REGISTER TO THE ONLINE WATER MINING PLATFORM

Project acronym: Water Mining

Project name: Next generation water-smart management systems: large scale demonstrations for a circular economy and society

Grant Agreement reference number:  869474

Start date of the project: 1st June 2020

Expected end date of the project: 31st August 2024

General terms and conditions for the use of the Online Water Mining platform

On the pages below, “Disclosing Party’’ (Water Mining platform actors, every Water Mining platform User (i.e. Registered User namely User A or User B) can find the general terms and conditions of the “Receiving Party’’ (the Water Mining platform Administrator, the Unit of Environmental Science and Technology (NTUA), located at the School of Chemical Engineering of the National Technical University of Athens, 9, Iroon Polytechneiou St., Zographou Campus, Athens, 157 73, Greece).

Please do not hesitate to contact Receiving Party if Disclosing Party has any questions related to Receiving Party’s terms and conditions or the GDPR (konmoust@central.ntua.gr).

The Contracting Parties agree to the following terms and conditions:

1. Non-disclosure agreement: 

This “Agreement” (the Nondisclosure Agreement) is entered into, by and between the Disclosing Party and the Receiving Party for the purpose of preventing the unauthorized disclosure of “Confidential Information” (certain proprietary and confidential information as defined in this Agreement). The parties agree to enter into a confidential relationship with respect to the disclosure of the Confidential Information.

2. The online Water Mining platform is an active web service matching platform that creates a collaborative environment among different types of stakeholders. The platform aims to improve collaboration between stakeholders by enabling the creation of a network among various stakeholders involved in the wastewater management area, including industries, desalination plants, raw material market suppliers, technology providers, waste heat providers, and consultants. The platform allows stakeholders to identify and connect with potential matches for resource recovery, such as wastewater owners and salt/water recovery owners and promotes the recovery and reuse of valuable resources from wastewater streams creating new potential customers and partners in the field of wastewater management sector.

3. The online Water Mining platform receives and handles new entries letting each and every Water Mining platform actor (Disclosing Party) to:

a. Register, by providing Disclosing Party’s Connection details (Username (which can be unassociated with the Personal/Company Name), Password and Email). Disclosing Party’s Company Details (Company Name, Company Telephone, Company Email, Company LinkedIn) are optional. In the context of protecting the confidentiality and security of Personal/Company data, the Water Mining platform users will be able to register to the platform by providing a Username instead of a Company name. This way it is assured that there will be no straight connection between the data registered by a Company and the Company name. Regarding the provision of geographical data, the address that corresponds to the facilities of the Disclosing Party’s Company in the registration step is mandatory to be filled in by the Water Mining platform User, and will remain hidden for and from all Water Mining platform Users to prevent the identification of the Username with the address unless the Registered user has used their Personal/Company Name as a Username or in the Personal/Company Name field. However, the proximity between registered Water Mining platform actors will be calculated by the Water Mining platform Administrator and taken into account as a matching criterion (also check Section 3) in the matching process when sorting the matched users in order of match rate. In the case that a Water Mining platform user is not willing to provide their address, they could not continue the registration. The Disclosing Party’s Industrial Activity (NACE code) is a mandatory field to be filled in during the registration step and along with the Username, the selected Role in the platform and the Company Name (if not anonymous) will not be considered confidential information or Personal/Company data. A User can edit at any time the aforementioned information in the “My profile” menu. After the registration step is completed, the user is notified in the provided email to activate their registration, to verify the registration process and the credentials provided in the Water Mining platform.

b. Search information and

c. Establish links with relevant stakeholders.

It is noticed that any information relating to the Disclosing Party which allows the Receiving Party to identify them, namely, Disclosing Party’s Address, and information about the Disclosing Party’s access and use of the Receiving Party’s website are considered as ‘Personal/Company data’. The administrator of the Water Mining platform is not responsible for the validity of the Personal/Company data.

4. Some functionalities of the Water Mining platform and some features that are related to the use of the Water Mining platform are visible to all Registered users always in compliance with the consent of the Registered users. As mentioned in section 2a, Users registered to the Water Mining platform will be able to access information in the ‘Search’ field with respect to the available entries Username (mandatory), Role (mandatory), Company Name (optional), NACE code (mandatory) and contact them. Only the Administrator will have access to the Confidential Information of the entries, Namely, quantities and compositions of the streams, recovered salts and/or water needed by the End Users, provided Recovery Technologies, energy providers, as well as location and proximity of the Registered Companies’ sites and End Users. Possible matches will be produced automatically according to the matching criteria of the user. The wastewater owner is matched with the reclaimed owner (salt and/or water) based on the provided EWC code and the distance. The Reclaimed salt owner is matched with the salt user based on the purity of the salt, the required quantity and distance. The reclaimed water owner is matched with the water user based on the conductivity of the water, the quantity and the distance. The technology provider is matched with all the users based on their EWC code. The energy provider is matched with all the users and finally the consultant is matched with the user of the platform that has selected to provide consultation.

