Effective Date: September 14

Parkinson Canada’s mission is to transform the lives of People Living with Parkinson’s. We do this through funding research, advocacy and support for People Living with Parkinson’s.

Your privacy is important to Parkinson Canada (hereafter, “Parkinson Canada”, “we”, “us” or “our”). This Privacy Policy applies to our activities and describes our practices with respect to the collection, use and disclosure of personal information, as well as any rights you may have with respect to your personal information (as defined in the Definition of “Personal Information” section).

1. Scope and Application

This Privacy Policy applies to all personal information collected, used and disclosed by Parkinson Canada with respect to all individuals who participate in our activities or services, are stakeholders in our mission, or otherwise communicate with us, including donors, fundraisers, event participants, visitors to our websites, individuals who use the services of Parkinson Canada, volunteers, independent contractors who staff our events and projects, and applicants for employment, volunteer work or funding. The information we collect enables Parkinson Canada to deliver programs and services, pursue public affairs and advocacy initiatives, fundraise, conduct marketing efforts and undertake statistical reporting.

This Privacy Policy applies whenever you interact with us, including without limitation when you visit our website located at parkinson.ca, use programs or services accessible through our website at parkinson.ca or related websites, or visit our social media pages or accounts (the websites and social media pages and accounts, collectively, the “Website”), apply for funding, work or volunteer positions, make donations, respond to our surveys or solicitations, or otherwise communicate with us or participate in our programs, services, or initiatives, whether through the Website, by telephone or by email, or by other means.

2. Definition of “Personal Information”

“Personal information” is any information that identifies, or could be reasonably associated with, an individual and their household (collectively, “individual” or “you”). This may include, for example, your name, contact information, email-address, and information relating to your application for employment or to volunteer at an event, your application for research funding, or your donation. It may also include other types of more technical information, but only when this information can identify you as an individual.

Information that is aggregated and/or de-identified and cannot be associated with an identifiable individual is not considered to be personal information.

3. What Personal Information do we Collect?

We limit the collection of personal information to what is reasonably required to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected.

Personal information we collect may include:

  • Contact information, such as your name, email and postal addresses, or telephone number;
  • Demographic information and interests, such as your age or date of birth, gender, occupation, schooling, languages, and types of activities you participate in;
  • Health Information, such as your Parkinson’s diagnosis and/or other connections you may have to Parkinson’s;
  • Information concerning services, such as services requested and/or received;
  • Participation in Parkinson Canada activities, such as campaigns, events and other programs;
  • Donation details, such as date of the gift, amount, and campaign to which one contributed;
  • Transactional and other financial information, such as payment methods and preferences, billing and banking information (e.g., credit card number and expiry date or chequing account transit numbers which are required to process a donation);
  • Browsing activity on our Websites, such as time and date of visit, browser and operating system used, pages viewed, clickstream data, account login events, opt-out preferences, and IP address if it can identify you as an individual;
  • Geolocation information that may be collected when you use our Website, although this information may not identify you as an individual;
  • Employment or volunteer application information, which may include some of the information described above, as well as letters of motivation and any additional information provided by you in the application form;
  • Information pertaining to your grant applications and funded research, such as letters of intent, research proposals, curriculum vitae, letters of reference, descriptions of research and financial reporting;
  • Other information you provide to us as further detailed in the How we Collect Personal Information section.

4. How we Collect Personal Information

We collect personal information in a variety of ways, including: directly from you, from other sources, through online technologies (such as when you are interacting with us through our Website) and from third-party social networks.

We collect personal information in the following ways:

You may provide personal information to us by mail, by email, over the telephone, through our Website or in any other direct manner, for instance when you request a service, apply for research funding, participate in a survey, communicate with us, submit an employment or volunteer application or upload content to our Website or social network pages (including photos or videos).
We may receive personal information from third parties, including but not limited to organizations that partner with Parkinson Canada in respect of research program initiatives, fundraising or other projects. We may also obtain fundraising lists from third parties. In these cases, we receive your personal information from third party organizations only if we have obtained your consent to do so, if you provided your consent to the third party, or if the law requires or permits us to do so.
We may collect certain types of information electronically when you interact with our Websites, email or social media accounts, or through the use of our or a third party’s technologies, which may include cookies, web beacons, pixels or analytics engines. This information supports the functioning of our Website, and helps us understand what actions you take on our Website and whether our website is working properly.

We may also analyze or combine this information with other information, such as your donation or funding application history. We do this to support our understanding of donors, funding recipients, visitors to our Website and other individuals who interact or communicate with us. To learn more about the privacy choices available to you, please see Your Privacy Choices.

