Our Commitment to Protecting Your Privacy

Social Planning Toronto is committed to protecting the privacy of its donors and other individuals about or from whom we collect personal information.

Social Planning Toronto embraces the principles of the Canadian Standards Association Model Code for the Protection of Personal Information to ensure that all personal information is properly collected, used only for the purposes for which it is collected and is disposed of in a safe and timely manner when no longer required.

Mission Statement

Social Planning Toronto challenges inequity in our city — through knowledge generation, debate, civic engagement, advocacy, and collaboration — to spark social and policy change.

Although the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (“PIPEDA”) does not apply to most of Social Planning Toronto’s activities, we always strive to embrace best practices, and are therefore following the principles of the CSA Model Code for the Protection of Personal Information, upon which PIPEDA is based.

The Privacy Principles

The following principles reflect our pledge to safeguard personal information:

1. We are accountable for your personal information

   We are responsible for all personal information in our possession.

   All employees, agents and authorized service providers of Social Planning Toronto are required to protect the confidentiality of your information.

   We keep your personal information and the business you have with us in strict confidence.

   When we choose to have certain services, such as data processing, provided by third-party providers, we select the service providers carefully. We take all reasonable precautions to ensure that the service provider protects your personal information. These service providers enter into confidentiality agreements and do not keep any personal information on their files.

2. We collect, use and disclose personal information only for certain purposes that will identify you

   We collect, use or disclose information to:

   • Share the membership information with another charity only with your consent
   • Provide proof of participation in or eligibility for a survey or research initiative
   • Process membership, donation, registration, or contact information
   • Provide benefits to employees
   • Send out information on membership services or information sessions
   • Identify member, donor or volunteer preferences

   We obtain personal information about you lawfully and fairly.

3. We will obtain your consent

   We collect, use or disclose your personal information with your permission.

   Your permission may be expressed orally, in writing or may be implied, and you may give it to us orally, electronically or in writing.

   You may withdraw your permission to collect, use and disclose your personal information at any time, subject to legal and contractual restrictions and reasonable notice.

4. We keep your personal information accurate and up to date

   We maintain appropriate procedures to ensure that personal information in our possession is accurate and up to date. You are entitled to seek a correction of your personal information if you believe that the information in our possession is not correct.

   If you believe any of the information we have collected about you is incorrect or incomplete, you have the right to ask us to change it or delete it.

   If your personal information is inaccurate or incomplete, we will make the necessary changes.

5. We protect your personal information

   We do not sell, trade or share your personal information without your consent.

6. We will limit how long we keep information

   We will keep your personal information only as long as it is necessary to satisfy the purpose for which it was obtained, or as required by law.

   When we destroy personal information, we will us safeguards to prevent unauthorized parties from gaining access to that information during the process.

7. We safeguard your personal information

   Social Planning Toronto will protect your personal information by safeguards that are appropriate to the sensitivity of that information.

   Access to your personal information is restricted to Social Planning Toronto employees, agents and authorized service providers who need it to do their jobs.

   We maintain appropriate technical and organizational safeguards to protect your personal information against loss, theft, unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use or modification.

   We have developed security procedures to safeguard and protect personal information against loss, theft, unauthorized disclosure, copying and unauthorized use or modification. We will maintain appropriate safeguards and security procedures that reflect the types of documents, including electronic or paper records, organizational measures including security clearances and limiting access on a “need-to-know” basis, and technological measures such as the use of passwords and encryption.

   We collect only the domain name (e.g. Sympatico, Hotmail, etc.) not the e-mail address of visitors to our website. Donors on the site are linked to an industry standard secure payment service for credit card transactions. Our side uses “cookies” – small files containing information that track a visit to a website – in a session limited way. These temporary files follow the flow through the site in order to improve service to visitors, and cannot be used to obtain any personally identifiable details.

   Your browser can be set to notify you before receipt of a cookie, so that you can decide whether or not to accept it. (You can also set your browser to turn off cookies, but if you do so, some areas of our site may not function properly).

8. We conduct our research with strictest confidentiality

   With respect to Social Planning Toronto research studies, study participants identities are kept confidential and access to confidential information is restricted to project researchers. Only aggregate data and non-identifying information are reported, except where written consent has been provided to release this information. Survey, focus group and interview data are securely stored for a two-year period following the study and destroyed after this period.

   Social Planning Toronto will make readily available to you specific information about our policies and practices relating to the management of personal information.

9. We allow you to access your personal information

   You may ask whether we hold any personal information about you, ensure that it’s accurate and to see that information, as provided by law.

   You have the right to know:

   • How we collected your personal information
   • How we are using it.

10. You may register a complaint

    You may register a privacy-related complaint by contacting the Executive Director. We will explain our procedure and inform you about other complaint procedures available. We will investigate all complaints. If any objection is justified, we will take all appropriate steps to repair the situation, including changing our policies and practices if necessary. Personal information relating to volunteers, job applicants and employees is subject to similar protocols.

For more information

For more information, please contact us at 416-351-0095.

Updated: April 2010