This Privacy Statement describes how ABC CANADA Literacy Foundation collects, uses and discloses personal information of visitors to our Web site and of individuals whom we interact with offline, including our national board members, literacy researchers, practitioners, and learners, business, labour, education, and government representatives, volunteers, sponsors, and donors. This Privacy Statement, which applies to Canada, informs you how we collect, use and disclose personal information whether online or offline. ABC CANADA will take reasonable steps to protect your privacy in accordance with this Privacy Statement and applicable law.

The Personal Information We Collect

In general, you can visit our Web site without telling us who you are or revealing any personal information about yourself.

ABC CANADA collects personal information when it is voluntarily submitted by you, for example when you: correspond with us; participate as a subject of our literacy research; participate in our literacy awareness programs and services; support or sponsor our events, activities and programs; participate in the PGI Golf Tournaments for Literacy, respond to a subscription offer, request to receive our newsletters or be on a mailing list.

The type of information we request either online or offline may include your:

• name, address, telephone number, and e-mail address (“contact information”);
• name, title, company or organization name, business address, business telephone, fax number, and e-mail address (“business contact information”);

For ABC CANADA board members, we collect limited personal information, such as your business contact information and your particular function on the board.

If you participate as a subject in our literacy research, we may collect additional information from you to help us learn more about literacy issues, including your:

• attitudes about literacy;
• awareness of literacy issues;
• literacy skill;
• history of participation in literacy programs;
• enrolment status in literacy programs;
• reasons for non-participation, enrolling, or withdrawing from literacy programs; and
• demographic information, including your age, sex, primary and spoken languages, place of residence, employment status, educational information, and financial status.

ABC CANADA may collect personal information about individuals who are under the age of majority, which is 18 or 19 depending on your province or territory, or who are otherwise not able to give valid consent. At or before the time ABC CANADA collects personal information about an individual that ABC CANADA knows is not able to give consent, ABC CANADA will seek the consent of someone who is able to give consent on your behalf, such as your parent or legal guardian.

Purposes for contact information

• establish your identity;
• communicate with you;
• administer and manage our literacy awareness programs and services;
• administer and manage the PGI Golf Tournaments for Literacy
• maintain our database of subscribers to our newsletters;
• respond to your inquiries.

Additional purposes for business contact information

• request financial support of your business or organization;
• administer your sponsorship of our programs and services;
• encourage the development of workplace literacy programs;
• provide information about literacy, our programs and services, volunteer opportunities, promotions or events offered by ABC CANADA or our sponsors.

Purposes for financial information

• process your donations;
• process your orders for our publications.

For sponsors, we recognize your support by your organization’s name on our Web site and promotional materials. If you prefer, you may opt out of such uses and/or disclosures by (a) sending an e-mail to info@abc-canada.org (b) writing to: Privacy Officer, ABC CANADA Literacy Foundation, 4211 Yonge Street, Suite 235, Toronto, Ontario M2P 2A9, or (c) calling 1-800-303-1004.

ABC CANADA maintains a database and listing on our Web site that includes the contact information of individuals and organizations that offer plain language services (“plain language consultants”). If you are a plain language consultant and wish to be added to, or removed from, our database and Web site, please either (a) send an e-mail to: info@abc-canada.org (b) write to: Privacy Officer, ABC CANADA Literacy Foundation, 4211 Yonge Street, Suite 235, Toronto, Ontario M2P 2A9, or (c) call 1-800-303-1004.

We may also share your personal information with third party data processors, vendors, suppliers and providers responsible for administering marketing, fundraising, and promotional activities or for providing programs and services, on our behalf. We contractually require the organizations with whom we share your personal information for these purposes to have policies regarding personal information consistent with our Privacy Statement or to abide by our policies as relevant to the personal information shared with them.

Consent

By providing us with your personal information, you, or if you are a minor or are otherwise not capable of giving consent, your authorized representatives, parent or legal guardian, consent to our collection, use and disclosure of that information as described in this Privacy Statement as amended from time to time or as described at or before the time of collection, use or disclosure, as the case may be. If you do not want your personal information to be collected, used or disclosed in this manner, then please either (1) do not submit your personal information to us, or (2) exercise opt-out procedures described above or as may be offered at the time of collection. If you have submitted personal information to us and wish to withdraw your consent to its retention, use or disclosure, please send an e-mail to info@abc-canada.org. You may withdraw your consent, subject to legal or contractual restrictions and reasonable notice. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide some programs or services to you.

Where permitted or required by law, ABC CANADA may collect, use or disclose your personal information without your consent, for example to maintain contribution records to meet requirements of the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency.

Protection of Personal Information

ABC CANADA takes precautions with personal information submitted by you, including physical, organizational, and technological measures. However, given that electronically transmitted data is not 100% secure, we make no warranties as to the security of any information that you submit electronically, which you do at your own risk.

Other Web sites

This Web site contains links to other Web sites owned and operated by third parties. The third parties who operate these sites may treat the collection, use and disclosure of personal information differently than we do. This could be the case even for those Web sites which carry ABC CANADA’s trade-marks or logos or which are framed by this Web site. We therefore encourage you to review the privacy policies of these Web sites before disclosing your information to any third party. ABC CANADA is not responsible for the data collection, use and disclosure practices of companies or organizations to which our Web site may provide links.

How to Access or Correct Your Personal Information

ABC CANADA will establish and maintain a file of the personal information that you provide to us. Your file will be kept by ABC CANADA and will be accessible at ABC CANADA Literacy Foundation, 4211 Yonge Street, Suite 235, Toronto, Ontario M2P 2A9. Only ABC CANADA employees, agents and mandataries who need to access your file in the course of their duties will have access to your file.

If you wish to request to access or to correct your personal information, please write to the President at ABC CANADA Literacy Foundation, 4211 Yonge Street, Suite 235, Toronto, Ontario M2P 2A9. Some information may not be accessed in certain circumstances, for example if it contains personal information of other persons or for legal reasons. To protect your privacy, we will take reasonable steps to verify your identity before granting you access to, or making corrections to, your personal information.

Changes to this Privacy Statement

This Privacy Statement was last updated on November 26, 2003 and ABC CANADA may change this Privacy Statement from time to time. If ABC CANADA makes a material change, this Privacy Statement will be updated accordingly and we will make reasonable efforts to notify affected individuals. We recommend that you review this Privacy Statement periodically so that you are aware of any changes.

Contact for Further Information

If you have any inquiries, requests or complaints regarding this Privacy Statement, please send an e-mail to the President at info@abc-canada.org.