Terms of Service
Thank you for contributing to coral reef science in the U.S. Virgin Islands. These plain-language terms explain how your photos and information are used when you submit an observation. This is a draft for a proof-of-concept demonstration and is not legal advice.
1. Your submission
By submitting a photo, you confirm that you took it yourself or have permission to share it, and that it does not contain people who have not agreed to be photographed.
2. How your images are used
Scientists at the University of the Virgin Islands (the VICAR Lab and collaborators) may use submitted images to:
- Analyze reef condition and verify identifications (quality control by human experts)
- Train, evaluate, and improve our AI models
- Display selected images publicly, for example in galleries, talks, reports, and on this site, with attribution
3. License
You keep the copyright to your photos. By submitting, you grant the University of the Virgin Islands a non-exclusive, worldwide license to use them for the purposes above, and you agree that submitted images may be shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 (CC BY-NC 4.0) license. This means others may use them for non-commercial purposes with credit to you.
4. Your name and email
Identifications may be shown publicly with your first name and last initial. Your email address is removed within 30 days of a human research expert reviewing the identifications. We only ask for your email so we can reach out if you submit something truly novel. You might find a new species!
5. No guarantee
Results come from AI models and can be wrong. They are a screening aid, not a diagnosis, and should not be used for management, regulatory, or conservation decisions without review by qualified experts.
6. Privacy
In this proof-of-concept demonstration, images are processed in your browser and nothing is transmitted or stored. In a deployed version, submissions would be handled according to UVI data practices.
7. Contact
Questions about these terms or your contributions: lauren.olinger@uvi.edu.