The Green Party of Canada (“Green Party”) is committed to respecting your privacy. The purpose of this privacy policy is to explain how we handle personal information to ensure its confidentiality, security and accuracy.
Our privacy policy can always be publicly viewed at www.greenparty.ca/privacy.
What is “Personal Information”?
“Personal information” is information about an identifiable individual. It includes contact information such as your name, address, phone number and financial information.
Collecting Personal Information
Elections Canada provides all political parties with a list of electors, including names and postal addresses. We also collect information from publicly available data sources (phone book, etc...), and through voter outreach activities, such as door-to-door canvassing and voter contact phone calls.
We also obtain other information that you choose to give us. You may do so in a variety of ways, including:
- When you visit our website for the purpose of becoming involved with the Party as a member, volunteer or donor.
- When you subscribe to our communications.
- If you register at an event or at a Party convention.
- If you complete a registration or donation form either electronically or on paper.
- If you complete any other form on a Green Party website, including online petitions.
- It is also possible that your information could be provided to us by a volunteer or friend who thinks you would be interested in getting involved with the Green Party.
The information we collect may include:
- Contact and identification information, such as your name, address, telephone numbers, email address and social media contacts.
- Donation information such as date and amount of your donation.
- Financial information that we need to process your donation e.g. payment methods and preferences, billing and banking information (e.g. credit card number and expiry date).
- Information you share about your voting preferences or the issues that matter most to you.
Usage of Personal Information
We use your personal information to communicate with you about the Green Party and its activities, as well as to provide you with news and information. We use your financial information to process your contributions. If you have been a contributor in the past, we may contact you again to seek your financial support.
We will not, without your consent, use your personal information for any purpose other than as described in this privacy policy, except where permitted or required by applicable legislation. For example, under the Canada Elections Act, we are required to provide Elections Canada with our donors’ names, addresses and contribution amounts.
We do not sell personal information under any circumstance and do not conduct micro-targeting.
Given that the Green Party is a national organization, personal information may be shared internally, for instance between the Party and its electoral district associations, candidates, nomination contestants and leadership contestants. In addition, we may engage third party providers to perform tasks on our behalf, such as processing your donation, making phone calls and providing technical services to our website. When information is shared with third parties for these purposes, we include privacy protective clauses in written contracts to help safeguard personal information.
Protecting your Personal Information
The security of your personal information is important to us.
We use physical, electronic and procedural safeguards to prevent unauthorized use, sharing, loss and theft of information.
We apply several different access levels to data within our systems–employees and volunteers only gain access to information as needed.
Our security practices are continually evolving to ensure the integrity and confidentiality of our systems and information in our possession. We use up-to-date security safeguards to protect our networks and websites.
For example, for information provided online, our website contains security measures in order to protect against the unauthorized disclosure, loss, misuse, or alteration of the information under our control. We also implement measures such as SSL encryption on sensitive information including passwords and credit card information. Our servers are located in a locked and secure environment.
Our employees are required to complete training on the Green Party’s privacy policy, including policies regarding the collection and use of personal information and procedures for safeguarding this information.
Accuracy of Personal Information
You may update or correct the information in our possession by emailing us at [email protected], or by writing to us at the address below.
If you have subscribed to receive information by email, you may unsubscribe by clicking “Unsubscribe” at the bottom of the message.
Anti-Spam Legislation
Most of the messages sent by the Green Party and its other political entities are exempt from the application of Canada’s anti-spam law which applies to commercial electronic messages sent to electronic addresses. This is because the electronic messages that we send are generally either those soliciting donations, which are specifically exempt under the law, or are messages of a political, not a commercial, character. If we do send any messages to which the law applies and for which there are no exemptions, we will ensure that we have consent to do so, as required by the law, and that any other legal requirements e.g. an unsubscribe mechanism, are met.
As a best practice, we have an unsubscribe mechanism for our electronic messages, even where the law does not require us to do so.
IP Addresses
We log IP addresses, or the location of your computer network on the Internet, for systems administration and troubleshooting purposes. We may also use IP addresses to track which pages people visit in order to improve the quality of our website.
Cookies
Like many websites, we use cookies which are small text files stored on the user’s browser. We use cookies to, for example: allow for logged-in sessions, assist with site traffic analysis which includes tracking the time and date of website visits, pages viewed and referring URL’s.
There are simple ways to refuse cookies, or accept them each time they are offered. Consult your browser’s help files for assistance on changing cookie settings or removing cookie files.
Links to Other Websites
Our website contains links to a limited number of other websites including those for our provincial and territorial boards. The Green Party is not responsible for the content or the privacy policies of these websites.
Contact Us
If you have any questions about our privacy policy or the personal information in our possession, simply email us at [email protected], Attention: Robin Marty. For general questions about the Green Party and its policies, email us at [email protected].
You can also reach us by regular mail at the following address:
Green Party of Canada Fund
123 Slater Street, Suite 610
Ottawa, ON K1P 5H2