Privacy Notice
The Office of the Chief Electoral Officer, commonly known as Elections Canada, is committed to providing visitors with a website that respects their privacy. This Privacy Notice summarizes the privacy policy and practices related to the ElectionsandDemocracy.ca website.
All personal information created, held or collected by Elections Canada on this website is protected under the Privacy Act. You also have a right to access and correct your personal information. This means that you will be informed of the purposes for which personal information is being collected and how to exercise your right of access to that information. You will be asked for your consent where appropriate.
Your Privacy and the Internet
The nature of the Internet is such that Web servers automatically collect certain information about a visit to a website, including the visitor's Internet Protocol (IP) address. IP addresses are unique numbers assigned by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to all devices used to access the Internet. Web servers automatically log the IP addresses of visitors to their sites. The IP address, on its own, does not identify an individual. However, in certain circumstances, such as with the co-operation of an ISP for example, it could be used to identify an individual using the site. For this reason, federal institutions including Elections Canada consider the IP address to be personal information, particularly when combined with other data automatically collected when a visitor requests a Web page such as the page or pages visited, date and time of the visit.
Unless otherwise noted, Elections Canada does not automatically gather any specific information from you, such as your name, telephone number or email address. Elections Canada would obtain this type of information only if you supply it to us, for example via email communication or by filling in a contact form.
Communicating with Elections Canada
If you choose to send Elections Canada an email or complete a form online, your personal information is used by Elections Canada in order to respond to your inquiry. Elections Canada does not use this information to create individual profiles nor does it disclose such information to anyone other than to those within Elections Canada who need to provide you with a response. Any disclosure of your personal information is in accordance with the Privacy Act.
Emails and other electronic methods used to communicate with Elections Canada are not secure. Therefore, it is recommended that you do not send sensitive personal information, such as your Social Insurance Number or your date of birth, through non-secure electronic means.
Personal information from emails is collected pursuant to the Canada Elections Act. Such information may be used for statistical, evaluation and reporting purposes and is included in Personal Information Bank Public Communications (PSU 914).
Personal information submitted in a complaint form is collected pursuant to the Canada Elections Act. For complaints filed with Elections Canada, such information will be used for the purpose of processing complaints about how elections are run, an election official or another general matter and may also be used for statistical evaluation and reporting purposes. Such information is included in Personal Information Bank Executive Correspondence PSU 902.
Personal information submitted in a complaint form that relates to any subject-matter that falls exclusively within the authority of the Commissioner of Canada Elections will be transferred to the Commissioner of Canada Elections by Elections Canada.
Improving your Experience on the Elections Canada Website
Digital Markers (including cookies)
A digital marker is a resource created by the visitor’s browser in order to remember certain pieces of information for the Web server to reference during the same or subsequent visit to the website. Examples of digital markers are "cookies" or HTML5 web storage. Some examples of what digital markers do are as follows:
- they allow a website to recognize a previous visit each time the visitor accesses the site;
- they track what information is viewed on a site which helps website administrators ensure visitors find what they are looking for.
Elections Canada uses sessional digital markers on its website. During your on-line visit, your browser exchanges data with Elections Canada's Web server. The digital markers used do not allow Elections Canada to identify individuals.
You may adjust your browser settings to reject digital markers, including cookies, if you so choose. However, it may affect your ability to interact with this website.
Web Analytics
For the purpose of performing web analytics, Elections Canada tracks certain types of information during visits to electionsanddemocracy.ca. Elections Canada collects this information pursuant to its mandate, as outlined in the Canada Elections Act. To be consistent with the Privacy Act, this information is treated as personal information. When your computer or other device requests an electionsanddemocracy.ca web page, the following types of information are collected:
- the IP address of the device that has contacted the electionsanddemocracy.ca website (the IP address is not stored or retained in a format that can be used to identify the visitor)
- the date and time of the visit
- the type of operating system used
- the type of browser used
- the page(s) visited and documents downloaded
Elections Canada may also use the personal information collected for non-administrative uses, such as communications and information technology statistical purposes, audit and evaluations, research, planning and reporting. This personal information is not used to make decisions about an individual or to profile individual visitors to electionsanddemocracy.ca.
Elections Canada uses Google Analytics, which means the information collected is disclosed to Google, an external third-party service provider. Your IP address is anonymized prior to being stored on the service provider's servers in order to help safeguard your privacy. The information collected is de-personalized by activating the anonymization feature in Google Analytics. Data collected for Web analytics purposes goes outside of Canada to Google servers and may be processed in any country where Google operates servers. Data may be subject to the governing legislation of that respective country.
For more information on how your privacy is safeguarded in relation to Web analytics, see the Treasury Board Standard on Privacy and Web Analytics.
Network Security
Elections Canada uses software programs to monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage to this website. This software receives and records the Internet Protocol (IP) address of the computer that has contacted this website, the date and time of the visit, and the pages visited. Elections Canada makes no attempt to link these addresses with the identity of individuals visiting this website, unless an attempt to damage the site has been detected. In such case, personal information is collected under the authority of section 161 of the Financial Administration Act.
