Privacy policy
Here is the privacy policy that covers the docking.org domain, including DOCK Blaster and ZINC. This policy spells out our procedures and the kind of data protection you can expect from us. We accept no responsibility for any data uploaded to our server.
Personal Identifying Information
We may retain your email address for authentication purposes (docking.org blog, Dockumentation wiki). We may also retain your email address for sending you periodic status updates on your jobs (DOCK Blaster and ZINC). We will not give your email address or any other information about you to anyone, unless we get subpoenaed by the a three letter, D.C.-based agency. In this case we are legally obligated to comply, and your best recourse is to petition your members in Congress.
Uploaded Project Files (target, ligands, etc)
You may protect your data for 7 days from the time of initial upload by using a project identification number (PIN). For seven days, no one will be able to see your uploaded data or calculated results without this PIN. Please connect to DOCK Blaster using https:// to be sure your PIN is encrypted in transit.
After 7 days, your PIN will be deleted and your data will be visible without limitation to everyone. If you wish your data to remain confidential, you must delete your data prior to the expiration of this 7 day period. If you provided an email when you requested the job, you will be send an email confirmation after 6 days warning you of the iminent PIN expiration.
Your data may remain on the server at our discretion. Typically, this is one or two weeks, but we reserve the right to retain data on the server for illustration or debugging purposes.
Calculated Results
If you have not used a PIN, calculated results become visible to third parties after the jobs have ended. Thus only you may browse your results while the calculations are still running. However, once the jobs are complete, anyone may view them.
Any way around these restrictions?
Yes, you can get a private copy of DOCK, DOCK Blaster, and ZINC, and run on your own servers. This is subject to licensing from the Regents of the University of California. You may also need to acquire licenses for a number of commercial products that are available from their respective vendors. Ask us for details.
If you would like to make suggestions about these privacy policies, please write to comments at docking.org.