Privacy Policy
SONOGRAPHY CANADA
PRIVACY POLICY
Sonography Canada recognizes the importance of how we treat your personal information. We are committed to responsibly collecting, using and disclosing personal information and only to the extent required to effectively provide our membership with various services. Sonography Canada will always ensure that consent to collect personal information is obtained, and that the use and disclosure of that personal information is clearly defined and followed at all times. We recognize the importance of maintaining accurate records, securing personal information adequately, disposing of obsolete information appropriately, and providing you with access to the personal information we have on file for you. Sonography Canada is committed to being transparent about how we handle your personal information and to resolving any complaints effectively and to your satisfaction. To achieve this goal and to comply with the privacy legislation, Personal Information Protection and Electronics Document Act (PIPEDA), Sonography Canada has developed this Privacy Policy.
Defining Personal Information and other Privacy Concepts
The term “personal information” means most types of information that can be linked to an identifiable individual. Your name, home address, date of birth, and other related information are examples of personal information. Information about your employment, such as, the name of your employer, your job title, work address, work telephone, and other related information is not usually considered personal information. However, since our records include both personal and employment contact information, Sonography Canada will treat these complete records as personal information. Identifiable personal information will directly identify an individual, or could indirectly identify an individual if linked with other information. Non-identifiable personal information can not foreseeably identify an individual.
The following definitions are also understood by Sonography Canada and have been used as a basis to develop our Privacy Policy.
Privacy is an individual’s right or interest in the control or limited access of others to information about the individual.
Confidentiality is the duty of individuals who have received confidential information in trust to use that information only as required to conduct associated business activities and to protect that information and disclose it to others only in accordance with obtained consent and the rules and regulations established to authorize its disclosure.
Security involves the safeguards established to ensure that information is processed (accessed, used, disclosed) only as authorized and to prevent unauthorized access or processing of that information.
Sonography Canada Accountability for Your Personal Information
Sonography Canada is accountable for the personal information that is required to provide its services to you and which comes into its custody. SONOGRAPHY CANADA is responsible for ensuring that this personal information is protected in a manner consistent with this Privacy Policy. SONOGRAPHY CANADA will use reasonable means to hold its employees and those to whom it discloses personal information accountable for protecting this acquired personal information and will require that the use and security of this information conforms to the provisions in this Privacy Policy. Accountability for SONOGRAPHY CANADA compliance with its Privacy Policy falls within the responsibilities of the Executive Director of SONOGRAPHY CANADA or his / her designate, who will act as the SONOGRAPHY CANADA Privacy Officer. The Privacy Officer has the decision-making authority regarding the interpretation and application of this Privacy Policy and will respond to inquires or complaints.
Your Personal Information and How it is Used
As the National Society for sonographers in Canada, SONOGRAPHY CANADA offers a variety of services to its membership including providing information regarding sonography employment opportunities, promoting and supporting continuing professional development opportunities, providing access to errors and omissions liability insurance, organizing annual conferences for ultrasound professionals, publishing a biannual journal and e-newsletter, issuing and maintaining a registry of professional credentials, and acting as a resource for information about current issues, policy and procedural matters of importance to the profession of diagnostic ultrasound in Canada . In order to provide our services, SONOGRAPHY CANADA is required to collect personal information from its membership. This information is used both in our internal processes, and only when required, may be shared on a limited basis with third parties.
SONOGRAPHY CANADA collects, uses and / or discloses only the personal information necessary to provide its various services and membership activities. The personal information we collect is used to:
- Process applications for student, active, associate, chapter and corporate memberships with SONOGRAPHY CANADA and maintain a database of member information.
- Communicate information on current issues, policy, technical advancement, patient care, and diagnostic techniques pertinent to the profession of medical sonography.
- Edit and distribute the Canadian Journal of Medical Sonography, and other communications regarding sonography in Canada.
- Process applications for errors and omissions liability insurance for active SONOGRAPHY CANADA members.
- Review and approve applications from diagnostic ultrasound educational activities to qualify for the provision of Continuing Professional Development Credits (CPD) to participants.
