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Privacy and Security

The Canadian Institute of Planners (CIP) complies with data privacy laws and regulations applicable in the jurisdictions in which we operate. This privacy policy (“Policy”) describes how we collect, use, transfer, and disclose personal information that you provide online and during your other interactions with us, where we have indicated that this policy applies.  With the exception of automatically collected information described in this Policy that may be defined as personal information, you can use our website without disclosing your personal information. You are not required to provide personal information as a condition of using this Website, except as stated within this Policy (i.e., automatically collected information) or as may be necessary to provide you with information requested by you. If you request information from our Website or ask us to resolve complaints or concerns, we may require certain information necessary to fulfill your request (e.g., your name, contact information, and other identifying information).

This Policy may be amended from time to time, in our sole discretion. When this happens, we will make available an updated version of this Policy, which includes the relevant changes. Please review the Policy each time you voluntarily provide us with personal information and/or you access this Website.

This Policy does not apply to the collection, use, or disclosure or Personal Information by our Provincial and Territorial Institutes and Associations (PTIAs) Partners (“Partners”). To determine the purpose and scope of data collection, and further processing and use of Personal Information by our Partners, please refer to their respective privacy policies.

The following is a short summary of the key elements of this Policy. You can read the full version of the Policy following the summary.

SUMMARY OF PRIVACY POLICY

We may collect the following personal information (including personal health information) when you provide it to us, register with us, complete forms or emails, inquiries or requests, or as otherwise stated in this Policy:

  • Contact information (including your first name, last name and email address);
  • Date of birth;
  • Gender;
  • Geographical location data;
  • Employment information;
  • Education information;
  • Membership information (including your membership number, membership type, membership status);
  • Information collected when you contact us, visit our website, register for an account, use our services, or participate in our courses, events and other initiatives;
  • Information from cookies;
  • Information from third parties, such as information provided to us by Partners;
  • Any other personal information that you choose to provide to us.

We may use your personal information for the following purposes:

  • To provide you with the use of our website;
  • To provide you with products and services;
  • To communicate with you via our newsletters or other electronic communications;
  • To process payments and complete transactions;
  • To ensure the Website remains functional and secure;
  • To present you with relevant content;
  • To help us develop new initiatives, courses, events, and services;
  • To create aggregated data for the purposes of analysis; and
  • To comply with any applicable law and assist law enforcement agencies as required.

We may disclose your personal information to the following parties:

  • Individuals or organizations who are our advisors and consultants;
  • Our Partners, as explained in our full privacy statement;
  • Our employees, external processors, and service providers;
  • Legal and law enforcement agencies where required by law;
  • Other third parties with your consent and where permitted or required by applicable law.

You have the following choices:

  • We will request your opt-in for the use of cookies and similar tracking technologies on our website. You may opt-out or disable cookies and other tracking technologies thereafter through the settings in your browser.
  • You can unsubscribe from our newsletter and other communications by contacting us at the email address below.

Contact Us:

  • For more information on our Policy, our privacy practices, or to obtain access to or correction of your personal information, please contact our Privacy Officer, Valérie Broadfoot, at privacy@cip-icu.ca.

FULL VERSION OF THE PRIVACY POLICY

This Policy covers the following:

  1. Consent
  2. Collection and Use of Personal Information
  3. Use of Cookies
  4. Google Analytics
  5. Disclosure of Personal Information
  6. Security
  7. Storage and Transfers of Personal Information Outside Canada
  8. Retention of Personal Information
  9. Children
  10. How to Access and Correct Your Personal Information
  11. Links to Other Websites
  12. Updates to Privacy Policy
  13. Questions, Complaints and Contact Information

Consent

We are open about the personal information we collect. We only collect, use, transfer, and disclose personal information with your consent or as otherwise permitted or required by applicable laws.

We collect personal information only when you provide it to us, through registration, completion of forms or e-mails, inquiries or requests, or as otherwise stated within this Policy (i.e., automatically collected information to the extent it is personal information). If you choose not to provide any requested personal information, you may be unable to access certain areas of the Website, such as password protected areas.

It is always your choice whether you provide us with your personal information. We will retain control of and responsibility for the use of any personal information you disclose to us. Any personal information used by the Website will be accessible only by a discrete team of individuals responsible for administering the Website, as well as the third-party service providers of our systems and applications associated with us, as described in this Policy.

Collection and Use of Personal Information

Personal information means any information about an identifiable individual, which means any information that relates to you and identifies you personally, either alone or in combination with other information, and includes personal health information. We may collect various types of personal information, as described below.

  • Contact information (including your first name, last name and email address);
  • Date of birth;
  • Sex/Gender/Preferred pronouns;
  • Geographical location data;
  • Employment information;
  • Education information; 
  • Membership information (including your membership number, membership type, membership status);
  • Information collected when you contact us, visit our website, register for an account, use our services, or participate in our courses, events, and other initiatives;
  • Information from cookies;
  • Information from third parties, such as information provided to us by Partners;
  • Any other personal information that you choose to provide to us.

