Privacy Policy
Effective Date: May 30, 2024
The Bruce Trail Conservancy (“BTC”) and its affiliates (collectively, “us”, “we”, or “our”) are committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use and disclose your personal information. It applies to all personal information collected by us:
(i) on https://brucetrail.org/ and any other website that links to this Privacy Policy (collectively, the “BTC Sites”);
(ii) when you engage with us via social media;
(iii) when you become a member of the BTC;
(iv) when you make a donation;
(v) when you submit a volunteer application;
(vi) when you register and attend a BTC webinar;
(vii) when you subscribe to our newsletters;
(viii) when you purchase our products or services through the BTC Sites; or
(ix) when we otherwise interact with you (by email, telephone or otherwise)
(collectively, the “Services”).
By using the Services, you agree to the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
What personal information do we collect?
When you use our Services, we may collect or receive personal information about you to provide our Services and operate our business. We collect the following personal information:
(a) Information You Provide to Us Directly
You may provide your personal information to us when you use our Services, including when you use the BTC Sites, contact us with inquiries, make a donation, sign up to be a volunteer, sign up to be a member of the BTC, purchase products from the BTC Sites, subscribe to our newsletters, sign up for one of our events, or otherwise access our Services. This information may include:
● Your name and contact information including address, email address and telephone number;
● Your username and password for logging onto the BTC Sites;
● Name of tributee when you are making a donation;
● Skills and interests, and availability when you are completing a volunteer application with BTC;
● Credit card information for donations and purchases; and
● Photographs or video recordings at one of our events.
We may collect other information that you choose to provide to us, or that we collect with your consent.
(b) Information Received From You as Part of Your Communications
When you use our Services, complete electronic forms, communicate with us or contact us by email or phone, we may automatically collect and store certain information about you and the activity you engaged in, for example: your name and contact information; information that you voluntarily provide to us; the nature of your communication; the purpose of the interaction, and the action we took in response to your inquiry or request.
(c) Information Collected Automatically
We may receive and store certain information about you and your device(s) automatically when you access or use our Services. This information may include:
● Usage Data – We may also collect Usage Data that your browser sends whenever you visit our Service or when you access the Service by or through a mobile device.
This Usage Data may include information such as your computer’s Internet Protocol address (e.g. IP address), browser type, browser version, the pages of our Service that you visit, the time and date of your visit, the time spent on those pages, unique device identifiers and other diagnostic data.
When you access the Service by or through a mobile device, this Usage Data may include information such as the type of mobile device you use, your mobile device unique ID, the IP address of your mobile device, your mobile operating system, the type of mobile Internet browser you use, unique device identifiers and other diagnostic data.
● Location Data – We may use and store information about your location if you give us permission to do so (“Location Data”). We use this data to provide features of our Service, to improve and customize our Service. You can enable or disable location services when you use our Services at any time, through your device settings.
● Site Preferences – We collect information about your preferences to make your use of the BTC Sites more productive through the use of cookies.
(d) Personal Information from Publicly Available Sources and Third Parties
We may collect or receive personal information about you from publicly available sources, social network providers, marketing partners, and/or third parties. This may include:
● Social Network Information – We may receive information about you from other services. For example, we receive certain information when you interact with our social media accounts.
For what purposes do we use personal information?
We may use personal information we collect or receive about you for various purposes.
(a) To Provide You With Our Services
We use your personal information to provide you with the Services. For example, we may use credit card information to complete transactions for the donations or purchases. If the applicable personal information is to be provided or Service is to be performed by a third party, then we will disclose the applicable personal information to the third party providing the personal information or performing applicable Services. Your personal information may be available or provided to third-party service providers (such as credit card companies, and payment processing companies) and that are contractually obligated to protect your personal information as disclosed in this Privacy Policy.
(b) To Maintain, Improve, and Personalize the Services
We use your personal information for our everyday business operations such as auditing, administration of the Services. Your information may also be used to help us improve our Services. We also use your information to personalize your experience. For example, we may personalize advertisements, marketing communications, and recommendations to make them more tailored to your interests.
