Last modified:  DECEMBER 20, 2024

The Grocery Foundation (“Foundation” or “We”, “us” or “our”) respects your privacy and is committed to protecting it by complying with this policy (“Policy”).

This Policy describes:

• How we collect, use, retain, disclose, and protect the personal information of our donors, purchasers, and users of our Sites, as defined below (collectively, “you” or “your”).
• The types of information we may collect from you or that you may provide when you visit com, makehappytummies.ca, creonsdejoyeuxpetitsbedons.ca gala.groceryfoundation.com, vouchers.groceryfoundation.com and any other websites we may create in the future (collectively, our “Sites”).

“Personal information” is any information that identifies you or could be reasonably associated with you. Personal information can include information that can be used on its own or with other information to identify, contact, or locate a single person, including information collected automatically when you interact with us online (including based on your device/browser engagement with our Sites), through our Sites, social media or otherwise and/or information that you directly provided to the Foundation either via online forms or by telephone.

If you are a resident of the province of Quebec, personal information does not include “business contact information” such as a person’s name, job title, business address, or business telephone number, which are used in the context of their work within an organization.

This Policy applies to information we collect, use, or disclose about you:

• On our Sites.
• In email, text, and other electronic messages between you and our Sites.
• When you interact with our advertising and applications on third-party websites and services if those applications or advertising include links to this Policy.

This Policy does not apply to any information that is anonymous or does not allow an individual to be identified.

The Sites may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins, services, social networks, or applications, including Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter) and YouTube. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow the third-party to collect or share data about you. If you follow a link to a third-party website or engage a third-party plugin, please note that these third parties have their own privacy policies and we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies. We do not control these third-party websites or applications or the information shared through these websites or applications and therefore we are not responsible for the use, misuse or misappropriation by another user of any personal information you disclose while using these websites or applications.  We encourage you to read the privacy policy of every website, social media plug-in or application you visit.

Please read this Policy carefully to understand our policies and practices for collecting, processing, and storing your personal information. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH OUR POLICIES AND PRACTICES OR ARE DISSATISFIED WITH ANY OF THE SITES, YOUR SOLE REMEDY AND RECOURSE IS TO CEASE USING THE APPLICABLE SITE. By accessing or using any of our Sites, you indicate that you understand, accept, and consent to the practices described in this Policy. This Policy may change from time to time (see the section titled “Privacy Policy Changes”). Your continued use of these Sites after we make changes indicates that you accept and consent to those changes, so please check the Policy periodically for updates.

INFORMATION WE COLLECT

We collect and use several types of information from and about you, including:

• Personal information, that we can reasonably use to directly or indirectly identify you, such as your name, mailing address, e-mail address, telephone number, Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the Internet, user name or other similar identifier, billing and account information, and any other identifier we may use to contact you.
  
  We provide an opportunity for any user to unsubscribe from our newsletter or opt-out of contact for marketing purposes on an ongoing basis by using the unsubscribe mechanism at the bottom of our e-mails, or e-mailing to [email protected].

• Business-related information, namely information that relates to your business, including title, business address, business email address, and business telephone number.

• Non-personal information, that does not directly or indirectly reveal your identity or directly relate to an identifiable individual, such as demographic information, or statistical or aggregated information. Statistical or aggregated data does not directly identify a specific person, but we may derive non-personal statistical or aggregated data from personal information. For example, we may aggregate personal information to calculate the percentage of users accessing a specific Site feature.

• Technical information, including your login information (on groceryfoundation.com site only), browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform, or information about your internet connection, the equipment you use to access our Sites, and usage details.

• Non-personal details about your Site interactions, including the full Uniform Resource Locators (URLs), clickstream to, through and from our Sites (including date and time), products and/or pages you viewed or searched for, page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks, and mouse-overs), and methods used to browse away from the page.

HOW WE COLLECT INFORMATION ABOUT YOU

We limit the collection of personal information to what is reasonably required to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected.

We use different methods to collect your information, including through;

• Direct interaction with you when you provide it to us, for example, by filling in forms or corresponding with us by phone, email, or otherwise.
• Automated technologies or interactions, as you navigate through our Sites. Information collected automatically may include usage details, IP addresses, and information collected through cookies or web beacons.
• Third parties or publicly available sources, for example, our business partners.

Information You Provide to Us

The information we collect directly from you on or through our Sites may include:

• Contact information, such as name, address, email and telephone number (“Contact Information”). For example, if you opt into our newsletter, you will be prompted to provide your email (required) and the province you are located in (optional). The provincial information is used to provide customized regional content.
• Giving information, including types and amounts of donations and credit card and/or banking information (“Giving Information”)
• Purchase information, including types and amounts of purchases and credit card and/or bank information (“Purchase Information” and collectively with Giving Information and Contact Information referred to as “Payment Information”). We utilize secure transaction methods when collecting credit card nformation over the internet. The Foundation does not disclose credit card or banking information provided by you, except for the proper processing of donations or purchases.
• Information on events attended and publications received.
• Any other information provided by you to the Foundation, such as public comments or posts on the Sites.

