Privacy Policy

As an organization devoted to raising funds for the health and social services sector, we collect, use and disclose information daily in order to provide our services in terms of soliciting contributions in various forms, participating in events, and keeping our donors and partners informed.

This Policy on the Protection of Personal Information is intended to help you understand our personal information collection, use, disclosure and retention practices. By providing us with personal information through our website, by completing an event participation form, by email, in person or by telephone, you agree to its processing in accordance with this Privacy Policy, and you authorize SCLERODERMA QUEBEC, its third parties and service providers to process your personal information for the purposes set out below.

This Policy does not apply to third-party websites that may be accessed through links on this website, and SCLERODERMA QUEBEC is not responsible in any way for such third-party websites. If you follow a link to a third-party website, that site will have its own privacy policies that you should review carefully before submitting any personal information.

WHO ARE WE AND WHAT DO WE DO?

Since its inception in 1989, Scleroderma Quebec has become the leading source of French-language public information on scleroderma and support for scleroderma patients in Canada.

Our ultimate goal: defeating Scleroderma!

The organization works on several fronts. Its mission is to:

Empower people living with the disease to improve their quality of life;
Raise funds to support cutting-edge scleroderma research;
Develop tools for patients, the general public and healthcare professionals on various topics related to scleroderma;
Advocate for the interests of its patient community.

WHAT PERSONAL INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT?

We may collect and process various types of personal information in the course of our business and provision of services, including:

professional and/or personal contact information, such as first name, last name, address(es), email address(es), date of birth and telephone number(s);
biographical information such as job title, employer, professional and/or personal background, photographs, video or audio content;
medical information, including symptoms and conditions, exercise and other health habits;
Marketing information and communication preferences, as well as related information such as food preferences, comments and survey responses;
information relating to contribution history, participation in the organization’s events, billing and financial information, such as a billing address, bank account information or payment data;
service-related information, such as details of services we have provided to you;
Information about your professional background, networks, community involvement, professional affiliations, and family ties;
recruitment information, such as curriculum vitae, education and work history, details of professional affiliations and other information relevant to potential recruitment by Scleroderma Quebec;
website usage and other technical information, such as details about your visits to our websites, your interaction with our advertising and online content, or information collected through profiling cookies and other tracking technologies;
information such as your donation and community investment policy, your contributions, the recipient organizations and what they are dedicated to, the recognition received, the decision-making process, and the names of the individuals; and
where applicable, evidence of consent given to us (date, time, means), in circumstances where such consent is necessary for the processing of personal information;
any other personal information you provide. Please note that if you provide us with personal information about other persons (such as your customers, directors, officers, shareholders or beneficial owners), you must ensure that you have duly notified them that you are providing us with their information and that you have obtained their consent to such disclosure.

We do not knowingly collect information from children or others under 14 years of age. If you are a minor under the age of 14, please do not provide us with personal information without the express consent of a parent or guardian. If you are a parent or guardian and you are aware that your child have provided us with personal information, please contact us. If we learn that we have collected personal information from a minor child without verification of parental consent, we will take steps to delete that information from our servers.

HOW DO WE COLLECT YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?

We collect your personal information directly from you, with your consent, and in the course of our interactions with you, including as follows:

When you register for activities, training and newsletters;
When you register for fundraising events;
When you make a donation to our organization, in any form;
When you register as a volunteer for our organization;
In the course of providing services to you;
When you communicate with us by mail, email, or telephone;
When you browse our website.

We also collect personal information that you make publicly available, particularly on public platforms.

Personal information we collect from you.

TO WHAT PURPOSE DO WE COLLECT YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?

