The High Way Home?
Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction Desjardins

CCSA Website Privacy Notice

Our Commitment to Your Privacy

The Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse, operating as the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction ("CCSA", "we" or "us"), is committed to the protection of privacy for those who provide personal information to us.

We have published this Privacy Notice to inform visitors to CCSA's websites (CCSA.ca, issuesofsubstance.ca, findaddictioncare.ca and kbs-campus-based-interventions.ca) and our social networking services (Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram) of our policies and procedures regarding the collection, sharing, use, retention and disposition of personally identifiable information received from our users or visitors. Please note: this Privacy Notice will be updated from time to time; as a result, a revised Privacy Notice will be posted to notify our visitors of changes.

If you are a user or visitor in the European Economic Area, the EU General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) may apply to the processing of your information. The GDPR places obligations on us as a “data controller” and grants you specific rights in respect of the use and handling of your personal information. Both personal information and personal data have the same meaning in the context of this Privacy Notice.

PERSONAL INFORMATION

Your personal information, such as your name, phone number, email, address and personal comments, is not automatically gathered by CCSA. This information is only obtained if you explicitly consent to provide it or when submitting via a form for subscription, information or registration. We do not sell your personal information to third parties for any reason.

Consent to collect personal information

Prior to collecting your personal information, CCSA will explain how we intend to use this data. Should we wish to use your information for any other purpose not previously stated, we will first obtain your consent; this includes when we collect information from third parties.

Types of personal information collected

With your consent, we may collect the following personal information:

  • Contact information, such as first and last name, email address, phone number or address;
  • Comments or information that you provide through our website and social media platforms; and
  • Conference or event attendance data (including directly from the conference planning contractor).

Purposes for collecting personal information

We may use the personal information collected for the following reasons:

  • To set up and manage your subscription to newsletters and electronic updates, such as Addiction News Daily and CCENDU Alerts and Bulletins;
  • To send publication notifications or other electronic updates as requested by you;
  • To respond to specific requests for information or questions you have raised with us;
  • To organize conferences and events (including CCSA's biannual Issues of Substance conference), maintain records of conference attendees and provide a business contact list of conference attendees; and
  • To contact conference and event attendees in order to plan for future conferences and events. We maintain a record of contact information of past conference and events in order to provide those attendees with information for future conferences and events.

Processing and retention of personal information

Personal information collected by CCSA is securely stored and maintained in Canada. Access to personal information collected by CCSA is restricted to those who need to access the information (on a confidential basis), or to legally authorized governmental or law enforcement agencies.

Information is retained for only as long as that information is necessary for the purposes for which it was collected:

  • Subscriptions: Personal information is retained for as long as needed to manage your subscription.
  • Information requests: Personal information is anonymized six months after the request is received.
  • Conferences and events: Participant contact information is retained for two years following the event.

Withdrawing consent

You can withdraw your consent for CCSA to use your personal information for one or more of the above purposes by sending an email to privacy@ccsa.ca, or by calling (613) 235-4048 or toll-free 1-833-235-4048. By withdrawing your consent you acknowledge that CCSA may not be able to provide further information to you.

Third-party disclosure

CCSA will not collect, use or disclose to a third party your personal information without your explicit consent except where:

  • We are required or permitted to do so by law (such as to comply with court orders, warrants or subpoena, or requests by law enforcement agencies to enforce our website terms and conditions of use, or to protect the rights, property or safety of our website and the users of the site);
  • Such information could aid in an emergency where people's lives or safety may be at stake; or
  • Where otherwise permitted by law.

We do not share your personal information with third parties for marketing purposes. We may contract with third parties to help us with services related to event planning or conferences, such as collecting data for registration and operationalizing our website, which includes technical and processing services, developing and updating website content and information, analyzing website performance, and updating and maintaining our databases and subscription services. These third parties are obligated to keep the information secure and confidential and must use the information only in connection with providing services to CCSA.

CCSA contracts professional conference organizers for its Issues of Substance (IOS) conference. These contractors, however, are required to adhere to strict privacy controls and standards when collecting, using and disclosing personal information collected in connection with the IOS conference.

Security measures

We carefully protect any personal information that we have by housing all collected information in secure physical premises. The computers and servers on which we store personal information are kept in a secure environment with limited physical access.

