PRIVACY POLICY
Environmental Defence is a leading Canadian advocacy organization that works with government, industry and individuals to defend clean water, a safe climate and healthy communities.
To carry out our mission, it’s important to communicate with you. And we’re committed to respecting our relationship with you, whether close or distant.
This privacy policy reflects our best efforts to maintain this respect, while ensuring we can communicate broadly, personally and accurately in the most cost-effective way possible. It explains how we collect, use and safeguard your personal information.
Information we collect and how we use it
Personal information
“Personal information” is any information that can be used to identify (or infer the identity of) a specific person, including, for example, your name, address, birth date, gender, etc. In some cases, your computer’s IP address can be considered personal information, as it may give some indication of your geographic location.
We may ask you for personal information in a variety of ways, including website forms, surveys, mail-in forms, over the phone and in person.
There are a range of reasons why we may ask you for this information, including: to process a donation or registration; to fulfil your subscription to an e-newsletter; to allow you to send letters via our online action platforms; to invite you to events; or to provide other information about us which might interest you. We may also contact you by mail, email or phone about opportunities to donate in support of our work.
Your choice to provide us with your personal information is at your discretion. You may always elect to withhold information. In some cases, we will require your personal information in order to fulfil something you’ve asked of us. For example, when you make a donation, we’re required by law to take your full name and mailing address in order to send you a tax-deductible receipt.
Cookies and data technology
We use cookies and other technology on our websites to make them easier to use and so that we can learn about how you use them. Information collected this way may include (but is not limited to) your IP address and internet service provider, the type of web browser and operating system you used and which of our website pages you visited. We use links in our emails to track open and click-through rates to help us learn what emails appeal to you most.
In some cases, interacting with our websites, social media accounts or emails provides us with “anonymous” data, such as IP address, link clicks, page visits, the time spent on a page, etc. We use Google Analytics on our website to learn where you are, when you’re using our site and what content you find most interesting.
We may also use third-party cookies, beacons and other storage technologies to understand what website content is most important to you so that we can measure our performance and target advertisements to you on those third-party party platforms. For example, we use Facebook’s tracking pixel to learn about what content you are interested in on our website so that we can serve only our most relevant advertising to you on Facebook. You can opt out from such Facebook advertising by clicking “Why am I seeing this?” on our Facebook ads, clicking “Options” and then selecting “Hide all ads from this advertiser.”
Aggregate data
In some cases, we may aggregate your information with other peoples’ in order to report on campaigns. For example, we may count the number of people who donate or sign a petition based on their postal code. That way, we can show where people in Canada are taking action.
Use of third parties
In many cases, we don’t actually collect and store personal information in our systems, but instead use a third party. For example, we may use Survey Monkey to send out a survey or Engaging Networks to provide an online registration form.
Such services have resources dedicated to maintaining security and confidentiality, and we ensure that any third-party partner has written policies about never sharing your information with anyone other than Environmental Defence Canada Inc.
Donation and credit card information
In order to donate to us, you may need to provide your credit card information.
If you choose a direct payment gateway to complete your purchase, then Environmental Defence stores your credit card data temporarily. It is encrypted through the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS). Your purchase transaction data is stored only as long as is necessary to complete your purchase transaction. After that is complete, your purchase transaction information is deleted.
All direct payment gateways adhere to the standards set by PCI-DSS as managed by the PCI Security Standards Council, which is a joint effort of brands like Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover. PCI-DSS requirements help ensure the secure handling of credit card information by our store and its service providers.
A word on fundraising
As a registered Canadian charity, we cannot do our work without the financial support of our many generous donors.
We may use information you provide (such as your postal code) to find more complete contact information from other sources (such as Canada Post) so we can reach out to you, and we may use third-party providers to help. You may opt out of these communications at any time by contacting donations@environmentaldefence.ca
Links to other websites
Our websites contain links to websites owned and operated by other organizations. They may have their own privacy policies and terms and conditions and are not governed by this policy. We encourage you to carefully review the privacy policy and terms of use of each website you visit.
What you need to know about consent
By providing personal information to us, you allow “deemed” consent to the collection, use and disclosure of your information in accordance with this policy.
When you provide contact information to us for one purpose, we may contact you using that information for other areas of our work. For example, if you sign up for Defender News, we may email you about opportunities to support our work with a donation.
We respect your right to control your personal information — please contact us immediately if you want us to stop using it in any particular way. We will fulfil your request in the timeliest way possible.
Please note: In order to adhere to Canada Customs and Revenue Agency rules, we are required to maintain donation records and are not allowed to remove this information from our internal records, even at your request.
Please also note: We may be unable to provide you with certain information or services if you do not give us specific personal information. For example, we cannot issue you a charitable tax receipt if you don’t provide your address, or send you an e-newsletter if you don’t share your email address.
Updating your consent
If you would like to stop receiving email from us at any time, click the unsubscribe link at the bottom of any of our emails or you can email engagement@environmentaldefence.ca.
If you are aware of any inaccuracies in the personal information we hold about you, please contact engagement@environmentaldefence.ca.
Ways to prevent us from collecting “anonymous” data
Our websites use cookies and JavaScript-based tracking scripts to collect the anonymous data referred to above. To stop this from happening, adjust your web browser’s “cookie,” “cache” and JavaScript settings. Please note that doing so may affect the performance of our web properties, and in some cases may completely prevent you from using some of our pages and forms.
Information we share
Email addresses
We do not sell or exchange email addresses with other organizations.
In some instances, we may promote actions or petitions on our websites in partnership with other non-profit organizations. In these cases, we give you the clear option of whether you want us to share your email with them.
Compliance With Laws
As set out above, and for clarity, we will disclose your Personal Information where required to do so by law or subpoena or if we believe that such action is necessary to comply with the law and the reasonable requests of law enforcement or to protect the security or integrity of our Service.
Security
The security of your Personal Information is important to us, but remember that no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage is 100 per cent secure. While we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your Personal Information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.
Children’s Privacy
Our Service does not address anyone under the age of 18 (“Minor”).
We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from Minors. If you are a parent or guardian and you are aware that your Minor has provided us with Personal Information, please contact us. If we become aware that we have collected Personal Information from Minors without verification of parental consent, we take steps to remove that information from our servers.
Policy updates and changes
We may change this policy from time to time without notice. Changes will be reflected on this page.
Need more information?
For further information, please contact our engagement team by email at engagement@environmentaldefence.ca or by mail to:
33 Cecil St
1st Floor
Toronto, ON
M5T 1N1
This document is available to the public and explains how we collect, use and disclose information, in accordance with this policy, the Personal Information and Electronic Documents Act, the Personal Information Protection Act and other relevant legislation.