PERSONAL INFORMATION PROTECTION POLICY

UPDATED NOVEMBER 2019

This policy statement concerns Seasons House Shelter's collection, use, disclosure and retention of personal information about our members, our users, and members of the general public. This policies has been established pursuant to the Personal Information Protection Act of BC.

WHAT IS SEASONS HOUSE SHELTER?

Seasons House Shelter (also known as just Seasons House) provides a place of safety and support for homeless individuals in our community, where they can receive shelter, nourishment and services which foster independence and success. Serving people of all races, creeds, religions, sexual orientation and gender identities. We do not discriminate. We are proud to offer the following programs and services to our community:

  • Emergency Shelter

  • Transitional Housing

  • Supportive Recovery

  • Day Program

  • Homeless Prevention Program

WHAT IS "PERSONAL INFORMATION" AND WHY DOES SEASONS HOUSE NEED IT?

“Personal information" is information about an identifiable individual, except for work contact information (your office address and phone number, for example). Your personal information includes your name, home address and phone, and any other information stored in such a way that your identity could be determined.

Season House Shelter's website (www.seaonshouse.org) is hosted by Squarespace. When people access the website, Squarespace automatically generates certain system information in anonymous, aggregated or pseudonymized form which does not focus on you individually - logs of IP addresses, etc. - which is needed to maintain its network or to comply with the law. This data is not personal information, since it isn't linked to an identified user or member.

Squarespace has its own privacy policy, which can be viewed on its website: https://www.squarespace.com/privacy

Seasons House does not collect, store, or disclose any personal information about the users of its website.

WHAT PERSONAL INFORMATION DOES SEASONS HOUSE COLLECT?

Seasons House Shelter's policy is only to collect, use and disclose personal information which is reasonably necessary to provide our services or to maintain our records as required by law.

In carrying on our work, Seasons House may receive unsolicited personal information. For example, if there is a complaint involving a Seasons House service, we will keep a record of the complainant's name and other contact information in our files, along with a copy of the complaint and how it was addressed.

YOUR CONSENT

We will only collect, use or disclose your personal information if we have your consent to do so. Consent may be written, oral, electronic, or implied, depending on the circumstances.

If you provide personal information to Seasons House, you are deemed to consent to such use and disclosure of that information as may be reasonably necessary in order to maintain Season House Shelter's funding and legal status, to provide the services you have requested from us, or to address your request or complaint.

You can withdraw your consent to the collection, use or disclosure of your personal information at any time by telling us in writing that you wish to do so.

DISCLOSING, STORING AND CORRECTING PERSONAL INFORMATION

Seasons House will only disclose your personal information upon your request, when it is reasonably necessary for us to do so, or when required by law.

Seasons House will take reasonable steps to prevent the loss or theft of your personal information, and we will securely destroy that information when we no longer have a reasonable need for it.

Seasons House will take reasonable steps to ensure that your personal information which we hold is accurate and complete, and to correct any errors or omissions which you bring to our attention. Correcting certain information may not be feasible, however, if it is held in a permanent format such as backup copies on permanent CDs or on the backups which Squarespace may make of the information on its servers.

GOOGLE ANALYTICS, PRIVACY AND COOKIES

Our website uses Google Analytics to help us understand how visitors use the site and to improve our web services. The tool uses cookies to collect standard information (including your IP address) about visitors’ behavior in an anonymous form and stores this information on Google’s servers. Cookies are small text files sent to your computer when your browser visits a website.

Seasons House will not (and will not allow any third party to) use Google Analytics to collect personally identifiable information of visitors to our site. Google will use the anonymous information collected for the purpose of tracking your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity for website operators and providing other services relating to website activity and Internet usage. For further information, you can refer to the Google Analytics Data Security and Privacy information.

By using this website, you consent to the processing of data about you by Google in the manner and for the purposes set out above. However, you can also choose to decline cookies from Google Analytics by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser.

QUESTIONS, REQUESTS AND COMPLAINTS

Seasons House Shelter will take reasonable steps to respond to your questions about the personal information that we have about you. Pursuant to the provisions of the privacy legislation, we will:

  1. advise you whether we have such personal information;

  2. advise you whether we have used or disclosed the personal information;"

  3. provide you with access to your personal information; and

  4. change any inaccurate and incomplete personal information, where feasible.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding privacy, please send us a detailed message to: executivedirector@seasonshouse.ca. We will make every effort to resolve your concerns.

You may also contact us at 146 Carson Avenue, Quesnel, BC, V2J 2A8.