Privacy policy

INTRODUCTION

Focus on the Family (Canada) Association and our affiliates and subsidiaries ("Focus on the Family Canada" or “We”) respect your privacy and are committed to protecting it through our compliance with this website privacy policy.

This policy describes how we collect, use, disclose, and protect the personal information of our website users (”you”), describes the types of information we may collect from you or that you may provide when you visit any website which is operated by or on behalf of Focus on the Family Canada (our “Website”), and our practices for collecting, using, maintaining, protecting, and disclosing that information.

We will only use your personal information in accordance with this policy unless otherwise required by applicable law. We take steps to ensure that the personal information that we collect about you is adequate, relevant, not excessive, and used for limited purposes.

Privacy laws in Canada generally define “personal information” as any information about an identifiable individual, which includes information that can be used on its own or with other information to identify, contact, or locate a single person. 

This policy applies to information we collect, use, or disclose about our Website users:

• on this Website; and
• in email, text, and other electronic messages between you and this Website (for example, if you use the Website to request a prayer, or to request counselling).

The Website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins, services, social networks, or applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow the third party to collect or share data about you. If you follow a link to a third-party website or engage a third-party plugin, please note that these third parties have their own privacy policies and we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies. We do not control these third-party websites, and we encourage you to read the privacy policy of every website you visit. When Focus on the Family Canada provides links or references to other websites, no inference or assumption should be made and no representation should be inferred that Focus on the Family Canada is connected with, operates or controls these websites. Any approved link must not represent in any way, either explicitly or by implication, that you have received the endorsement, sponsorship or support of any Focus on the Family Canada site or endorsement, sponsorship or support of the ministry of Focus on the Family Canada, including its respective employees, agents or directors.

This policy does not apply to information collected by:

• us offline or through any other means, including on any other website operated by Focus on the Family Canada or any third party (including our affiliates and subsidiaries). Our offline activities are governed by the Focus on the Family (Canada) Association Privacy Code, which can be accessed here [https://www.focusonthefamily.ca/privacy-code]; or
• any third party (including our affiliates and subsidiaries), through any application or content (including advertising) that may link to or be accessible from or on the Website.

Please read this policy carefully to understand our policies and practices for collecting, processing, and storing your information. If you do not agree with our policies and practices, your choice is not to use our Website. By accessing or using this Website, you indicate that you understand, accept, and consent to the practices described in this policy. This policy may change from time to time (see the "Changes to Our Privacy Policy" section). Your continued use of this Website after we make changes indicates that you accept and consent to those changes, so please check the policy periodically for updates. We will notify you in advance of any material changes to this policy and obtain your consent to any new ways that we collect, use, and disclose your personal information.

INFORMATION WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU

We collect and use several types of information from and about you, including:

• Personal information, that we can reasonably use to directly or indirectly identify you, such as your name, mailing address, email address, telephone number, Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the Internet, user name or other similar identifier, billing and account information, information you submit to us through the Website, such as your prayer requests and requests for counselling, and any other identifier we may use to contact you online or offline (”personal information”).
• Non-personal information, that does not directly or indirectly reveal your identity or directly relate to an identified individual, such as statistical or aggregated information. Statistical or aggregated data does not directly identify a specific person, but we may derive non-personal statistical or aggregated data from personal information. For example, we may aggregate personal information to calculate the percentage of users accessing a specific Website feature.
• Technical information, including your login information, browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform, or information about your internet connection, the equipment you use to access our Website, usage details, location information, etc.
• Non-personal details about your Website interactions, including the full Uniform Resource Locators (URLs), clickstream to, through and from our Website (including date and time), products or services 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), methods used to browse away from the page, or any phone number used to call our customer service number.

HOW WE COLLECT INFORMATION ABOUT YOU

We use different methods to collect your information, including through:

• Direct interactions with you when you provide it to us, for example, by filling in forms or corresponding with us by phone, email, or otherwise.
• User contributions. You may also provide information for us to publish or display on public Website areas or transmit to other Website users or third parties.
• Automated technologies or interactions, as you navigate through our Website. Information collected automatically may include usage details, IP addresses, and information collected through cookies, web beacons, and other tracking technologies.
• Third parties or publicly available sources, for example, our business partners, including Focus on the Family (United States) and third parties we engage to help us provide services, such as fundraising and marketing research.