When a Water Mining platform User (i.e. Registered User namely User A) is matched with other Water Mining platform User (i.e. Registered User namely User B) they could give consent for the disclosure of Personal/Company data. Only when matched users have both given consent they will both have private access to each other’s Personal/Company data (Company Name and Address). A user can withdraw the consent for the disclosure of Personal/Company data at any point until the time that both matched users give consent. At the time that both users have given consent, the withdrawal of consent is not possible. Once a user consents, the matched user receives a notification message.

5. A Water Mining platform User (i.e. Registered User) has the possibility to decide among one or more of the following roles:

- Wastewater Owner

- Reclaimed owner

• Reclaimed salt owner

• Reclaimed water owner

- End User 

• Salt user

• Water user

- Technology provider

- Energy provider

• R.E.S. 

• Waste heat

- Consultant

Unless they select to be a Consultant, the Water Mining platform user can select only one or multiple the roles as referred above according to their role in the supply and demand chain of input streams, salt/water Recovery technologies and for salt and/or water products.

6. The Water Mining platform takes Disclosing Party’s privacy seriously and will only use Disclosing Party’s Personal/Company data to administer Disclosing Party’s account and to provide the services Disclosing Party has requested from the Water Mining platform.

Once a user is matched with another user (as mentioned in Section 3) or desires to communicate with them (by using the ‘Search’ field mentioned in Section 3), both could be able to send a private message to each other. If they are both willing, they will provide their Personal/Company data to each other only, by clicking that they both give their consent. When a user has provided their consent for the transfer of the Personal/Company data, they have the right to withdraw the consent until the other user gives their consent and discloses the Personal/Company data. In any other case the user has the right to withdraw their consent at any time.

Once Receiving Party has received notification that Disclosing Party has given Disclosing Party’s consent, Receiving Party will process Disclosing Party’s information for the purpose or purposes Disclosing Party originally agreed to. Every user is obligated to keep user logins and passwords to the Water Mining platform secret from any unauthorized users or third parties.

7. User’s data may be used for the following purposes:

a. Water Mining platform’s administrator will work out the registered information to administer Disclosing Party’s account and to provide the services Disclosing Party has requested from the platform.

b. A registered user to the Water Mining platform can view in the Statistics/Metrics and the Dashboard Tabs of the Water Mining platform information regarding Total Users, Total Matches, Total Effluents Added, Total Recovered Products, Total Required Products, Registered users per Country, Subscribed users per role, Type of energy providers, Type of Consultants, Registered users per EWC, Matching Ratio of roles.

c. The statistics will be presented in graphs (pies and bars) and will always be up to date as they will be automatically calculated.

d. The administrator may view all possible matches and be notified of any new matches via a system message.

8. Automated decisions: No automated decisions are planned regarding the data collected (Article 22 of the GDPR). 

9. Conservation time: In application of current regulations, the data collected will be stored for the shortest time possible: 

When Receiving Party no longer needs Disclosing Party’s Personal/Company data, Receiving Party will securely delete or destroy it. The privacy of users is guaranteed and safeguarded at all times during and 5 years after the project.

10. Rights of Disclosing Party: This informed consent form guarantees that participation in the Water Mining platform is voluntary. If you have any questions, you can at any moment exercise the rights recognised in Chapter III of GDPR (articles 15 and so on); including but not limited to: the right to access, right to be forgotten or right to object. For the exercise of these rights please contact us.

If Disclosing Party would like to know more or exercise their rights, may contact: 

• the Unit of Environmental Science and Technology (NTUA): phone +30 210 772 3108, konmoust@central.ntua.gr  

• the responsible for the Unit of Environmental Science and Technology (NTUA) for Water Mining Platform, Dr Maria Kyriazi, kyriazimaria@mail.ntua.gr 

11. Obligations of Receiving Party: Receiving Party follows strict security procedures in the storage and disclosure of Disclosing Party’s Personal/Company data, and to protect it against accidental loss, destruction or damage. The data Disclosing Party provides to Receiving Party is protected. Receiving Party shall hold and maintain the Confidential Information in strictest confidence for the sole and exclusive benefit of the Disclosing Party. Receiving Party shall carefully restrict access to Confidential Information to employees, contractors and third parties as is reasonably required and shall require those persons to sign nondisclosure restrictions at least as protective as those in this Agreement. Receiving Party’s obligations under this Agreement do not extend to information that is: (a) publicly known at the time of disclosure or subsequently becomes publicly known through no fault of the Receiving Party; (b) discovered or created by the Receiving Party before disclosure by Disclosing Party; (c) learned by the Receiving Party through legitimate means other than from the Disclosing Party or Disclosing Party’s representatives, or (d) is disclosed by Receiving Party with Disclosing Party’s prior written approval.

Receiving Party shall carefully restrict access to Confidential Information to employees, contractors and third parties not engaged in the present project.

12. Rights of Receiving Party: 

13. By consenting to this privacy notice Disclosing Party is giving Receiving Party permission to process Disclosing Party’s Personal/Company data specifically for the purposes identified.

14. After the transaction between the matched Water Mining platform actors has initiated, the Receiving Party ceases to be responsible for the confidentiality of the data exchanged between the matched actors (User 1 and User 2) and any responsibilities regarding the quality and quantity of the transaction resulting from this matching.

  This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 869474.