Terms and conditions
Last update date: 17th June 2019
- Conditions of use
By using Our Energy – ETH Zürich, you agree to the following terms and conditions. These terms and conditions govern access to the use of Our Energy – ETH Zürich and form a legally binding agreement between the User and Our Energy – ETH Zürich. Please also carefully read our data protection guidelines.
DEFINITIONS
APPLICATION: hereinafter, Application means the Our Energy – ETH Zürich application.
USER: hereinafter, User refers to Our Energy – ETH Zürich Users who download the application.
USER AGREEMENT: hereinafter, User Agreement refers to the legally binding agreement between the User and Our
Energy – ETH Zürich.
PARTIES: hereinafter, Parties refers to Our Energy – ETH Zürich and the Users.
Our Energy – ETH Zürich IS DEVELOPED AS A RESEARCH TOOL FOR A STUDY THAT IS CONDUCTED AS A TWO-WEEK
ENERGY CHALLENGE WHERE USERS ARE CONNECTED TO A HYPOTHETICAL PHOTOVOLTAIC (PV) SYSTEM. THE
OBJECTIVE IS TO MAXIMIZE THE USE OF ON-SITE ELECTRICITY GENERATED FROM THE PV SYSTEM. USERS WILL DO
THIS BY SELECTING WHICH APPLIANCES THEY USE EACH DAY AND AT WHAT TIME. THEY WILL RECEIVE A DAILY
PERFORMANCE OVERVIEW FOR THE UNITS OF ELECTRICITY USED IN PRE-DEFINED TARIFFS (SOLAR, LOW, HIGH).
ALL USERS WILL ADDITIONALLY RECEIVE A RANDOMLY ASSIGNED ANONYMOUS ‘AVATAR’, WHICH WILL BE USED TO
RANK THEM AGAINST THE OTHER USERS BASED ON THEIR CUMMULATIVE PERFORMANCE.
THE APPLICATION USES NEAR REAL TIME WEATHER MEASUREMENTS (MEASUREMENTS AT 10 MINUTE INTERVALS)
OF AMBIENT AIR TEMPERATURE, GLOGAL RADIATION, AND SUNSHINE DURAITON FROM AN OPEN WEATEHR DATA
API FROM OPENDATA.SWISS. 2018 (“AUTOMATIC WEATHER STATIONS – CURRENT MEASUREMENT VALUES”;
PUBLISHER, BUNDESAMT FUR METEOROLOGIE UND KLIMATOLOGIE. RETRIEVED FROM:
HTTPS://OPENDATA.SWISS/EN/DATASET/AUTOMATISCHE-WETTERSTATIONEN-AKTUELLE-MESSWERTE).
BY ACCESSING OR USING Our Energy – ETH Zürich THE USERS CONFIRM THEY HAVE READ, UNDERSTOOD, ACCEPTED
AND AGREED TO BE BOUND BY THE PRESENT CONDITIONS. - Changes
Our Energy – ETH Zürich reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to make any changes to the Application or services,
at any time. Any changes to the present terms and conditions shall be notified through the Application. The “Last
update date”, on the top margin of the present terms and conditions, shall also be updated. Should the User disagree
to the changes made to the Conditions, both Parties of the User Agreement shall have the right to terminate the
contract with immediate effect, and shall be obliged to cease the use of the Application and services. - Authorization
The Application is only available to Users who are at least 18 years of age. Access to the Application or services by
any person under the age of 18 is strictly prohibited. By accessing or using the Application, you confirm that you are
over the age of 18. - Compensation and reimbursement
There is no financial compensation for your time and effort. You can submit your email address to the contact person
listed in section 9 for further information about on progress and the results of this study. - Risks
There are no inherent risks for participating in this study or by using the Our Energy – ETH Zürich Application. You
will take the same risk of installing and using the Energy – ETH Zürich Application as you would by downloading and
installing other applications on your mobile phone, tablet or computer. - Feedback
We welcome our Users’ feedback and any comments, as well as suggestions useful to improve Our Energy – ETH
Zürich and our services. Feedback and comments can be sent via e-mail, to the contact person listed in section 9. - Duration and withdrawal
Your participation in the study and use of the Our Energy – ETH Zürich application is entirely voluntarily. You are free
to discontinue your participation in the study at any time, without specifying any reasons, or facing any
consequences.
