Digital Resources Acceptable Usage Policy

General 

1. The University provides digital resources to users to support its educational, research and administrative activities (i.e. its business purposes).
2. DCU provided digital resources are not to be used for any illegal or unethical purposes.
3. DCU provided digital resources are provided solely for DCU business purposes.
4. Reasonable storage quotas will apply on all systems and users must keep within the allocated quota.
5. Users are individually authorised to access the University’s digital resources in line with the Digital Identity Retention Policy. Accounts are created as needed for users on relevant systems and networks. Each user is responsible for the content, usage, and all activities conducted under their account. Account passwords must not be shared with others. Users must not compromise the integrity, performance, or reliability of the University’s digital resources. Users must not attempt to bypass security controls, hack into systems, or interfere with their intended operation.
6. Users must participate in cybersecurity awareness training when offered by the University and must take appropriate precautions to protect the University’s digital resources from malicious activity.
7. Users must not interfere with, or attempt to access or copy or share, any data which is not explicitly required as part of their role and must comply with DCU’s Digital Access Control Policy, Personal Data Retention Policy and Data Privacy Policy.
8. Users must not impersonate others or send messages that falsely appear to originate from someone or somewhere else.
9. Digital resources must not be used to access, store, create, display, or transmit any illegal, offensive, obscene, or indecent material, except for properly supervised and lawful research purposes with appropriate ethical approval.
10. Users must not deliberately waste or unfairly monopolize digital resources.
11. Users must not engage in any activity using University digital resources that could bring the University into disrepute.

1. Users of University digital resources should be aware that copyright law applies to all materials accessed or published on the Internet. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, online content should be assumed to be copyrighted.
2. Users must ensure their online activities do not violate intellectual property rights, including copyright.
3. Uploading copyrighted material (e.g., images, videos, music, software) to University digital resources is prohibited without prior permission from the copyright owner.
4. Users must adhere to all licensing agreements entered into by the University and avoid infringing on software or documentation copyrights. Illegally acquiring, copying, using, or distributing software is prohibited.

1. The use of any AI systems (as defined in the EU AI act) by users must adhere to the EU AI Act.
2. In particular, users must be aware of the EU AI Act’s definition and treatment of ‘high risk’ and ‘unacceptable risk’ AI systems. The use of such systems is not permitted by DCU users.
3. Users are fully responsible to ensure that their use of AI systems does not compromise the security, privacy, or integrity of the University's data, systems, or intellectual property.
4. Users are fully responsible for their sharing or publishing of content generated by AI systems. AI systems regularly produce inaccurate, biased or copyright material in their outputs.
5. When using AI systems, staff and students must adhere to all relevant University policies, guidance and statements, including but not limited to the DCU Position Statement on the use of Artificial Intelligence tools, the Academic Integrity Policy, Data Privacy Policy, and Research Integrity Policy.
6. DCU data of any kind must not be entered into any AI system outside the control of the University. 

1. The DCU Data Classification Policy and any relevant Record of Processing Activities (ROPA) must be adhered to when collecting, storing, retrieving, consulting, disclosing/sharing, erasing, or destroying DCU data using digital resources.
2. The University reserves the right to monitor the use of its digital resources.

3. The University may access any systems, files, records, or logs connected to a users DCU digital identity, without their consent, in the following circumstances:

   i) When required by, and consistent with, law.

   ii) When there is a substantiated reason to believe that violations of law, or of University policies or Codes of Conduct, have taken place.

   iii) Under time-dependent or critical operational circumstances, such as circumstances where access is needed to comply with legislation or failure to act could expose the University to unacceptable risk or seriously hamper the ability of the University to function.

   iv) Access under these conditions must be authorised by the Chief Operations Officer (COO), in advance and in writing, or exceptionally by such other University Officer as the President may nominate, with the President being formally notified in every instance.

   v) Normally, reasonable steps shall be taken to inform the affected individual by the requester of the actions taken and the reasons for them. There may be exceptional circumstances when this is not possible or appropriate, in which case the requester should inform the COO about the nature of these circumstances.