Charter and legal notices

CHARTER

The COMETs [Communities of Experts] are networks hosted and coordinated by CNES. They facilitate contacts and provide the opportunity for professionals to discuss all relevant matters openly.

Based on an open innovation model, they aim to enable professional experts to share and collaborate openly on subjects of common interest within the framework of (i) events organised by the various COMETs and (ii) direct contacts between registered experts (interested in a given subject) via the COMET website https://comet-cnes.fr. These exchanges may be open or based on restricted, controlled access depending on the sensitivity of the information shared.

Each community is managed by CNES and/or non-CNES coordinators who are supported by a panel of experts (the Bureau) representing the academic, institutional, industrial and research sectors in their subject field.

 

1. Use of the COMET website 

The COMET website https://comet-cnes.fr:

  • is accessible to the general public, and 
  • provides information-sharing areas reserved solely for registered professional experts.

All users (general public or members) can interact with the COMET coordination team concerning the operation or use of the COMET website and the way the COMETS function by contacting CNES at the following email address: comet@cnes.fr.

1.1. General public 


Connecting to the COMET website gives users access to a public space:

  • that enables visitors to ask to participate in the events organised by the COMET networks and 
  • that provides general information about the professional experts (the members of the coordinating committee named the “Bureau”) who help run each COMET. 

By subscribing to one or more newsletters proposed by the COMET communities, or by applying to become a member of one or more communities, users acknowledge they are fully aware of the provisions of this charter.

1.2. Members 

Only professional experts can become registered members of the various COMET communities, providing them, in addition to access to the website intended for the general public, with restricted information-sharing areas that enable them to:

  • access the list of other professional experts belonging to the same community; this list shows the following information: last name, first name, position and expertise of the registered professional expert as well as the name and address of his/her employer,
  • exchange electronic messages with the other professional experts registered with the same communities; the initial contact is anonymous and does not show the recipient's electronic contact details (which can only be communicated to the sender when the recipient replies),
  • download presentations made during events organised by the communities to which they belong; these presentations are less than two (2) years old and the right to publish them has been granted to CNES within the framework of the COMET communities by their author(s) and any other holder of intellectual property rights.

To join a COMET community, a professional expert must go through the following registration procedures:

  • complete the online registration form that can be downloaded from the COMET website https://comet-cnes.fr and validate their registration, then
  • read this charter and the legal notices, and finally
  • accept the non-disclosure provisions relating to confidentiality and intellectual property specified in Point 2 below, by asking for a code to be sent by email and then entering the code in the box provided for this purpose.

Entering the code means that (i) you have read this charter and the legal notices, and that (ii) you accept the provisions relating to confidentiality and intellectual property.

The coordinators of the community concerned reserve the right to accept or refuse a membership application and their decision cannot be contested under any circumstances.

If the membership is accepted, a confirmation email is sent containing personal identification codes for logging in to the COMET website, as well as a reminder of the provisions relating to confidentiality and intellectual property that the new member has accepted.

2. Exchanging information or data within the COMET communities 


The exchanges between professional experts who are members of the same community are open, in order to promote collaborative work.

However, the information and data exchanged may be protected by intellectual property rights (see 2.1. Intellectual Property). Moreover, certain information and data may be particularly sensitive and their dissemination restricted or even prohibited (see 2.2 NDA). When joining a community, the professional expert must accept the terms and conditions relating to intellectual property and confidentiality specified below.

2.1. Intellectual property

 
I acknowledge that the fact of having access to information and data within the framework of my COMET community(ies) does not in any way grant me an express or implied right concerning that information and as such, I undertake to comply with the intellectual property rights and related copyright issues.

2.2. Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA)


In becoming a member of one or more COMET communities, I undertake to protect and keep strictly confidential the personal access codes to the COMET website https://comet-cnes.fr that I am given in order to access the restricted areas of the website.
In addition, I undertake to:

  • comply with the duty of discretion concerning the information transmitted within this framework; 
  • comply with instructions concerning the restricted dissemination of the data communicated, whatever their purpose, nature or transmission mode (including oral and visual means) or medium (including paper or electronic media) and, if relevant, to only disclose that data to employees of the company that employs me on a need-to-know basis and according to the protection measures previously defined by the person making the information available; 
  • not use this information for any commercial or other purposes, without the prior written agreement of the organisation providing the information.

Moreover, I am fully aware that, in order to participate in events involving strictly confidential information, I may be required to sign a specific non-disclosure agreement before participating and that entry to the event will be restricted to a list of approved names.

I acknowledge that I may be liable for any non-compliance with the commitments specified in 2.1 and 2.2 and that this may lead not only to my removal from the COMET communities of which I am a member and from the COMET website restricted area but also to possible legal proceedings by either CNES or the owner and/or person making available the information or data concerned.