(c) To Communicate with You
We use your personal information to:
● communicate with you; and
● respond to inquiries and requests from you.
We may also contact you about upcoming events, volunteering opportunities, donations, fundraising campaigns, or other communications that may be of interest to you. If we send you marketing emails about Services that may interest you, each email will contain instructions permitting you to “unsubscribe” from receiving future marketing or other communications within 10 days.
In the event you contact us, we use certain information to respond to your questions and assist you with any issues that may arise in your use of the Services.
(d) For Account and Network Security Purposes
We care about keeping you secure and safe while using our Services. Keeping you safe requires us to process your personal information, such as your activity information and other relevant information. We use such information to combat spam, malware, malicious activities or security risks; improve and enforce our security measures; and to monitor and verify your identity so that unauthorized users do not gain access to your information.
(e) For Volunteering
Where you have submitted an application to become a volunteer, we may use your personal information to match your interests and skills with the needs of the BTC.
(f) To Maintain Legal and Regulatory Compliance
Our Services are subject to certain laws, regulatory and/or professional obligations, which may require us to process your personal information. For example, we process your personal information to fulfill our professional obligations, or as necessary to manage risk as required under applicable law.
(g) To Enforce Compliance with Our Terms of Service and Policies
When you access or use our Services, you are bound to our Terms of Service and this Privacy Policy. To ensure you comply with them, we process your personal information by actively monitoring, investigating, preventing and mitigating any alleged or actual prohibited, illicit or illegal activities on our Services. We also process your personal information to: investigate, prevent or mitigate violations of our internal terms, agreements or policies; enforce our agreements with third parties and business partners.
(h) For Our Business Purposes
We may use personal information for other purposes disclosed to you at the time we collect or receive the information with your consent or as permitted or required by law.
When and to whom do we disclose personal information?
Your personal information is not shared with third parties without your permission, except as described below.
Our partners: We may share information with and among our partners to provide our Services and for other purposes outlined in this Privacy Policy.
Service providers: We may transfer (or otherwise make available) personal information service providers (including affiliates acting in this capacity) who perform services on our behalf. For example, we may use service providers to provide back-up, process payments, or provide data analytics and marketing services. Personal information may be maintained and processed by our service providers in the US, Canada or other jurisdictions. Our service providers are given the information they need to perform their designated functions, and we do not authorize them to use or disclose personal information for their own purposes.
Disclosures authorized or required by law: There are limited situations where we are legally required or authorized to disclose your personal information without your consent. In limited situations, we may be required to disclose your information to third parties including law enforcement agencies when required to protect and defend our legal rights, protect the safety and security of users of our Services, prevent fraud, comply with the law, respond to legal process, or a request for cooperation by a government entity.
Disclosures with consent: We may disclose your personal information in other circumstances with your consent.
You can withdraw your consent to have your information shared with other parties at any time, except where the disclosure is required by law.
Cookies, Other Tracking Technology, and Third-Party Sites on the BTC Sites
We use cookies, web beacons, pixels, and similar technologies to collect information and personalize your experience with our Services.
(a) Cookies
The BTC Sites use a technology called “cookies”. A cookie is a tiny element of data that the BTC Sites send to a user’s browser, which may then be stored on the user’s hard drive so that we can recognize the user when they return. We use cookies to remember your preferences and to authenticate you. You may set your browser to notify you when you receive a cookie or to not accept certain cookies. However, if you decide not to accept cookies from the BTC Sites, you may not be able to take advantage of all of the website features.
(b) Online Analytics and Advertising Technologies
Our third-party service providers may use automated technologies (including cookie identifiers on the BTC Sites), along with other collected information, to tailor ads or deliver content when you are on our Services or on other devices, apps or websites.
(c) Interest-Based Advertising
We (or our third-party service providers) may use the information we collect, for example, IP addresses and unique mobile device identifiers, to locate or try to locate you across multiple browsers or devices (such as smartphones, tablets, or computers), or work with providers that do this, in order to better tailor content and features and provide you with a seamless experience across devices. If you wish to opt out of cross device tracking for purposes of interest-based advertising, you may do so through your device settings. We may also use cross-device targeting to help identify our users and serve advertising. This type of advertising is often called “interest-based” or “personalized” advertising—and when it occurs on mobile apps, “cross-app” advertising.