We may use personal information in one of the following ways, each of which describes the purposes for which we will use the information:

To provide our services and conduct our business, send you newsletters, communicate with you, and offer you surveys;
To perform our obligations under any agreement entered into between you and us;
To contact you for fundraising purposes;
To collect payment for your donations and online purchases of merchandise or tickets;
To issue tax receipts, where applicable;
To allow you to contact us regarding one of our programs;
To facilitate your use of our websites and ensure that the content is relevant, and to ensure that the content of our websites is presented in the most effective manner for you and your device;
For marketing and business development purposes – to provide details of new services, information about developments in our organization and the industry, and invitations to seminars and events where an individual has opted to receive such information;
For research and development purposes (including security) – to carry out analyses to better understand our donors’ service and marketing requirements and to better understand our organization, and develop our services and offerings;
For recruitment purposes – to enable us to process job applications and assess whether an individual meets the requirements of the position for which they may apply at Scleroderma Quebec;
To obtain performance statistics and analysis regarding our website, including through the use of cookies such as Google Analytics, to improve and administer our website; and to obtain performance statistics and analysis regarding our email communications;
To comply with our legal, regulatory, or risk management obligations; and
To prevent fraud and/or conduct other background checks as may be required at any time by applicable laws or regulations and/or best practices (if false or inaccurate information is provided or fraud is detected or suspected, information may be forwarded to fraud prevention organizations).
To enforce our rights, to meet our legal or regulatory reporting obligations or to protect the rights of third parties.

WHO DO WE SHARE PERSONAL INFORMATION WITH?

Scleroderma Quebec is a non-profit organization, duly incorporated and recognized as a charitable organization. As such, the personal information we collect may be transferred to and processed by any entity within the Scleroderma Quebec network. We may also share personal information with certain third parties, including the following:

Volunteers and clients of Scleroderma Quebec for the purposes of recruiting human resources, volunteers and soliciting financial or other contributions;
Third-party service providers and/or partners, including those who provide us with donation solicitation and database analysis services;
Information technology service providers who develop our applications and host and maintain our websites;
Marketing partners, such as Google and Facebook, to promote our content and offers. When you visit our website, these third parties may use cookies, web beacons (aka pixel tags or tracking pixels) or similar technologies on your hard drive to collect or receive information about your browsing on our website and elsewhere on the Internet. These technologies allow us to deliver relevant, targeted advertising based on your areas of interest;
Government authorities and law enforcement agencies when required by applicable law. Specifically, we may disclose personal and other information if we are required to do so by tax or other laws, or if we believe in good faith that such disclosure is necessary to comply with applicable laws, in response to a court order or government subpoena or search warrant, or otherwise to cooperate with such governmental authorities and law enforcement agencies. Where we may lawfully and reasonably notify you of such disclosure, we will do so.

HOW DO WE USE COOKIES AND WEB BEACONS?

We use cookies for various purposes, as shown in the table below. We use both our own and third-party cookies. If you have consented, these third parties will collect data on any website where such a cookie is installed in order to provide us with contextual analytics data or to enable us to target you with relevant advertising. You can withdraw your consent to cookies at any time by managing your preferences directly in your browser.

Cookie categories and use:

Essentials: Essential cookies are used to provide you with our online services and to make our programs available, in particular to ensure their security. For example, they are essential for accessing and using our website.
Functional: Functional cookies are used in connection with features or services available through a website. For example, they store the display language.
Analytical: Analytical cookies are used to better understand the performance of our website, including what content visitors like, or to measure the impact of our awareness campaigns. For example, we use Google Analytics cookies to obtain information such as the number of visitors, where visitors came from, pages visited, and time spent on our site. We only see the data provided by Google Analytics in aggregate form.
Marketing: Marketing cookies are set by third parties to collect information about your browsing preferences and areas of interest as you navigate the web. They allow us to provide you with relevant advertising. For example, we use third-party tracking technologies such as Meta/Facebook and Google.
Preferences: Preference cookies enable a website to remember information that changes the way the site behaves or displays, such as your preferred language or region.
Unclassified: Unclassified cookies are cookies that are in the process of being classified, as well as individual cookie providers.

Invisible pixels in HTML emails

Our marketing emails contain a unique campaign-specific “web beacon” that lets us know if our emails have been opened and, in combination with other technology, verifies clicks on links within the email. We may use this information for a variety of purposes, including to determine which of our communications are of most interest to you and to ask users who do not engage with our messages whether they still wish to receive them. The pixel is removed once you delete the email. If you do not want the pixel to be downloaded to your device, you should choose not to click on the links we send you. This information may be linked to your personal identity.

