Privacy Policy
1. We respect your privacy
Ontario Centres of Excellence Inc. (OCE) is committed to protecting your
privacy rights. This privacy policy (the “Policy”) describes
how we collect, protect, use and share information gathered about you
on our website (the “Site”). We hope that this disclosure
will help increase your confidence in the Site and enhance your experience
on the Internet. Please note that by visiting OCE at the Site, you are
accepting and consenting to the practices described in this Policy.
OCE will continue to review the Policy to ensure that it is relevant
and remains current with changing laws, regulations and technologies,
and reserves the right to change this Policy at any time, and from time
to time. Our Policy will be kept up to date and clearly posted on the
Site, and will be current as of the “Last modified date” set
out above.
2. What is personal information?
Personal information is any information about an identifiable person.
3. What personal information does OCE collect and how does OCE use this
personal information?
OCE collects your personal information on the Site from you, or otherwise
submitted to OCE by you, to be retained and used for the purposes identified
to you at the time of collection or for OCE’s administrative purposes
in connection with fulfilling its mandate (the “Identified Purposes”).
For example, OCE may collect your first and last name, email address and
subject of inquiry (e.g. information requests), for the purpose of responding
to your specific requests for information.
4. Under what circumstance does OCE disclose personal information?
OCE will not disclose such personal information to other persons, other
than as follows:
- (a) to the extent required for the Identified Purposes, as described
to you at the time of collection;
- (b) to other third parties that assist OCE in the course of fulfilling
its mandate for administrative purposes, provided they agree to safeguard
your personal information under terms substantially similar to this
Policy and to use it solely for the purposes of providing services to
OCE;
- (c) as required by a governmental authority or under applicable law
or regulation; or
- (d) where OCE has reason to believe that disclosure is necessary
to protect the rights, privacy, safety or property of an indentifiable
person or group.
5. What is aggregate information?
“Aggregate information” is standard web server/visitor traffic
information, commonly referred to as ‘aggregate information’,
regarding overall website traffic patterns but does not include information
specific to individual user sessions. Web servers normally collect this
type of basic information as part of their web log processes. This aggregate
information does not identify you and thus does not constitute personal
information.
In addition to information provided by our visitors we use the normal
Internet tracking tools associated with standard Internet protocols and
web–based systems. This system information is typically stored in
log files and the information is used for aggregate reporting. Aggregate
reporting includes total number of visitors, most visited sections, peak
traffic times, etc. Log files are simply transaction records web servers
maintain. Those logs are used for recording information, such as:
- service provider IP addresses;
- browser versions;
- referring websites;
- search terms used;
- average number of pages requested;
- average duration of visit;
- total visitor traffic.
We use aggregate information gathered from your visit to better design
and administer our Site. This information supplies us with a broad picture
of how people use our website in order to help the management of our systems
and to better serve our audience.
6. How do we protect your personal information? Our commitment to data
security
In order to prevent unauthorized access, maintain the accuracy of your
personal information and ensure that your personal information is used
and disclosed only pursuant to this Policy, OCE strives to maintain physical,
electronic, contractual and administrative safeguards to secure the personal
information we collect from the Site with a level of security that is
appropriate to the sensitivity of the personal information collected.
OCE endeavours to maintain adequate physical, procedural and technical
security with respect to its offices and information storage facilities
so as to prevent any loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, or
modification of personal information.
OCE further protects personal information by restricting access to personal
information to those employees and third-party contractors that the management
of OCE has determined need to know that information in order that OCE
may provide its services.
In terms of communicating personal information, you may wish to note
that there is no method of transmitting or storing data that is completely
secure. As do many organizations, OCE attempts to strike a reasonable
balance between security and convenience. In communicating with others,
OCE reserves the right to use a method of communication that is less secure
than some of its less convenient alternatives, such as e-mail.
7. What about practices of linked sites?
OCE is not responsible for the privacy practices of other websites to
which it has links. We encourage you to read the privacy statements of
each and every website that requests personal information from you.
8. How do we use cookies?
A cookie is a small text file sent from a Web server and placed on your
computer's hard drive. A cookie is generally used to enhance your browsing
experience. You can choose to set your browser to detect and reject cookies,
to accept cookies from all sites, or to prompt you whenever a site wants
to send you a cookie. Check your browser's "Help" files to learn how to
do this. If you choose to refuse cookies, you may not be able to access
some of the interactive features on our Site. Cookies used by OCE do not
give us access to anything on your hard drive and cannot do anything to
your computer.
Cookies used by OCE are encrypted for security purposes to make any
information in the cookie unreadable to anyone outside of OCE. OCE uses
two types
of cookies: session cookies (temporary) or persistent cookies (longer-term
continuing use).
- Session cookies may be used to support on–line feedback/discussion,
forms and registration and ‘e–commerce/shopping cart’
transactions. They are used only during your online session and expire
when you close your browser. Without session cookies, moving around
the Site could be much slower.
- Persistent cookies are different from session cookies because they
are stored on your computer’s hard drive for some length of time.
They are usually used if you want us to remember information about your
Web preferences and passwords for automatic log–in purposes.
OCE endeavours to ensure that any personal information collected by it
and in its possession is as accurate, current and complete as necessary
for the purposes for which OCE uses that data. Personal information contained
in files that have been closed is not actively updated or maintained.
OCE retains personal information as long as OCE believes it is necessary
to fulfil the purpose for which it was collected. Currently, the principal
place in which OCE holds Personal Information is in the City of Toronto.
9. Who do I contact with questions or concerns about this privacy policy?
For all inquiries as to your personal information, including requests
to access or correct personal information, please send a written request
to Ontario Centres of Excellence Inc., 156 Front Street, Suite 200, Toronto,
Ontario M5J 2L6 – Attention: Privacy.
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