Researcher Data Access Agreement

Last updated: 13 July 2026

1. What this agreement covers

This agreement governs access to Ephemeros data through the researcher export API and dataset downloads (together, "research access"), and applies to anyone who requests or uses a researcher API key or receives a dataset from us. It supplements the Terms of Use — in particular sections 6 (content licences) and 11 (open data) — and our Privacy Policy. By requesting, accepting, or using a researcher API key or dataset, you agree to this agreement. If you access the data on behalf of an organisation, you confirm you are authorised to bind that organisation, and "you" includes it.

2. The data and its licences

The photographs and their capture metadata (coordinates, GPS accuracy, altitude, heading, pitch/roll, air pressure, device model, weather, AI description and tags) are licensed by their contributors to the public under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). That open licence — not this agreement — governs your reuse of the content itself: you may copy, adapt, publish, and use it for any purpose, including commercially, provided you credit the contributors and link the licence. Every API response and dataset carries the attribution you need: per-item attribution strings and, in dataset ZIPs, an ATTRIBUTION.txt file. Where a contributor is shown as "Anonymous", credit "Anonymous Ephemeros contributor".

Separately, the curated compilations we deliver — the export API, dataset ZIPs, their selection, structure, alignment renditions, timelapses, and delivery infrastructure — are provided to you under this agreement (Terms of Use section 12). Your right to access our service is distinct from your right to reuse the openly licensed content, and ending the former never revokes the latter.

3. Your API key

• Keys are issued per research project and are not transferable — do not share your key outside the project team it was issued to, and keep it confidential.
• Keys may carry an expiry date, request rate limits and quotas, and access restrictions (for example geographic areas, date ranges, or data categories) agreed for your project. Call GET /api/export/v1/me to see your key's exact scope at any time.
• If you believe your key has been exposed, tell us immediately at hello@ephemeros.app and we will rotate it.

4. Acceptable use of research access

You agree to:

• access the data only through the documented export API endpoints and dataset downloads, and not scrape the website or mobile API instead;
• respect rate limits, quotas, and your key's scope, and not attempt to circumvent them (for example by pooling multiple keys);
• not resell or sublicense access to our API or infrastructure, and not present a copy of the data as the live Ephemeros service — republishing the openly licensed content itself, with attribution, is of course permitted under CC BY 4.0;
• use signed download URLs only for your own project's retrieval — they expire and are not a distribution mechanism.

5. Privacy and research ethics

• Contributor identity in the data is limited to public usernames or "Anonymous" — never email addresses or other contact details. You must not attempt to identify, re-identify, contact, or profile contributors or any person depicted in a photograph, or combine the data with other sources for that purpose.
• If you find personal information in the data that should not be there (for example an identifiable person or a licence plate in a photo), report it to hello@ephemeros.app so we can review it under our takedown process.
• You are responsible for complying with the laws that apply to your research — including the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA) where applicable — and with your institution's ethics requirements.

6. Attribution in publications

In papers, datasets, and other outputs that use the data, credit the contributing photographers per CC BY 4.0 (the supplied attribution strings satisfy this) and cite the platform, for example: "Repeat-photography data from Ephemeros (ephemeros.app), contributed by the Ephemeros community and licensed CC BY 4.0." We would also love to hear about published work that uses the data — it helps us show contributors what their photos make possible.

7. No warranty

The data is community-contributed and provided "as is". We moderate submissions and run automated integrity checks, but we do not warrant the accuracy of any photograph or its metadata (positions, headings, timestamps, weather, and AI-generated fields may contain errors), the fitness of the data for any purpose, or uninterrupted availability of the API. The limitation-of-liability and indemnity provisions of the Terms of Use (sections 15–16) apply to research access, and its governing-law provisions apply to this agreement.

8. Suspension, termination, and changes

We may suspend or revoke an API key that breaches this agreement, exceeds its limits persistently, or endangers the service, and may update this agreement from time to time (the "last updated" date above changes when we do; material changes are communicated to the contact on file for your key). Ending research access does not affect your rights under CC BY 4.0 in content you already lawfully obtained — that is how open licences work.

9. Contact

Questions about this agreement, key requests, scope changes, or higher limits: hello@ephemeros.app.