PRIVACY POLICY

LAST UPDATED: February 19, 2025

Digital Public Square (“DPS”, “we” or “us” or “our”) is committed to protecting the privacy of visitors to our websites located at https://fire.digitalpublicsquare.org/ (together, the “Sites”). The Sites include all downloadable applications, features, functionality, content, or information that is made available or provided on the Sites and any other media form, media channel, mobile website, or mobile application related or connected thereto. We respect the privacy of our users and to further our mission, we endeavor to provide you with all relevant information prior to collecting your personal information.

This Privacy Policy forms part of our Terms of Use and explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your personal information when you visit our Sites. The Sites are made available to you for educational and research purposes.

By voluntarily providing us with personal information through the Sites, you are consenting to its collection, use, and disclosure in accordance with this Privacy Policy. You acknowledge and agree that such personal information may be transferred from your current location to the offices and servers of DPS and authorized third parties located in Canada and the United States.

Please read this Privacy Policy carefully. If you do not agree with the terms of this Privacy Policy, please do not access the Sites. We reserve the right to make changes to this Privacy Policy at any time and for any reason. We will alert you about any changes by updating the “Last Updated” date of this Privacy Policy. Any changes or modifications will be effective immediately upon posting the updated Privacy Policy on the Sites. You are encouraged to periodically review this Privacy Policy to stay informed of updates. You will be deemed to have been made aware of, will be subject to, and will be deemed to have accepted the changes in any revised Privacy Policy by your continued use of the Sites after the date such revised Privacy Policy is posted.

Your participation on this platform is voluntary - you can exit the Sites at any time.

OUR PRIVACY COMPLIANCE FRAMEWORK AND ACCOUNTABILITY

Our Privacy Officer is responsible for overseeing our compliance with this Privacy Policy and our practices relating to personal information. The Privacy Officer may delegate certain functions to other members of our team. You may contact our Privacy Officer at the email address located at the bottom of this Privacy Policy.

DPS maintains a framework for the protection of personal information that we collect. The framework includes policies and procedures designed to help us comply with this Privacy Policy. This framework requires all employees to protect the confidentiality of personal information that we handle through the lifecycle of that personal information. The privacy framework includes breach reporting obligations, data retention and destruction policies, employee training, and procedures for addressing complaints and providing individuals with access to their personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

COLLECTION OF YOUR INFORMATION

Personal information is information that identifies you as an individual. The information we may collect or obtain includes:

  • Correspondence: Information you provide to us by contacting us via email, phone number, messaging service, or social media. This includes contact information and any other information provided through correspondence, and may, in some cases, include audio recording of telephone conversations. We do not collect your name, address, or such personal information through the Sites.
  • General usage data: The information our servers automatically collect when you access the Sites include your browser type, operating system, access times, and the pages you have viewed on our Sites. We do not log your Internet Protocol (“IP”) address on our servers. IP addresses may be stored by our security provider for purposes of security protection. If you are using our Sites, this information may also include your device type, your device system language, and city location, your operating system, your country, and other interactions with the Sites.
  • Any other personal information you choose to disclose to us.

We may use cookies or other similar technologies from time to time, such as web beacons (sometimes called “pixels” or “clear gifs”). Pixels are tiny graphics files that contain a unique identifier that enable us to recognise when someone has visited the Sites or opened an e-mail that we have sent them. This allows us, for example, to monitor the traffic patterns of users from one page within the Sites to another, to improve site performance, and to measure the performance of our engagement.

USE AND DISCLOSURE OF YOUR INFORMATION

We collect your personal information for various purposes including:

  • to provide you with services and/or products;
  • to communicate with you;
  • to carry out our activities;
  • to develop or improve future services and/or products;
  • to prevent fraud or misuse;
  • to engage in dispute resolution;
  • to provide service/product support;
  • for any purpose for which we obtain your consent; and
  • for any purpose permitted or required by law.

We may also aggregate your information so that it does not identify any individual and use or disclose such aggregate information for any lawful purpose without restriction.

We compile aggregate de-identified statistical data and analysis for use internally, to share publicly, and to report project progress with our funders (such as the Department of Canadian Heritage). We may also use your personal information in other ways with consent or as permitted by applicable law. By using the Sites, you agree that we are authorized to collect, use, share, and store anonymized (or pseudonymized) aggregated data collected through the Sites for benchmarking, analytics, metrics, research, reporting, machine learning, and other business purposes.

We reserve the right to disclose personal information if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such action is reasonably necessary to comply with legal process, respond to claims, or to protect the rights, property or safety of DPS, its affiliates, its customers, service providers, or the public.

We may share personal information with our affiliates or any business partners or agents acting on our behalf or with our financial, insurance, legal, accounting or other advisors that provide professional services to us.

Your personal information may be shared with third parties engaged to perform functions on our behalf such as data processing or document retention. Any such sharing of your personal information is made on a strictly confidential basis, and the information is to be used only for the purpose for which it was shared. We ensure that the company or individual adheres to this Privacy Policy.

RETENTION OF YOUR INFORMATION

We keep your personal information for as long as is necessary for the purpose for which it has been collected or as permitted or required by law

ACCURACY OF YOUR INFORMATION

It is important to ensure that the personal information we hold about you is accurate and up-to-date, and you should let us know if anything changes, for example if you move position or work for a different organisation or change your phone number or email address. you can contact us by using the details set out below.

SECURITY OF YOUR INFORMATION

We use administrative, technical, and physical security measures designed to help protect your personal information. While we have taken reasonable steps to secure the personal information you provide to us, please be aware that despite our efforts, no security measures are perfect or impenetrable, and no method of data transmission can be guaranteed against any interception or other type of misuse. Any information disclosed online is vulnerable to interception and misuse by unauthorized parties. Therefore, we cannot guarantee complete security if you provide personal information.

CONTROLS FOR DO-NOT-TRACK FEATURES

Most web browsers and some mobile operating systems include a Do-Not-Track (“DNT”) feature or setting you can activate to signal your privacy preference not to have data about your online browsing activities monitored and collected. In our experience, many people are not familiar with DNT and have not set their browser settings accordingly. As a more universal privacy approach on our Sites, we do not respond to DNT browser signals or any other mechanism that automatically communicates your choice not to be tracked online; instead, we protect your privacy by deidentifying all data collected on this Sites.

PERSONAL INFORMATION USED BY THIRD PARTY WEBSITES

Our Sites may include links to third party websites which are not controlled or maintained by us. We are not responsible for personal information submitted by you to third party websites or the personal information collected by third party websites. You should review the privacy policies of third party websites or contact the third party website’s operator if you have questions or concerns.

AGE RESTRICTION

The Sites are not intended for use by minors under 18 or 19 depending on your province/territory of residence. We do not knowingly collect personal information from minors. You are not authorized to use the Sites if you are under the age of majority in your province/territory of residence.

YOUR ACCESS TO AND CONTROL OVER INFORMATION

You may submit a request to access, correct, or delete your personal information, or opt out of any future contact from us at any time by emailing us at: privacy@digitalpublicsquare.org. Note that if we delete your personal information held by us, we may no longer be able to provide you with services and/or products.

If you have any requests, questions or comments about your personal information or this Privacy Policy, you may contact the Privacy Officer by email: privacy@digitalpublicsquare.org