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Privacy Policy

Last Updated/Effective Date: December 2, 2024

Introduction

This policy outlines how we manage your Personal Information and safeguard your privacy when you visit or use the ocean information service (“Services”) operated by CIOOS Pacific, a Regional Association of the Canadian Integrated Ocean Observing System (CIOOS), and the Hakai Institute, a division of the Tula Foundation (collectively, “Provider”, “we”, “our” or “us”) and made available via the oceanconnect.ca website (the “Website”).

Provider recognizes the importance of privacy and the sensitivity of Personal Information. Provider believes in protecting your privacy. If you have any concerns, please contact us at the address at the end of this policy.

This policy does not apply to the practices of companies or other entities that Provider does not manage or control. This policy does not apply to information regarding corporations or other non-individuals.

Definitions

The following definitions are used for the purposes of this policy:

“Contact Information” is information that is used for the purpose of communicating or facilitating communication with an individual in relation to their employment, business or profession such as the individual’s name, position name or title, work address, work telephone number, work fax number or work email address.

“Personal Information” means information about an identifiable individual, excluding Contact Information.

Collection of Personal Information

Please remember that you control what Personal Information you provide to Provider while visiting and using the Services. You can visit and use the Services without submitting any Personal Information at all.

You may voluntarily provide us with Personal Information through the Services:

  • By filling-in an online form on the Website;

  • If you choose to correspond with us through the Website.

The Personal Information you provide us may include your:

  • name;

  • personal contact information, including email, home address, and telephone numbers;

  • any other information you may provide in your correspondence or submission to us;

  • other information related to the subject matter you are communicating with us about.

USE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

Provider may use the Personal Information you provide to us for the following purposes:

  • to respond to your correspondence or submission to us and to help you get the information you requested;

  • to contact and correspond with you;

  • to administer or improve our Services and for internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, and statistical purposes;

  • as required or permitted by law.

Disclosure of Personal Information

Provider does not and will not sell, rent, share or disclose your Personal Information without first receiving your permission or as disclosed in this policy.

Provider may disclose your Personal Information in the following circumstances:

  • when you have consented to the disclosure;

  • to fulfill the purpose for which the Personal Information was collected;

  • when your interaction with us requires us to give information to third parties;

  • if we engage a third party to provide services to us (like hosting or data storage services) and the third party is bound by confidentiality obligations;

  • in the event that we sell or buy any business or assets or propose to enter into such a transaction, in which case we may disclose your Personal Information to the seller or buyer of such business or assets or for due diligence purposes, as permitted by law;

  • in order to cooperate with legitimate governmental requests, subpoenas or court orders, or in order to enforce or apply our Services terms of use, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of Provider, our Services users, or others;

  • as required or permitted by law.

By visiting or using the Services or providing Personal Information to us you voluntarily consent to the collection, use, and disclosure of Personal Information and other information as specified in this policy. Without limiting the foregoing, we may on occasion ask you to consent when we collect, use, or disclose your Personal Information in specific circumstances, in which case we may ask for your consent in writing although in some circumstances we may accept your oral consent. Your consent may be implied through your conduct with us if the purpose of the collection, use or disclosure is obvious and you voluntarily provide the information. In addition, we may collect, use and disclose Personal Information without your consent when we are required or permitted by law to do so.

WITHDRAWAL OF CONSENT

Individuals have the right to withdraw their consent to the collection, use, or disclosure of Personal Information at any time, except where that withdrawal would frustrate the performance of a legal obligation by Provider. Upon reasonable written notice given to Provider, all Personal Information held by Provider that is identifiable to that individual will be removed from our records and a notice of the impact of that removal will be provided to the individual. Notwithstanding the foregoing, if you withdraw consent Provider nonetheless reserves the right to retain, collect, use and disclose Personal Information without your consent where we are permitted by law to do so.

Website Collection of Data

Like most other websites, our Services may automatically collect the following information:

  • technical information, including the Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the Internet, your login information, browser type and version, time zone setting, operating system and platform;

  • information about your visit, including the full Uniform Resource Locators (URL) clickstream to, through and from our site (including date and time); pages you viewed or searched for; page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks, and mouse-overs), and methods used to browse away from the page.