- Process registration applications for the SONOGRAPHY CANADA Annual Conference and other sonography workshops.
- Process applications that include financial transactions involving use of personal financial information, such as, credit card and other related information.
- Process third-party employment postings and mail-outs.
- Process the purchase of SONOGRAPHY CANADA promotional materials.
- Administer and process the Sonography Canada Clinical Skill Assessments and the Sonography Canada credentialing examinations to determine newly graduated candidates’ readiness for safe, effective, and independent ultrasound practice.
- Administer and process requests to change approved and scheduled examinations or to appeal examination results.
- Assess the educational credentials of ultrasound professionals educated outside of Accreditation Canada accredited ultrasound education programs to establish whether an applicant’s education is substantially equivalent to that of ultrasound professionals educated in Accreditation Canada accredited ultrasound educational programs.
- Process the applications for Sonography Canada registration from candidates currently practicing in the ultrasound profession, organize required clinical assessments where necessary, and provide credentials as approved.
- Collect and record Continuing Professional Development credits (CPD) from Sonography Canada members.
- Communicate with Sonography Canada members regarding their triennium and CPD status, and annual registration renewals.
- Process applications that include financial transactions involving use of personal financial information, such as, credit card information and other related information.
SONOGRAPHY CANADA works with various third-parties that may, in the course of their duties, have limited access to your personal information. These include third-party educational programs and facilitators, insurance companies, conference venues, publishing companies, and other related service providers.
The information we may collect from you includes name, home and employment contact information, ultrasound education information and academic qualifications (school, discipline, graduation date and other), liability insurance application information, ultrasound credentialing information, membership status with SONOGRAPHY CANADA and other professional ultrasound associations, SONOGRAPHY CANADA membership number, your correspondence with us, membership dues payment history, errors and omissions liability insurance premium payment history, and financial information required to process membership applications and related forms, errors and omissions liability insurance applications, conference registrations, educational activity CPD applications, and the purchase of SONOGRAPHY CANADA promotional materials. The type of information collected will be dependent on the type of membership or membership renewal being requested, or the type of service being requested and the associated application requirements.
We will use the information to confirm your identity, process your service requests, communicate with you, respond to your questions / comments, and send you important notices and information about the profession, SONOGRAPHY CANADA, special events for ultrasound professionals, the errors and omissions liability insurance policy, and your membership status.
On occasion, may conduct surveys. We may also use your personal information to support our analysis and research on issues involving the ultrasound profession. Any research reports would only report on group information that will not identify you as an individual. If you choose to participate in such surveys, we will use your information to better understand current issues in the ultrasound profession. If you do not want your personal information to be used in this manner, please inform the SONOGRAPHY CANADA Privacy Officer who may be contacted as indicated at the end of this document.
Obtaining your Consent to use your Personal Information
Only with your informed consent will your personal information be collected from you and used and / or disclosed by SONOGRAPHY CANADA. This collection process may be in person, at our office, at conference sites, over the telephone or fax, through email or mail correspondence, through your completion and submission of various SONOGRAPHY CANADA forms, or through the secure SONOGRAPHY CANADA member login website.
If you choose to provide personal information to SONOGRAPHY CANADA, we assume that you consent to the collection, use and disclosure of your personal information as outlined in this Privacy Policy or as otherwise indicated at the time of collection, use and / or disclosure. Consent may be expressed or implied depending on the circumstances. If there are certain services offered by SONOGRAPHY CANADA for which you do not consent to the use of your personal information, then you may inform the SONOGRAPHY CANADA Privacy Officer directly, who may be contacted as indicated at the end of this document.
If SONOGRAPHY CANADA intends to use your personal information in a way not described in this Privacy Policy, we will inform you.
You have the right to refuse consent for SONOGRAPHY CANADA to obtain, use, and / or disclose your personal information and you have the right at any time to withdraw previously given consent. However, in doing so, you may be limiting or preventing the ability of SONOGRAPHY CANADA to provide you with the highest quality of service with respect to your membership activities and benefits.
Limiting Collection of Personal Information
The type of personal information collected will be only that required by SONOGRAPHY CANADA to provide its various services and to carry out membership activities. The collection of this personal information will occur by fair and lawful methods.