3. Participation in events organised by the COMET communities 


Participation in events organised by the COMET communities is subject to approval from the coordinator of the organising community, whether the applicant is a member of a community or not. The coordinators do not have to provide any justification for refusing a participation request, or explain the criteria for selecting the audience in relation to the community or the topic or the sensitivity of the subject in question. Participation will also be subject to the number of places available, it being understood that registered members shall be given priority to participate in these events as far as possible.

Registration for events is possible via specialised external Internet sites that are not affiliated, directly or indirectly, to CNES. Although they are required to protect your personal data, participants in COMET events (whether members or not) are asked to ensure that their rights are protected by the website used for registration. CNES does not accept any responsibility whatsoever for any data processing operations that may be carried out by such websites in this context.

Moreover, certain events may be held in premises with special security provisions requiring participants to provide identity information. As regards CNES premises, any information concerning identity is collected on an individual basis via emails exchanged between the event organisers and the participant, in order to be transmitted to the CNES security services. Moreover, this information does not undergo any other processing and shall be destroyed at the end of the event. If these premises are not under the responsibility of CNES, the processing and confidentiality of personal data collected shall be under the sole responsibility of the host entity. CNES shall not be held responsible for the way in which this information is processed. In order to exercise your rights in this matter, please contact the host entity.

Any refusal to grant access to the event's venue due to security reasons shall have precedence over any authorisations to participate in the event that may have been granted previously.

4. Migration of users' personal data from the CCT website


At some point in the future, the COMET website https://comet-cnes.fr will permanently replace the CCT (Communautés de Competences techniques) website, https://cct.cnes.fr. Once the COMET website is operational, the CCT website will no longer be accessible to users. It will only be available to CNES website administrators so that they can transfer information, data and documents from the CCT website to the COMET site.

Once the information, data and documents have been transferred to the COMET website, the CCT website will be permanently closed and any information, data and documents not transferred to the COMET website will be definitively destroyed.

Users of the CCT website may exercise their rights relative to the management of their personal information according to the terms of the legal notice.

5. Removal from the COMET network 


Any user of the COMET website https://comet-cnes.fr may cancel his/her membership and/or newsletter subscriptions at any time via the “My account” tab on the COMET website.

In addition, CNES reserves the right to delete accounts that have not been used for more than one (1) year, after having sent two reminder emails without receiving a response.

CNES will also delete any accounts linked to invalid or obsolete email addresses.


CNES reserves the right to modify this charter at any time. Apart from the provisions relating to confidentiality and intellectual property specified in 2.1 and 2.2, any modification shall apply immediately to all members, without them having any right to oppose the modification(s).

 

LEGAL NOTICES 

Publishing Director: Jean-Yves Le Gall, CNES President and Editor-in-Chief

Editorial Manager : CNES - Direction de l’Innovation, des Applications et de la Science - 2 place Maurice Quentin 75001 Paris, France Content Management System:

Hosting company:  OVH  - SAS au capital de 10 069 020 € - RCS Lille Métropole 424 761 419 00045 - Code APE 2620Z - N° TVA : FR 22 424 761 419 - Siège social : 2 rue Kellermann - 59100 Roubaix – France

To contact us: comet@cnes.fr

Access to and use of the COMET website https://comet-cnes.fr are governed by the provisions of these legal notices.
In this respect, by accessing or using the COMET website, users are automatically bound by these legal notices, and any subsequent modifications that may be made by CNES, at its sole discretion and without prior notice.
These legal notices are governed by and interpreted in accordance with French law. Any dispute relating to the interpretation or implementation of these legal notices shall be submitted to the relevant court in Paris (France).
The COMET website provides non-contractual information related to the activity of the COMET networks hosted and coordinated by CNES

Liability disclaimer 


All the data and content on the COMET internet website are the property of CNES, or the property of a third party and for which a right has been granted for their use. The data and content are accessible in the state they were made available and with no guarantees of any kind.

CNES neither guarantees nor claims (i) that this service and its components shall meet your requirements, (ii) that this service and its components may not be periodically interrupted, without being due to a failure or error, (iii) that the data distributed via the COMET website are accurate, up to date or reliable, (iv) that the quality of the data shall meet the users’ expectations and that the data are free from errors or defects, or that any potential errors shall be corrected.

Access to and use of the COMET website is at the user's own risk. Under no circumstances shall CNES be held liable for any direct or indirect damage, or any subsequent or other damage, that may result from access to, use of, or unavailability of the COMET website or the websites linked to it (in particular the external non-affiliated internet websites used for registering for the events organised by the COMET network), including loss of data or programmes, interruptions, changes, updates, modifications to data published on the COMET website, the occurrence of bugs, loss of use, financial loss, any deterioration or infection of users’ equipment by viruses (including, without limitation, software, hardware, connections and any systems or networks).