Information We Collect Through Cookies and Other Automatic Data Collection Technologies

As you navigate through and interact with our Sites, we may use cookies or other automatic data collection technologies to collect certain information about your equipment, browsing actions, and patterns, including information about your computer, mobile device, Internet connection, web browser, domain names, operating system, application version information, IP address, location information of your device, time zone, country and some of the cookies that are installed on your device. Additionally, as you browse the Sites, we collect information about the individual web pages that you view, what websites or search terms referred you to the Sites, and information about how you interact with the Sites, including traffic data, location, logs, referring/exit pages, date and time of your visit to our Sites, error information, clickstream data, and other communication data and the resources that you access and use on the Sites. We refer to this automatically collected information as “Device Information”. 

Like many websites, we collect Device Information using the following technologies:

• “Cookies” (or “browser cookies”) are data files that are placed on the hard drive of your computer and often include an anonymous unique identifier. You may refuse to accept browser cookies by activating the appropriate setting on your browser. However, if you select this setting you may be unable to access certain parts of our Sites. Unless you have adjusted your browser settings so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies when you direct your browser to our Sites. Our Sites may make use of “per session” and “persistent” cookie technology. Per session cookies track information during an open session and are stored only temporarily in your computer’s memory. Persistent cookies are deposited on a visitor’s computer until they expire or until the visitor deletes the cookies. Information from these cookies help the Foundation analyze traffic patterns to the Sites, including the total number of visitors, the geographical location of the visitor, and the types of Internet browsers and operating systems that the Sites’ visitors use. The Foundation uses this information to facilitate and enhance your online visits.
• “Log files” are records stored on a server by websites or applications. They are used to track actions occurring on the Sites and collect data including your IP address, browser type, Internet service provider, referring/exit pages, and date/time stamps.
• “Web beacons,” (also referred to as “tags” and “pixels”) are small, invisible graphic image embedded in websites, emails, or other online content. Pages of our Sites and our e-mails may contain web beacons that permit the Foundation, for example, to count users who have visited those pages or opened an email and for other related website statistics (for example, recording the popularity of certain website content and verifying system and server integrity).
• “Google Analytics” is a web analysis service of Google Inc. (“Google”). Google Analytics uses cookies to analyze your use of our Sites, to create reports about visitor activities and to provide further services associated with the use of our website and our online platforms. Although this information is collected through your Google ad settings, it is not provided to us in a personally identifiable format.

Third-Party Use of Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies

We use third parties to provide services on our Sites. These third parties may use cookies alone or in conjunction with web beacons or other tracking technologies to collect information about you when you use our Sites. The information they collect may be associated with your personal information or they may collect information, including personal information, about your online activities over time and across different websites and other online services. They may use this information to provide you with interest-based (behavioural) advertising or other targeted content. We do not control these third parties’ tracking technologies or how they are used. If you have any questions about an advertisement or other targeted content, you should contact the responsible provider directly.

We currently use a third-party donation platform called DonorPerfect to facilitate donations on our Groceryfoundation.com, makehappytummies.ca and creonsdejoyeuxpetitsbedons.ca sites. When you donate or attempt to make a donation through these sites, you are entering information on the DonorPerfect third-party site. We currently process all donations and purchases on our gala.groceryfoundation.com and vouchers.groceryfoundation.com sites directly without the use of a third-party donation platform.

Note:  If you donated online or subscribed to be a monthly donor prior to April 6, 2023, we used a different third-party donation platform called Shopify to facilitate donations on our Sites.

HOW DO WE USE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?

Device Information

We use the Device Information that we collect to help us screen for potential risk and fraud (in particular, your IP address) and we use aggregated metrics to improve usability, evaluate content and optimize our Sites.  For example, by evaluating data about how our users browse and interact with our Sites we can assess the effectiveness of the Foundation’s marketing activities.  We may also use the Device Information to direct marketing to devices that have previously accessed our Sites.

Contact Information

For those who signed up, we distribute digital newsletters (via our third-party service provider Constant Contact) to provide information about the initiatives of the Foundation.  You may opt-out of future contact by the Foundation by contacting us at [email protected] or unsubscribing from our digital newsletter.

