Introduction
This Privacy Statement describes the information privacy practices for the Halifax Chamber of Commerce (HCC or Chamber), and how the HCC collects, uses and shares personal information.
By using this site, you consent to the terms of this Privacy Statement and to the use of your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Statement.
This Statement does not govern personal information about our employees, which is addressed by other HCC policies.
“Personal information” is any information about an identifiable individual, but does not include business contact information including the name, title, business address or business telephone number of an employee of any organization.
Personal information collected about you
HCC does not collect personal information about individuals except when such individuals specifically provide such information on a voluntary basis. Depending on what you request, such information may include your: email address, phone number, first name, last name, title, company, billing address, credit card number, expiry date and/or comments. The credit card number and expiry date are not retained unless required for monthly billing purposes, and are used for transaction processing only and thereafter are retained only as required for further transactions and to satisfy the legal obligations of HCC.
When seeking certain products or services, you may be asked to create an account with HCC which account will utilize some or all of the personal information which you provide to us.
HCC only collects personal information as necessary for the purposes for which you provide it to us and for the provision of HCC’s products and services in accordance with this Privacy Statement.
To help us provide better customer service, HCC may collect anonymous information, such as web page traffic from visits to our websites. This information is in an aggregate and anonymous form. The HCC does not use cookies to identify repeat users.
Use of personal information
HCC may use personal information as permitted or required by law, and as reasonably necessary for HCC to provide products and services, and to carry out HCC procedures as they apply to you, such as:
a) Processing applications for membership in the HCC;
b) Processing applications for member benefits;
c) Processing registrations for an event;
d) Processing applications to participate on a Chamber volunteer committee;
e) Processing payments to the HCC;
f) Listing contact information for your company in the Chamber’s e-directory and other listings of member contact information, such as Business Voice magazine, unless you request that no such listings be made; and
g) Communicating with you in respect of HCC matters including applications for membership, invoicing and provision of receipts, e-mail newsletters, updates and surveys.
Sharing of personal information and third party access
The HCC does not provide third party access to your personal information except in the manner set out in this Statement, as required or permitted by law, and as reasonably necessary for HCC to provide products and services, and to carry out HCC procedures as they apply to you, such as:
a) Publication in the Chamber’s e-directory and other listings of member contact information
b) To facilitate your receipt of services from Member Benefits and event sponsors;
c) To process your payment with financial institutions;
d) Member attendee lists for events are provided to sponsor organizations as part of their value package, including name, company name and company phone number. (If you do not wish to have your name included on the lists given to sponsors, you must advise the HCC in a timely manner prior to the event);
e) To contractors and agencies that work with HCC to provide our products and services to you, and who may follow up to seek your input and advise you about products and services of HCC; such contractors and agencies will be provided with access to personal information as needed to perform their functions, but we shall not authorize them to use your personal information for other purposes;
f) To enforce the terms and conditions on the Chamber’s web site, or protect the rights, property, or safety of the HCC, our visitors or others, or to collect a debt from you.
Your personal information is not otherwise disclosed beyond the HCC without your consent and is shared internally only when it is required as part of the performance of the duties of the individual seeking access.
ACCESS TO AND CHANGING AND REMOVING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
The HCC will use reasonable efforts to allow you to update or correct previously submitted personal information that you state to be erroneous. Upon your request (see our contacts below), the HCC will functionally delete your information from its databases, and you acknowledge that your member services may be affected accordingly. However, it may be impossible to delete your entry without some residual information because of backups and records of deletions.
RETAINING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
We retain your personal information as long as you remain a member of the HCC. If your membership ends, we may use and disclose your personal information as required and permitted by law, to conclude any outstanding matters relating to your membership with us, and to seek your input and advise you about products and services of HCC that may interest you. If you do not wish to receive any such further information, please contact us as indicated below. We also retain your personal information as necessary to satisfy any potential legal obligations we may have.
Security
The HCC is committed to protecting your personal information and has taken measures to avoid the loss, misuse and alteration of the information under our control. The appropriate physical, technical and administrative measures have been put into place to protect the quality and integrity of your personal information, and to keep information that is stored in our systems protected from unauthorized access.
Where necessary, our systems are configured with data encryption or scrambling technologies, and an industry-standard firewall. When you send personal information to the Chamber over the Internet, your data is protected by Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology to ensure safe transmission.
However please note that there is no method of transmitting or storing data that is 100% secure.
LINKS AND OTHER ASSOCIATED SITES
Our site may contain links to other sites. HCC does not endorse or otherwise accept responsibility for the content or privacy policies of these sites. You should carefully review the privacy statements and other terms of use for such sites. These other sites may collect, use and disclose personal information in a very different manner from this site.
Changes to this privacy statement
HCC reserves the right to modify this Privacy Statement at any time, and HCC will promptly include such modifications online. Your continued use of this site after any modifications are posted shall constitute your acceptance of all such modifications.