TRACKING TECHNOLOGIES

Cookies

Our website uses cookies to provide you with the best browsing experience. Cookies are small text files created by a website that are stored on your device (computer, tablet, smartphone), either temporarily for that session or until you close your browser. Persistent cookies are permanently stored on the hard disk of your device. Cookies contain a unique identification number that recognizes your computer's browser (but not you) when you visit a website. They collect and generate information (including your IP address) about your visits to our website.

  • Agreeing to cookies
    When you visit our websites for the first time, you are shown a message about the use of cookies with a link to this Privacy Notice for more information. Clicking the “Continue” button to close this message means that you allow the use of cookies in accordance with the provisions of this Privacy Notice.
  • Opting out of cookies
    You can delete cookies or adjust your browser settings to notify you when a cookie is sent. Please consult your browser's help menu for instructions. Visiting our website with analytics cookies disabled will have no significant impact on your browsing experience.

Web server analytics

The web servers we use automatically collect information, including but not limited to the internet protocol (IP) address of the computers that access our site, the browser type and the pages viewed on the website. An IP address is a number that is assigned to your computer when you access the internet. It is not personally identifiable information. We use this information in aggregate form to understand how our sites are used and how we can better serve our users.

Google Analytics, Webtrends and AWStats

CCSA uses Google Analytics, Webtrends Analytics 10 and AWStats for tracking information. These tracking platforms recognize your computer's browser (but not you) when you visit our website. This is done to collect and generate information (including your IP address) about your visits to our site. This information is then transmitted to the Google Analytics, Webtrends Analytics 10 and AWStats servers in an anonymous form for processing.

Google Analytics, Webtrends Analytics 10 and AWStats use the information:

  • To evaluate your use of the websites,
  • To draw up reports on activity on the websites, and
  • To provide other services relating to website activity and internet usage.

We study patterns of website activity so that we can improve the experience of visitors to our sites. The use of these tools does not allow us or our analytics service provider to identify individuals. Google currently offers a free Google Analytics opt-out tool for Microsoft Internet Explorer 11, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari and Opera: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

Social media

YouTube
CCSA embeds videos from the CCSA-CCDUS YouTube channel using YouTube’s privacy-enhanced mode. By clicking on the YouTube video player on our website, YouTube may send a cookie to your computer. To find out more, please visit YouTube’s embedding videos information and their Privacy Notice.

LINKING TO WEBSITES

From time to time, CCSA's website may also reference or contain links to other website. We do not endorse any other non-CCSA websites and accept no responsibility for the quality, content, nature or reliability of the sites accessible from our website or sites that may link to our website. When leaving CCSA's websites, you should be aware that CCSA's terms and policies, including this Privacy Notice, no longer govern your online activities; we do not have any control over non-CCSA websites. Please ensure to always review the applicable terms and policies, including privacy and data-gathering practices, of the linked site prior to using any other site or providing any personal information to a third party.

ADDITIONAL RIGHTS OF EU DATA SUBJECTS

If you are an EU data subject under the GDPR, without limitation, you have the following additional rights respecting your information:

  • You are entitled to ask us to port your personal information (i.e., to transfer it in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format for you), to erase it or to restrict its processing;
  • You have the right to object to some processing of personal information that is based on our legitimate interests, such as profiling that we perform for the purposes of direct marketing;
  • You may withdraw any consent we have requested and/or that you have provided in respect of the processing or handling of your personal information; and
  • If you have unresolved concerns regarding the use or handling of your personal information you have the right to complain to data protection authorities. The relevant data protection authority will be the data protection authority of the country: (i) of your habitual residence; (ii) of your place of work; or (iii) in which you consider the alleged infringement has occurred.

There are limitations on these rights in certain circumstances, for example (and without limitation):

  • If we can demonstrate that we have a legal requirement to process your personal information, then in some instances we may retain data even if you withdraw consent; and
  • If we require your personal information to comply with legal or contractual obligations, and if without such data we will not be able to manage our contractual relationship with you, or meet any obligations placed on us, then provision of such data is mandatory.

HOW TO CONTACT US

If you have questions or concerns about this Privacy Notice, wish to have access to your personal information or want to correct or update any personal information, send an email to privacy@ccsa.ca or call (613) 235-4048 or toll-free 1-833-235-4048, or write to us at:
Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction
75 Albert Street, Suite 500
Ottawa, ON
K1P 5E7 Canada

Last updated: June 2019

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience possible on our website. 

You can change your cookie settings in your web browser at any time. If you continue without changing your settings, we’ll assume that you are happy to receive cookies from our website. Review our Privacy Notice for more information.