In recent months, GISAID has become aware that a small group of its users have violated the terms of their access Agreement and misused the data shared via GISAID. Among them are individuals that received GISAID support to operate their own “dashboard” to display aggregate data, but have abused the GISAID data sharing process in violation of the rights inherent to the owners of that data.
Without commenting on specific details, it is important for all GISAID’s users to respect the rights of data generators who made a conscious decision to share their data through GISAID, for the benefit of all and irrespective of their economic resource settings.
As a reminder, GISAID guarantees data generators that their rights in the submitted data will be preserved while that data is made publicly accessible through GISAID’s databases.
As part of GISAID’s responsibilities to the submitters as a custodian of this data, GISAID regularly audits and investigates alleged violations, especially activity that might encroach on the rights of data submitters. GISAID’s governing bodies assist in the review of any results from these audits and investigations.
GISAID remains committed to preserving the inherent rights and fulfilling its custodian responsibility to those entities that submit data to GISAID, where only verifiable, rather than anonymous access to the data occurs.
By ensuring full transparency on the access and use of data, GISAID remains committed to continue safeguarding submitters’ inherent rights, while preserving equitable access to outbreak data to meet the needs of the global community, and not just a select few in economic privileged settings.
