Introduction

Protecting your privacy and the confidentiality of your information – over the Internet, on the telephone, or through our offices – has always been fundamental to the way we do business at the Parksville & District Chamber of Commerce.  We operate on the basis of a Privacy Policy and related procedures that guide the handling of the personal information we collect.  We have created this privacy statement in order to demonstrate our organization’s commitment to protecting the privacy of our members, partners and potential Web site visitors. 

Privacy Statement

This policy deals only with personal information handled by the Parksville & District Chamber of Commerce.  Personal information is information about an identifiable individual, excluding business contact information.  The following explains how the Parksville & District Chamber of Commerce handles personal information.  Parksville & District Chamber of Commerce reserves the right to change this policy and it may be updated periodically.  These changes may affect our use of your personal information.  Accordingly, please check for changes regularly.

 Accountability

The Parksville & District Chamber of Commerce is accountable for all personal information under its control and has designated a privacy officer as responsible for the privacy policy.  The privacy officer the Executive Director of the Parksville & District Chamber of Commerce, and they can be reached by:

• email, at 
• telephone, at 250-248-3613
• fax, at 250-248-5210
• mail, at P.O. Box 99, Parksville, B.C.   V9P 2G3

Any questions about the Parksville & District Chamber of Commerce’s handling of personal information should be directed to the privacy officer.  Please see below for more information about the process for referring questions about the Parksville & District Chamber of Commerce’s handling of personal information.

Purpose of Personal Information

The purpose for which the Parksville & District Chamber of Commerce collects personal information will be identified at or before the time is collected.  The Parksville & District Chamber of Commerce may collect personal information for the purposes of:

administering the Parksville & District Chamber of Commerce membership and providing member services;

registering for the Parksville & District Chamber of Commerce event, for example the Annual General Meeting;

purchasing various Parksville & District Chamber of Commerce products or services, and

processing and administering the above or other purposes as necessary.

The Parksville & District Chamber of Commerce will not use personal information for any other purpose than identified at or before the time of collection.

Consent

The Parksville & District Chamber of Commerce seeks consent for all personal information we collect, use and disclose through information provided to individuals prior to collection, or at the time of collection.

If you have voluntarily provided information, you have consented to the collection, use and disclosure of your personally identifiable information as described in this privacy policy.  The Parksville & District Chamber of Commerce will not use personal information for any purpose other than that for which you consented.  Should the Parksville & District Chamber of Commerce require personal information for a new purpose, we will contact you to seek consent for that new use.

Limits for Collecting, Using, Disclosing and Keeping Personal Information

The Parksville & District Chamber of Commerce does not collect, use or disclose personal information of individuals except when individuals give consent and provide the information on a voluntary basis.  There may be occasions where more specific personal information is necessary for us to proceed with a request for information, or provide you with a product or service.  In such cases, we will provide you with a description of the information we need.  In all cases, the Parksville & District Chamber of Commerce limits the amount and type of information collected to only the personal information that is required to provide the individual with the requested information, product or service.  We collect only information that is voluntarily provided by you and undertake that such information will be kept strictly confidential.

We retain personal information only as long as is necessary to provide the individual with the requested product, service or information and delete or destroy this information after that time.  If personal information is given to enable you to register for an event, the personal information will only be used for this event and then will be deleted or destroyed unless authorization is given to retain.  In some cases, however, legal reporting and retention requirements necessitate that the Parksville & District Chamber of Commerce retain information for a specific amount of time.  In general, the Parksville & District Chamber of Commerce retains information for a period not longer than seven years.

The Parksville & District Chamber of Commerce does not sell or trade any personal information with third parties.  The Parksville & District Chamber of Commerce may transfer information to service providers where information processing is outsourced by the Parksville & District Chamber of Commerce in the course of its administrative procedures or member services in specific cases.  Where personal information is transferred to a service provider for processing, we require the service provider to respect this Privacy Policy and we restrict them from using or disclosing personal information transferred to them for any purpose other than the provision of services to us. 

Any personal information that the Parksville & District Chamber of Commerce retains is kept in such a manner as to ensure its security and confidentiality at all times. 

Safeguarding Personal Information

The Parksville & District Chamber of Commerce respects the privacy of our members, partners, potential website visitors and Internet users and will protect that privacy as vigorously as possible.  We store personal information in electronic and files that are secure.  Our security measures include locks on filing cabinets, and using industry standard techniques such as firewalls, encryption, intrusion detection and restricted access to equipment, including computers.  Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet  can be guaranteed to be 100% secure.  As a result, while we strive to protect your personal information, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us or receive from us electronically.  This is especially true for information you transmit to us via e-mail.  We have no way of protecting that information until it reaches us.  Once we receive your transmission, we make our best efforts to ensure its security on our servers.

Accuracy of and Access to Personal Information Collected

The Parksville & District Chamber of Commerce makes every effort to keep personal information as accurate, complete, current and relevant as necessary for the identified purposes.  The Parksville & District Chamber of Commerce does not routinely update personal information.

The Parksville & District Chamber of Commerce makes readily available to individuals our Privacy Policy and related procedures for managing personal information.  We provide access to the Privacy Policy and related procedures to individuals on the Parksville & District Chamber of Commerce’s Web site and in written form.  Any questions about the handling of personal information by the Parksville & District Chamber of Commerce can be raised with our privacy officer. 

At the written request of an individual, he or she may view or edit their personal information as collected by the Parksville & District Chamber of Commerce.  The Parksville & District Chamber of Commerce will inform them of what personal information we have about the individual, what it is being used for and, in cases where it has been disclosed, to whom it has been disclosed.  There may be exceptional circumstances as provided by the CSA Model Code under which the Parksville & District Chamber of Commerce may not be able to give an individual access to the personal information about her or him held by the Parksville & District Chamber of Commerce.  In this case, the Parksville & District Chamber of Commerce will explain the reason for this lack of access, as provided by the CSA Model Code.

To make a request, please send a letter, email or fax addressed to our Privacy Officer at the address indicated above.  In your request, please include the following information:  Name, contact details, the nature of your request, including whether you wish to view and/or edit information or inquire regarding use and/or disclosure.

The Parksville & District Chamber of Commerce will reply to your request in no later than thirty days after receipt of the request, or if we are not able to respond within this time period, we will send you a notice of extension.  If we are not able to disclose all the personal information we hold on you, we will give you a reason for our inability to do so, unless prohibited by law.