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15 Maple Avenue Unit #103
Barrie ON L4N 2N6

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Fax: 416-493-4608

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Privacy Policy

PRIVACY POLICY – Forests Ontario

Last modified: May 3, 2023

INTRODUCTION

Forests Ontario (“Forests Ontario,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) respects individual confidentiality and is committed to protecting the privacy of our donors, members, customers, program participants, and volunteers. We also respect the importance of the personal information (which means and information about “you” as an identifiable individual) you provide to us and are committed to protecting it through our compliance with this policy.

This privacy policy describes:

  • The types of information we may collect or that you may provide when you access or use the Forests Ontario websites located at ForestsOntario.ca, frc-rfc.ca, GrasslandsOntario.ca, ItTakesAForest.ca, TreesTakeRoot.ca and TreeBee.ca (collectively, "Websites"), from you as a volunteer, and from you for the participation in programs run by Forests Ontario.
  • Our practices for collecting, using, and disclosing that information.

Please read this policy carefully to understand how we collect, use, and disclose your information. If you do not agree with our policies and practices, your choice is not to use our Websites.

By accessing or using our Websites, you indicate that you understand, accept, and consent to the practices described in this policy. This policy may change from time to time (see Changes to Our Privacy Policy section below). Your continued use of our Websites after we make changes indicates that you accept and consent to those changes; please check the Policy periodically for updates.

We will only collect, use, and disclose your personal information when we have your consent, which may be express or implied, and as otherwise described in accordance with this Policy and applicable law.

INFORMATION COLLECTION

We use different methods to collect your information, including through:

  • Direct interactions with you when you provide it to us, for example, by making a donation or a purchase or by corresponding with us by phone, email, or otherwise.
  • Automated technologies or interactions, as you navigate through our Websites, information collected automatically may include usage details, IP addresses, device information, and information collected through cookies, web beacons, and other tracking technologies.  Please be advised also that we use Google Analytics to track and report website traffic and that some information may be collected by Google; please consult Google's privacy policy at https://policies.google.com/privacy for details.

Information You Provide to Us

The information we collect directly from you may include:

  • Information that you provide by making a donation on our Websites. We do not collect or have access to any payment information. This is managed by Stripe, our third-party payment processor;
  • Records and copies of your correspondence (including email addresses), if you contact us;
  • Contact information, including name, telephone number, address, and email address of our members when buying or renewing their Forests Ontario Membership online on our Websites;
  • Contact information when purchasing a product, membership or service on our Websites;
  • Information related to program participation, such as land or property location and size;
  • Contact information when registering for an event, workshop, our e-newsletter or a program on any of our Websites or when registering as a volunteer presenter; and
  • Participating in on-line surveys on our Websites.

Information Collected Automatically

As you navigate through and interact with our Websites, we may use cookies or other automatic data collection technologies to collect certain information about your equipment, browsing actions, and patterns, including:

  • Details of your visits to our Websites, including traffic data, location data, and other communication data and the resources that you access and use on the Websites.
  • Information about your computer and internet connection, including your IP address, operating system, and browser type.

Our Websites do not link IP Addresses to any other personal information. In some cases, user non-personal information may be automatically collected through the standard operation of our internet servers or through the use of “cookies”. A cookie is a small piece of data that is sent to a user’s Internet browser from a web server and stored on a user’s computer’s hard drive. A cookie cannot read data from a computer hard disk or read cookie files created by other websites. Forests Ontario Websites may use cookies. Users can choose whether to accept cookies by changing the setting of their Internet browser.

We also use Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, and Google Ads on the Websites. Third party vendors may also use cookies to serve you ads based on your visit to the Websites or other websites. You may opt out of Google’s personalized advertising by visiting Ads Settings. You may opt out of other third-party vendor’s use of cookies for personalized advertising by visiting their website, and/or by visiting http://youradchoices.ca/choices/.

In addition, Forests Ontario may permit third parties to offer users subscriptions and/or registration-based services through our Websites. In such situations, Forests Ontario cannot be responsible for the actions or policies of such third parties. It is advised that users should check the applicable privacy policy of each third party when providing any personal information or even when simply visiting a website of a third party.

