Your privacy is very important to us. Environmental Defence is committed to protecting the privacy of our donors, supporters and other individuals from whom we collect personal information.
Environmental Defence respects your privacy and does not trade, sell or distribute the names and contact information of our donors or supporters. The information you provide us will be used to keep you informed of our activities or to contact you if there are any discrepancies regarding your donation.
Environmental Defence follows the principles of the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act to ensure that all personal information is collected properly, is used only for the purposes for which it was collected, and is disposed of in a safe and timely manner when it is no longer required.
Environmental Defence adheres to the following principles:
- Accountability
- We let you know why we are collecting personal information, and how we plan to use it
- We seek your consent
- We limit collection, use, disclosure and retention of personal information
- We let you know why we are collecting personal information, and how we plan to use it
- We do not sell or trade your personal information
- We safeguard your personal information
- We will openly communicate our privacy policies
- You can access your personal information
- You may register an inquiry or complaint
Environmental Defence is responsible for all personal information under our control. We take every precaution to ensure confidentiality of your information. If Environmental Defence chooses to have certain services provided by external companies, we select the service providers carefully, and take all reasonable precautions to make sure personal information is protected. Service providers enter into confidentiality agreements and are not allowed to disclose private information of our donors.
Web Sites
Environmental Defence is responsible for any information collected on our web sites. Our organizational site is www.environmentaldefence.ca. In addition, we sponsor:
- Campaign Lake Simcoe
- Blue Flag
- Ontario Greenbelt Alliance
- PollutionWatch
- Toxic Nation
- Turtle Island Environmental Resources
- Green Energy Act Alliance
- Moms Against Climate Change
- Blue Green Canada
Online donations on Environmental Defence's web sites are done through a secure third-party industry standard payment service in Canada.
Email addresses for our e-newsletters are collected and securely stored through a third-party industry standard service in the United States.
Environmental Defence's web sites do not use cookies
Environmental Defence may make various public forums, including chat rooms and message boards, available to you on our web sites. You are responsible for the consequences of sharing this information. Any information you choose to share when using such a service becomes public information. It is incumbent upon you to exercise caution in deciding whether to disclose any information. Some of Environmental Defence's web sites contain links to other web sites. Environmental Defence has no control over, and is not responsible for, the content, privacy policies or reliability of such sites.
For queries about links to Environmental Defence's web sites, email info@environmentaldefence.ca. Environmental Defence reserves the right to refuse permission to link to our sites and is not responsible for the content, privacy policies or reliability of external Internet sites linked to our site. Please inform us in advance about your intended use for the link.
We let you know why we are collecting personal information, and how we plan to use it.
In general, Environmental Defence collects and uses personal information to provide information and services from us which we think may be of interest to you. You can always "opt-out," now or at any time later, to keep from getting any unwanted messages or solicitations.
Personal information may be collected, used and disclosed to:
- Process your donation and contact you for renewal gifts
- Respond to requests for information
- Understand and know who our donors are
- Share information about Environmental Defence with you
- Thank you and recognize your gift
- Inform you of opportunities to support our work
- Track your and others' use of our web sites; this lets us see which of our features are the most popular so we can better serve our supporters' needs.
Environmental Defence will obtain your consent to collect, use or disclose personal information.
Your permission may be provided verbally, in writing, or it may be implied at the time you provide your personal information to Environmental Defence.
Environmental Defence provides opportunities to 'opt-out' at any time from receiving any unwanted messages or solicitations.
We limit collection, use, disclosure and retention of personal information
Environmental Defence ensures personal information is collected by honest and lawful means. We ensure that the amount and type of personal information collected is limited to that which is necessary to fulfill the purposes indentified. We retain personal information only as long as it is necessary to satisfy the purposes for which it was obtained, or as required by law.
We will use safeguards when destroying personal information to prevent unauthorized parties from gaining access to the information. For example, we remove all hard drives from office computers before sending them for recycling or reuse; all hard drives are destroyed so the data cannot be retrieved.
We keep accurate, up-to-date records
Environmental Defence works to keep personal information as accurate and up-to-date as possible. If you believe that information we have collected about you is incorrect or incomplete, you have the right to ask us to change it.
You may change or modify information that you have already provided by contacting Environmental Defence via email at info@environmentaldefence.ca ATTN: Diane Wilputte or via postal mail at 317 Adelaide Street West, Suite 705, Toronto, Ontario M5V 1P9.
We do not sell or trade your personal information
Environmental Defence does not sell or trade personal information we collect.
We safeguard your personal information.
Environmental Defence protects your personal information by safeguards that are appropriate to the sensitivity of that information.
Environmental Defence has security procedures to safeguard and protect personal information against loss, theft, copying, unauthorized disclosure, use or modification. These measures reflect various types of documents and storage, and can include: limiting access to only those staff and third-party providers whose jobs require them to work with personal information; technical measures such as passwords and encryption.
We will openly communicate our privacy policies
Upon request, Environmental Defence will make readily available to you specific information about our policies and practices relating to the management of your personal information.
You can access your personal information
Environmental Defence ensures you can ask us about any personal information we hold about you, including seeing the information to determine it is accurate, as required by law. You also have the right to know how we are using your personal information
If, at any time, Environmental Defence is unable to provide you certain personal information that you request, we will provide you an explanation in writing.
You may register an inquiry or complaint
Environmental Defence takes every complaint very seriously and will make every effort to investigate and take appropriate actions to find a positive solution to your complaint.
You may register a privacy-related inquiry or complaint by contacting Environmental Defence's Privacy Officer, Diane Wilputte, at 416-323-9521 ext. 259 or by email at dwilputte@environmentaldefence.ca
Any of the policies or procedures described in this privacy policy may be changed at any time. Although this privacy statement is not intended as a contract or as creating any legal rights, it does serve as an expression of Environmental Defence's commitment to protecting personal information.