The technologies we use include:

  • Cookies, which are small text files that are saved on your computer when you visit a website so that information can be saved between visits, such as your login credentials or language preferences. For example, cookies allow you to log in quickly when you visit our Website.
  • Web beacons and pixels, techniques used to track who is visiting a web page or has opened an e-mail. This allows us to understand your online behaviour, monitor our email delivery, and provide you with interest-based advertising. These tools also allow our third-party tracking tools to gather information, such as your IP address, and provide this back to us in an anonymized, aggregate form (i.e. in a manner that prevents us from identifying you personally).
  • Other technologies, such as analytics engines. We use Google Analytics, which uses cookies to analyze your use of our Website, combining that data with other data collected from multiple sources to use for personalization or customization of content and to gain insights into our visitors’ needs and preferences. We use Google Analytics to create reports about visitor activities associated with the use of the Website and the Internet.

You may delete or disable certain of these technologies at any time via your browser. However, if you do so, you may not be able to use some of the features on our Website.

Please note that, as you interact with Parkinson Canada’s Website, third party advertising partners may use cookies that we place on your computer, tracking pixels, web beacons and similar technologies to identify you as a visitor to our websites, and present you with targeted ads to help us promote Parkinson Canada.

To learn more about the privacy choices available to you, please see Your Privacy Choices.

We obtain and use analytical and statistical information from third-party social networks to help us measure performance and effectiveness of content we display on social networks, for example, by measuring impressions and clicks on the content Parkinson Canada promotes, and how users interact with our social media accounts. Social media accounts are not hosted on Parkinson Canada’s servers and we do not control how third party social network organizations collect, use and disclose your personal information. How such information is used by a third party is dependent on the privacy policy of the social network. Parkinson Canada encourages users who choose to interact with Parkinson Canada via social media to read the terms of service and privacy policies of these third parties and those of any applications used to access them.

5. How we Use Personal Information

We may use all categories of personal information detailed in section 3 to provide you with services, to manage our operations, to communicate offers and information we think might interest you, to generally enhance your experience with us, and as otherwise permitted or required by law.

Learn more about how we use your personal information for: providing services, managing our operations, marketing, and conducting research and data analytics.

We use your personal information for the following purposes:

We use your personal information in order to provide programs and services, for instance:

  • Fundraising, including donor engagement and tailoring your experience as a Parkinson Canada donor;
  • Processing your transactions and providing charitable tax receipts;
  • Verifying your identity;
  • Enabling your participation in programs;
  • Responding to your inquiries;
  • Creating, administering, and maintaining your records or your account with us in relation to services we provide.
We use your personal information to manage our operations, for instance:

  • Notifying you of changes to your account or our Website services, terms, conditions or policies and to provide you administrative messages, updates, legal notices, technical notices or security alerts;
  • Deploying and managing our information technology applications and systems, including managing our Website, which may include using cookies and other similar technology (as further detailed in the How we Collect Personal Information section);
  • Managing and deploying our web and social media campaigns;
  • Maintaining the security of the public, our users and our employees;
  • Protecting ourselves and third parties from errors and fraud;
  • Maintaining our services;
  • Processing your application for research funding, for services, or for employment or volunteer work; and
  • Meeting our contractual, legal and regulatory obligations.
We use your personal information to inform you about news, programs, services, events, engagement opportunities, competitions or surveys, both on our own behalf and those of third parties, that we believe may be of interest to you. We may do this by communicating with you in a variety of ways, such as by email, telephone, or direct mail.

If you no longer wish to receive commercial electronic messages, please let us know by following the unsubscribe directions provided in every commercial electronic message. For more information on managing your marketing preferences, please see Your Privacy Choices.

We may use your personal information in order to conduct research and data analytics by tracking and analyzing current or previously collected information for the following purposes:

  • Managing and improving our operations and developing new services;
  • Understanding our donors’ interests and priorities and tailoring our fundraising activities;
  • Monitoring the progress and expenses of funded research;
  • Measuring the effectiveness of our programs, fundraising activities, and marketing; and
  • Understanding how visitors interact with our Website and ensuring it works correctly.

When possible, we will use your information in an aggregated and/or de-identified format.

6. How we Share Personal Information

We may share your personal information with third party organizations that partner with Parkinson Canada in order to provide a grant program or launch a fundraising initiative, and service providers (companies operating on our behalf) for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy and in accordance with applicable law.

With your consent, we may sell your personal information (including name and contact information) as part of a fundraising list to a third-party organization.

