FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Find all the answers you need on our data safeguards, subscription options, and support services below.

Where is my data stored?

Your data is stored using AWS infrastructure with object storage. The physical location of the data depends on the server you selected. Nygen's infrastructure spans 22 global data locations. Once you upload your data to one of these locations, it remains there until you delete it.

How long can data be stored on Nygenʼs servers?

Data can be stored indefinitely on Nygen's servers as long as your account remains active. If an account is inactive for 12 months, Nygen reserves the right to delete the data. When a subscription with Nygen expires, the data is not automatically deleted but is locked. Users can delete this data at their discretion.

Datasets deleted on ScarfWeb are immediately removed from our system and the cloud. Within one week of deletion by the end-user, all traces of the data are eradicated from the backup system.

What are the costs associated with data storage?

There are no additional charges for storing your data on Nygen.

How do I delete my data?

You can delete your data at any time through the Nygen interface. Once deleted, your data will be removed from our system and the cloud immediately. Within one week, all traces of the data are eradicated from the backup system.

Is my data backed up?

Yes, your data is regularly backed up to ensure its safety and availability. Backups are stored in multiple locations to provide redundancy and protection against data loss.

What security measures are in place to protect my data?

We implement multiple layers of security to protect your data, including:

- Encryption: Your data is encrypted in transit and at rest using industry- standard protocols.
- Access Controls: We use robust access control mechanisms to ensure only authorized personnel can access your data. All Nygen employees follow two-factor authentication procedures and use secure password storage tools. Their access to our cloud infrastructure expires in 8 hours.
- Firewalls and Intrusion Detection Systems: We employ advanced firewalls and intrusion detection systems to monitor and protect our network.

How is my data encrypted?

Your data is encrypted using industry-standard encryption protocols both in transit and at rest. This ensures that your data is protected from unauthorized access at all times.

How do you handle vulnerabilities and threats?

Nygen uses automated vulnerability detection systems in its codebase that might arise from other software dependencies. Any identified threats are addressed immediately.

What should I do if I suspect unauthorized access to my account?

If you suspect unauthorized access:
1. Change your password immediately.
2. Enable two-factor authentication (if not already enabled).
3. Contact Nygen support to report the issue and get further assistance.

How can I report a security concern?

If you have a security concern, don't hesitate to get in touch with Nygen's support team immediately at support@nygen.io. We take all security reports seriously and will investigate any issues promptly.

Is my data safe against hardware faults on Nygenʼs servers? Is it backed up?

Yes, your data is protected against hardware faults and is regularly backed up:

- Hardware Fault Tolerance: We use S3-based object storage from AWS, which provides fully managed hardware fault tolerance for the stored datasets. This means that even if there is a hardware failure, your data remains safe and accessible.
- Backup Routines: Our database undergoes hourly and weekly backup routines to ensure that your data is consistently saved and can be restored in case of any unexpected events.

How is the integrity of my uploaded files ensured?

We generate SHA256 checksums of your uploaded files and verify them post-upload. This process ensures that the data you upload remains intact and unaltered during the transfer process.

Can I verify the integrity of my data myself?

Yes, you can verify the integrity of your data:

- Checksum Availability: We provide the generated SHA256 checksums for your uploaded files. You can compare these checksums with your local files to verify that the data remains unchanged.

How often are data integrity checks performed?

You can also request on-demand integrity checks through your account interface to verify the current state of your data. This is available for users in certain subscription plans.

Who can access my data?

We use state-of-the-art access control protocols to ensure your data is secure. Nygen or others can access your data under the following conditions:
- You have requested support from Nygen, which requires us to examine your files (raw or processed) to debug any issues.
- You have shared your data privately with someone using their email address, granting them read-only access.
- You generated a public link for your data, allowing anyone with the link to access a read-only version.

Usersʼ datasets are never indexed, crawled, or otherwise used by Nygen for any purpose other than hosting and providing support.

Do you comply with data protection regulations?

Yes, Nygen complies with all relevant data protection regulations, including GDPR, CCPA, and others. We are committed to protecting your privacy and ensuring your data is handled in accordance with legal requirements.

Which third-party providers does Nygen share my data with?

Your data files, analysis, and any metadata associated with these are not shared with any third party other than our cloud storage provider, i.e., AWS.