This personal information may be shared with appropriate law enforcement authorities if suspected criminal activities are detected. Such information may be used for network security related statistical purposes, audit, evaluation, research, planning and reporting and is included in Personal Information Bank PSU-905 – Electronic Network Monitoring Logs.
Privacy Inquiries
Any questions, comments, concerns or complaints you may have regarding the administration of the Privacy Act and privacy policies for this website may be directed to the Assistant Director, Access to Information and Privacy, by email at aiprp-atip@elections.ca, by calling 873-416-2444 or by writing to 30 Victoria Street, Gatineau, Quebec K1A 0M6. If you are not satisfied with our response to your privacy concern, you may wish to contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner through their online information request form or by telephone at 1-800-282-1376.
Official Languages Notice
Elections Canada is bound by the Official Languages Act and relevant Treasury Board policies and is committed to ensuring that information that originates from Elections Canada will be posted on this website simultaneously in both official languages. However, users should be aware that information provided by entities not subject to the Official Languages Act will only be available in the language in which it was provided.
Hyperlinking Notice
Links to websites not under the control of Elections Canada are provided solely for the convenience of our website visitors. Elections Canada is not responsible for the accuracy, reliability or currency of the information contained on external websites. Elections Canada does not offer any guarantee in that regard and is not responsible for the information found through these links, nor does it endorse the sites or their content.
Visitors should also be aware that information offered by non-Elections Canada and non-Government of Canada sites to which this website links is not subject to the Privacy Act or the Official Languages Act and may not be accessible to persons with disabilities. The information offered may be available only in the language(s) used by the sites in question. With respect to privacy, visitors should research the privacy policies of these non-government websites before providing personal information.
Copyrights / Permission to Reproduce Notices
Materials on this website were produced and/or compiled by Elections Canada for the purpose of providing Canadians with direct access to information about the programs and services offered by the ElectionsandDemocracy.ca website. You may use and reproduce the materials as follows:
Non-commercial Reproduction
Unless otherwise specified, you may reproduce the materials in whole or in part for non-commercial purposes, and in any format, without charge or further permission from Elections Canada, provided you do the following:
- Exercise due diligence in ensuring the accuracy of the materials reproduced;
- Indicate both the complete title of the materials reproduced, as well as the author (where available);
- Indicate that the reproduction is a copy of the version available at [URL where original document is available]; and
- Not use a method of downloading information that would place Elections Canada's network at risk. Elections Canada will take all necessary steps to protect its information technology assets from those who extract content from this website in a manner that affects its performance or places it at risk.
Commercial Reproduction
Unless otherwise specified, you may not reproduce materials on this website, in whole or in part, for the purposes of commercial redistribution without prior written permission from Elections Canada.
Third-party Materials
Some of the materials and graphical elements found on this website are subject to copyrights held by other organizations. In such cases, some restrictions on the reproduction of materials or graphical elements may apply and it may be necessary to seek permission from the rights holder prior to reproducing the material.
Contact
To obtain permission to reproduce materials on this website for commercial purposes, or to obtain information concerning copyright ownership and restrictions on reproduction from this website, please contact Elections Canada at:
Elections Canada
30 Victoria Street
Gatineau, Quebec
K1A 0M6
Telephone
1-800-463-6868
toll-free in Canada and the United States
001-800-514-6868
toll-free in Mexico
613-993-2975
from anywhere in the world
For people who are deaf or hard of hearing:
TTY 1-800-361-8935
toll-free in Canada and the United States
Fax
613-954-8584
1-888-524-1444
toll-free in Canada and the United States
Trademark Notice
The official marks of Elections Canada, including the Elections Canada wordmark and logos, as well as the ElectionsandDemocracy.ca wordmarks and logos, may not be reproduced, whether for commercial or non-commercial purposes, without prior written authorization.
External Service Providers
In order to effectively operate its website, Elections Canada uses external service providers. Such service providers are bound by a contract with Elections Canada to treat any personal information they receive in a manner consistent with the provisions of the Privacy Act.
Our Commitment to Accessibility
Elections Canada is committed to achieving a high standard of accessibility as defined in the Standard on Web Accessibility and the Standard on Optimizing Websites and Applications for Mobile Devices. In the event of difficulty using our Web pages, applications or device-based mobile applications, please contact us for assistance or to obtain alternative formats such as regular print, Braille or another appropriate format.
Information Archived on the Web
Information identified as archived on the Web is for reference, research or record-keeping purposes. It has not been altered or updated after the date of archiving. Web pages that are archived on the Web are not subject to the Government of Canada Web Standards. As per the Policy on Communications and Federal Identity, you can request alternate formats on the "Contact Us" page.
Information Sharing
If Elections Canada has information about a possible offence under the Canada Elections Act, we may share it with the Office of the Commissioner of Canada Elections, the independent officer responsible for ensuring that the Canada Elections Act is complied with and enforced. If we have information relating to the Unsolicited Telecommunications Rules or Voter Contact Registry, we may share it with the CRTC. We may also disclose information on criminal activities to law enforcement authorities.