You can learn more about interest-based advertising and how to opt-out of receiving tailored advertising by visiting (i) the Network Advertising Initiative’s Consumer Opt-Out link or (ii) the Digital Advertising Alliance’s Consumer Opt-Out link.
To opt out of Google Analytics for display advertising or customize Google display network ads, you can visit the Google Ads Settings page.
To opt out of X’s (formerly Twitter) interest-based ads, you can follow their instructions posted here.
To opt out of Facebook’s interest based ads, you can follow their instructions posted here.
Please note that even if you opt-out, you may still receive advertisements from us. However, the advertising will not be tailored to your interests. Also, we do not control any of the above opt-out links or whether any particular company chooses to participate in these opt-out programs.
(d) Third-Party Sites
The BTC Sites may contain links to other websites that we do not own or operate. We provide links to third party websites as a convenience to you. We do not have any control over these websites and they are not subject to this Privacy Policy. If you provide any personal information to any third party or through any such third-party website, we recommend that you familiarize yourself with the privacy policies and practices of that third party. We are not responsible for the privacy policies or practices of any third parties.
What are your rights?
BTC aims to take reasonable steps to allow you to correct, amend, delete, or limit the use of your personal information. Whenever possible, you can update your personal information directly by logging into your account on the BTC Sites. If you are unable to change your personal information, please contact us at info@brucetrail.org to make the required changes.
(a) Your Rights
This section lists the privacy-related rights (“Rights”) we extend to you. Your right to know and right to deletion are not absolute and are subject to certain exceptions. For example, we cannot disclose specific pieces of personal information if the disclosure would create a substantial, articulable, and unreasonable risk to the security of the personal information, your account with us or the security of our systems.
● Right to Know – You have the right to know the personal information we collect, use, and disclose about you.
● Right to Deletion – You have the right to request that we delete any personal information we have collected from you or maintain about you. We may save personal information when permitted by applicable law including, without limitation, when the information is needed for a legal purpose.
● Right to Rectification – If you have an account on the BTC Sites, you may modify your personal information by logging onto the BTC Sites or contacting us at info@brucetrail.org.
Please note that we may ask you to verify your identity before responding to such requests.
How secure is your information?
Safeguards are in place to protect the security of your information. These safeguards include a combination of physical, technological and administrative security measures that are aimed at protecting personal information against loss or theft, as well as unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use or modification. Please note, however, that while we believe our security measures are appropriate, no security measures can guarantee absolute security of information.
How long do we keep information?
We will retain your personal information for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide you services and to maintain a record of your transactions for financial reporting purposes. We will also retain and use your personal information as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements.
What if we transfer your personal information to another jurisdiction?
Your information, including personal information, may be transferred to — and maintained on — computers located outside of your province, country or other jurisdiction where the data protection laws may differ from those from your jurisdiction.
We are based in Canada and, regardless of where you use our Services, the information collected as part of that use will be transferred to and maintained on servers located in Canada. Any information we obtain about you will be stored in accordance with Canadian privacy laws, regulations, and standards, which may not be equivalent to the laws in your country of residence. By using our Services, you consent to this collection, transfer, storage, and processing of information to and in Canada.
We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy and no transfer of your personal information will take place to an organization or a country unless there are adequate controls in place including the security of your data and other personal information.
Changes To This Privacy Policy
We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page.
We will let you know via email and/or a prominent notice on our Service, prior to the change becoming effective and update the “effective date” at the top of this Privacy Policy.
You are advised to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any changes. Changes to this Privacy Policy are effective when they are posted on this page.
How can you contact us?
If you have any questions or concerns relating to this Privacy Policy or our privacy practices, please contact us at:
55 Head Street, Suite 101
Dundas, ON L8N 3N9
info@brucetrail.org
905.529.6821
