Terms of Service

Welcome to Open Lab, operated by Open Lab Online UG (haftungsbeschränkt), Konstanz, Germany ("Open Lab", "we", "us"). These Terms of Service govern your use of app.open-lab.online, research.open-lab.online, run.open-lab.online, builder.open-lab.online and related services. By creating an account or using the service you agree to these Terms. Please also read our Privacy Policy, which explains how we handle personal data.

You must be at least 18 years old to use Open Lab, and you confirm that you are when you sign up. The service is intended for adult researchers and participants. If you use Open Lab on behalf of an institution, you confirm you are authorised to accept these Terms for that institution.

You are responsible for the accuracy of your account details, for keeping your password and two-factor credentials secure, and for activity under your account. Tell us promptly if you suspect unauthorised access. We may suspend or close accounts that violate these Terms. For help, see our Support page.

We grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable right to use Open Lab in accordance with these Terms. You may not copy, resell, reverse-engineer, or build a competing service from the platform, except where the law expressly permits.

You keep ownership of the content you create — studies, materials, and the data you collect. As a researcher, you are the data controller for the study data you collect from participants: you are responsible for having a lawful basis (typically participants' informed consent collected through your study's consent form), for any required ethics approval, and for handling special-category data lawfully. Open Lab acts as your processor for that data under our Data Processing Agreement, storing it on your behalf. By default your study uses end-to-end encryption, where the data is encrypted so that only you — and any collaborators you grant access to — can read it, and Open Lab cannot. For pilot studies, testing, or where you prefer it, you may opt a study out to server-side encryption, where the data is encrypted with keys managed by Open Lab and protected by our other security measures, but is technically accessible to us as your processor. You grant us the limited rights needed to host and process your content so we can provide the service.

You agree not to misuse the service. In particular, you must not: break the law or infringe others' rights; collect data without a lawful basis or appropriate consent; upload malware or attempt to breach security; disrupt or overload the platform; deceive or harm participants; or use the service to process data of anyone under 18 without the required safeguards.

You may stop using Open Lab and delete your account at any time. We may suspend or terminate access if you breach these Terms or where required by law. On termination, your data is deleted in line with our Privacy Policy and retention schedule; some records may be kept where the law requires.

To the extent permitted by law, you agree to indemnify Open Lab against claims, losses and costs arising from your unlawful use of the service or your breach of these Terms — including, for researchers, claims relating to how you collected or handled participant data.

Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law (such as for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for intent or gross negligence). Subject to that, Open Lab is not liable for indirect or consequential loss, or for loss of data caused by circumstances outside our reasonable control. Your study uses end-to-end encryption by default, where the data is encrypted so that only you — and any collaborators you authorise — can read it, and Open Lab cannot recover it for you. You unlock it with your account password (or, for social-login accounts, a separate encryption passphrase) and are issued a one-time recovery code as a backup; you are responsible for safeguarding that recovery code, and if you lose both your password/passphrase and your recovery code the data cannot be recovered. (If you opt a study out to server-side encryption, Open Lab manages the keys and can recover the data as your processor.) If you instead use the self-managed study key option (you generate and hold your own key file), you are solely responsible for safeguarding that key file — if it is lost, the data cannot be recovered.

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Federal Republic of Germany, excluding its conflict-of-law rules and the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. The courts of Konstanz, Germany shall have jurisdiction where permitted by law. Your mandatory statutory rights as a consumer are not affected.

These Terms incorporate our Privacy Policy and, for researchers, our Data Processing Agreement (which sets out how we process participant study data on your behalf). Where a specific feature has its own terms, those apply in addition to these Terms.

We may update these Terms as the service evolves or the law changes. We version our Terms and Privacy Policy, and when we make a material change we will ask you to re-accept the new version before you continue using the service. The "Last updated" date shows the current version.

Open Lab, including its software, design, and trademarks, remains our property and that of our licensors. These Terms do not transfer any of those rights to you beyond the limited licence to use the service. Open Lab integrates the open-source lab.js study builder under its respective licence.

The service is provided "as is" and "as available". To the extent permitted by law, we do not warrant that it will be uninterrupted or error-free, or that it will meet every requirement. This does not affect mandatory statutory warranties.

If any provision of these Terms is found unenforceable, the rest remain in effect. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver. You may not transfer your rights under these Terms without our consent; we may transfer ours to a successor of our business. These Terms are the entire agreement between you and Open Lab regarding the service.

By using Open Lab you agree that we may communicate with you electronically — for account, security, transactional and service messages, which are part of using the platform. Marketing emails are separate and only sent with your opt-in; you can unsubscribe from those at any time using the one-click link or your email preferences.

Open Lab Online UG (haftungsbeschränkt), Friedrichstrasse 6b, 78464 Konstanz, Germany. Email info@open-lab.online. For help, see our Support page; our legal notice (Impressum) is at /legal-notice.