We will not share your personal information with any non-affiliated third party without your prior consent, other than as provided in this Privacy Policy or as otherwise authorized by applicable law.

Learn more about how we may share personal information: with third parties, with service providers, in the course of a transfer of operations, for other permitted reasons, and with your consent.

We may share your personal information with third party organizations that partner with Parkinson Canada, for example, for fundraising purposes or research grant programs jointly administered by Parkinson Canada and other contributing organizations. Although we only share the personal information needed by such organizations to manage the operations of such programs or initiatives and communicate with you regarding such programs or initiatives, once Parkinson Canada shares such information with such organizations, it is no longer in the custody or under the control of Parkinson Canada. Those organizations may use that information to contact you or for other purposes in accordance with their own privacy policies. Parkinson Canada encourages you to review the privacy policy of the relevant organization before registering for or participating in a program in which it is involved.
In the course of providing our services we may share all categories of personal information detailed in the section What Personal Information do we Collect? with third party service providers who perform services on our behalf. These service providers help us operate and manage our technology systems and applications, internal procedures, infrastructure and marketing. They provide services to us, such as sending emails and postal mail, data hosting, providing marketing or fundraising campaign services, and analytics services (e.g. tracking effectiveness of our campaigns and analyzing usage of our Website). We require these service providers to limit their access to and/or use of personal information to what is required to provide their services and adhere to confidentiality as well as security procedures and protections.

Some information you share on our Website, namely event transactions and registrations, is processed through Blackbaud Luminate Online. As with many of our other service providers, Blackbaud maintains its own information processing platform where it processes information on our behalf. You can learn more about Blackbaud’s security and information handling practices here (including PCI compliant payment processing) and here.

We may decide to transfer all or part of our operations, assets or activities to a third party, to merge with another entity, or to engage in another form of corporate transaction. If your personal information is required in connection with any such transactions, we will comply with the legal requirements for the disclosure of personal information and ensure that the handling of your personal information complies with applicable privacy legislation in Canada.
Applicable laws may permit or require the use, sharing, or disclosure of personal information without consent in specific circumstances (e.g., when investigating and preventing suspected or actual illegal activities, including fraud, or to assist government and law enforcement agencies). These circumstances include situations when permitted or required by law or when necessary to protect Parkinson Canada, our employees, donors, grant recipients, or others. If this happens, we will not share more personal information than is reasonably required to fulfill that particular purpose.
Other than the purposes listed above, we may, with your implied or express consent, share or disclose your personal information outside of Parkinson Canada, in accordance with applicable laws.

7. Third Parties

Third parties that you connect with directly through hyperlinks or other information provided on our website may link and combine information about you to other personal information they may have collected on you, to achieve their own goals and purposes. We do not collect, use or disclose such information, which is subject to the privacy policies of the third party organization. Parkinson Canada encourages you to review the privacy policies of such organizations as well.

8. How we Manage Consent

By accessing the Website, requesting services, applying for funding or donating funds through Parkinson Canada, responding to surveys or emails or otherwise submitting information to us in connection with our programs, services or initiatives, you are providing your consent to the collection, use and disclosure of personal information as set out in this Privacy Policy. In some cases, your consent may be “implied” i.e. your permission is assumed based on your action or inaction at the point of collection, use or sharing of your personal information.

We will generally obtain consent when we want to use personal information for a new purpose or for a purpose other than those stated at the time of collection in this Privacy Policy or in the terms and conditions of a specific program, fundraising request or campaign, service or survey that you applied to, signed up for, or participated in. Your consent can be withdrawn at any time, except in limited circumstances, including legal or regulatory requirements or as a result of your contractual obligations with us. For information on how to manage your privacy preferences, please see Your Privacy Choices.

If you choose not to provide us with certain personal information or if you withdraw your consent, where such withdrawal is available, we may not be able to offer you the programs, opportunities to donate, services or information that you requested or that could be offered to you.

9. Your Privacy Choices

We want you to clearly understand your choices and make informed decisions about your privacy options. There are several options available for you to manage your privacy preferences, including by contacting us directly, changing your browser settings and using third party functionality.

You may opt in to receiving email or other electronic communications in a number of ways, including when you make a donation, download or access certain resources we provide online, subscribe to our newsletters, select the option provided on the contact form on our Website, or at any other time by contacting us at the coordinates provided in the “Who Can You Contact With Privacy Questions?” section.

Please note that, as a registered charity, we may be exempt from applicable laws governing the transmission of electronic messaging for certain message content or certain circumstances, and otherwise may also have your implied consent to send you such electronic communications under applicable laws.