We will obtain your consent to collect, use or disclose personal information, except where we are required or permitted by law to do so, without consent. Your consent may be express or implied and may be given through an authorized representative, such as a lawyer or agent. If you are under the age of majority, your consent may be obtained from a parent or guardian.

Information You Provide to Us

The information we collect directly from you on or through our Website may include:

• information that you provide by filling in forms on our Website. This includes information provided at the time you request services or resources from us, such as prayer requests, counselling and magazine subscriptions. We may also ask you for information when you enter a contest or promotion sponsored by us, and when you report a problem with our Website;
• records and copies of your correspondence (including email addresses), if you contact us;
• your responses to surveys that we might ask you to complete for research purposes;
• details of transactions you carry out through our Website and of the fulfillment of your orders, including donations you make to us. You are required to provide financial information before making a donation through our Website; and
• your search queries on the Website.

You may also provide information to be published or displayed (hereinafter, “posted”) on public areas of the Website or transmitted to other users of the Website or third parties (collectively, “User Contributions”). Your User Contributions are posted on and transmitted to others at your own risk. Please be aware that we cannot control the actions of other users of the Website with whom you may choose to share your User Contributions. Therefore, we cannot and do not guarantee that unauthorized persons will not view your User Contributions.

Information We Collect Through Cookies and Other Automatic Data Collection Technologies

As you navigate through and interact with our Website, we may use cookies or other automatic data collection technologies to collect certain information about your equipment, browsing actions, and patterns, including:

• details of your visits to our Website, including traffic data, location data and other communication data and the resources that you access and use on the Website; and
• information about your computer and internet connection, including your IP address, operating system, and browser type.

We may also use these technologies to collect information about your online activities over time and across third-party websites or other online services (referred to as behavioral tracking). To learn more or to opt-out of tailored advertising please visit the Google Advertising opt-out page and the Digital Advertising Alliance of Canada Opt-Out Tool for information on how you can opt out of behavioral tracking on this Website and how we respond to web browser signals and other mechanisms that enable consumers to exercise choice about behavioral tracking.

The information we collect automatically is statistical information and may include personal information, and we may maintain it or associate it with personal information we collect in other ways, that you provide to us, or receive from third parties. It helps us to improve our Website and to deliver a better and more personalized service, including by enabling us to:

• estimate our audience size and usage patterns;
• store information about your preferences, allowing us to customize our Website according to your individual interests;
• speed up your searches;
• recognize you when you return to our Website; and
• show our ads on external sites. In order to be good stewards of our funds, we use traffic/analytics data to inform and optimize our site content and ad campaigns based on your prior visits to our Website.

The technologies we use for this automatic data collection may include:

• Cookies (or browser cookies). A cookie is a small file placed on the hard drive of your computer. You may refuse to accept browser cookies by activating the appropriate setting on your browser. However, if you select this setting you may be unable to access certain parts of our Website. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies when you direct your browser to our Website.
• Web Beacons. Pages of our Website may contain small electronic files known as web beacons (also referred to as clear gifs, pixel tags, and single-pixel gifs) that permit Focus on the Family Canada to, for example, count users who have visited those pages or and for other related website statistics (for example, recording the popularity of certain website content and verifying system and server integrity).
• Shopping Cart. The Shopping Cart Identification "cookie" allows the Online Resource Center to connect you to your active shopping cart. This cookie is set to expire whenever you exit your current browser session.

Third Party Use of Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies

Some content or applications on the Website, including advertisements, are served by third-parties, including advertisers, ad networks and servers, content providers, and application providers. These third parties may use cookies alone or in conjunction with web beacons or other tracking technologies to collect information about you when you use our Website. The information they collect may be associated with your personal information or they may collect information, including personal information, about your online activities over time and across different websites and other online services. They may use this information to provide you with interest-based (behavioural) advertising or other targeted content. 

We do not control these third parties’ tracking technologies or how they are used. If you have any questions about an advertisement or other targeted content, you should contact the responsible provider directly. For more information about how you can opt out of receiving targeted advertising from many providers, see the "Choices About How We Use and Disclose Your Information" heading of this policy below.

