Data act addendum
1. Introduction
This EU Data Act Addendum ("Addendum") supplements and forms part of the Terms of Service between VerCan ApS ("we", "us", "the Company", "Vercan"), the operator of the Stranded platform ("the Service"), and the registered user ("you", "the User"). Capitalised terms not defined herein have the meaning given in the Terms of Service.
This Addendum applies to the extent the EU Data Act (Regulation (EU) 2023/2854) is applicable to the services provided by VerCan. Where this Addendum conflicts with the Terms of Service, this Addendum prevails only to the extent required by the EU Data Act; otherwise, the Terms of Service control.
2. Purpose
This Addendum implements the requirements of the EU Data Act regarding data portability, transparency, and data deletion. It clarifies your rights to access, export, and remove the scientific data you create or upload within Stranded, as well as our obligations in supporting those rights.
Note: This Addendum covers non-personal data — specifically scientific and biological datasets. Personal data is governed separately by our Privacy Policy (and, where applicable for organisation accounts, by our Data Processing Agreement).
3. Scope — What Data This Addendum Covers
The data subject to this Addendum is all user-generated scientific content stored within your Stranded account, including but not limited to:
| Data category | Examples |
|---|---|
| Sequences | Nucleotide sequences, amino-acid sequences, raw reads |
| Alignments | Multiple sequence alignments, alignment-to-reference results |
| Assemblies | Contigs, scaffolds, consensus sequences |
| Annotations | Features, CDS, promoters, user-defined annotations |
| Chromatograms | Sanger trace files (e.g., .ab1) |
| Phylogenetic data | Trees, distance matrices |
| Analysis results | BLAST results, quality reports, primer designs |
| Project structure | Folders, document metadata, organisational hierarchy |
This data is generally non-personal in nature and is subject to the data portability and access rights established by the EU Data Act.
Stranded is not intended for storing identifiable personal data inside scientific datasets, and our Use Restrictions prohibit uploading it. If you upload scientific content that constitutes personal data, GDPR obligations may apply in parallel.
4. Your Right to Export Data
4.1 Self-Service Export
Stranded provides built-in export functionality that allows you to download your scientific data at any time, without prior notice, directly from within the platform. You may export data in commonly used, machine-readable, and interoperable formats, including:
- FASTA (.fasta, .fa) — sequences
- FASTQ (.fasta, .fa) — sequences
- Newick (.nwk) — phylogenetic trees
- CSV — tabular data, metadata, and analysis results
- MarkDown — tabular data, metadata, and analysis results
4.2 No Switching Process Required
Unlike services that require advance notice or transitional periods before data can be retrieved, Stranded enables immediate, self-service export. You do not need to request a switching process, provide advance notice, or wait for a transitional period. Export is available as long as your account is active.
4.3 No Export Fees
No fees are charged for exporting your data, regardless of volume or frequency (within acceptable use).
5. Data Deletion
5.1 Instant Account Deletion
You may delete your account at any time through your account settings. Account deletion results in removal of:
- All personal data (as described in the Privacy Policy and, where applicable, the Data Processing Agreement).
- All scientific data, documents, projects, and associated files stored within your account.
5.2 Selective Deletion
You may also delete individual documents, folders, or projects at any time without deleting your entire account. Deleted items are removed from active systems promptly. Residual copies may persist in backups for a limited period as part of routine backup rotation.
5.3 Export Before Deletion
We strongly recommend exporting any data you wish to retain before deleting your account or individual items. Once deleted, data cannot be recovered.
For clarity: we do not provide a restoration service after deletion. Residual copies may persist in backups for a limited period as part of routine backup rotation.
6. Data Exclusions
The following categories of data are not included in user exports, as they are internal to the operation of the platform and may constitute trade secrets:
- Platform source code, algorithms, and proprietary analysis pipelines.
- Internal system logs and infrastructure telemetry.
- Aggregated, anonymised usage statistics.
These exclusions do not affect your ability to export the scientific data described in Section 3.
7. Your Obligations
- You are responsible for downloading and storing exported data in your own systems or those of a destination provider.
- You are responsible for ensuring that any data you upload or export complies with applicable laws, including any third-party intellectual property rights or data-sharing agreements.
- If data you upload incidentally contains personal information (e.g., patient identifiers in sequence headers), you remain the Data Controller for that content. See the Data Processing Agreement, Section 6.
8. Service Discontinuation
In the event that VerCan discontinues the Service or any material part of it, we will:
- Notify all users at least 60 days in advance.
- Maintain export functionality throughout the notice period.
- Permanently delete all remaining user data after the notice period expires, unless applicable law requires otherwise.
9. Changes to This Addendum
We may update this Addendum to reflect changes in law or in our data handling practices. We will notify registered users of material changes by email or in-platform notification at least 14 days before the changes take effect. Continued use of the platform after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the updated Addendum.
This document should be read alongside the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.