The Terms documents tool is used to upload and store terms of service for people to give consent to how their data is used and handled in Teamworks AMS. Under the European Union (EU) General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) it is a requirement for AMS sites that deal with personal data belonging to EU residents to have people consent to personal data processing. Because data use and handling varies between sites, organizations with members residing in the EU must provide terms of service for people to accept before using AMS.
There are several options for deciding how members of your organization can consent to your organization's terms of service.
- The Terms documents tool is used to upload and store terms of service for people to give consent to how their data is used and handled in AMS.
- If your organization is not subject to the GDPR and you don't need to track consents, you can choose to provide a generic terms agreement on the AMS login screen. These do not require people to read and consent (or reject) the terms before they log into AMS so it is not possible to track who has consented to the terms. This option can be set up by the site owner in the Application details.
Use the Terms document tool to create sets of terms. Here, you can create one set of terms that applies to all users, or create separate terms documents for users with different roles.
Assigning terms to all users
There are two ways to assign a set of terms to all users on the site, depending on whether users need to accept the terms the first time they log into AMS, or every time they log into AMS.
For organizations where all users must accept the terms of service to log in but there's no obligation to consent to the terms every time they log in, assign all roles to the terms document and leave the Always accept setting unticked.
For organizations where there's an obligation to consent to the terms of service every time someone uses AMS, tick the Always accept setting.
Be aware that ticking Always accept also applies the terms of service to all users on the site and ignore any specific roles that are selected.
With this in mind, you could create a single terms document where Always accept is ticked and this will be presented to all members each time they log into AMS.
Assigning terms to specific users only
To apply a set of terms to select users, assign relevant roles to the terms document. It is possible to apply multiple sets of terms to a single role - for example, if you have a generic set of terms for all users, and a set of specific terms for a role. In this case, a user with that role would need to accept both sets of terms.
Be aware that ticking Always accept also applies the terms of service to all users on the site and ignores any specific roles that are selected.
Creating a terms document
Terms are added using the Terms documents tool in HTML format, then applied to the relevant roles. Once a terms document is saved, any necessary revisions must be made in a new document, and the old one archived, as it is not possible to edit the terms once they've been saved.
To make tracking revisions easier, we recommend that when you create a new terms document you name it clearly and add a description that includes the creation date.
You should also request that the site owner enables a site configuration setting in the Application details called Requires terms acceptance. This means that users will be prevented from logging in until they have accepted the terms applied to their role. It also means that users with any newly created roles that haven't been added to a terms document will be unable to log in.
To create a new document, follow the steps below.
- From the administration interface, select the Terms documents tool.
- Select New.
- Name the terms document clearly.
- (Optional) Add a Description for the document. This can be a good place to include the date of creation.
- Paste the terms of service, including any HTML tags, into the Terms box.
- If the terms only need to be accepted once, tick the Only required once checkbox. If left unchecked, the terms must be accepted at every login.
- Select Create.
- Switch to the Roles tab within the terms document and select Add roles to select which role(s) must accept the terms. if the terms document applies to all users, select all relevant roles.
Archiving a terms document
Terms documents cannot be deleted, but they can be archived if they're no longer in use.
- From the administration interface, select the Terms documents tool.
- Ensure there is a replacement terms document ready.
- Select the old terms document from the list.
- Tick the box next to Archive. This will archive the selected terms document.
The terms document will no longer be available to apply to any roles and it will not appear in the list of current terms.
Auditing a terms document
You can audit each terms document to check which people have consented or withdrawn their consent to the terms. If it's necessary to be notified when someone withdraws consent, you can ask the site owner to add an email address for your organization's privacy officer (or equivalent) to your AMS site configuration.
- From the administration interface, select the Terms documents tool.
- Hover over the terms document to be audited to reveal the options button, then select Usage data.
- An audit in CSV format will be downloaded to your device.