CNES reserves the right to make temporary or permanent changes, updates, interruptions or modifications to any data published on the COMET website, including the selection and layout of the data, or its services, at any time and without prior notice.

CNES cannot be held responsible for any costs, losses and expenses resulting from any non-compliance with these legal notices, or linked to the use of or access to the COMET website.

Users shall not voluntarily or involuntarily insert viruses or files that may disrupt the operation of the COMET website. Users shall take full responsibility in any such case.

Users shall not access or use the COMET website for illegal or prohibited purposes.

Management of the personal data of COMET website users 


When using the COMET website https://comet-cnes.fr users’ personal data may be collected in order to facilitate the operation of the COMET network (putting registered professional experts in contact with each other, informing users of the COMET website about the organisation of events).
With this in mind, the following information is recorded concerning the profile of registered professional experts:

  • Title, last name, first name, nationality, position, expertise and email address of the registered professional expert, and 
  • Name, address and sector of activity of the company that employs the person.

This information is collected using a form and recorded in a computer file by Community coordinators for processing anonymous statistics about the COMET network or for use by the managers of companies that employ one or more professional experts who are members of the COMET network and who wish to know which of their employees are members.

The information concerning the last name, first name and expertise of the registered professional expert, as well as the name and address of the company that employs him/her, are also made available to the other registered professional experts in the network in order to create a directory.

The initial contact between professional experts who are members of the COMET network is anonymous: the recipient's electronic contact details do not appear when the initial contact is made (these are only communicated to the sender if the recipient replies).

In order to send information about COMET or partner events, the COMET website uses the “MailChimp” tool, which generates mailing lists based on memberships or subscriptions to newsletters. These lists are made available to the coordinators of each COMET and are in no case transferred for any commercial or other purposes. Making a membership application or subscribing to a newsletter implies you accept being recorded on these lists

For any other information collected, CNES specifies the specific purpose as well as the person responsible for the use and storage of the personal data.

Apart from cases about which users are expressly notified, the personal data collected are processed on a confidential basis by CNES and are not shared or transferred to third parties.

In accordance with Article 13 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and Council of 27 April 2016 concerning the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data, users of COMET website have the right to access, rectify and delete information concerning them, by logging in directly to the “My account” area of the COMET website or by simply sending a request to comet@cnes.fr. 

Requesting the deletion of one of the mandatory pieces of data from your member profile would imply the cancellation of your COMET membership.

Requesting complete deletion of your email address from the various databases would imply the cancellation of your COMET membership and your subscriptions to newsletters. 

If users cancel their membership accounts and/or their subscription to one or more newsletters, the personal data relating to the accounts and/or subscriptions of the users concerned will be deleted.


Management of the personal data of CCT website users 


Users of the CCT website may contact comet@cnes.fr at any time to find out what personal information about them is held on the CCT website and in the PhPlist application that manages the website’s list of email addresses, and to request that such information be modified or deleted. All data concerning CCT members and subscribers held by the website or within PhPlist will be destroyed once the CCT website is permanently closed.

Links 


CNES cannot be held responsible as regards the access, content and use of third-party websites referenced by links, including, without limitation, the collection of personal data, or the installation of cookies.

Users are responsible for all risks linked to accessing such third-party sites through referenced links.

Cookies 


This site may use cookies (small data files intended to keep track of users’ connections). CNES may access these data and record them during users' visits, without the intention being to identify the user. Users can modify the personal configuration of their browser to prevent the cookies from being saved.

Intellectual property rights 


All intellectual property rights related to COMET website, including, without limitation, those relating to patented data, copyrights, trade names, trademarks, logos, databases, documents, texts, graphics, drawings, photographs, audio files, video files and digital circuits are the property of CNES, or the property of a third party and for which CNES has been granted a right for their use.

Unless otherwise provided for in writing, the access to and use of the COMET website do not grant or guarantee any rights concerning the use of these intellectual property rights.

Rights granted 


CNES grants users a personal, free, non-exclusive and non-transferable right of access to and use of the COMET website. Any other rights are expressly excluded.

Consequently, and in a non-exhaustive manner, it is expressly and formally forbidden to (i) reproduce, represent, adapt and/or translate, (ii) extract, or (iii) create any work that derives from all or part of the COMET website and/or related content, unless for the strictly limited use of private copies or educational purposes.

In the case of private or educational copies, any reproduction of the data by the user must be accompanied by the following clearly-legible statement: “This document is taken from the COMET website. Protected information - All rights reserved © CNES (+ year of publication)”