Use, Disclosure and Retention of your Personal Information
SONOGRAPHY CANADA does not use identifiable personal information for any other purpose other than those defined in this Privacy Policy. Use of this information for any other purpose will not occur without your informed consent. SONOGRAPHY CANADA will permit only authorized staff to access and use personal information on a “need-to-know” basis in order to execute their functions. Disclosure of your personal information to third parties, as indicated previously in this Privacy Policy, will only occur to the extent required to carry out the SONOGRAPHY CANADA service requested by you.
For reporting or statistical purposes, SONOGRAPHY CANADA may disclose or publish non-identifiable (e.g. aggregated) personal information only after reasonable precautions have been taken to ensure that individuals cannot foreseeably be identified by linking this information with other information.
SONOGRAPHY CANADA may use or disclose your personal information without consent in emergency circumstances or where required by law.
We will keep personal information only as long as it remains necessary or relevant for the identified purposes or as required by law. Some personal information (name, address, date of birth, credentialing date and discipline, education information, SONOGRAPHY CANADA membership number, and other relevant information) will be retained indefinitely in our secure database as SONOGRAPHY CANADA maintains a complete archive of its members and their status. Paper records are destroyed after their specific transaction year has passed.
Accuracy of your Personal Information
SONOGRAPHY CANADA is committed to keeping records as accurate as possible. Your personal information will be as accurate, complete, and up-to-date as required for the purposes for which it is collected, used and / or disclosed. You have the right to correct or amend your personal information held by SONOGRAPHY CANADA. Please refer to the section discussing accessibility to your personal information for directions regarding correcting or amending your records.
Security Safeguards for your Personal Information
We are committed to ensuring the safety and protection of the personal information we hold, and SONOGRAPHY CANADA undertakes rigorous confidentiality and information security measures. The safeguards we use are appropriate to the sensitivity of the personal information. The security safeguards protect personal information against loss or theft, as well as, unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use or modification. SONOGRAPHY CANADA protects personal information that it holds or transmits regardless of the format in which it is held. Depending on the sensitivity, format, location, and storage of this personal information, safeguards may include office storage under lock and key, password protection for electronic records, and restricted access to only those staff requiring the information to provide specific SONOGRAPHY CANADA services to you.
All office staff members coming into contact with your personal information while providing you with a SONOGRAPHY CANADA service have been trained to safeguard the information and to always follow strict confidentiality policies.
We insure that third parties to which we disclose your personal information (in order to administer a SONOGRAPHY CANADA service request by you or to process an application or registration for a SONOGRAPHY CANADA activity in which you have chosen to participate) follow our confidentiality policies and the provisions of the Privacy Policy accordingly.
On occasion, some of our security procedures may cause you some minor delay when you wish to access your own personal information. Please understand that it is important for us to follow privacy procedures to ensure the security of your personal information.
When deemed obsolete, paper files of personal information are shredded and electronic information is deleted, and the hard drive physically destroyed when discarded.
Transparency and Openness of our Privacy Policy
You are entitled to know about SONOGRAPHY CANADA practices and policies in connection to the personal information that we collect, use and / or disclose in the administration and processing of our services and you have the right to challenge those practices and policies. SONOGRAPHY CANADA is committed to ensuring that our practices and policies relating to personal information are transparent, clearly stated, and open for scrutiny. In doing so, we have created this Privacy Policy, and will readily make available information about our practices and policies.
Accessibility to your Personal Information
You may access your personal information held by SONOGRAPHY CANADA, challenge its accuracy and completeness and have it amended as appropriate, which may include the correction, deletion or addition of information. Currently, members may, through a secure SONOGRAPHY CANADA member login website, update their own basic demographic personal information, and so, the accuracy of such information is viewed by SONOGRAPHY CANADA as a joint responsibility. To access this secure site, members must provide their member number and password.
