - monitor and investigate security breaches.
2. PHA will only disclose your Personal Information for:
  - the purpose for which it was collected;
  - a reasonably expected or related secondary purpose;
  - other purposes explained at the time of collection; or
  - other purposes permitted by the Privacy Act.
3. PHA will only record your email address if you are granted access to the website. Your e-mail address will only be used for the purposes for which it was provided, and will not be added to any mailing list or disclosed to a third party without your consent.
4. No attempt will be made to identify you or your browsing activities individually, except in the unlikely event of an investigation (for example, if a law enforcement agency exercises a warrant to inspect the internet service provider’s logs).
Security of your Personal Information
1. PHA will take all reasonable steps as required by the APPs to ensure that your Personal Information is protected from misuse, interference, loss or unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. Reasonable steps include maintaining information in an encrypted database.
Quality of, access to, and correction of, your Personal Information
1. PHA will take reasonable steps to ensure that the Personal Information collected, used or disclosed is accurate, complete and up-to-date. You can help us to do this by letting us know if your personal details change. You are able to manage your Personal Information including updating, changing or removing Personal Information.
2. You are entitled to request access to your Personal Information held by PHA by contacting PHA on 02 6215 7700 or by emailing [email protected]. PHA may deny your request to access or correct your Personal Information in limited circumstances, in accordance with the APPs. In these circumstances, PHA will provide you with the reasons for its decision, and, in the case of a request for correction, PHA will, at your request, associate your Personal Information with a statement about the requested correction.
Use of cookies
1. PHA uses cookies to record your viewing preferences or other input submitted by you to provide a secure, personalised experience on the website. Cookies are small data files that a website is able to place on a user’s computer hard drive or in its memory to record aspects of that user’s experience of the website.
2. You have the ability to accept or decline cookies. Most browsers automatically accept cookies. However, you may be able to modify your browser settings to decline cookies if you prefer.
3. Cookies are not used by the website for identifying or tracking site visitors or for passing details to third parties.
Links
1. The website may contain links to websites operated by third parties. PHA makes no representations or warranties in relation to the privacy practices of third party websites and is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of any third party website. Third party websites are responsible for informing you about their own privacy practices.
Complaints
1. You are able to make a complaint in relation to the collection, use, disclosure or retention of your Personal Information by contacting PHA on 02 6215 7700 or by emailing [email protected].
2. PHA will consider your complaint to determine whether there are simple or immediate steps that can be taken to resolve the complaint.
3. If your complaint requires more detailed consideration or investigation, PHA will endeavour to complete the investigation into your complaint promptly. PHA may ask you to provide further information about your complaint and the outcome you are seeking. PHA will then typically gather facts, locate and review relevant documents and speak with the individuals involved. In most cases, PHA will investigate and respond to a complaint within 30 days of receipt of your complaint. If the matter is more complex or the investigation may take longer, PHA will let you know.
4. If you are not satisfied with the response to your query or with the resolution of your request or complaint, you may make a further complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner on 1300 363 992 or by using the contact details found at www.oaic.gov.au.
Variations and Updates to this Privacy Policy
1. PHA will review this Privacy Policy regularly, and may make changes from time to time. If so, PHA will update this Privacy Policy to reflect those changes. The updated version of this Privacy Policy will be effective from the date of posting on the website. PHA recommends that you visit the website regularly to keep up to date with any changes to this Privacy Policy.
2. This Privacy Policy was last updated on 27 June 2022.