Our Website uses Hotjar web analytics services. Hotjar may record mouse clicks, mouse movements and scrolling activity. Hotjar collects information regarding pages visited, actions taken, country, device used, operating system and browser used. However, Hotjar does not collect any identifiable personal information, nor does it track your browsing habits across websites which do not use Hotjar services.

HOW WE USE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

We generally use information that we collect about you or that you provide to us, including any personal information, to fulfill the purposes for which you provided the information or that were described when it was collected, or any other purpose for which you provide it. These purposes are as follows:

• to present our Website and its contents to you;
• to provide you with information, products, or services that you request from us, including resource materials and other related materials that are available through our Website, such as prayer requests and to connect you with counselling services that you have requested;
• to provide you with notices about your subscriptions, including expiration and renewal notices;
• to contact you about special events, promotions and fundraising and other similar matters which are directly or indirectly beneficial to us, including to provide information about how donated funds are used and to thank and publicly recognize our donors and other stakeholders;
• to carry out our obligations and enforce our rights arising from any contracts with you, including for billing and collection or to comply with legal or regulatory requirements, such as reporting charitable donations to the Canada Revenue Agency;
• to notify you about changes to our Website or any products or services we offer or provide though it;
• to improve our Website, products or services, marketing, or customer relationships and experiences;
• to allow you to participate in interactive features, social media, or similar features on our Website, including, without limitation, to request prayers or counselling;
• to measure or understand the effectiveness of the advertising we serve to you and others, and to deliver relevant advertising to you;
• to authenticate your identity, such as when you sign into your account;
• in any other way we may describe when you provide the information; and
• for any other purpose with your consent, or as required or permitted by law.

We may also use your information to contact you about our own and third-parties’ goods and services that may be of interest to you, as permitted by law. If you do not want us to use your information in this way, please use the unsubscribe mechanism at the bottom of our emails or email us at [email protected] or phone us at 1.800.661.9800. For more information, see the "Choices About How We Use and Disclose Your Information" heading below.

We may use the information we have collected from you to enable us to display advertisements to our advertisers’ target audiences. Even though we do not disclose your personal information for these purposes without your consent, if you click on or otherwise interact with an advertisement, the advertiser may assume that you meet its target criteria.

DISCLOSURE OF YOUR INFORMATION

We may disclose aggregated information about our users, and information that does not identify any individual, without restriction.

We may disclose personal information that we collect or you provide as described in this privacy policy:

• to our subsidiaries and affiliates (including Focus on the Family (United States)). For more information, see the "Transferring your Personal Information" heading below;
• in accordance with applicable law, to a successor in the event of a reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of our assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, in which personal information held by us about our users is among the assets transferred;
• to advertisers and advertising networks that require the information to select and serve relevant advertisements to you and others;
• to fulfill the purpose for which you provide it; 
• for any other purpose disclosed by us when you provide the information; and
• with your consent.

We may also disclose your personal information:

• to comply with any court order, law, or legal process, including to respond to any government or regulatory request, in accordance with applicable law;
• to enforce or apply our terms of use [https://www.focusonthefamily.ca/terms-of-use] and other agreements, including for billing and collection purposes; and
• if we believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to protect the rights, property, or safety of Focus on the Family Canada, our members, or others. 

TRANSFERRING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

We may transfer personal information that we collect or that you provide as described in this policy to contractors, service providers, and other third parties we use to support our business (such as analytics and search engine providers that assist us with Website improvement and optimization, organizations that assist us with our fundraising efforts or service providers who assist us with hosting, data storage or processing) and who are contractually obligated to keep personal information confidential, to use it only for the purposes for which we disclose it to them, and to process the personal information with the same standards set out in this policy.

In particular, we and Focus on the Family (United States) may transfer personal information between each other, according to our policies, procedures and practices, except where otherwise required or permitted by law. Focus on the Family (United States) will only use or disclose your personal information for the purposes which are set out in this privacy policy or as necessary to carry out duties on our behalf.

We may process, store, and transfer your personal information in and to a foreign country, with different privacy laws that may or may not be as comprehensive as Canadian law. In these circumstances, the governments, courts, law enforcement, or regulatory agencies of that country may be able to obtain access to your personal information through the laws of the foreign country. Whenever we engage a service provider, we require that its privacy and security standards adhere to this policy and applicable Canadian privacy legislation.