HOW LONG DO WE KEEP PERSONAL INFORMATION?

We will only retain personal information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy and to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.

For more information on how long we keep personal information, please contact us at the coordinates indicated in the How to Contact Us section.

WHERE DO WE STORE PERSONAL INFORMATION AND TRANSFERS OUTSIDE QUEBEC?

Scleroderma Quebec strives to host your data in Canada and, whenever possible, in Quebec. We use Microsoft Canada tools and servers located in Ontario, as well as a replication of this data in Quebec.

We use Mailchimp to send out our newsletters. The information collected on this platform is stored in cloud services in the United States.

HOW DO WE PROTECT PERSONAL INFORMATION?

We follow generally accepted industry standards to protect personal information submitted to us, both at the time of transmission and once we receive it. We maintain appropriate physical, technical and administrative safeguards to protect personal information against accidental or unlawful destruction, alteration, unauthorized disclosure or access, misuse or other unlawful forms of processing of personal information in our possession. We have taken steps to ensure that the only employees who have access to your personal information are those who have a need to know or whose duties reasonably require them to know it.

However, no method of transmission over the Internet or means of electronic storage is 100% secure. Accordingly, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit or provide to us, and you do so at your own risk. Nor can we guarantee that such information will not be accessed, obtained, disclosed, altered or destroyed as a result of a breach of our physical, technical or administrative safeguards. If you have reason to believe that personal information has been compromised, please contact us as indicated in the How to Contact Us section. In the event of a privacy incident involving your personal information, we will notify you as soon as we become aware of the incident. In the event of a privacy incident involving your personal information, we will take reasonable steps to minimize the risk of harm and to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future.

WHAT RIGHTS DOES AN INDIVIDUAL HAVE REGARDING THEIR PERSONAL INFORMATION?

Under certain circumstances and in accordance with applicable data protection laws, an individual has the following rights:

Access: the right to ask whether we process information and, if so, to request access to personal information. Subject to applicable law and, where applicable, the payment of a fee, an individual may thus obtain a copy of the personal information we hold and certain other information about them;
Accuracy: we are required to take reasonable steps to ensure that personal information we hold is accurate, complete, non-misleading and up-to-date;
Correction: the right to request rectification of any incomplete or inaccurate personal information held by us;
De-indexing: the right to request that we stop disseminating your personal information or de-index any hyperlink attached to your name giving access to information if such dissemination causes you harm or violates the law or a court order (right to erasure or forgetting);
Anonymization: the fact that our organization may, instead of destroying it, anonymize personal information for use, but only for serious and legitimate purposes (e.g., keeping information required for possible tax inspection purposes);
The right to be informed if you are the subject of a decision based solely on automated processing;
The right to be informed when identification, location or profiling technologies are used and of the means offered to activate these functions.

When you contact us, we may ask for additional personal information to verify your identity. If we are unable to honour your request, we will inform you of the reason for the denial. If you disagree with our decision, you may contact our Privacy Officer again and we will reconsider your request. Alternatively, you may exercise your rights with the Commission d’accès à l’information du Québec (Quebec Information and Privacy Commission) or the responsible authority in your jurisdiction if you reside outside Quebec.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us as indicated in the How to Contact Us section.

HOW TO CONTACT US

You may exercise your rights at any time by contacting our Privacy Officer, or by using the technical means made available to you, if applicable. Please contact our Privacy Officer at the following coordinates:

Scleroderma Quebec
Ms. Diane Collard
550 chemin Chambly, Suite 40
Longueuil (QC) J4H 3L8
Telephone: 514-990-6789
Toll-free: 1-844-990-6789
dianecollard@sclerodermie.ca

HOW DO WE UPDATE THIS PERSONAL INFORMATION PROTECTION POLICY?

We may amend this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our treatment of personal information. You are advised to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any such changes.

This policy was last updated on November 7, 2023.