CIAO Privacy Policy

The Canadian Italian Advocates Organization (CIAO) is a professional voluntary organization committed to enhancing the interests of its membership and to respecting and protecting your privacy. Please carefully read the following privacy policy, which explains how we collect, safeguard and disclose information that results from your use of our website. By using our website, you are agreeing to all the terms and conditions of our privacy policy. Our commitment to protecting the privacy and confidentiality of your personal information is addressed in this privacy policy. Our policy complies with the requirements of the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act. For the purposes of this policy, “Member” means an individual who has been accepted for membership in CIAO or who seeks to become a member of CIAO.

Electronic Documents Act of Canada

We want you to understand why we need your personal information, how the confidentiality of this information is protected, and how you can find out what information concerning you is recorded. This policy applies to all CIAO members and visitors.

Collection, Use and Disclosure of Information

Personal information is information that identifies you on an individual basis and that you would reasonably expect to be kept private. This includes such information as your name, email address, mailing address, telephone number, banking information, credit card number, and the like. Our policy is to only collect personal information that you knowingly and specifically provide to us. On our website, we will request that you provide personal information, such as a residential address, an email address and a phone number. We may use your personal information to improve the services we offer you.

As a member or purchaser of the services offered through our website, you may also be asked to provide CIAO and or its payment processing vendor with your credit card information, including the cardholder’s name, credit card number and expiry date, or similar information when you fill out our registration form to create an account with CIAO or when you make payment to purchase the services offered through or by CIAO.
We may also collect anonymous information, such as your IP address, referral data and browser type and language, for system administration purposes and to improve the quality of our services.
We do not sell, rent, trade or otherwise disclose any personal or anonymous information regarding our users to any third party unless you first provide us with your express consent. However, we may disclose personal or anonymous information without your consent if we are ordered to do so by a legal process, such as a court order or a subpoena. We may also share general statistical information regarding the use of our website with our affiliates and advertisers.

Accountability

In order to provide you with the highest levels of security, CIAO has retained highly respectable third party providers to securely store your personal information. We have appointed a Chief Privacy Officer who is accountable for the membership compliance with this Privacy Policy. Please refer to the last page of this policy for information on how to contact our Chief Privacy Officer.

Consent

Your knowledge and consent are required for the collection, use or disclosure of your personal information. When you become a member of CIAO you consent to the use of your personal information for the purposes listed above. You may refuse or withdraw your consent at any time; however, we may not then be able to provide you with our full range of services. We will advise you when you refuse or withdraw your consent of the impact this decision will have on what we are able to provide. For information on withdrawing your consent, please contact our Chief Privacy Officer.

Email Addresses

If you provide us your email address, we may email you about our website or our services, or inquire about your experience using our website. From time to time, we will also send you emails that may include special promotions, events and other offers that we think may be of interest to you.

Cookies

Cookies are small files containing a unique identification number. The first time you visit a website, cookies are sent to your computer’s browser and then stored in your computer’s hard drive. Cookies enable our website to recognize you as a unique user and increase the efficiency of your exploration of our website. Through our cookies we are able to obtain anonymous information, such as your computer’s browser and Internet service provider and your online trends and patterns. Most browsers are configured to automatically receive cookies from the websites you visit. You can change the settings on your browser to notify you when cookies are being sent or to refuse all cookies. However, some websites may not operate properly if your browser is set to refuse cookies.

We do not disclose any information obtained by our website’s cookies, unless we are required to do so by a court process. Furthermore, we will not combine any information obtained by our cookies with other information we may already have about you in order to identify you personally.

Retention

We will only retain your personal information as long as is necessary for the fulfillment of the purposes for which it was collected or as required by law. Personal information is stored in a secure facility until such time as it is no longer required, after which it is destroyed.

Accuracy

CIAO strives to maintain the accuracy and completeness of your personal information. You may ask us to delete or correct information contained in your file. The request for correction must be made in writing to our Chief Privacy Officer, at the address below.

CIAO c/o Chief Privacy Officer
3800 Steeles Ave. West
Vaughan, ON
L4L 4G9
[email protected]

Security & Safeguards

We have implemented technology and security features to safeguard all personal and anonymous information from unauthorized access or improper use. To protect the transactions conducted on our website, we use Secure Socket Layer (SSL) software, which encrypts the data you input on our website. We will continue to enhance our security features as new technology becomes available. Your personal information is secure within CIAO. We have comprehensive security controls to protect against unauthorized access, use, alteration, duplication, destruction or disclosure. We protect your personal information by using safeguards that are appropriate to the sensitivity of the information. Each of our employees is responsible for maintaining the confidentiality and security of all personal information to which they have access. We keep our employees informed about our policies and procedures for protecting personal information. Where necessary, our employees are required to sign agreements to keep your personal information confidential.

Member Access

In order to fulfill requests for personal information records or to answer any questions or address any concerns individuals may have about privacy, CIAO has designated a Chief Privacy Officer. In addition to answering inquiries, the Chief Privacy Officer is also responsible for ensuring that the Policy requirements and related procedures are being met. All inquiries or complaints regarding privacy should be directed in writing to the Chief Privacy Officer by mail or email at the addresses below. All inquiries will be responded to within thirty (30) days from the date on which our Chief Privacy Officer has received the inquiry. CIAO can refuse access to a file in certain circumstances.

CIAO c/o Chief Privacy Officer
3800 Steeles Ave. West
Vaughan, ON
L4L 4G9
[email protected]

Changes to Our Privacy Policy

We reserve the right to update or revise our privacy policy at our discretion. If we make changes to this version of our privacy policy, we will post a notification on our home page. Your continued use of our website following the posting of the notification will constitute your agreement with all of the terms and conditions of our new privacy policy.

If you have any concerns or questions about our privacy policy or the manner in which we are implementing it, please contact us at [email protected].