Cookies

The Services uses cookies. A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers placed on your device to store and sometimes track information about you and your use of the Services. To learn more about cookies and similar technologies, and how they can affect your privacy, visit allaboutcookies.org.

Cookies and other technologies are used for the operation of the Services and to distinguish you from other users of the Services and help to provide you with a personalized experience when you use the Services, as well as to improve the Services. For information on the cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them see our Cookie Policy

You can adjust your privacy preferences regarding the use of cookies through your browser. If you do not want information collected through the use of cookies, you can turn off cookies using your browser’s settings menu; however, this may eliminate our ability to provide a personalized or user-friendly experience. Please note that disabling cookies may impair your user experience and disable certain features of the Services.

Tracking and Analytics Services

Occasionally, we may include or offer third-party products or services on our website. These third-party sites have separate and independent privacy policies.

Specifically, we partner with Microsoft Clarity and Microsoft Advertising to capture how you use and interact with our website through behavioral metrics, heatmaps, and session replay to improve and market our products/services. Website usage data is captured using first and third-party cookies and other tracking technologies to determine the popularity of products/services and online activity. Additionally, we use this information for site optimization and advertising. For more information about how Microsoft collects and uses your data, visit the Microsoft Privacy Statement.

In addition to Microsoft Clarity, we also use Google Analytics to track and analyze user interactions on our website. Google Analytics may collect various types of data, including but not limited to user interactions, demographic information, and device information. This data is used to optimize website functionality, enhance user experience, and analyze traffic patterns. Google Analytics uses cookies to track user interactions and preferences. Users can manage cookie settings through their browser preferences. For more information about Google's data collection and processing practices, please refer to Google's Privacy Policy.

The Website may contain links to sites or integrate services owned or operated by Provider’s third party suppliers, which are not governed by this policy. You should read the individual privacy policies of these other sites and services, and make an informed decision whether or not to use these other websites based upon their privacy practices.

Location Information

Our Services include location-based technologies, including real-time geographic location of your device, and we may collect, use and disclose location information in connection with the Services so that we may verify your location in order to provide the Services helpful to you including content, information and data about ocean conditions and forecasts. You should consider the pros and cons involved in disclosing your location information to us and to other people. You can use the Services’ settings or your device’s settings to turn-off or change settings and preferences for location information sharing and functions.

Access to and Correction of Personal Information

Individuals have the right to know what Personal Information Provider has collected about them, how that information is being used and to whom it has been disclosed, as well as to verify and amend that information if it is incorrect. Upon receiving a written access and/or correction request, and where the identity of the requestor can be confirmed, information held by Provider that is identifiable to the requestor, as well as information on all use and disclosures of that information, will be released to the requestor within the legally prescribed period, except where that release is not required or is prohibited by law, and if necessary Provider will correct the Personal Information of the requestor. If we deny your request for access to, or refuse a request to correct Personal Information, we will explain why.

Jurisdiction

Provider is based in British Columbia, Canada and the information (including any Personal Information) we collect is maintained and processed in Canada and potentially other countries where our third party hosting and other service providers may be located or operate. You understand and agree that we may store and process the information you provide to us in Canada and other countries. As a result, this information may be subject to access requests from governments, courts, or law enforcement in Canada and foreign countries according to their laws.

Security

Provider uses reasonable industry measures to protect against the unauthorized access, disclosure, modification or destruction of Personal Information we collect. While we are committed to ensuring the security of Personal Information, no protection measure can provide a 100% guarantee of security. Consequently, we do not warrant or guarantee the security of the Personal Information or of any email communications or information sent by you to us. If you wish to send us confidential information, please notify us first to make arrangements.

Retention of Personal Information

Personal Information will be retained in accordance with this policy for as long as may be necessary or relevant for the identified purpose of collection, or as may be required or permitted by law, after which time it will be made anonymous or destroyed unless you further consent to its continued retention.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may change this policy from time to time and such changes will be effective from the date of revision.

Need More Information?

Should you have any further questions or concerns about the privacy of information you provide to Provider or this policy, including our use of affiliates or third party service providers outside Canada to process personal information, please feel free to contact any of the following people:

Attention: Privacy Officer

Email: info@tula.org