Information Collected from Third Parties

We may receive information about you from third parties, such as when we conduct reference or background checks on volunteers, or from parents about children they register for programs.

HOW WE USE YOUR INFORMATION

We use information that we collect about you or that you provide to us, including any personal information:

  • To present our Websites and its contents to you.
  • To fulfill the purposes for which you provided the information or that were described when it was collected, for example, renew your membership, process an order, or any other purpose for which you provide it.
  • To process planting or maintenance projects.
  • To send you marketing or promotional materials. We do this only with your consent and you may unsubscribe from receiving these messages at any time by clicking the link in the email sent to you or by contacting us (see below).
  • To carry out our obligations and enforce our rights arising from any contracts with you, including for billing and collection or to comply with legal requirements.
  • To notify you about changes to our Websites or any products or services we offer or provide though it.
  • For any other reasonable purpose to which you consent.

SHARING YOUR INFORMATION

We will not sell your information to anyone. We will only share your information as follows:

  • To contractors, service providers, third-party processors, funders and other third parties we use to deliver the services that you request and that we use to support our operations (such as analytics and search engine providers that assist us with Website improvement and optimization, or delivery partners who facilitate the execution of our planting and maintenance projects).
  • As may be required by law or as legitimately requested by law enforcement.
  • For any other reasonable purpose to which you consent.

ACCESSING, CORRECTING, AND DELETING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

You may send us an email at info@forestsontario.ca to request access to, correct, or delete any personal information that you have provided to us. We may not accommodate a request to change information if we believe the change would violate any law or legal requirement or cause the information to be incorrect. We may also need to retain certain information for billing purposes or as otherwise required by law.

We may request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and your right to access, and to provide you with the personal information that we hold about you or make your requested changes. Applicable law may allow or require us to refuse to provide you with access to some or all of the personal information that we hold about you, or we may have destroyed, erased, or made your personal information anonymous in accordance with our record retention obligations and practices. If we cannot provide you with access to your personal information, we will inform you of the reasons why, subject to any legal or regulatory restrictions.

DATA SECURITY

The security of your personal information is very important to us. We use physical, electronic, and administrative measures designed to secure your personal information from accidental loss and from unauthorized access, use, alteration, and disclosure. We and our IT suppliers follow industry recognized standards on information security management to safeguard your information. Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet and mobile platforms is not completely secure. Although we follow all legal requirements and do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of personal information transmitted to our Websites. Any transmission of personal information is at your own risk. We are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the Websites.

DATA TRANSFERS

We use service providers who may be located in Canada as well as in the United States. We bind our service providers to offer an acceptable level of data security and otherwise process your information in accordance with Canadian law and our instructions. However, while your information is located in the United States it will be subject to local law, which may be less protective of your data than Canadian laws, and under the jurisdiction of local law enforcement.

DATA RETENTION

Except as otherwise permitted or required by applicable law or regulation, we will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. Under some circumstances we may anonymize your personal information so that it can no longer be associated with you. We reserve the right to use such anonymous and de-identified data for any legitimate business purpose.

CHILDREN’S INFORMATION

We do not collect any personal information of children unless it is information necessary for the registration for our various education programs.  If we learn we have collected or received personal information regarding a child without verification of parental or guardian consent, we will delete that information. If you believe we might have any information regarding a child without parental consent, please contact us at info@forestsontario.ca.

CHANGES TO OUR PRIVACY POLICY

We may update our privacy policy from time to time. If we make material changes to how we treat our users’ personal information, a notice will be posted to the Websites advising of those changes.

CONTACT INFORMATION AND COMPLAINTS

To ask questions or comment about this privacy policy and our privacy practices, contact our Privacy Officer at:

  • Email: info@forestsontario.ca
  • Telephone: 416.646.1193 or 1.877.646.1193
  • Mailing Address: 15 Maple Avenue, Unit #103, Barrie, ON L4N 2N6

If you are not satisfied with our response to your query, you may also contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada 1.800.282.1376 (toll-free).