We take appropriate measures to ensure that we only communicate with you in the manner that you have accepted. We may also use your information to contact you about our events and fundraising programs that may be of interest to you, as permitted by law. If we have your consent to send you communications by email, text message or other means, we will use the contact information you have provided for these purposes in order to send them to you. If you do not want us to use your information in this way, You can withdraw your consent to receive commercial electronic messages from us at any time by using the unsubscribe mechanism at the bottom of our e-mails and/or e-mail us at [email protected]. Your request will be honoured promptly and in accordance with applicable law.

If you have withdrawn your consent to receive our communications through any particular means or with respect to any category of subject matter, we may continue to communicate with you in relation to products or services you have purchased, or in relation to your account or otherwise as may be required or permitted in the context of our relationship with you.

Payment Information

We use the Payment Information to process donations using a third-party processor and to prepare corresponding tax receipts.  Your personal information collected by our secure third-party donation platform sites will be stored according to their respective privacy policy and may be stored outside of Canada or, if you are a resident of the province of Quebec, outside of Quebec. We may conduct analytics of aggregated, deidentified online donations to measure the effectiveness of our marketing initiatives and track monthly online donation fundraising trends and performance. 

You may cancel or amend your monthly donation at any time.  Contact The Grocery Foundation at [email protected] or call us at 416-515-8165. 

Note:  Each donation is screened for potential risk or fraud. 

Other Purposes

We also use information that we collect about you or that you provide to us, including personal information:

• to present our Sites and its contents to you;
• to provide you with information or services that you request from us or as requested by a third party on your behalf or otherwise with your consent;
• to provide you with information, products, or services that you request from us or that may be of interest to you;
• to carry out our obligations and enforce our rights arising from any contracts entered into between you and us;
• to notify you about changes to our Sites or any products or services we offer or provide though them;
• to maintain, secure, or improve our Sites, products and services;
• to respond to your questions, inquiries or complaints;
• to personalize and generally enhance your experience with us;
• to administer surveys, promotions and contests;
• in any other way we may describe when you provide the information;
• for any other purpose with your consent; and
• otherwise as may be permitted or required by law.

HOW DO WE PROTECT YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

We will employ security measures to protect personal information in our care appropriate to the level of sensitivity of the information. We will retain your personal information only for the time it is required for the purposes for which it was collected or as required by law.

We implement technology security measures. We have put in place several types of measures to protect your personal information against loss, theft and unauthorized access, use or disclosure. These include;

• limited access to third-party donation platform sites,
• limited access to Donation level analytics,
• Firewalls
• Payment card gateways which follow industry security standards.

The security of your personal information is very important to the Foundation. However, the transmission of information via the Internet is not completely secure. Although the Foundation does its best to protect your personal information, the Foundation does not guarantee the security of your personal information transmitted through the Sites, unless required by applicable law.  To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, any transmission of personal information is at your own risk. While we take appropriate measures to protect personal information, there is always a risk that it may be lost, intercepted or misused, including by harmful programs.

SHARING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

Disclosure to Third Parties

We may disclose aggregated information about our users, and information that does not identify any individual, without restriction.

We limit the use and disclosure of your personal information.  Personal information will not be used or disclosed for purposes other than those for which it was collected, except with consent or as required by law.

The Foundation does not trade, rent or sell any personal information to third parties.

We may disclose personal information that we collect or you provide as described in this Policy:

• To our subsidiaries and affiliates.
• In accordance with applicable law, to a buyer or other successor in the event of a merger, amalgamation, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of the Foundations’ assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, in which personal information held by the Foundation about our donors, purchasers, and/or users is among the assets transferred.
• To contractors, service providers, and other third parties we use to support our work and who are contractually obligated to keep personal information confidential, use it only for the purposes for which we disclose it to them, and to process the personal information with the same standards set out in this Policy. For the avoidance of doubt, we may change the contractors, service providers, and other third parties we use from time to time and may share existing personal information that we have collected with new contractors, service providers and third parties, as they arise.
• To fulfill the purpose for which you provide it. For example, to facilitate and the completion of your donation through our third-party service provider.
• For any other purpose disclosed by us when you provide the information.
• With your consent.

We may also disclose your personal information:

• To comply with any court order, law, or legal process, including to respond to any government or regulatory request, in accordance with applicable law.
• To enforce or apply our terms of use.
• If we believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to protect the rights, property, or safety of the Foundation, our donors, purchasers, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organizations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction.

Transfers Outside Canada and Quebec

We are sometimes required to use service providers to store, handle or process personal information who may be located in a foreign country outside Canada (or, for residents in the province of Quebec, anywhere outside Quebec), with different privacy laws that may or may not be as comprehensive as Canadian or Quebec law. Accordingly, your personal information may be transferred throughout Canada or outside of Canada (or, for residents in the province of Quebec, anywhere outside Quebec). In these circumstances, the governments, courts, law enforcement, or regulatory agencies of that country may be able to force, request or otherwise obtain access to your personal information pursuant to the laws of that country. Whenever we engage a service provider in such cases, we require that its privacy and security standards adhere to this policy and applicable Canadian and Quebec privacy legislation.