You may opt out of receiving email communications by using the unsubscribe method provided within emails you receive, or by contacting us by email or telephone at the coordinates provided in the “Who Can You Contact With Privacy Questions?” section.

Please note the following regarding withdrawal of consent or changes in your privacy preferences:

  • Even if you have opted out of receiving marketing communications from us, we may still contact you for transactional purposes, in compliance with applicable laws (e.g., for customer service, information regarding the status of your grant application or other program information, or service or reminder notices). We may also need to contact you with questions or information regarding your service inquiries; and
  • It may take some time for all of our records to reflect changes in your preferences (e.g., if you request that you not receive campaign or marketing communications from Parkinson Canada, your preference may not be captured for a campaign already in progress).
We use technologies to manage your interactions with our Website and to enhance your experience. For example, technologies such as cookies allow us to recognize when you use or return to our Website, providing you with a more frictionless experience. You may delete or disable certain of these technologies, including cookies and JavaScript at any time via your browser. With respect to Google Analytics, you can also use the Google Analytics Opt-Out Browser Add-On.

However, if you do so, you may not be able to use some of the features of our Website.

Please refer to your browser instructions or help screen to learn more about how to block, delete and manage cookies and other technologies on your computer or mobile device.

You can manage your privacy preferences with respect to certain third party web companies or social media platforms, such as Google or Facebook, by using the functionality within their platforms. Please note that disabling, blocking or deleting some of these technologies, such as cookies, may cause you to lose the functionality of certain features on our Website.

You can also opt-out of the use of your information for targeted advertising (by participating advertisers) by visiting this site.

10. How we Safeguard Personal Information

We employ organizational, physical and technological measures to protect the confidentiality of personal information and to safeguard personal information against loss or theft, as well as unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use or modification, in light of, among other things, the sensitivity of the information and the purposes for which it is to be used.

We will store your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected, except where otherwise required or permitted by law. Once no longer required, your personal information will be securely destroyed or anonymized (so that the information no longer identifies you).

We will take all reasonable steps required by law to notify you in the event of unauthorized access of your personal information.

11. Where we Keep Personal Information and Cross-border Transfers

We may store personal information within Canada or the United States. Some of our service providers may also access, process or store your personal information outside of the country where you reside. We use reasonable safeguards to ensure that our service providers protect your personal information wherever it is used or stored.

As a result, when your personal information is used or stored in a jurisdiction other than where you are residing, it may be subject to the law of that foreign jurisdiction, including any law permitting or requiring disclosure of the information to the government, government agencies, courts and law enforcement in that jurisdiction.

12. Accessing and Correcting Your Personal Information

You may have the right to access and rectify the personal information we hold about you under the law applicable in the jurisdiction where you reside. In this case, upon request, we will provide you with access to your personal information within a reasonable timeframe, in compliance with applicable laws. It is your responsibility to provide accurate, correct and complete information.

You can request access or rectification by contacting the Privacy Office as described in the Who Can You Contact With Privacy Questions? section.

13. Children

We do not knowingly request or collect personal information from children under 13 years of age without prior verifiable consent of his or her parent or legal guardian and complying with any other legal requirements. If we become aware that we have unknowingly collected personal information about a child without verifiable parental or legal guardian consent, we will delete this information from our records or take reasonable available steps to de-identify the information.

14. Changes To Our Privacy Policy

We may make changes to this Privacy Policy from time to time. Any changes we make will become effective when we post a modified version of the policy on our Website. If the changes we make are significant, we will provide a more prominent notice when required by applicable laws.

By continuing to use our services after the modified version of the Privacy Policy has been posted or you have been informed of such update, you are accepting the changes to the Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to the changes in our Privacy Policy, it is your responsibility to stop using our services. It is your obligation to ensure that you read, understand and agree to the latest version of the Privacy Policy. The “Effective Date” at the top of the Privacy Policy indicates when it was last updated.

15. Whom Do I Contact With Privacy Questions?

If you have any questions about how we handle your personal information, please contact us as indicated below. Our Privacy Officer is also our designated contact for your inquiries or complaints under PIPEDA (The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, SC 2000, c 5). If you are participating in a program, event, fundraising initiative, competition or survey that is offered by us jointly with a third party, the third party may hold your personal information. If you have any questions or concerns, we will direct you to the appropriate party so that you may make enquiries as to that party’s privacy policies and practices.

Privacy Officer
privacy@parkinson.ca
1-800-565-3000