You are welcome to contact us to obtain further information about Focus on the Family Canada practices regarding service providers outside of Canada. See the "Contact Information and Challenging Compliance" heading below.

By submitting your personal information or engaging with the Website, you consent to this transfer, storage, or processing.

CHOICES ABOUT HOW WE USE AND DISCLOSE YOUR INFORMATION

We strive to provide you with choices regarding the personal information you provide to us. 

You can opt-out of several third party ad servers’ and networks’ cookies simultaneously by using opt-out tools created by Google Advertising, the Digital Advertising Alliance of Canada or by the Network Advertising Initiative. You may also opt out of our use of Google Analytics by visiting the Google Analytics opt-out page. We may have reporting of your aggregate interactions with our ads across the Google Display Network or DoubleClick for Advertisers in conjunction with activity on our website.

You can also access these websites to learn more about online behavioural advertising and how to stop websites from placing cookies on your device. Opting out of a network does not mean you will no longer receive online advertising. It does mean that the network from which you opted out will no longer deliver ads tailored to your web preferences and usage patterns. 

In addition, we have created mechanisms to provide you with the following control over your information:

• Tracking Technologies and Advertising. You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when cookies are being sent. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this Website may not be accessible or may not function properly. For more information about tracking technologies, see the "Information We Collect Through Cookies and Other Automatic Data Collection Technologies" heading of this policy above.
• Third-Party Advertising. If you do not want us to share your personal information with unaffiliated or non-agent third parties for promotional purposes, you can opt-out by sending us an email stating your request to [email protected] or phone us at 1.800.661.9800. 
• Promotional Offers. If you have opted in to receive certain emails from us but no longer wish to have your email address/contact information used by the Focus on the Family Canada to promote our own or third parties’ products or services, you can opt-out by sending us an email stating your request to [email protected] or phone us at 1.800.661.9800. If we have sent you a promotional email, you may unsubscribe by clicking the unsubscribe link we have included in the email. 
• Targeted Advertising. If you do not want us to use information that we collect or that you provide to us to deliver advertisements according to our advertisers’ target-audience preferences, you can opt out by using the opt-out tools created by the Digital Advertising Alliance of Canada, the Network Advertising Initiative or Google Advertising.

DATA SECURITY

The security of your personal information is very important to us. We use physical, electronic, and administrative measures designed to secure your personal information from accidental loss and from unauthorized access, use, alteration, and disclosure. We store all information you provide to us behind firewalls on secure servers that are operated by third parties on our behalf. Any payment transactions will be encrypted using SSL technology.

The safety and security of your information also depends on you. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password for access to certain parts of our Website, you are responsible for creating a strong password and for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share your password with anyone. We urge you to be careful about giving out information in public areas of the Website, which any Website visitor can view. 

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the Internet is not completely secure. Although we do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information transmitted to our Website. Any transmission of personal information is at your own risk. We are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the Website.

In addition, while we take commercially reasonable measures to maintain a secure site, electronic communications and databases are subject to errors, tampering and break-ins, and we cannot guarantee or warrant that such events will not take place and we will not be liable to you for any such occurrences.

DATA RETENTION

Except as otherwise permitted or required by applicable law or regulation, we will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. Under some circumstances we may anonymize your personal information so that it can no longer be associated with you. We reserve the right to use such anonymous and de-identified data for any legitimate business purpose without further notice to you or your consent.

CHILDREN UNDER THE AGE OF 13

Our Website is not intended for children under 13 years of age. No one under age 13 may provide any personal information to or on the Website. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you are under 13, do not use or provide any information on this Website or on or through any of its features, make any donations through the Website, use any of the interactive or public comment features of this Website, or provide any information about yourself to us, including your name, address, telephone number or email address. If we learn we have collected or received personal information from a child under 13 without verification of parental consent, we will delete that information. If you believe we might have any information from or about a child under 13, please contact our privacy officer at the contact information set out in the "Contact Information and Challenging Compliance" heading below.

ACCESSING AND CORRECTING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

It is important that the personal information we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal information changes. By law you have the right to request access to and to correct the personal information that we hold about you.

