Privacy and Security

As a national organization, the Canadian Paediatric Society (CPS) has access to personal information about members, non-members, sponsors, donors, CPS staff, and others. This personal information is collected and used to help us fulfill our mission to advance the health of children and youth.

The CPS values your privacy and works to ensure your personal information is protected.

The CPS considers the following to be personal information:

• Names
• Addresses
• Telephone numbers
• E-mail addresses
• Date of birth
• Personal financial information
• Professional certification information

By using www.cps.ca or other websites managed by the CPS, you agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy. If you simply browse or download from our website, we do not collect any personal information. This privacy policy is applicable to all sites managed by the Canadian Paediatric Society.

Collection of personal information

Personal information is collected through membership applications, membership renewals, online survey, forms, donations to our charitable foundation (Healthy Generations), purchases through the CPS bookstore and other correspondence sent to the CPS office. This includes personal information sent to the CPS for surveillance programs, committees, sections, Healthy Generations and any other CPS endorsed initiatives such electronic newsletters.

Protecting personal information

The CPS takes the following measures to protect personal information:

• User names and passwords are required to view personal information related to our members that is available online, such as the member directory.
• Security certificates are in place to encrypt credit card information submitted through the website. When you provide your credit card number it is saved on a secure server that uses Secure Socket Layers (SSL) — one of the most advanced security systems. This system encrypts the credit card information you provide before sending it to our server.
• Firewalls are in place on the CPS servers to block unauthorized access.
• Physical filing cabinets in our Ottawa office containing personal information are locked and access is restricted.
• The CPS office is secured by an alarm system. Only authorized personnel have access during regular business hours. Your records are accessible only to staff who have been given the authority to access them and only as is necessary to provide services to you.
• Printed documents that contain personal information are shredded when no longer needed.

Information sharing

• The CPS does not make any mailing list available to any outside parties.
• The CPS does not share information about members with the public, sponsors, the media, or other companies without the explicit permission of the individual(s) in question.
• The CPS does occasionally share names and contact information with membership partners or affiliated groups who provide member benefits. In such cases, these third parties will be given only the information necessary for performing their information-handling services. The group must agree to use the list only for a one-time, pre-approved communication and must destroy it immediately following. Members can choose to be excluded from these types of lists.
• The CPS does publicly announce the names and home towns of award winners, new members, board members, committee chairs and various other volunteer positions.

Opting out

Members may choose to be excluded from any pieces of CPS communication by contacting Member Services.

Accuracy of data

The CPS makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of personal information. Information is obtained from individuals and third parties. Changes to personal information can be sent to Member Services.

Surveys

The CPS will not share contact information for survey purposes. Please see the CPS Survey Policy for more information.

Online member services

Online member services such as eForums, the membership directory, and the locum database each have their own policies and disclaimers that can be found on the CPS website.

Aggregated data

The CPS may occasionally release aggregated data and statistics using Google Analytics. This data is used only to analyze the audience of the website and improve our content. No personal information is collected from Google Analytics. 

Security

The cps.ca website, and other sites managed by the CPS, has physical and technical measures in place to ensure the security of information. The CPS takes the safeguarding of your data very seriously. Our membership database server resides in Canada in secured room that is accessible only to authorized CPS staff. Our web server resides in the United States, but data is only available to a limited group of authorized personnel. We use advanced encryption and firewall technology. Although we will make every reasonable effort to protect your personal information from loss, misuse or alteration by third parties, you should be aware that there is always some risk involved in transmitting information over the Internet.

Cookies 

Cookies are small text files created when you visit a site. There are two common types of cookies, “session cookies” and “persistent cookies”. Session cookies store information only for the length of time that you are connected to a website. Unlike “persistent cookies”, they are not written onto your hard drive.

The use of cookies is an industry standard and many major websites use them to provide useful features to their visitors. Cookies in and of themselves do not personally identify users, although they do identify a user’s computer.

With most web browsers, you can choose to reject all cookies or accept cookies only from certain sites. You can also choose to delete cookies or to receive a warning before a cookie is used. Please refer to your browser instructions or help screen to learn more about these functions.

On www.cps.ca, and other sites managed by the CPS, session cookies are used to remember your language of choice as part of the log-in process for the Member Centre. If you choose to reject cookies from www.cps.ca, you will have to re-select your language of choice during each visit. You will also have to renter your username and password.

Disclaimer

Although we make every effort to ensure that all information posted on our website is accurate and complete, we do not represent that it is so, or guarantee it, and accept no liability or obligation for accuracy or completeness. We reserve the right to update the information as necessary without notice. You should check the website from time to time for changes.