Duration: the present User agreement shall be valid until the User terminates it by deleting the Application or if the
Application is no longer available for the Users. The User shall have the right to withdraw from the present User
Agreement at any time, through the “Delete” function on the Application or by sending an e-mail to the contact
person in section 9. - Data Protection
All data obtained during this study will be saved, processed, analyzed and published entirely anonymously. We do
not collect any personal data or mobile phone data and it is not possible to personalize the primary data, from any
of the data that are collected. Therefore, your data will not be personally identifiable.
We will administer a pre-participation survey where a randomized anonymous code is assigned to each user. In the
pre-survey, we collect basic demographic information, information regarding your interest in sustainable energy
solutions and a basic energy quiz. We do not ask any personally identifiable questions and your participation in the
survey is entirely voluntary. This coding list is used to anonymously combine the survey responses with the specific
user from Our Energy – ETH Zürich Application.
The collected data from the application and survey is anonymously stored in a password protected repository and
copied to an ETH server. Only the investigators of this project can access the original data via the password protected
repository.
Our application and website use Google Analytics, a web analysis service of Google Inc, (1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043, USA; “Google”). The use includes the “Universal Analytics” operating mode. This facilitates
the assignment of data, sessions and interactions across several devices to a pseudonymous user ID and thus the
analysis of a user’s activities across devices. Google Analytics uses “cookies”, which are text files placed on your
computer, to allow the application or website operator to analyze how users use the application or site. The
information generated by the cookie about your use of our application or website is usually transferred to a Google
server in the USA and stored there. However, if IP anonymization is activated on this application or website, Google
will reduce your IP address within Member States of the European Union or in other states party to the Agreement
on the European Economic Area beforehand. Only in exceptional cases will the full IP address be transmitted to a
Google server in the USA and shortened there. The IP address transmitted by your browser in the context of Google
Analytics is not merged with other Google data. On behalf of the operator of this application or website, Google will
use this information to evaluate your use of the application or website, to compile reports on application or website
activity and to provide the application or website operator with other services related to the application, website
and Internet use. Our legitimate interest in data processing also lies in these purposes. The legal basis for the use of
Google Analytics is § 15 para. 3 TMG and Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR. The data sent by us and linked to cookies, useridentifiers (e.g. User-IDs) or advertising-identifiers are automatically deleted after 14 months. Data whose retention
period has been reached is automatically deleted once a month. For more information on terms of use and data
protection, please visit https://www.google.com/analytics/terms/gb.html or https://policies.google.com/?hl=en
You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser, however please note that
if you do this you may not be able to use part or all functionalities of our application or website. - Contact information
Principle Investigator: Prof. Dr. Gerhard Schmitt
Project management and main point of contact: Danielle Griego, griego@arch.ethz.ch, Stefano-Franscini-Platz 1, HIB
E 22, CH-8093 Zürich
This is not an official service from ETH Zurich. The app was developed for the research within the scope of IMG
Stiftung phase 2 project conducted by the Chair of Information Architecture at ETH Zürich. - Agreement
BY CONTINUING TO USE THE APPLICATION YOU AGREE:
You were given sufficient time to read and make a decision about participating in the study.
If you have any questions related to the study, please submit them to the contact person listed in section 9, before
you begin. You may receive a copy of the consent form for your own record at any time from the contact person
listed in section 9.
YOU ARE NOW MAKING A DECISION WHETHER OR NOT TO PARTICIPATE.
BY CONTINUING TO USE THE OUR ENERGY-ETH Zürich APPLICATION, IT INDICATES THAT YOU HAVE READ THE
INFORMATION PROVIDED ABOVE AND THAT YOU HAVE DECIDED TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS STUDY.