Terms of Use
Last updated: August 24, 2026
Service: BMCA Distribution Platform
Operator: Wang Research Group at Penn State
1. Using BMCA
BMCA supports research and education involving bodily expression data. By using the site, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, please do not use BMCA or download its datasets.
2. Accounts
You must sign in before downloading a dataset. Keep your account secure, use accurate account information, and do not let another person use your account to access data.
3. Dataset Use Agreement
Every BMCA dataset requires this Dataset Use Agreement. You must accept it before downloading each dataset. Your acceptance is tied to the current agreement and the dataset's current license. If either changes, we may ask you to accept again.
Research and education
Use downloaded data only for legitimate research or educational work that is consistent with the dataset license, your institution's rules, and any approval that applies to your project. Do not use BMCA data for advertising, employment, insurance, credit, policing, or other decisions about a person.
Respect the people in the data
- Do not try to identify, locate, or contact anyone shown or described in a dataset.
- Do not use the data for facial recognition, biometric identification, surveillance, harassment, discrimination, or profiling of individuals.
- Do not publish identifiable clips, frames, names, or other personal details unless the dataset documentation and your applicable approvals clearly permit it.
- Do not combine BMCA data with other information for the purpose of identifying a person.
Keep the data secure
- Store the files using reasonable technical and organizational safeguards.
- Limit access to people who are working on the project and are allowed to use the data.
- Do not post raw dataset files in a public folder, repository, website, or file-sharing service unless the dataset license and documentation clearly allow it.
- Do not give raw dataset files to someone else. Each collaborator must sign in, accept this agreement, and download their own copy unless BMCA gives written permission for another arrangement.
Credit and publication
Follow the dataset's license and preferred citation. Give appropriate credit, link to the dataset when practical, and clearly describe material changes or derived annotations. Research findings should not imply that BMCA, Penn State, a contributor, or a person shown in the data endorses your work.
If something goes wrong
Contact us promptly if data is exposed, accessed by someone who should not have it, or used in a way that may harm a person. If BMCA tells you that access was granted in error or that use must stop for a legal or ethical reason, stop using the affected data and follow the instructions we provide, to the extent legally permitted.
4. Dataset licenses and other requirements
A dataset's license describes the copyright and related permissions granted by its rights holder. This agreement also sets conditions for access, privacy, security, and responsible use. Consent forms, institutional review requirements, funder terms, and applicable law may add further limits. If these requirements seem inconsistent, do not download or use the dataset until you have contacted BMCA and resolved the question.
5. Responsible site use
- Do not use BMCA for unlawful, harmful, or deceptive work.
- Do not bypass access controls, scrape the service in a way that disrupts it, introduce malware, or probe non-public systems.
- Do not upload material unless you have the rights, permissions, consent, and research approvals needed to share it.
6. Content submitted to BMCA
You keep any ownership rights you or your institution hold in submitted content. You confirm that you are authorized to submit it. You grant BMCA the permission needed to host, secure, process, display, and distribute it as described in the contribution flow, dataset license, and applicable approvals. Technical processing may include transcoding, compression, indexing, thumbnails, and derived metadata.
7. Privacy
BMCA processes account and session information needed to operate the service. When you accept a Dataset Use Agreement, BMCA records your account, the dataset, the agreement version, the dataset license, and the acceptance time. Standard server logs may also record technical information about requests. See the Penn State Web Privacy Statement for additional information.
8. Availability and enforcement
BMCA may change, suspend, or remove datasets and may restrict an account when needed to protect participants, contributors, the service, or comply with law and institutional requirements. A serious or repeated violation may lead to loss of access and notification to the user's institution or other appropriate parties.
9. No warranty and limits on liability
BMCA and its datasets are provided “as is” and “as available.” Data, captions, annotations, and generated outputs may be incomplete or wrong, so you are responsible for checking them. To the extent permitted by law, the operator is not responsible for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for lost data, profits, or revenue arising from use of the service.
10. Changes to these Terms
We may update these Terms to reflect changes in BMCA, dataset requirements, law, or institutional policy. The date at the top shows the current version. When download responsibilities change, you will be asked to review and accept the new agreement before downloading again.
11. Contact
Questions, access concerns, and suspected data incidents may be directed to jwang (at) ist.psu.edu.