Since January 1, 2004, Canadians' personal information is protected by a new law - the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) - a law which sets out the ground rules for the collection, use and disclosure of personal information in the course of commercial activities. It balances an individual's right to privacy with an organization's needs for personal information for legitimate business purposes.

Definition of Personal Information:

Personal information includes race, age, marital status, religion, employment history, credit history, assets, home address, home telephone number, identifiable photos, donor histories, medical information and staff and volunteers' personnel files. Individuals' names and their organizational affiliation, title and contact information (address, phone and fax numbers, email address, Web site) are not considered personal information.

PIPEDA established a set of ten principles that organizations must follow when collecting, using and disclosing personal information in the course of commercial activity.
The Principles are:

Accountability
Identifying Purposes
Consent
Limiting Collection
Limiting Use, Disclosure and Retention
Accuracy
Safeguards
Openness
Individual Access
Challenging Compliance

CFLRI understands and is committed to the protection of individual privacy. We fully support and comply with PIPEDA, and to help ensure the personal information we hold is secure and used in a responsible and respectful manner, we have developed a Privacy Policy. It governs the collection, use, disclosure and disposition of personal information by CFLRI. While the policy is geared to the privacy of survey participants, the principles apply equally to CFLRI staff.

Accountability

CFLRI did appoint the Finance Manager to oversee the implementation, monitoring of the Privacy Policy and security of personal information. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact:

Mathilde Costa,

Director of Finance
Att: Privacy Compliance
201-185 Somerset West
Ottawa On K2P 0J2
(613) 233-5528 ext 23

Identifying Purpose

CFLRI or third party may collect on behalf of CFLRI, , demographic information, gender, age, education, marital status, language, financial information, household information, or other personal information from you and survey participants. All data collected will remain strictly private and confidential. Individuals will be informed verbally or in writing on the purpose of collecting such information. No individual, household or personal information will ever be released.

For Survey Participants

CFLRI may hire a third party to collect data, contact participants and request personal information with your consent to participate in a CFLRI survey. CLFRI will ensure that third party does not breach CFLRI’s privacy policies.

All information collected is strictly confidential and no unauthorized person will see your results at any time. Staff from CFLRI will follow confidentiality guidelines of Statistics Canada in dealing with data.

The data are analyzed and do not have any information that identifies respondents. The analysis data keep only general demographic information such as respondent’s age and province of residence so we can group the responses of people who belong to a certain group together. Data are only reported in this grouped format.

Survey Participants and others

Personal information may be provided to us through correspondence, contest entries, requests for information, surveys, questionnaires, sales of products or services or other forms of communication. This information may be recorded for the purpose of research, processing and receipting an order, recognizing a contribution, identifying attendees at an event, responding to information and product requests, completing shipping orders, and e-mail for updates you have requested, or, providing and evaluating a service.

Providing your information will help us …

- Analyze data to publish results
- Inform or contact contest winners.
- Respond to your requests, update as requested
- Process orders
- Evaluation of services

Consent

CFLRI or third party shall obtain consent from individuals at the time of collection prior to the use or disclosure of the information. Consent may be written, oral or implied. This may be done electronically, physically or by telephone.

Consent shall not be obtained from individuals who are minors and therefore will be obtained from a parent or legal guardian.

Limiting Collection, Limiting Use and Disclosure and Retention

CFLRI or third party will not trade, sell or share personal information to any other business without your consent, unless required by law, for the purpose of processing a donation, order, service, materials, or as disclosed to you when the information is collected. All data collected will remain strictly private and confidential. No individual, household or personal information will ever be released.

CFLRI will retain employee personal information for certain periods of time in accordance with Canada Revenue Agency or by federal or provincial legislation. Documents shall be destroyed by way of shredding or any other secure way of disposing the information.

Accuracy and Safeguarding of Personal Information:

CFLRI stores personal information in databases and files in Ontario, Canada. All employees, volunteers, agents and authorized service providers of CFLRI are required to protect the confidentiality of personal information. CFLRI maintains appropriate technical and organizational safeguards to protect personal information against loss, theft, unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use or modification.

Openness and Individual Access

CFLRI will make our Privacy Policy available on our website. Please feel free to review our Privacy Policy. You may at any time contact us to correct your contact information or have your information removed.

Challenging Compliance

CFLRI is committed to work with its clients, participants, and all others to ensure that any complaints, disputes be resolved in a fair and rapid manner. If you have any complaints or issues regarding your personal information handling or CFLRI Privacy Policy, please contact the Finance Manager.