At Wildlife Conservation Society Canada (“WCS Canada” or “we”), our mission is to save wildlife and wild places in Canada through science, conservation action, education and inspiring people to value nature. In order to achieve this, it is important to us to communicate with our supporters and prospective supporters (collectively “you”), and to respect these relationships. This privacy policy reflects our best efforts to maintain this respect, while ensuring we can communicate broadly, personally and accurately in a cost-effective way. It explains how we collect, use and protect your personal information, both through our website and other communications channels.Please note that WCS Canada is an affiliate of a global conservation organization, Wildlife Conservation Society, which is headquartered in New York, USA (“WCS”). In an effort to better align data management practices with WCS (including other affiliates), WCS Canada may share personal information acquired from you with WCS, which adheres to a similar privacy policy as WCS Canada. You may read the WCS Privacy Policy online at https://www.wcs.org/privacy-policy.
As a registered Canadian charity, WCS Canada observes the following privacy practices:
“Personal Information” is any information about an identifiable person, including, for example, your name, address, phone number, email address, gender, etc. In some cases, your computer’s IP address is 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, correspondence, email, at events, over the phone and in person.
There are a range of reasons and purposes why we may ask you for this information, including: to process a donation or registration; to fulfill your subscription to an e-newsletter; to invite you to events; or to provide other information about WCS Canada, which might interest you. We may also contact you by mail, email or phone about opportunities to donate in support of our work and most importantly, to thank you for your support.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 fulfill something you have asked of us. For example, when you make a donation, we are required by law to take your full name and mailing address in order to send you a receipt for tax purposes.
WCS Canada may collect anonymous information about users who visit our websites (“Site”) and use this anonymous information for statistical analysis to understand how visitors use our Site. For instance, we may use it to determine usage patterns so we know which parts of our Site are most popular. Examples of the type of anonymous information we collect and how we collect it are:User environment: information about your browser (e.g., Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox), operating system (e.g., Windows, Apple OS), Internet service provider (e.g., Time Warner, Verizon), and similar information.Cookies: small pieces of information stored on your computer's hard drive that help you to navigate a website and to deliver content specific to your interests and prevent you from reentering all your account data at each connection. Like many websites, we use cookies to collect website usage data and to improve the Site. Most Internet browsers automatically accept cookies. You can instruct your browser, by editing its options, to stop accepting cookies or to prompt you before accepting cookies from the websites you visit.IP Addresses: a number assigned to your computer. Please note your IP address could be used by legal authorities to identify you.
In many cases, we do not actually collect and store personal information in our systems, but instead use a third party. For example, we may use a third party to send out a survey for understanding your interests and concerns or another third party to subscribe to our e-newsletter for purposes of communicating topics of interest or concern to you.
Such services have resources dedicated to maintaining security and confidentiality, and we endeavour to ensure that any third-party partner or vendor has appropriate policies relating to the security and privacy of your personal information. We enter into appropriate agreements with these third parties to maintain the protection of your personal information.
In order to donate to us, you may need to provide your credit card information.
In the case of donations made online, WCS Canada does not collect your credit card information. Instead, this information is collected and processed by a third party that is compliant with Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (“PCI compliant”).
Donations made by credit card in person, through the mail or by phone are collected by trained WCS Canada staff and processed using the PCI compliant e-commerce provider, Bambora.
As a registered Canadian charity, we cannot do our work without the financial support of our generous donors and supporters. We do our best to reach out to as many possible individual supporters as we can. Our donors allow us to fulfill our mission.
We may use information you provide (such as your postal code) to find more complete contact information from other sources (like Canada Post) so we can reach out to you, and we may use third-party providers to help. Sending you a letter or calling you helps determine if we are a good fit for you when it comes to making donations. You may opt out of these communications at any time by contacting wcscanada@wcs.org.
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.
Your knowledge and consent is required for the collection, use, or disclosure of personal information, except where otherwise not required under applicable law. By providing personal information to us in accordance with this policy, you are deemed to have consented 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 our “On the Wild Side” e-newsletter, we may email you about opportunities to support our work with a donation. Or, if you make a donation and provide us with your mailing address, we may also send you further WCS Canada materials to your home in order to keep you up-to-date with work you have helped make happen.
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. You may withdraw your consent at any time and we will fulfill your request in the timeliest way possible, subject to any legal exceptions or restrictions. Please note: In order to adhere to applicable law and legal requirements, we may be required to maintain donation records for the relevant time period.
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 do not provide your address, or send you an e-newsletter if you do not share your email address.
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 wcscanada@wcs.org and type “unsubscribe” in the subject line.
Upon reasonable request and notice, you may view and have corrections made to the personal information we hold about you, subject to any legal or contractual restrictions. If you are aware of any inaccuracies in the personal information we hold about you, please contact us at wcscanada@wcs.org.
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 Site properties, and in some cases may completely prevent you from using some of our pages and forms.
As a donor and valued member of our community, WCS Canada will on occasion share your name on our website and in our annual report for the year in which your donation was made. We will not disclose any further information or the specific amount of your donation. If you do not want your name recognized in WCS Canada materials, you may indicate you wish to remain an anonymous donor at the time of your gift or by emailing wcscanada@wcs.org.
We endeavour to maintain appropriate physical, procedural and technical safeguards for your personal information. Some information we collect may be stored and processed on servers located outside your jurisdiction of residence, including outside your country. As a result, this information may be subject to disclosure to governments, courts or law enforcement agencies in those jurisdictions, according to local laws which may not have a comparable level of privacy protection, and which disclosure may occur without notice to us or you.
We may change this policy from time to time without notice. Changes will be reflected on the Site. Your continued use of the Site following the posting of any amendment, modification or change shall constitute your acceptance of the revised policy terms.
Where CASL applies to WCS Canada’s communications with users, donors or volunteers, we are committed to complying with CASL and in particular the provisions setting out the requirements for sending commercial electronic messages, if and as required by the CASL.
WCS Canada is committed to protecting personal data to the fullest extent of its Privacy Policy. However, personal information you enter on this Site for certain purposes described in this Policy, and other data connected with your account, may be transmitted to and processed in the U.S., a jurisdiction whose laws do not offer data protections equivalent to those in Canada.
Upon request, WCS Canada will make information about its policies and practices relating to the management of personal information available to you. You may access your personal information that WCS Canada has in its possession, subject to any legal exceptions or restrictions. To obtain access to your personal information, please make a written request to the Chief Privacy Officer (CPO) stating as specifically as possible what personal information you are requesting access to. You will be able to challenge the accuracy and completeness of the information disclosed and have it amended if appropriate. For more information on the procedures for doing so, please contact the CPO at the contact information below.
If you believe that WCS Canada has improperly or without authorization collected, used, disclosed or retained personal information about you contrary to this Policy, please let us know and provide as much detail as possible about your concerns. For further information, please contact our CPO by email at wcscanada@wcs.org or by mail to 204-344 Bloor Street West Toronto, Ontario M5S 3A7.
This document is available to the public and explains how we collect, use and disclose information, in accordance with this policy, and where applicable, the federal Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, the Alberta Personal Information Protection Act, the British Columbia Personal Information Protection Act, the Quebec Act Respecting Personal Information in the Private Sector and other applicable legislation.