Last Updated: June 21, 2021

We recently updated our policy adding details on how to access or request your testing data. Learn more and read frequently asked questions about the discontinuation of the Phylos Plant Sex Test and Genotype Test. 

From the first day we began planning our services at Phylos, we’ve carefully considered the ownership, use, and protection of the data that our customers would entrust to us. In keeping with our core culture and beliefs, we’ve made decisions based on the following guiding principles:

• Act with integrity.
• Respect the trust.
• Support the community.
• Be transparent.

This policy is one of the ways that we are open and transparent about the way we generate, use, and share your data. The terms work in conjunction with our Privacy Policy.

Data Generation

Our lab equipment “reads” cannabis DNA to identify the male gene (Plant Sex Test), or identify the DNA present at certain points on the genome (Genotype Test). We refer to this data set as the underlying identifying DNA data. Comparing points on the genome allows us to distinguish each individual variety, provide customers with relational information, and assign a location in the Phylos Galaxy.

Data Definitions

For purposes of this policy, we categorize data as follows:

• Genetic Data:
  For the Plant Sex Test, this means the presence or absence of the male gene
  For the Genotype Test, this means a record of points of DNA at locations on the genome used to create a genotype report.
• Personal Data means the name, contact, and credit card information you provide during the business transaction (usually as part of the sales or ordering process).
• Public Customer Data is information that you make public through the Phylos Galaxy such as declared variety name, location grown, oral history, and images.
• Derivative Data means information that is produced from analyzing other data. For example, this might be a genotype report, the Phylos Galaxy itself, or a report we run internally to assess the countries or states from which test orders originate.

Data Ownership

Every customer retains ownership and ownership rights in the samples they submit, including:

• The genetic data generated from the tests that is used to create a genotype report;
• The plants and any plant matter submitted; and
• Any current or future rights you may have in plant protection of your varieties.

Data Use

In determining how we use genetic data, we continually maintain the triple aims of:

• Protecting your privacy;
• Protecting your ownership rights in your plant (and its data); and
• Providing you with actionable, meaningful information based on your data.

The data points we capture from your sample’s strands of DNA (in the Genotype Test) provide little information when evaluated by themselves. However, in the context of an entire database of other sequencing data points, we can provide you with highly useful relational information, such as how rare the variety is, heterozygosity, and what other varieties it is related to. In order to provide you with this context, we need your permission to use and work with the data.

Therefore, by using Phylos’s products and services, each customer grants Phylos the right to use, improve, copy, distribute, analyze, and transform the Genetic Data generated from each test.

This grant is a nonexclusive, transferable, royalty-free, fully-paid, and perpetual license, and allows us to grant sublicenses. This means, in part, that we can engage and allow third-party strategic partners or service providers to access and similarly use the data (under Non-Disclosure Agreements) to assist us in our work.

In addition to creating analysis reports, we also may use Genetic Data for activities such as creating the Phylos Galaxy, conducting product development, and other business activities, and improving our tests, results, and services.

Data Sharing

Phylos may share anonymized, aggregate data or Derivative Data with specific strategic partners or third parties for various reasons, such as to advance scientific research, support the documentation of existing cannabis varieties (an important check against illegitimate patenting attempts) and enable cross promotion.

• Anonymized in this context means the data is stripped of all Personal Data that could link Genetic Data to a specific customer, except for information that customers elect to make public through the Phylos Galaxy.
• Aggregated means the data is pooled together with other genetic data points, often thousands or even millions of points.

Opt-In Third Party Sharing

With your written permission or specific opt-in, we may offer opportunities for you to share your data with third parties. For example, we may develop optional links for you to direct someone that’s viewing your variety on the Galaxy to a site that promotes your brand or shows retail locations, or other interfaces that we believe would bring you value.

As another example, we share a select set of sequence data with the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) and/or a select set of genotype data with The European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI), some of the world’s largest repositories of open access genetic data in the world.

As noted above, only data from customers who opt-in to data sharing with NCBI is shared. You can choose which samples you want to share to the NCBI by navigating to your Galaxy Profile and opting samples into the data sharing program. To view or update your current data sharing preferences, please view the data sharing section on your variety profile editor. For more information on data sharing or to update your data preferences, please contact opendata@phylos.bio.

Once data is published to the NCBI and/or EBI, anyone can access, view, and download the data. For example, data is used by scientists for research purposes, such as performing population genetics studies and improving understanding of the cannabis genome. Note that once uploaded, data cannot be removed from the public domain.

Additional Questions

This updated Data Policy is effective as of June 21, 2021. If you have any questions about this policy or any other aspect of our services, we would be happy to answer them. Please contact us at datapolicy@phylos.bio.