Last updated February 2022
The Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario (RNAO) is subject to the requirements of the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and to Canada’s anti-spam legislation (CASL). RNAO also observes General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), insofar as RNAO collects web-based data analytics. RNAO is committed to ensuring that your personal information is treated with the utmost respect, dignity, and sensitivity.
What kind of information does RNAO collect?
Information collected automatically
When you browse RNAO’s website, our servers automatically collect limited amounts of standard information for traffic monitoring and statistical purposes. This information may include, but it is not limited to:
- Internet Protocol (IP) addresses of the computers being used to access our sites
- operating systems and types and versions of browsers used to access our sites
- Internet Service Providers used by visitors to our sites
- dates and times users access our sites
- pages visited
- keywords users enter into our search engine
- names and sizes of files requested
Information you provide
This is information that includes personal information such as (but not limited to):
- name
- address
- telephone/fax numbers
- e-mail address
- birth date
- employment and education information
- the College of Nurses of Ontario (CNO) registration number
- social insurance number (when required for issuing tax slips)
- banking information
- ethnicity information
- languages spoken
Purposes for collection, use and disclosure of Personal Information
RNAO collects, uses, and discloses your personal information for the following purposes:
- to register you as an RNAO member
- to communicate with you for RNAO products, services, and information
- to assess your needs as a RNAO member and to determine which RNAO products and services are useful and relevant to you
- to manage our continuing relationship with you
- to conduct surveys and polls of RNAO members
- to permit affiliated and other reputable third-party organizations to provide services and information to you
- to facilitate communication and otherwise assist individuals or institutions during a public health or other emergency
- at the request of member groups, specifically RNAO's Indigenous Nurses and Allies Interest Group, Black Nurses Task Force & Black Nurses Leading Change Interest Group (working title), who have asked RNAO to collect race-based information about representation of racialized groups to measure the scope of systemic racial inequality and to track progress towards creating a fair, inclusive and equitable profession for all nurses; this information will also assist RNAO in connecting members who are interested in speaking to community media interview requests and to provide services
- to meet any legal or regulatory requirements such as disclosures under the Corporations Act
- for other purposes consistent with the above
Consent for collection, use and disclosure of personal information
RNAO relies on implied consent to collect, use, and disclose your personal information for the purposes outlined above. If we require your personal information for other purposes, which were not communicated to you at the time of collection, then we will obtain your consent to collect, use, or disclose your personal information for these purposes.
At any time, you may withdraw your consent for RNAO to collect, use, or disclose your personal information for RNAO programs and services. If you choose to withdraw your consent, our staff will explain to you the potential implications of your withdrawal, after which RNAO staff will implement your withdrawal of consent request to the best of their abilities. In all cases, withdrawal of consent is not retroactive.
Retention
RNAO retains personal information only for as long as is required to fulfill the purposes stated within this policy, and to meet all requirements by law.
Security safeguards
RNAO is committed to keeping your personal information safe and secure. We have put safeguards in place to protect your personal information from theft, loss and unauthorized access, copying, modification, use, disclosure, and disposal. We have created policies and training to ensure that everyone who performs services for us has received guidance on how to protect your privacy and to use your personal information only for authorized purposes. We also conduct audits and complete investigations to monitor and manage our compliance with our privacy obligations.
Individual Access
Individuals have the right to seek access to their own personal information in the possession and control of RNAO, subject to restrictions contained in this policy or by law. Except where otherwise required by law, access to personal information may not be permitted in the following cases:
- legally privileged information
- where disclosure is prohibited by law
- information concerning persons other than the individual seeking access
- information given to RNAO in confidence
- information which may threaten or harm the life, health, safety or security of the individual seeking access
- information relating to any dispute settlement process between RNAO and the individual seeking access
- notes and other work product of RNAO staff
- information which could threaten or harm the life, health, safety or security of individuals other than the individual seeking access
- where in RNAO’s view the request is frivolous, vexatious or made in bad faith
- where RNAO can sever the information that is not to be disclosed from that which can be, it will do so.
Accuracy and correction of personal information
RNAO is committed to ensuring that personal information in its custody is as accurate, complete, and up-to-date as possible in order to properly satisfy the purposes for which it is to be used. Individuals have the right to request a correction of this information if they believe it is inaccurate. Registered users with a MyRNAO.ca account profile may review and make corrections to their personal information. Alternatively, they can also submit an access or corrections request in writing to our privacy officer.
