Privacy Statement
December 2010
1. Our Commitment to Privacy
Welcome to our Web site. Canadian Blood Services is firmly committed to protecting your privacy online. It is our goal to provide you with a Web site that is easy to use and respects rights and expectations for privacy. Our Web Privacy Policy is designed to assist you in understanding how we collect and use the personal information you provide to us and to assist you in making informed decisions when using our Web site. The term "Canadian Blood Services" or "us" or "we" or "our" refers to Canadian Blood Services, the owner of the Web site. The term "you" refers to the user or viewer of our Web site.
We never use or share your identifiable personal information provided to us online in any way without providing you an opportunity to prohibit its use or disclosure.
To make this notice easy to find, we make it available from the bottom of each Web page and at every point where identifiable personal information may be requested.
2. What Information Do We Collect?
When you voluntarily send us electronic mail or complete an electronic form that includes identifying information about you, we will keep a confidential record of this information so that we can respond to you.
When you visit our Web site, our Web server automatically collects a limited amount of information essential for the operation and security of our Web site. Some of this information gathered (e.g., the date and time of visits, the pages viewed, time spent at our Web site, and the Web sites visited just before and just after our Web site) does not identify who you are. Other information, such as your Internet domain name or your Internet protocol address may identify you. The extent of personal identification may depend on the "naming standards" followed by your Internet Service Provider. In addition, our advertisers and ad serving companies may also use small pieces of code called "web beacons", "spotlights" or "clear gifs" to determine which advertisements and promotions users have seen and how users responded to them.
Individuals are free to use this Web site without participating in any electronic submission that requests your personal information, and thereby avoid providing identifiable personal information.
3. Sharing Information with Third Parties
We do not share your identifiable personal information with third parties except for the purpose of using a third party to send you information by way of an electronic newsletter or through regular mail, in which case, a non-disclosure agreement between Canadian Blood Services and the third party has been signed to protect your identifiable personal information. We do not disclose your identifiable personal information to other public bodies or individuals except with your consent or as authorized by law.
4. What Are Cookies And How Do We Use Them?
A "cookie" is information that is transferred from a web site's server to your computer's browser and stored on your computer's hard drive. This information is then available to the Web site's server when you return to that site using the same browser. This information can be used to identify the user of the browser visiting the site and record, for example, preferences and usage in general.
Like many Web sites, we may use cookies to customize the online experience based on an individual's interests and preferences and in order to streamline the process of entering information by recording frequently entered information.
We may also use cookies to assist returning visitors in other ways. However, we do not use cookies to retrieve information from your computer that was not originally sent in a cookie. We may also use cookies upon the delivery of electronic newsletters to your e-mail address. However, in most cases, if you choose, you can set your browser to refuse cookies or alert you to their transfer to your browser.
5. How Is My Information Used?
The way we collect, use and disclose identifiable personal information complies with the purpose for which it is collected, used and disclosed and/or with applicable laws and regulations.
We currently use identifiable personal information for the purpose of providing electronic exchanges of information as requested by you. We use this information to complete such submission and ensuing action or response.
The personal information that we collect will only be used by authorized Canadian Blood Services staff to fulfill the purpose for which it was originally collected or for a use consistent with that purpose. We keep the information only for the length of time necessary to fulfill the purpose(s) for which it was collected.
Occasionally, we may also use the information we collect to notify you about important changes to our Web site, new services, promotions and other information we think you may find valuable, or if you have registered to receive an electronic newsletter. You will only receive such notifications if you have chosen to receive them by completing a registration process online or otherwise for submission to us. If you do not wish to receive these notifications, we offer the opportunity to be excluded from such distributions by following clear and concise instructions for removal, or you may unsubscribe at the bottom of any and all communications such as electronic newsletters and special offers.
6. How Do We Protect Your Personal Information
Our Web site has security measures in place to protect against the loss, misuse and alteration of the information submitted to us and kept under our control. For example, we use secure socket layer (SSL) technology to send identifiable personal information entered into on-line forms from your Web browser to our Web server. We then immediately move your identifiable personal information from our Web server to a secure server which resides behind a firewall.
To prevent unauthorized access, maintain data accuracy, and ensure the correct use of information, we have put in place appropriate physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online.
7. How You Can Access or Correct Your Information
You can access your identifiable personal information that we collect and maintain by following procedures as outlined in our "Access to Information and Privacy" statement.
8. Privacy Practices of Other Web Sites
Our Web site may contain links to other Web sites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of such Web sites.
9. How to Contact Us
Should you have any questions or concerns about our Web site or this statement, please contact please contact us