If you want to review, verify, correct, or withdraw consent to the use of your personal information you may also send our privacy officer an email at the contact information set out in the "Contact Information and Challenging Compliance" heading below to request access to, correct, or delete any personal information that you have provided to us. We may not accommodate a request to change information if we believe the change would violate any law or legal requirement or cause the information to be incorrect. We may charge you a fee to access your personal information, however, we will notify you of any fee in advance.

We may request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and your right to access, and to provide you with the personal information that we hold about you or make your requested changes. We will provide access to your personal information, subject to exceptions set out in applicable privacy legislation. Applicable law may allow or require us to refuse to provide you with access to some or all of the personal information that we hold about you, or we may have destroyed, erased, or made your personal information anonymous in accordance with our record retention obligations and practices. If we cannot provide you with access to your personal information, we will inform you of the reasons why, subject to any legal or regulatory restrictions.

If you are concerned about our response or would like to correct the information provided, you may contact our Privacy Officer at the contact information set out in the "Contact Information and Challenging Compliance" heading below.

If you delete your User Contributions from the Website, copies of your User Contributions may remain viewable in cached and archived pages or might have been copied or stored by other Website users.

WITHDRAWING YOUR CONSENT

Where you have provided your consent to the collection, use, and transfer of your personal information, you may have the legal right to withdraw your consent, subject to certain conditions. To withdraw your consent, if applicable, contact us by phone at 1.800.661.9800 or via email at [email protected] and we will gladly accommodate your request. Please note that if you withdraw your consent we may not be able to provide you with a particular product or service. We will explain the impact to you at the time to help you with your decision.

CHANGES TO OUR PRIVACY POLICY

It is our policy to post any changes we make to our privacy policy on this page. If we make material changes to how we treat our users’ personal information, we will notify you by email to the email address we have stored for you (if any), or through a notice on the Website home page. We include the date the privacy policy was last revised at the top of the page. You are responsible for ensuring we have an up-to-date, active, and deliverable email address for you, and for periodically visiting our Website and this privacy policy to check for any changes.

LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

Focus on the Family Canada will not be liable for any damages or injury that accompany or result from your use of any of its sites, including the Website.

These include (but are not limited to) damages or injury caused by any: 

• use of (or inability to use) the sites; 
• use of (or inability to use) any site to which you hyperlink from our sites;
• failure of our sites to perform in the manner you expected or desired;
• error on our sites;
• omission on our sites;
• interruption of availability of our sites;
• defect on our sites;
• delay in operation or transmission of our sites; or
• computer virus or line failure.

Please note that we are not liable for any damages, including:

• damages intended to compensate someone directly for a loss or injury;
• damages reasonably expected to result from a loss or injury (known in legal terms as "consequential damages");
• other miscellaneous damages and expenses resulting directly from a loss or injury (known in legal terms as "incidental damages"); and
• we are not liable even if we've been negligent or if our authorized representative has been advised of the possibility of such damages or both.

Exception: Laws in certain jurisdictions may not allow us to limit or exclude liability for these "incidental" or "consequential" damages. If you live in one of those jurisdictions, the above limitation obviously would not apply which would mean that you might have the right to recover these types of damages. However, in any event, our liability to you for all losses, damages, injuries, and claims of any and every kind (whether the damages are claimed under the terms of a contract, or claimed to be caused by negligence or other wrongful conduct, or they're claimed under any other legal theory) will not be greater than any amount you paid to access our sites or to use products or services made available through the Website. 

LANGUAGE

You and Focus on the Family Canada have requested and agree that this policy and all documents related to this policy be drawn up in English. Les parties ont demandé que cette convention ainsi que tous les documents qui s'y rattachent soient rédigés en anglais (version française).

CONTACT INFORMATION AND CHALLENGING COMPLIANCE

We welcome your questions, comments, and requests regarding this privacy policy and our privacy practices. Please contact us at:

Focus on the Family (Canada) Association
19946 - 80A Avenue
Langley, BC V2Y 0J8
Attention: The Privacy Officer

Email: [email protected]

and/or via our toll-free number:

1.800.661.9800

We have procedures in place to receive and respond to complaints or inquiries about our handling of personal information, our compliance with this policy, and with applicable privacy laws. To discuss our compliance with this policy please contact our Privacy Officer using the contact information listed above.