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Terms of Use

NCShare-specific policies apply to NCShare accounts, computing, storage, and associated services. Users must also follow their home institution's applicable policies, software licenses, and requirements governing their projects and data. If requirements appear to conflict, contact support before proceeding.

Authorized use and accounts

NCShare resources are provided for authorized, noncommercial research and educational activities. The following activities are prohibited:

  • Financial gain
  • Commercial or business use
  • Unauthorized use, storage, or distribution of copyrighted or proprietary materials
  • Unauthorized mining or collection of data on or off campus, including prohibited web scraping activities
  • Activities that violate your institution's policy, applicable law, contractual obligations, or data use agreements

Use only accounts and resources assigned or otherwise authorized for your use. Protect passwords, SSH keys, tokens, and other credentials. Do not share personal accounts or use another person's credentials.

Keep your account information current and complete required renewals. Accounts require renewal every 12 months. Access may end when eligibility, institutional affiliation, sponsorship, or project authorization ends. Account expiration or suspension does not itself mean that associated records or files have been deleted.

Responsible use of shared resources

Use scheduling systems, allocations, and storage quotas as documented. Run computational workloads on compute resources rather than login nodes, and avoid processes that interfere with other users or service availability.

Do not bypass access controls, access another user's information without authorization, introduce malicious software, or conduct unauthorized scanning or security testing.

Use software and datasets only as permitted by their licenses and other applicable restrictions.

AI-assisted workflows must follow the NCShare AI Use Policy. Users remain responsible for supervising automated activity and protecting credentials and data.

Research and instructional data

Users are responsible for all data introduced to NCShare and must comply with their applicable institutional policies, including IRB requirements, school policies, departmental requirements, and data use agreements.

NCShare is not an approved environment for sensitive or restricted research or instructional data. Do not upload, process, or make such data accessible through NCShare. This includes protected health information, identifiable student education records, controlled or export-restricted information, and confidential or proprietary material requiring protections NCShare has not approved.

If you are unsure whether data is permitted, consult your institution and NCShare support before transferring it.

Keep independent copies of essential data, software, and results outside NCShare. Research and instructional storage is not backed up and is intended for active work rather than long-term preservation. Shared storage is subject to purge policies as noted within specific services. See Data Storage & Transfer.

Set file and directory permissions to the minimum access needed for your work. Do not enable public access unless the data is suitable for public distribution and you are authorized to release it.

Operations, security, and access restrictions

Because these services are a shared resource, privacy is limited. Support staff have administrative access to cluster systems and data and may inspect system components, files, jobs, or metadata as necessary for operations, troubleshooting, security, compliance, or policy enforcement.

Metadata regarding cluster utilization by group, and in some cases by user, may be shared with users and institutional stakeholders.

Staff may limit or stop disruptive jobs, restrict services, or suspend accounts to address security concerns or policy violations. Urgent protective action may occur before notice. Users will receive an explanation and a contact for review when practicable.

Service availability and recovery of lost or corrupted work cannot be guaranteed. Report suspected credential compromise, unintended disclosure, or other security concerns promptly to info@ncshare.org.