AWS has ISO/IEC 27018:2019 compliance certification, which means that the privacy of the data stored on AWS is guaranteed to Nygen and, by extension, all of our users.

We do, however, share usersʼ emails with other third-party providers for specific purposes:
- Auth0: User authentication.
- Posthog: Activity monitoring (maximum 30 data retention).
- UserFlow: Onboarding workflows and informational content.
- Hubspot: Support and sales activities and notifying users about data.
- Brevo and SendGrid: Transactional emails.
- JumpShare: Accepting unstructured data files.
- Stripe: Payment purposes.

All third-party providers used by Nygen are subject to strict data protection and privacy requirements.

What happens to my data after 1 year if I do not have a license?

Your data will be locked after 1 year and inaccessible until you purchase a new license. However, you can delete this dataset if you wish.

What happens if I publish data on ScarfWeb during the dataset's 1-year free period?

All published datasets on ScarfWeb are published forever as they are put under a CC license. However, they will remain locked in your private ScarfWeb project for one year. Any modifications to the published datasets will go through our erratum process.

Will my public links and shared datasets keep working even after my datasets are locked?

Yes, your public links will still be active. However, you can disable them, even on the locked datasets.

I have a license but only used a part of my data quota. Will the rest of the datasets carry over to the next year?

Yes, you will accrue the unused quota for subsequent license renewals. However, if your renewals are interrupted, the accrued quota will not carry over when you choose to resume your annual subscription.

We have bought a license for our lab. Are the quotas implemented for each user separately, or does the whole lab share a quota?

When you purchase a license for your lab, the data quota is shared among all users within the lab. This means the total data quota allocated by the license can be utilized collectively by all lab members, rather than each user having a separate quota.

Does merging, extracting, moving, or copying count toward my dataset quota?

No. Only the files you upload count towards the data quota.

If I upload a hashtag multiplexed dataset and then demultiplex it on ScarfWeb to, for example, 10 datasets, how does that count towards my dataset quota?

We will count it as 1 file only. However, if you perform demultiplexing outside ScarfWeb, we will count the uploaded files.

What is the difference between creating public links and publishing data on CellHub?

CellHub:
- You publish a whole project (including all datasets) to CellHub.
- You are required to sign a CC license.
- It is best to do this post-acceptance or when a pre-print is being deposited on Biorxiv.

Public Links:
- The link is specific to each dataset. If you have multiple datasets per project, each will have its own public link.
- The links are available only to those people with whom you share the link. You can also use the links in your manuscripts/publications. However, these links will not be indexed in CellHub.

What are the different kinds of support offered?

- Technical Support: This includes basic support for users who encounter errors or have questions about how to carry out certain steps on the platform.
- Upload Support: This includes support for uploading custom file formats from the user's existing or older projects. The files are generally uploaded within 24 hours if there are no complications with the formats, which the user will then be informed about.
- Data Procurement Support: This includes support for downloading the files from GEO or other public portals and making the datasets available in your ScarfWeb account. Where feasible, datasets are generally delivered within one week.
- Custom Analysis: This includes custom analysis support for the users

Whatʼs included in the custom analysis support?

We generally provide custom support for tasks connected to ScarfWeb that align with our roadmap of future features on ScarfWeb.

Examples of our support:
- Modality integration
- Running statistical significance analysis
- Pathway enrichment analysis
- Doublet detection
- Providing a quality report on raw matrices, including estimation of ambient RNA
- Normalization of ADTs from multiple batches
- Merging samples from multiple species
- Bulk generation of figures
- Etc., on a case-by-case basis.

Nygen reserves the right to decline certain support requests that it considers too extensive. Our licenses are product licenses, not service packages. If the support activity involves several days of bioinformaticianʼs time, we can recommend our partner service providers.

How quickly can I expect the data to be available when using data procurement support?

Our standard licenses do not guarantee the timeline of data delivery. Historically, most datasets are delivered within a weekʼs time. We provide our initial assessment of the requested datasets in a few business days. This initial assessment checks whether the count matrices are available, what metadata is available, etc. We also contact the authors of the papers if the dataset is not readily available.

For our enterprise customers, we offer SLAs (Service Level Agreements) based on the organization's needs.