Privacy Policy

Your Privacy Rights

Beginning January 1, 2004, all organizations engaged in commercial activities must comply with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, which grants rights concerning the privacy of your personal information. In addition to PIPEDA, Canada’s new anti-spam law entered into force on July 1, 2014. The new law helps Canadians avoid spam and other electronic threats. Both PIPEDA and CASL obligations and regulations extend to ECO Canada. We will ensure your rights through these policies by training ECO Canada staff on privacy policies and practices.

Types of Personal Information Collected

ECO Canada may collect personal information for memberships and registrations through electronic forms, email, phone, fax, mail or in person. These memberships and registrations may involve personal information, such as, but not necessarily limited to, the following:

• Your name, home address, and home telephone and/or cell phone numbers
• Your email address
• Your place of employment and job title
• Your employment history and educational achievements
• Credit card information and/or banking information. Please note that our credit card provider handles online payments securely and credit card data is available only to authorized staff.

Purpose of Collecting Personal Information

In order to provide ECO Canada’s many services to our wide membership base, we require some personal information. The nature and precise use of your personal information will be outlined at the time of information collection. In addition to these uses, your personal information may also be required for the efficient administration of ECO Canada, the creation and maintenance of membership lists, the monitoring of memberships, and the production of marketing materials concerning services and developments related to ECO Canada. At no time will your information be released to any outside agency or organization (unless such an organization has been contracted to perform ECO Canada-related work and agrees to be bound by ECO Canada’s Privacy Policy).

Collection of Personal Information and Your Consent

ECO Canada collects information only by lawful and fair means and not in an unreasonably intrusive way. Wherever possible, we collect your personal information directly from you at the start of your membership. Additional information may be collected as you participate in an increasing number of ECO Canada services and/or programs.

ECO Canada must obtain your consent to collect, use or disclose your personal information. Normally, we ask for your consent in writing or through an electronic form, but in some circumstances, we may accept your oral consent. Whatever the means, you will be asked to give your consent at the point of collection, at which time you will also be informed that your personal information is being collected, the purpose for which it is being collected, and that you have a right of access to the information. Please note that ECO Canada retains your consent until you withdraw it in writing.

Use of Your Information

As mentioned above, ECO Canada uses your personal information to provide services to you and to include you in any direct mailings. Personal information may also be used to notify you of upcoming meetings, courses, seminars, conferences, and ECO Canada products. If you tell us that you no longer wish to receive this information, we will not send any further material.

ECO Canada may share personal information with third parties who are contracted to complete research, administrative services, or work on an ECO Canada project. In such cases, ECO Canada’s Privacy Policy will bind the third party(s).

ECO Canada does not sell, share, barter, rent, divulge or otherwise disseminate personal information.

ECO Canada may monitor website traffic patterns, site usage, and related site information in order to optimize our web services. This information may also be used for statistical analysis and may be provided to third parties, but this statistical information does not include any identifiable personal information.

Disclosure of Your Personal Information

ECO Canada may disclose your personal information under circumstances such as the following:

• When we are required or authorized by law to do so, for example, if a court issues a subpoena
• If we engage a third party to provide administrative services to us (such as a mailing service or archival file storage), in which case the third party will be bound by our Privacy Policy
• If we retain agents or consultants to assist us in completing research relating to ECO Canada, in which case these people and/or organizations will be bound by our Privacy Policy
• If ECO Canada needs to protect itself or its interests. For example, if a member or potential member takes action or lodges a complaint against ECO Canada, we may use your information to defend ECO Canada, notwithstanding any case where you have not consented to ECO Canada’s use of your personal information.

Please note that in all of these situations, ECO Canada will only disclose as much personal information as is required by the circumstances.

Updating and Correcting Your Information

Since we use your personal information to provide you with our services, it is important that your information be accurate and up-to-date. If any of your personal information changes during the course of your membership, please inform us so that we can make any necessary changes. From time to time, ECO Canada may contact you to request an update of your personal information.

If ECO Canada does hold information about you that is inaccurate, incomplete or not up-to-date, we will take reasonable steps to correct it. By contacting ECO Canada’s Privacy Officer (see section 12 for contact information), you can arrange a review of your record(s). Should you find these records to be inaccurate, we will amend them and where we have (as part of your membership with ECO Canada) furnished erroneous information to others, we will inform them of the corrected information. Please note: we may ask you to provide documentation to assist us in making corrections.

