Effective Date: Dec 5, 2025

1. Purpose

Artificial intelligence (AI) tools are increasingly used to analyze research data, generate insights, improve discoverability, and support scholarly workflows. VoxDash provides this policy to clarify expectations for users, search engines, AI systems, and automated agents when interacting with content hosted on the Platform. The policy also outlines how dataset providers’ preferences regarding indexing and automated access should be respected.

This document is intended to guide responsible use of AI in connection with VoxDash content.

2. Scope

This policy applies to:

• Users, researchers, organizations, and third parties accessing or processing VoxDash content
• Search engines, crawlers, automated agents, and AI systems (including large-language models)
• Any activity that retrieves, processes, indexes, transforms, or analyzes VoxDash datasets through automated or AI-enabled methods

Internal VoxDash operations are outside the scope of this policy unless they involve the redistribution of content beyond the Platform’s established boundaries.

3. Provider Indexing Preferences

Each dataset includes optional provider-selected preferences that indicate how external systems should interact with public dataset pages:

• Indexable in search engine setting
• Indexable by AI bots setting

These preferences communicate how dataset providers wish their public pages to be treated by external discovery and AI-processing systems.

Expectations for users and external systems

Users, search engines, crawlers, AI tools, and automated agents are expected to:

• honor the Indexable in search engines setting when determining whether to index a dataset’s public page
• honor the Indexable by AI bots setting when determining whether to retrieve, copy, or process dataset materials using AI systems
• avoid automated access patterns that conflict with the displayed preferences

These expectations apply to external systems. Provider preferences do not impose monitoring or enforcement requirements on VoxDash. These settings communicate provider preferences regarding automated access, and external systems are expected to respect them.

4. Private Dataset Protections

Private datasets are accessible only to authorized users. No person, tool, crawler, or AI system may:

• access, scrape, index, store, or retrieve private dataset content
• use AI or automated methods to derive information from private datasets
• attempt to bypass authentication or access controls

Respecting access boundaries protects provider confidentiality and ensures private working materials remain isolated from external automated processes.

5. Responsible Use of AI With Public Data

Permitted AI use of public datasets is limited to properly attributed non-commercial purposes unless the dataset’s license explicitly authorizes commercial use. Users and external systems may apply AI tools to public VoxDash content when:

• the dataset is publicly accessible
• the data provider’s indexing preferences allow automated or AI-based access
• the dataset’s licensing terms permit analysis, processing, or reuse
• activities remain consistent with VoxDash Terms of Service, applicable laws, and research ethics

AI-enabled use of VoxDash content must comply with any license chosen by the data provider, including restrictions on redistribution, modification, or commercial use.

Acceptable activities include analysis, summarization, metadata generation, modeling, visualization, and other research-oriented applications. Unless a dataset’s license expressly permits commercial use, any AI-enabled use of VoxDash content must be non-commercial.

6. Activities Not Permitted

The following uses of VoxDash content are not permitted by users or external automated systems:

6.1 Re-identification

Using AI or computational techniques to identify, deanonymize, or infer the identity of any individual represented in a dataset.

6.2 Misrepresentation

Producing or distributing AI-generated materials that mischaracterize the nature, origin, or methodology of a dataset.

6.3 Licensing and rights violations

Processing datasets in ways that conflict with licensing terms, copyright, or other rights established by providers.

6.4 Automated extraction inconsistent with provider settings

Using crawlers, bots, or AI tools to retrieve data in ways that disregard dataset indexing preferences.

6.5 Access to private content

Attempting to retrieve, process, or infer private dataset content through automated or AI-driven means.

6.6 Harmful or disruptive behavior

Using AI tools or automated agents in ways that interfere with Platform security, performance, or reliability.

6.7 Unapproved model training

Using VoxDash content to train or refine AI models in ways that conflict with the dataset license or provider indexing preferences.

7. Ethical and Privacy Considerations

Users applying AI tools to VoxDash datasets should follow recognized principles of responsible AI use, including:

• respecting respondent privacy and anonymity
• avoiding biased or discriminatory inferences
• ensuring transparency in analytical or AI-assisted workflows
• documenting limitations or uncertainties in AI-generated results

These practices support rigorous, ethical, and reproducible research.

8. Marketplace and Vendor Subscription Products

Some Marketplace datasets or vendor subscription products may include additional restrictions or conditions related to AI use, indexing, or redistribution. Users and external systems interacting with such datasets are responsible for complying with those terms.

9. AI-Generated Outputs

AI-generated outputs derived from VoxDash content should be:

• attributed appropriately to the source dataset and provider
• shared or published only in ways that comply with dataset licensing
• interpreted with care, acknowledging the limitations of automated analysis

Responsibility for any AI-generated material rests with the party producing it.

10. Reporting Concerns

Users may report issues involving automated access, misuse of AI tools, or violations of dataset licensing through the Platform’s reporting mechanisms. Reports help support a trustworthy environment for data providers and researchers.

11. Policy Updates

VoxDash may revise this policy to reflect evolving technology, research practices, or community needs. Updated versions take effect upon publication.

Questions?
For additional information, please contact us.

(Informational overview. The VoxDash Terms of Service remain the binding document. This text may be updated.)