We may use your personal information in the following ways:

  • To provide with the use of our website;
  • To provide you with products and services;
  • To communicate with you via our newsletters or other electronic communications;
  • To process payments and complete transactions;
  • To ensure the Website remains functional and secure;
  • To present you with relevant content;
  • To help us develop new initiatives, courses, events, and services;
  • To create aggregated data for the purposes of analysis; and
  • To comply with any applicable law and assist law enforcement agencies as required.

The personal information we may collect from each individual will depend on our relationship with that individual and which services the individual wishes to obtain from CIP.

CIP does not otherwise sell, trade, barter, exchange, or disclose for consideration any personal information that it has collected.

Use of Cookies

Using “Cookies”

The CIP Members Only website uses an Internet tool called a “session cookie”. Cookies are small bits of data that we send to your computer to improve your user experience. We use them to track that you have signed in so that you don’t have to continually enter your user name and password as you move around the site. This cookie is removed as soon as you log out or close your browser.
 
Tracking IP Addresses

An Internet Protocol (IP) address is a number that’s automatically assigned to your computer whenever you are using the Internet. Web servers identify your computer by its IP address. We collect IP addresses for the purposes of system administration, to report aggregate information to our institutional customers, and to audit the use of our site. When you request pages from the Member Area, our servers log your IP address. We do not normally link IP addresses to anything personally identifiable, which means that a user’s session will be logged, but the user remains anonymous. We can and will use IP addresses to identify a user when it is deemed necessary to enforce compliance with our Terms of Use and License Agreement or to protect our service, site, customers, or others.

Google Analytics

We use Google Analytics to enhance how you interact with our website. Google Analytics provides web analytics services to track, monitor, and report website traffic through the collection of pseudonymous (i.e. de-identified) data about each visitor to our site. Information collected may include:

  • IP address and general geolocation information
  • Demographic data
  • Language preferences
  • Interests
  • Browser type
  • Operating system information
  • Pages visited
  • Traffic origin

Data collected by Google Analytics is stored by Google and shared with us in the form of aggregated reports that allow us to better understand how users interact with our website. Google Analytics may also share data with other Google services.

Google Analytics may use collected data to contextualize and personalize advertising. You can opt-out of having your information tracked in Google Analytics by installing an opt-Out Browser Add-on. This add-on will prevent Google Analytics script from sending your user data to Google Analytics. For more information, visit https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout. 

You can learn more about Google privacy practices by visiting https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites

Disclosure of Personal Information

We may retain third-party vendors or the Provincial and Territorial Institutes and Associations (PTIAs) to assist us to perform our services. Such third-party vendors or Partners may be provided with access to your personal information to perform their obligations pursuant to contractual obligations with us, but for no other purpose. We have set out below the categories of third parties to whom we will disclose your personal information. Where possible, we will provide you with more details about specific third parties, including third-party data processors and service providers, to whom we may disclose your personal information to provide services to us and for the purposes as outlined in this Privacy Policy.

Membership Directory

CIP maintains a searchable directory of its members in good standing. The register is open to examination by CIP members in the private password-protected section of the CIP website. The register is not accessible to the general public. CIP does not provide members’ contact information to the general public.

Third-Party Advertisers and PTIAs

We may share other information about you with third parties for purposes, including, but not limited to, advertising and re-marketing providers, or other brand partners, for purposes of providing you with relevant content or otherwise providing you with services you require.

Information may be shared with PTIAs pursuant to contractual agreements to allow us to provide you with products and services. Please refer to the privacy policy of your respective PTIA (if applicable) for further information on its information collection, use, and disclosure activities.

CIP Employees, External Processors and Services Providers

The recipients of your personal information will be our employees as well as external data processors processing your personal information on our behalf and external service providers providing specific services to us. They will be given access to your personal information only on a ‘need-to-know’ basis in order to fulfil their duties and/or contractual obligations, being subject to the obligations of confidentiality under internal CIP policies and/or after signing appropriate legal documents, where relevant. This may include payment processors Moneris and Stripe and Affinity programs The Personal and BMS Risk Services.

Independent Third Parties

We may disclose your personal information to our lawyers and other persons to whom we are authorized or required to disclose under relevant laws. We may disclose your personal information to comply with any court order or legal obligation, including responding to any lawful government or regulatory request, or if we believe disclosure is necessary to enforce or protect our or a third-party’s rights, property, or safety. We may disclose your personal information in the event of or during a merger, divestiture, restructuring, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of our assets or equity, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, in which personal information held by us is among the assets transferred. Additionally, we may disclose your personal information for any other purpose disclosed by us when you provide the information or as otherwise permitted or required by applicable law.

