Privacy Policy

The Canadian Ophthalmological Society (the “Society” or “we”) respects your privacy and is committed to ensuring that your personal information is treated with the utmost respect, dignity and sensitivity by complying with this policy.

This policy describes:

• How the Society collects, uses, discloses, and protects 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 the website seethepossibilities.ca.
• 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 the Society collects, uses, or discloses about you:

• On this Website.
• In email, text, and other electronic messages between you and this Website.
• Through mobile and desktop applications you download from this Website, which provide dedicated non-browser-based interaction between you and this Website.
• When you interact with our advertising and applications on third-party websites and services if those applications or advertising include links to this policy.

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 the Society does not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies. The Society does not control these third-party websites and encourages you to read the privacy policy of every website you visit.

Please read this policy carefully to understand the Society’s policies and practices for collecting, processing, and storing your information. If you do not agree with the 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 Changes to Our Privacy Policy). 

Information the Society Collects 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, e-mail address, telephone number, Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the Internet, user name or other similar identifier, and any other identifier we may use to contact you (“personal information“). 
• – Non-personal information, that does not directly or indirectly reveal your identity or directly relate to an identifiable individual, demographic information, or 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, and usage details.
• – 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 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.

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 of registering to use our Website, posting material, or requesting further services. 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 any orders. You may be required to provide financial information before placing an order through our Website.
• – Your search queries on the Website.

How the Society Collects 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. 
• – Automated technologies or interactions, as you navigate through our Website. Information collected automatically may include usage details, IP addresses, and information collected through cookies and other tracking technologies.
• – Third parties or publicly available sources, for example, our business partners.
• Other means of collecting personal information or information generally.

Purposes for Collecting, Using and Disclosing Your Personal Information

As a visitor to our site, we collect, use and disclose your personal information for the following purposes:

• – To present our Website and its contents to you;
• – To provide you with information, products, or services that you request from us;
• – Analyze the accuracy and effectiveness or our website and services, including to administer, troubleshoot and enhance the website and services;
• – Analyze data, identify trends and issues and create statistical reports;
• – Administer contests, promotions and surveys;
• – To meet any legal or regulatory requirements; 
• – To fulfill the purposes for which you provided the information or that were described when it was collected; and
• – For any other purpose with your consent.

Disclosure of Your Information

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

• – To our affiliates;
• – In accordance with applicable law, to a buyer or other successor in the event of a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of the Society’s assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, in which personal information held by the Society about our customers and users is among the assets transferred;
• – 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) and who are contractually obligated to keep personal information confidential, 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;
• – 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 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 the Society, our customers, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organizations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction.

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) and who are contractually obligated to keep personal information confidential, 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.

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.

Consent for Collecting, Using and Disclosing Your Personal Information

The Society relies on implied consent to collect, use and disclose your personal information for the purposes outlined above. Your personal information may include your name, date of birth, address and contact information. If we require your personal information for purposes not outlined above or which were not communicated to you at the time that we collected the information from you, then we will obtain your consent to collect, use or disclose your personal information for these purposes.

Your Privacy Rights

At any time, you may withdraw your consent for The Society to collect, use or disclose your personal information for our programs, services or to share it with a third-party organization. If you choose to withdraw your consent, our employees will explain to you the potential implications of your withdrawal, after which the Society will implement your withdrawal of consent request to the best of our abilities. In all cases, withdrawal of consent is not retroactive.

You also have the right to request access to the personal information that we have collected about you, and to request a correction to this information if you believe it is inaccurate. The Society has provided online services to assist you with correcting some of your personal information on your own. However, if you are unable to do so, you must submit an access or corrections request in writing to our Privacy Officer.

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. 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.

How We Protect Your Personal Information

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, copying, modification, alteration, disposal, and disclosure. We also conduct audits and complete investigations to monitor and manage our compliance with our privacy obligations.

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 keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share your password with anyone. 

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. 

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. 

How to Contact Us or Make a Complaint

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

Privacy Officer
110-2733 Lancaster Road, Ottawa, ONK1B 0A9
[email protected]

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.

You also have the right to complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada if you think we have violated your privacy rights for personal information. The Commissioner can be reached at:

    30 Victoria Street, Gatineau, Quebec K1A 1H3

    Phone: 819.994.5444 or 1.800.282.1376

    Fax: 819.994.5424

    Web: www.priv.gc.ca

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 specified in your account and through a notice on the Website home page. 

We include the date the privacy policy was last revised at the bottom 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.

Last modified: 04/30/20