Rules and Policies

Licence Agreement

To participate in the experiment you must agree to abide by the licence agreement.

Run CPDN only on authorised computers

Run climateprediction.net (CPDN for short) only on computers that you own, or for which you have obtained the owner’s permission. Some companies and schools have policies that prohibit using their computers for projects such as CPDN.

How CPDN will use your computer

When you run CPDN on your computer, it will use part of the computer’s CPU power, disk space, and network bandwidth. You can control how much of your resources are used by CPDN, and when it uses them.

What CPDN will use your computer for

The work done by your computer contributes to the research being performed by CPDN. The application programs may change from time to time.

Privacy policy

Your account on CPDN is identified by a name that you choose. This name may be shown on the CPDN web site, along with a summary of the work your computer has done for CPDN and other BOINC projects. If you want to be anonymous, choose a name that doesn’t reveal your identity.

Information about your computer

If you participate in CPDN, information about your computer (such as its processor type, amount of memory, etc.) will be recorded by CPDN and used to decide what type of work to assign to your computer. This information will also be shown on CPDN’s web site. Nothing that reveals your computer’s location (e.g. its domain name or network address) will be shown.

Your email address

To participate in CPDN, you must give an address where you receive email. This address will not be shown on the CPDN web site or shared with organisations. CPDN may send you infrequent newsletters; however, you can choose not to receive these at any time.

Is it safe to run CPDN?

Any time you download a program through the Internet you are taking a chance: the program may have dangerous errors, or the download server may have been hacked. CPDN has made efforts to minimise these risks. We have tested our applications carefully. Our servers are behind a firewall and are configured for high security. To ensure the safety of program downloads, all executable files are digitally signed on a secure computer not connected to the Internet. CPDN was developed at the University of Oxford. BOINC was developed at the University of California.

Liability

CPDN and the University of Oxford assume no liability for damage to your computer, loss of data, or any other event or condition that may occur as a result of participating in CPDN.

Other BOINC projects

Other projects use the same platform, BOINC, as CPDN. You may want to consider participating in one or more of these projects. By doing so, your computer will do useful work even when CPDN has no work available for it.

These other projects are not associated with CPDN, and we cannot vouch for their security practices or the nature of their research.