1. Service description

The Vihko service (henceforth service) of the Finnish Biodiversity Information Facility is a browser-based service developed and maintainedby the Finnish Museum of Natural History Luomus (henceforth Luomus) at the University of Helsinki. Registered users or representatives of users(henceforth users) can use the service to record their species observations and share them with others through FinBIF in ways that are specifiedin these instructions. The service is used in compliance with these terms.

2. User responsibilities and duties

At the time of registration, users will create a user name and password. The password is personal, and it may not be transferred to anyone else.Users are responsible for all activities conducted with their user identification. Users pledge to use the service in accordance with the law andgood practice, as well as these terms. The service administrator has the right to revoke a user name that has already been granted if a user hasacted or is acting in breach of the terms, the law and good practice, or if it is necessary for the functionality of the service.Users use the service provided by the service administrator at their own risk. Users are obliged to pay compensation to the service administrator,content producers or third parties for damage caused by activities in violation of the law, official regulations and instructions, or this agreement.Users are not allowed to store observations made by other parties without permission from the party in question. Users are not allowed to storepersonal details (such as names) of other persons without their permission.

3. Publicity and disclosure of stored data

As a rule, observations stored in the service by users are public and will be distributed as open data through the Laji.fi portal in accordance withconditions stipulated in the ”CC BY 4.0 license. An exception to this isobservation-related information which is sensitive due to reasons of nature conservation that will be made less specific or completely secret automaticallyby FinBIF. Users have the right to require that location data for observations intended for public use will be made less specific (10 x 10 km grid).Only public data distributed under a license through the Laji.fi portal will be made less specific. Specific location data will remain in its originalform for use by the authorities. This helps ensure that decision-making related to land use is based on the best possible data, among other things.Photographs stored in connection with observations will be published in the Laji.fi portal. The photographers are able to define the terms for theirphotographs, which will be attached to the photograph files. FinBIF is not responsible for any use in violation of terms concerning the use of photographs,observations or other information. Users can also use the service for private observation storage, accessible only to themselves. This data will not betransferred for use by FinBIF or to the Laji.fi website. Users can anonymise their observations so that all connections to the user are removed.The observations themselves will still remain in the system. Observations amended in this manner will become invalid and their value to the system void.

4. Implementation and management of service

As a rule, the service is available 24 hours a day. However, Luomus does not guarantee that the service will be available without breaks. The administratorhas the right to at any time temporarily interrupt the service or parts of it due to maintenance, equipment installation, system overload or other unavoidable event.The administrator also has the right to stop managing the service at any time. Luomus is committed to storing and verifying all data in its primary storage systemsindefinitely, including observations stored by the Vihko observation service. The observation service data will be protected in the same way as data compiled fromother Luomus scientific monitoring projects. Luomus has the right to improve and amend in any way the content and structure of the service, its product and databaseselection, as well as software, equipment and other parts of the service. The administrator aims to give notification of essential changes to the service or to itsterms that may be relevant to users, as well as breaks in service, through the service itself or other appropriate means.

5. Liability for damages

The service is free of charge. Users or third parties will receive no compensation for direct or indirect expenses or losses caused by the service, itsoperations, breaks in service, errors, amendments, end of operations or other similar reasons.