Questions, inquiries, concerns, or complaints relating to the VHS policy on the treatment of personal information should be emailed to the Executive Director at info@vancouverhumanesociety.bc.ca. All organizational policies are available upon request. Further information on privacy and your rights in regard to your personal information may be found on the website of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada at www.privcom.gc.ca.
Personal Information
Definition
Personal information means information about an identifiable individual and includes employee personal information but does not include (a) contact information or (b) work product information.
Contact information means information that would enable an individual to be contacted at a place of business and includes name, position name or title, business telephone number, business address, business email or business fax number. Contact information is not covered by this policy or PIPA.
Personal information includes name, age, marital status, ID numbers, and other biographical information, personal contact information including mailing address, phone and email address, giving history, banking or credit card information.
Accuracy
To the extent reasonably practical, personal information of individuals will be as accurate, complete, and up to date as is necessary for the purpose for which it is to be used.
Collecting Personal Information
Unless the purposes for collecting personal information are obvious and the individual provides his or her personal information for those purposes, we will communicate the purposes for which personal information is being collected, either orally or in writing, before or at the time of collection.
Consent
We will obtain supporter consent to collect, use or disclose personal information (except where, as noted below, we are authorized to do so without consent).
Consent can be provided orally, in writing, electronically, through an authorized representative or it can be implied where the purpose for collecting using or disclosing the personal information would be considered obvious and the supporter voluntarily provides personal information for that purpose.
Consent may also be implied where a supporter is given notice and a reasonable opportunity to opt-out of his or her personal information being used for mail-outs, the marketing of new services or products, fundraising and the supporter does not opt-out.
Subject to certain exceptions (e.g., the personal information is necessary to provide the service or product, or the withdrawal of consent would frustrate the performance of a legal obligation), supporters can withhold or withdraw their consent for VHS to use their personal information in certain ways. A supporter’s decision to withhold or withdraw their consent to certain uses of personal information may restrict our ability to provide a particular service or product. If so, we will explain the situation to assist the supporter in making the decision.
We may collect, use or disclose personal information without the supporter’s knowledge or consent in limited circumstances outlined by PIPA, including when the collection, use or disclosure of personal information is permitted or required by law.
Use of Personal Information
VHS is firmly committed to data privacy. We do not sell, rent or exchange any personal information we collect. We will not use or disclose supporter personal information for any additional purpose unless we obtain consent to do so.
We communicate with our supporters via mail, email, and telephone notifications of events, news, bulletins, updates, in addition to e-receipts, solicitations and acknowledgements of donations, where express or implied consent has been provided. We do use email addresses to define target audiences on social media for the purpose of sharing messages from VHS.
A supporter may always opt-out of receiving all, or specific, communications through a variety of tools as outlined below.
Use of Credit Card and Banking Information
VHS recognizes that, for the purposes of donations or purchases, supporters may provide us with their banking or credit card information. We only use this information to process the transaction as intended by the supporter.
Credit card transactions processed offline are processed through Level 1 PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) service providers and payment gateways. Our credit card processing service providers and payment gateways are reviewed annually, or whenever a provider is changed.
Credit card transactions processed online through our website are passed through a secure third-party provided SSL verified connection to adhere to industry standard privacy and security standards.
Retention of Information
The length of retention will vary in relation to the nature of the information collected. Any confidential materials and personal information will be kept with appropriate security when necessary. Care is used in the disposal or destruction of personal information to prevent unauthorized parties from gaining access to the information.
Removal from our Database or Mailing List
Should you ever wish to be removed from our database or solicitation mailing list or to discuss your communication preferences and options, please contact us at info@vancouverhumanesociety.bc.ca or at 604-266-9744 and we will be happy to oblige your requests.