Privacy Policy

The Association collects information from various sources for the purposes of the services it provides or for its internal operational activities.

If your organization is a member of the Association, we may, for example, collect information from your organization or its affiliated entities. We may also collect information directly from you or from other members of the Association.

The information collected may include:

• Your contact information and user information for the Association portal (e.g. name, title, email, etc.);

• Your communication preferences (e.g. language, frequency, etc.);

• Your implication in the Association (e.g. registrations for activities, attendance at conferences, feedback via online forms, etc.);

• Information that you have made public (e.g. professional affiliations, LinkedIn profile, personal website or public blog, etc.);

• Information that you provide to us on a voluntary basis (e.g. content of your emails, etc.);

• Information required by the laws and regulations in force to which the Association is subject.

We use the information we collect to provide services to our members, meet legal requirements, and operate and improve our business, including:

• Member services, including connecting members, sharing information, promoting activities, or soliciting collaborations;

• Communications, including responding to your requests for information, sending newsletters, updates, or other materials, and managing your preferences;

• Managing relationships with members and their representatives or affiliates, which may include accounting, billing, verifying information, or customizing services and communications;

• Event management, such as registrations, notes regarding dietary restrictions or preferences, and other aspects of virtual, hybrid, or physical events;

• Feedback, including member consultations, event feedback, and responding to your questions;

• Improving our operations and activities, understanding what our current and potential members find interesting, improving our website, improving how we use or do not use partners for services or to provide services to our members;

• Security, including monitoring who can access our activities or premises and protecting our image, infrastructure or information from misuse;

• Compliance with laws and regulations;

• Website management, including monitoring what visitors to our website, microsites and mobile applications find interesting and checking for any issues with features and functionality.

The Association never publicly disseminates personal information about its members, their representatives or their affiliated organizations, other than that already made public by the member, its representatives or its affiliates.

Member data may be accessible, privately, only to members of the Association. Each individual may at any time withdraw their consent to the sharing of their information with other members of the Association via their profile on the online portal or by simple request to the Association.

We may share limited information in order to provide services to our members, to comply with legal requirements or to operate and improve our activities. We may communicate information to the following entities:

• Service providers, who provide us with subcontracting services during activities or events, including food services, or who help us provide or manage our information and communication technology systems;

• Partners, as part of the work product, such as when we are part of formal projects or collaborations and the information is relevant to the work product;

• Analytics service providers and advertising networks, who perform analysis of the performance of our website, microsites and mobile applications and your interests, or who help us promote the Association and its activities on other sites;

• Emergency services, emergency contacts or public health authorities, as needed, to respond to an emergency situation or to address an urgent occupational health and safety issue or communicable disease outbreak;

• Law enforcement and regulatory agencies, as required under applicable laws.

Our website is hosted via the Yapla platform - offered by Yapla Inc., a corporation incorporated under the laws of Canada - whose Privacy Policy you can also consult.

We use physical, technical and organizational security measures that are consistent with industry standards in the higher education and professional services sectors. These security measures are designed to protect the confidentiality and integrity of the information in our possession. We use contracts or other means to require our service providers to protect the confidentiality and integrity of the information we entrust to them. Unfortunately, no system of security measures can completely guarantee the security and confidentiality of information. If you share highly sensitive information with the Association electronically or otherwise, please let us know so that we can agree on secure transfer methods.

Information is primarily retained in Canada. We retain information for as long as necessary for the Association’s operations or the purpose for which it was collected. We also retain information to comply with obligations under applicable laws and regulatory requirements. The retention period varies depending on the nature of the information held and the purpose for which it was collected. For example, we may retain information about you for as long as you are a member or their representative. In addition, copies of data stored in our electronic backups may be retained until they are destroyed in accordance with the ordinary life cycle of our backups.

We use cookies and similar technologies. A cookie is a small data file containing information that is downloaded to your computer or device by web servers to track your browser as you navigate our website. With this information, we learn how you interact with our website, so we can improve the design and content to enhance your experiences. We do not use cookies to access personal files on your computer or device.

Analytics

Our website may use analytics services, including Google Analytics, a web analytics service offered by Google Inc. These analytics providers use cookies to help the website analyze how users navigate the site. In some cases, the information generated by the cookie about your use of the website (including your IP address) will be transmitted to the analytics providers and stored on servers outside of Canada. This information is used to evaluate your use of the website, to compile reports on website activity for website operators and to provide other services relating to website activity and internet usage.

Your Options

When you first visit our website, a modal window offers you the choice to accept or decline, all or some of the cookies that may be used by our website.

Subsequently, if you change your mind or wish to reset your consent or wish to review your choices, most browsers will allow you to:

• change your browser settings to notify you when you receive a cookie, giving you the chance to accept it or not;

• disable existing cookies or delete cookies when you close your browser; or

• set your browser to automatically reject all cookies.

You can also set your email options to prevent the automatic downloading of images that may contain technologies that would allow us to know whether you have accessed our email and taken actions.

You can also opt out of network advertising programs that track your activities across multiple websites in order to provide you with personalized advertising content. Please visit the following websites: Digital Advertising Alliance of Canada, NAI and YourAdChoices. These websites provide tools that can identify member companies that have placed cookies on your browser and offer mechanisms to opt out of those cookies. You will still receive other types of advertising from participating companies; however, it will not be based on your interests. Deleting browser cookies may remove your opt-out preferences, so you may want to use these tools regularly to ensure your preferences are up to date.

We may change our Privacy Policy from time to time. Please refer to the date at the bottom of this page to see when the most recent version was updated.