How to Contact Us or Make a Complaint
If you have any questions or concerns about how RNAO manages your personal information and protects your privacy, please contact our privacy officer.
Web Logs
We use specific software programs to monitor network traffic and to detect intrusions into RNAO’s networks. When you visit our website, information supplied by your browser is stored temporarily in our web server logs. Here are some examples of such information: your computer’s IP address, the browser type and version, the type of operating system you used, the network location, what pages of our website you visited and what information you downloaded, the time and date of your visit, etc.
Normally, this is anonymous statistical data and we do not make any attempt to link it with the identity of the visitors to our website, unless we investigate an intrusion or any attempt to damage our website.
Cookies
A cookie is a data file sent by a web server to the web browser on a visitor's computer that the web server uses to track or record visitor information. This information includes, but is not limited to, IP address, browser type and operating system.
We use this information to provide basic functionality for the services we provide, to evaluate, monitor, maintain and improve our services. We also use it to personalize your experience on our site, such as to remember your sign-in and user preferences for subsequent visits.
You can choose to opt out of having your visit tracked by changing your browser settings to refuse cookies, in which case no information will be collected automatically. However, your experience will be affected in other ways, for instance you might have difficulties accessing any secure services that require a username and password, like MyRNAO.ca.
Web analytics cookies
Web analytics is the collection, analysis, measurement and reporting of data about web traffic and visits in order to understand and optimize web usage.
RNAO uses Google Analytics cookies for the collection and analysis of traffic data on our website. This tool uses cookies to collect and generate information about your visits to our website, including your IP address, which is transmitted to Google servers in an anonymous form for processing. The use of this tool does not allow us or our analytics service provider to identify individuals. We study only patterns of website activity so we can improve the experience of visitors to our website.
RNAO also uses Google Ads cookies for online advertising, which can include remarketing and audience-based targeting which allow third-party service providers, including Google, to market our sites across the web. The data collected when you visit our website or click on our digital ads is used to show you future ads that match your interests. Add targeting data is anonymized to prevent a given person from being identified. However, if you would prefer to see random ads instead of ads that match your interests, you can opt out by going to Google Ad Settings and turning off the Ad personalization option.
Data collected by Google Analytics is sent to Google servers which might be located in the United States and may be subject to the governing legislation in that country (for example, the USA Patriot Act).
You can opt-out of analytics activity by setting your browser to notify you when a cookie is sent and block analytics cookies if desired. Please consult your browser’s Help Menu for instructions. You can choose to download and install a Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on that prevents your visit data from being used. Visiting our website with analytics cookies disabled will have no significant impact on your browsing experience.
If you are concerned in general about 3rd party cookies served by networks, you should also visit the Network Advertising Initiative opt-out page.
Embedded content
Pages on our website may include embedded content, such as Youtube videos, as well as third party social media widgets or buttons to provide you with additional functionality, for example to share content from our web pages to social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, etc.).
Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if you visited the other website. Your interactions with those features and platforms are governed by the privacy policies of the companies that provide them. We do not have control over, or responsibility for, those companies or their use of your information.
These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your activities on the Internet and on our website.
We encourage you to review each provider's privacy policy.
Privacy policy review
We may review and change this policy periodically in order to reflect our current personal information handling practices. The “Last updated” date at the top of this page indicates when changes to this policy were published and are thus in force. Your continuous use of RNAO website and services following the posting of any changes to this privacy policy means you accept such changes.
Facebook Data Deletion Instructions URL
RNAO.ca does not save your Facebook personal data on its server. However, according to Facebook policy, we have to provide User Data Deletion Callback URL or Data Deletion Instructions URL. If you want to delete your data from RNAO.ca App, you can remove your information by following these steps:
- Go to your Facebook Account’s Setting & Privacy. Click “Settings”
- Look for “Apps and Websites” and you will see all of the apps and websites you linked with your Facebook.
- Search and Click “RNAO.ca” in the search bar.
- Scroll and click “Remove”.
Congratulations, you have successfully removed your app activities and data from the RNAO.ca App.