By using and accessing any of our Sites, you agree and consent to the transfer, processing, and storage of your personal information on servers which may be located outside of the province in which you reside or outside Canada.

User Generated Content

Our services may, from time to time, contain interactive areas where you may submit comments or other content (including information about the user that might be displayed in the user’s public profile within an online community) that may be visible to others. Users should be aware that when they voluntarily disclose personal information in content submitted for posting or publication, the information can be read and used by others. This may result in unsolicited messages from other parties. We make no representations and undertake no obligations as to the security or use of information you voluntarily include when submitting content.

YOUR CONSENT AND WITHDRAWING CONSENT

We assume all information you submit is about you. Please do not submit personal information other than your own.

We obtain your consent before collecting, using, or disclosing your personal information, either in writing or verbally. In certain cases, your consent may be implied through your conduct.

If you use the Sites or explicitly provide personal information through our donation and purchasing platforms, you consent to the collection, use, disclosure and management of your personal information in accordance with this Policy.

If you do not consent to the collection, use and disclosure of your personal information in accordance with this Policy, do not provide your personal information to the Foundation.

You may refuse to provide personal information and may, subject to any legal or contractual restrictions and reasonable notice, withdraw consent at any time to the continued use and disclosure of personal information previously collected. Refusing or withdrawing your consent in respect of our handling of certain personal information may result in us being unable to provide you with our services. You can withdraw your consent at any time by contacting our Privacy Officer at the address at the end of this Policy.

If, despite the foregoing restrictions, you provide personal information of another person, you represent and warrant that you have all necessary authority and/or have obtained all necessary consents from such person to enable us to collect, use and disclose such personal information for the purposes set forth in this Policy.

CHILDREN

We encourage parents and guardians to supervise their children’s use of the internet, including our Sites. 

We do not knowingly collect any personal information from children under the age of 14. Children under the age of 14 should not use any of the Sites or provide us with any personal information without the consent and supervision of the person having parental authority, their tutor or their authorized guardian.

DATA RETENTION AND STORAGE

Except as otherwise permitted or required by applicable law or regulation, we will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. Under some circumstances, we may anonymize your personal information so that it can no longer be associated with you. We reserve the right to use such anonymous and de-identified data for any legitimate business purpose without further notice to you or your consent.

We retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes described in this Policy unless and until you ask us to delete this information. 

For Payment Information, if you are a one-time donor to the Foundation or a lapsed donor, we may need to retain your Payment Information to meet our retention obligations for financial reporting and tax purposes and to comply with legal obligations.

For those who opt-into our newsletter, we will maintain your Contact Information for our records unless you ask us to delete this information. 

DATA ACCESS AND CORRECTION REQUESTS

It is important that the personal information we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal information changes. By law, you have the right to request access to and to correct the personal information that we hold about you. If you want to review, verify, correct, or withdraw consent to the use of your personal information you may contact our Privacy Officer using the contact information set out further below to request access to, correct, or delete any personal information that you have provided to us.

You may request access and copies of the personal information we have about you.  We may not accommodate a request to change information if we believe the change would violate any law or legal requirement or cause the information to be incorrect. We may request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and your right to access, and to provide you with the personal information that we hold about you or make your requested changes. If any fees apply to providing you with extracts of our records of your personal information, you will be notified in advance.

Applicable law may allow or require us to refuse to provide you with access to some or all of the personal information that we hold about you, or we may have destroyed, erased, or made your personal information anonymous in accordance with our record retention obligations and practices. If we cannot provide you with access to your personal information, we will inform you of the reasons why, subject to any legal or regulatory restrictions.

PRIVACY POLICY CHANGES

It is our policy to post any changes we make to our privacy policy on this page. If we make material changes to how we treat our users’ personal information, we will notify you through a notice on the applicable Site’s home page.

CONTACT US

Questions, comments and concerns regarding the handling of personal information may be directed to our Privacy Officer at The Grocery Foundation, 5409 Eglinton Ave West, Suite 206, Etobicoke, ON M9C 5K6 or by sending an email to [email protected]. The Privacy Officer will reply in writing to the request not later than 30 days after the date of the request is received.

 If you wish to limit or opt-out of future contact by the Foundation, please write to us at The Grocery Foundation, 5409 Eglinton Ave West, Suite 206, Etobicoke, ON M9C 5K6 or send an email to [email protected].