We will require you to confirm your identity before we may provide access to your personal information and, if you request amendments, certain changes may require that you supply supporting documentation (e.g. an update to your educational qualifications will require proof of graduation and / or an official transcript). Should you desire access to, or correction of, your personal information in our records that is not accessible to you via the secure member login website, please send your request in writing to our Privacy Officer who may be contacted as indicated at the end of this document. We will respond to your request within a reasonable time and at minimal or no cost to you. You may have access to any personal information we have about you as long as it does not contain personal information on other people or interfere with a legal investigation. If for a particular reason, SONOGRAPHY CANADA can not honour your request, we will let you know with explanation within 30 days.
Upon your request regarding interchange of personal information with third parties, SONOGRAPHY CANADA will inform you of what this identifiable personal information is, and from whom it has been collected and / or to whom it has been disclosed.
Comments, Questions, or Challenging our Compliance with PIPEDA
If you have a comment, question or complaint about this Privacy Policy, our accompanying Website Privacy Policy, our handling of your personal information, or our compliance with our Privacy Policy, please submit your concern in writing to the SONOGRAPHY CANADA Privacy Officer by email at info@sonographycanada.ca or by mail to the address indicated at the end of this document. Our Privacy Officer will acknowledge receipt of your question or complaint; ensure that it is investigated promptly and that you are provided with a detailed formal response. If a complaint is found to be justified, SONOGRAPHY CANADA will take appropriate action, including, if necessary, amending its Privacy Policy.
For more information about your privacy rights in general, please contact the Privacy Commissioner of Canada through their website www.priv.gc.ca or by phone at 1-800-282-1376.
SONOGRAPHY CANADA Website Privacy Policy
Please review the Sonography Canada website policy for further information regarding the collection, use and / or disclosure of your personal and non-personal information when you access the SONOGRAPHY CANADA website for information or to access our services.
Changes to this Privacy Policy
SONOGRAPHY CANADA will continue to monitor and update our Privacy Policy as required so please review our Privacy Policy periodically for such changes. SONOGRAPHY CANADA will assume your continued use of our services following any posted updates to our Privacy Policy will represent your acceptance of these changes.
WEBSITE PRIVACY POLICY
Website Access to your Personal and Non-Personal Information
SONOGRAPHY CANADA does not collect personal information from visitors to our public website. The SONOGRAPHY CANADA website may collect non-personal information about visits to the website. This non-personal information can not be used to personally identify the visitor. To help ensure the effectiveness of our website and our delivery of SONOGRAPHY CANADA services, our Webmaster may use this non-personal information for statistical analysis. This non-personal information will not be used by SONOGRAPHY CANADA for any other purpose.
SONOGRAPHY CANADA members may gain access to the secure SONOGRAPHY CANADA member login website by providing their member number and password. Members may access their personal information through this secure site and update their own basic demographic personal information, and so, the accuracy of such information is viewed by SONOGRAPHY CANADA as a joint responsibility. Members may also access certain SONOGRAPHY CANADA services through this member login website, and communicate with SONOGRAPHY CANADA via email. Email address information provided will not be available on the public domain or accessed by the public.
Spam
Sonography Canada will ensure that its e-mail communications observe the regulations for such communications as provided for under Industry Canada Electronic Commerce Protection Regulations, commonly referred to as the Anti-Spam Legislation.
Links to Other Websites
Our Website Privacy Policy applies only to the SONOGRAPHY CANADA website. Our website does contain links to other websites. Should you choose to link to another website, you will be subject to their privacy policies, and we recommend that you read other websites’ privacy policies especially if you plan to disclose any personal information to them.
Changes to this Website Privacy Policy
SONOGRAPHY CANADA will continue to monitor and update our Website Privacy Policy as required so please review our Website Privacy Policy periodically for such changes. SONOGRAPHY CANADA will assume your continued use of our services following any posted updates to our Website Privacy Policy will represent your acceptance of these changes.
Our General Privacy Policy
Please review the Sonography Canada privacy policy for further information regarding collection, use and / or disclosure of your personal information as it is required to conduct SONOGRAPHY CANADA services or membership activities. You may also contact our Privacy Officer should you have any questions, concerns, or complaints using the contact information provided below.
This Privacy Policy was last modified on 1 January, 2014.
