Our organization is committed to protecting the privacy of the personal information of its employees, members, customers and other stakeholders. We value the trust of those we deal with, and of the public, and recognize that maintaining this trust requires that we be transparent and accountable in how we treat the information that you choose to share with us.

During the course of our various projects and activities, we frequently gather and use personal information. Anyone from whom we collect such information should expect that it will be carefully protected and that any use of or other dealing with this information is subject to consent. Our privacy practices are designed to achieve this.

Personal information is any information that can be used to distinguish, identify or contact a specific individual. This information can include an individual’s opinions or beliefs, as well as facts about, or related to, the individual.

Exceptions:
Business contact information and certain publicly available information, such as names, addresses and telephone numbers as published in telephone directories are not considered personal information.

Where an individual uses his or her home contact information as business contact information as well, we consider that the contact information provided is business contact information, and is not, therefore subject to protection as personal information.

The information we collect helps us to maintain our contact/client files and mailing lists, track business trends, and program usage and service ratings in order to evaluate and improve our service offering. The information also helps to ensure that we can advise individuals of news and upcoming events that may be of interest to them. In addition, we use our contact/client lists to generate a sample for our annual survey where we contact past clients of the Entrepreneurship Centre to participate in an optional, anonymous survey about business trends and services used. We also gather information, such as credit card information, that is required for registering and paying for courses, seminars or events. Individual personal information is never disclosed, shared with a third party or used for any purposes other than described above.

Personal information gathered by our organization is kept in confidence. Our personnel are authorized to access personal information based only on their need to deal with the information for the reason(s) for which it was obtained. Safeguards are in place to ensure that the information is not disclosed or shared more widely than is necessary to achieve the purpose for which it was gathered. We also take measures to ensure that the integrity of this information is maintained and that it is protected from loss or destruction.

We collect, use and disclose personal information only for purposes that a reasonable person would consider appropriate in light of the circumstances. We routinely offer individuals we deal with the opportunity to opt not to have their information shared for purposes beyond those for which it was explicitly collected.

We use password protocols and encryption software to protect personal and other information we receive when a product or service is requested and/or paid for online. Our software is routinely updated to maximize protection of such information.

We regularly review our privacy practices for our various activities, and update our policy. Please check www.investottawa.ca on an ongoing basis for information on our most up-to-date practices.

Questions, concerns or complaints relating to Invest Ottawa’s privacy policy on the treatment of
personal information should be e-mailed to: [email protected].