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VTS has taken over the TrackChair peer review tool used
for VTC, VPPC and other VTS conferences from its developer,
RandomOracle. TrackChair was originally designed specifically for VTS 13
years ago, and has been integrated in to the paper management, registration,
visas and program generation systems.
By taking the tool under its wing, VTS will be able to
develop it further to include new enhancements required by the IEEE such as
ORCID identifiers for all its authors, and earlier application of the
CrossCheck plagiarism detection tool. The investment represents excellent
value for money for VTS, and will generate net savings within two years.
Data Protection and Enhanced Security
As part of the acquisition, IEEE VTS has become the data
manager of records within the system. Since last May, users have been
invited to accept NEW Terms and Conditions with VTS holding their data, and
with the transition further safeguards have been introduced. For example,
the new terms prohibit use of personal data for any purpose other than in
connection with the management of the conference.
If users did not accept the new Terms and Conditions, their user data
could not be legally transferred to VTS, and was therefore deleted. This situation
would happen if a user had not logged in since May 2016, or had
specifically declined the new conditions.
While personal data—name,
affiliation, interests and email address—has been deleted, paper
and review data belongs to the associated conference and is retained in
the system. If you use TrackChair, you may notice that some of your
co-authors or contacts are listed as ‘Anonymous User
xxxx’—these are the deleted records.
Reinstate Your TrackChair Account
If you had a TrackChair account and the system no
longer recognizes you, it is likely that your personal data was
deleted when you did not agree to the new Terms and Conditions, or you have not logged into your account since May 2016.
However,
all paper records will still be in the system. If you
would like to have access to them, please create a new account on
TrackChair by visiting
https://www.trackchair.com/auth/signup and then email me, James
Irvine, at j.m.irvine@strath.ac.uk
with the title of one paper you wrote and the conference it appeared in. This
will allow me to track down all of your paper data and link it to your new
account.
Please note if you did not accept the new Terms and
Conditions, then your account was deleted, and paper records cannot be
found from your name or email address, only by title. Deletion means exactly what it says! | 