Process for Destruction of Personal Information

There are 2 situations when the destruction of personal information will be necessary. This destruction of personal information will occur when there is a withdrawal of consent or the retention of information is no longer necessary. This could occur when the maximum retention time has been met, or the information is no longer relevant.

The process is as follows for withdrawal of consent:

• The person requests in writing stating that they would like to withdraw their consent for ECO Canada to use their personal information for the purpose(s) stated.
• The Privacy Officer will gather the information to be destroyed (in both paper format and electronic).
• The paper-based information will be shredded, then disposed of (in either the trash or recycle bin).
• The electronic information will be deleted from all electronic files where it is stored.
• The Privacy Officer will access all of the available electronic drives and files to ensure it is deleted.
• The information will be deleted from all backup records on the ECO Canada server.

Security of Personal Information

ECO Canada takes all reasonable precautions to ensure that your personal information is kept safe from loss, unauthorized access, modification or disclosure. Among the steps taken to protect your information are:

• Premises security
• Employee training in the storage, safeguarding and use of personal information
• Restricted file access to personal information (i.e. your data is accessed only by ECO Canada staff with a direct involvement in the project(s) or service(s) for which you have provided your information)
• Technological safeguards such as security software and firewalls to prevent unauthorized computer access
• Internal password and security policies
• Contracts with third parties that bind them to ECO Canada’s Privacy Policy

Please note that despite the above security measures, any email correspondence that you have with ECO Canada is not completely secure if you send non-encrypted emails.

Accessing Your Personal Information and ECO Canada’s Process for Handling Personal Information Requests

At any time, you may contact ECO Canada’s Privacy Officer (see section 12 for contact information) to request a review of the information that we hold on file for you. The process for accessing your information is outlined below. Summary information is available on request while more detailed requests that require retrieval costs may be subject to a reasonable fee. Please note: ECO Canada reserves the right to confirm your identity before complying with any access requests.

Process for Handling Personal Information Requests:

• The person makes a request for details about their personal information to ECO Canada. This request is sent/directed to the Privacy Officer.
• The Privacy Officer responds to the person in writing within two weeks.
• If the person would like to see a list of personal information ECO Canada has about them, the Privacy Officer will send them a hard copy of the list through the mail, marked confidential.
• If the person would like to see the personal information that ECO Canada has about them the Privacy Officer will schedule a meeting with that person to give them access to this personal information.
• In the letter and/or in the meeting, the Privacy Officer will advise the individual as to the next steps to be taken to follow up on the access request.
• After sending the letter or holding the meeting with the person, the Privacy Officer will record the letter/meeting information in a confidential, hard copy file.
• There may be rare occasions when your rights to access or correct your personal information are denied. These occasions include, but are not necessarily limited to, the following instances:
  • When denial of access is required or authorized by law
  • When granting you access would have an unreasonable impact on other people’s privacy
  • When granting you access would negatively affect ECO Canada rights and/or property

If we deny your request for access to information or refuse a request to correct information, we will attempt to explain why.

Third Party Websites and Personal Information

On ECO Canada’s website, there are links to third party websites that are not under our control. ECO Canada cannot guarantee that these sites adhere to strict codes of conduct with respect to privacy, and visitors to our website should link and submit personal information to these third party sites at their own risk.

Contacting the Privacy Officer

This policy addresses some of the main privacy concerns that you might have. If you have concerns regarding ECO Canada’s Privacy Policy or questions about ECO Canada’s compliance with PIPEDA/CASL/PIPA guidelines please contact:

Privacy Officer
ECO Canada
Suite #400, 105 – 12th Avenue SE
Calgary, AB T2G 1A1
Tel: (403) 233-0748
Toll Free Phone: 1-800-890-1924
Email: info@eco.ca

If you are not satisfied with our response, the Privacy Commissioner of Canada can be reached at:

Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
30 Victoria Street
Gatineau, QC K1A 1H3
1-800-282-1376

Changes to this Privacy Policy

As ECO Canada regularly reviews all policies and procedures, we may change our Privacy Policy from time to time. These changes will be posted on our website as soon as is practical.

This privacy statement was last updated on February 25, 2013. It replaces the privacy statement that was dated February 23, 2004.