Security

We use reasonable physical, technical, and organizational security precautions to protect your personal information from manipulation, loss, destruction, or access by unauthorized persons. Any personal information that is provided to us by you will be encrypted in transit to prevent its possible misuse by third parties. We have a number of relevant internal privacy policies, procedures, and guidelines and we also make sure that we have appropriate non-disclosure, data processing, and other appropriate agreements and provisions in place, so that your information is adequately protected. Our security procedures are continuously revised based on new technological developments.

Due to the nature of Internet communications, we cannot guarantee that such communications are 100% secure or error-free and disclaim that the information you provide us will remain free from theft, loss, or unauthorized access or use by third parties, despite our best efforts. You are responsible for maintaining the privacy of any usernames, passwords, or other special access numbers you might use to access the Website. Members may change their website password at any time.

Storage and Transfers of Personal Information

We may store, process, and/or transfer your personal information outside of your jurisdiction of residence. Consequently, your personal information may be subject to local laws of the jurisdiction to which it is transferred, and it may be accessible to local governments, tribunals, law enforcement, and regulatory agencies. The personal information that we collect from you is generally stored on cloud-based servers hosted throughout Canada.

Retention of Personal Information

We will retain your personal information only for so long as is necessary to fulfill the purpose for which it was collected and to meet our legal and contractual obligations. The length of time we retain information varies, depending on the purpose for which it was collected and the nature of the information. This period may extend beyond the end of your relationship with us but it will be only for so long as it is necessary for us to have sufficient Information to respond to any issues that may arise at a later date. As such, we may keep your account information after the termination of your account or membership.

Children

Children under the age of 18 are not the intended audience for the Website. In light of the importance of protecting children’s privacy, we do not knowingly collect personal information from this age group without prior parental or legal guardian consent.

Your Rights Related to Your Personal Information

If you wish to exercise any of your rights under this Policy, please submit a written request to us at our contact information in Section 13. In some situations, we will also be able to give you access to modify and download your personal information and to adjust your privacy preferences online via a secure connection.

  • Withdrawing Consent: If you have given consent to the processing of your personal information for one or more purposes, you are entitled to withdraw your consent at any time (without affecting the lawfulness of any information processing that took place before the withdrawal of consent).
  • Access and Rectification: You may access personal information which we hold about you, correct any inaccurate personal information about you, and/or complete any incomplete personal information about you. You are entitled to access your personal information, subject to the restrictions on access that are set out in relevant laws and subject to the photocopy fees applicable under relevant laws, where permitted. We may require you to verify your identity before we allow you to access your personal Information. Members can confirm and update the accuracy of their information by clicking the “Profile” link found on the Member Area webpage.
  • Additional Rights: Under certain circumstances and subject to applicable data protection laws, you may also be entitled to request additional information regarding our data governance practices, including details regarding what information is collected about you, the categories of persons who have access to your information, and how long your information will be retained for. You may also be entitled to request that we cease communicating your information, or de-index any hyperlink attached to your name that provides access to your personal information by a technological means.

Links to Other Websites

We may provide links to, or automatically produce search results for, third-party websites or resources, or third-party information referencing or linking to third-party websites or resources. We have no control over such third-party websites and resources, and you acknowledge and agree that we are not responsible for the content or information contained therein. When you follow such a link, you are no longer protected by our Policy, and we encourage you to read the privacy statements or other disclaimers of such other parties. We are not responsible for the privacy or security practices or the content of external websites, services or products.

Social Media

In addition to the website, CIP publishes online content on social media services such as Facebook, Twitter/X, Instagram, LinkedIn, Vimeo, and YouTube. Users can elect to connect to that content through accounts they may have on social media networks or apps. This Privacy Policy does not govern the collection of content by other websites, apps, and social media networks or otherwise. Our users are required to abide by the applicable policies and requirements of social media networks or any other websites or apps used in connection with CIP.

Updates to Privacy Policy

We reserve the right to modify our Policy at any time. Material changes will be indicated on the revised Policy. Any changes will be effective immediately as of the updated revision date indicated above.

Questions, Complaints, and Contact Information

For more information on our Policy, our privacy practices, or to obtain access to or correction of your personal information, please contact our Privacy Officer, Valérie Broadfoot, at privacy@cip-icu.ca.

Terms of Use

The use of this website is subject to the following terms of use:

  • The content of the pages of this website is for your general information and use only. It is subject to change without notice.
  • This website contains material which is owned by or licensed to us. This material includes, but is not limited to, the design, layout, look, appearance, and graphics. Reproduction is prohibited other than in accordance with the copyright notice, which forms part of these terms and conditions.
  • From time to time this website may also include links to other websites. These links are provided for your convenience to provide further information. They do not signify that we endorse the website(s). We have no responsibility for the content of the linked website(s).

Your use of this website and any dispute arising out of such use of the website is subject to the laws of Canada and Ontario.