Privacy Statement
Municipal Privacy Policy
The Municipality of Highlands East protects the privacy of its inhabitants and employees as set out by the Municipal Freedom of Information and Privacy Protection Act (MFIPPA). View our Freedom of Information page to learn more about the FOI process.
Website Privacy Statement
1. Purpose
The Municipality of Hastings Highlands (“us”, “we” or “our”) operates the website www.hastingshighlands.ca (hereinafter referred to as the “Service”). Your privacy is important to us.
The purpose of the Privacy Statement is to inform users of this site with regard to the collection, use, and disclosure of personally identifiable information.
By using the Service, you agree to the collection and use of information in accordance with this Privacy Statement.
2. What is Personally Identifiable Information (PII) / Personal Data?
Personal data or PII means any information relating to a person who can be identified either directly or indirectly by that information; it may include but is not restricted to name, address, email address, phone number, credit/debit card number, IP address, location data and purchase history.
3. Use, collection and retention
We collect several different types of information for various purposes to provide and improve our Service to you.
a. Personal Data
We only collect, retain and use personal information where we believe it is essential (and allowed by law) to administer our business and to provide products, services and other opportunities requested by our customers.
We currently accept payment by credit card on this site. We have taken many steps to ensure the security of your transaction and your credit card information including transmission, processing and storage of your credit card details.
b. Tracking Technologies
We use various technologies to collect Personal Data about visitors to our website. These technologies include the following:
i. Usage Data
For each visitor, we do collect information about the Internet Protocol (IP) address, type browser used, the date and time of the visit, and the IP addresses of the locations to which the visitor linked during his or her visit to our website. This information is strictly used for statistical reporting purposes.
ii. Tracking Cookies Data & Web Beacons
We use cookies and similar tracking technologies to track the activity on our Service and we hold certain information. Cookies are files with a small amount of data which may include an anonymous unique identifier. Cookies are sent to your browser from a website and stored on your device.
You can instruct your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, if you do not accept cookies, you may not be able to use some portions of our Service. For further information on cookies and how to switch them off see www.allaboutcookies.org.
iii. Web Analytics
We may employ third party companies and individuals to facilitate our Service ("Service Providers") to monitor and analyze the use of our Service. We may receive reports based on the use of tracking technologies on an individual and aggregated basis. For example we use Govstack.
4. Under What Circumstances Could We Disclose Your Personal Data?
a. Legal Requirements
There are circumstances where we may wish to disclose or are compelled by law to disclose your Personal Data to third parties. This will only take place in accordance with the applicable law. These scenarios include disclosure to:
- comply with a legal obligation;
- protect and defend our rights or property;
- prevent or investigate possible wrongdoing in connection with the Service;
- protect the personal safety of users of the Service or the public; or
- protect against legal liability.
b. Service Providers
- We may employ Service Providers, to provide the Service on our behalf, to perform Service-related services or to assist us in analyzing how our Service is used.
- These third parties have access to your Personal Data only to perform these tasks on our behalf and are obligated not to disclose or use it for any other purpose.
5. Security Safeguards and Accountability
The security of your Personal Data is important to us. We have established appropriate physical, technical, and administrative safeguards to protect the Personal Data we collect from or about our users or visitors to our website. We will protect your personal information with appropriate security safeguards and safety measures, whether recorded on paper or captured electronically, against unauthorized access, disclosure, or misuse. We also restrict access to personal information to our employees, contractors, and agents who need to know the information to process it for us, and who are subject to confidentiality obligations. Any sensitive personal information (e.g., credit/debit card number) will be transmitted in an encrypted form using SSL encryption. Notwithstanding our security safeguards, remember that no method of transmission over the Internet or method of electronic storage is 100% secure. While we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your Personal Data, we cannot guarantee its absolute security. If you have any questions about security or have reason to believe your interaction with us is no longer secure (for example, you feel the security of any account you might have with us has been compromised), you must immediately notify us of the problem by contacting us.
6. Links to Other Sites
Our Service may contain links to other sites that are not operated by us. If you click a third party link, you will be directed to that third party's site. Visitors to those sites are advised to check the privacy statements of these sites and be cautious about providing personally identifiable information without a clear understanding of how the information will be used.
We have no control over and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies or practices of any third party sites or services.
7. Social Media Connection
You may choose to enable an interface, share with others, or log in to the Services via various social media or social networking services such as Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter (“Social Networking Services”). By integrating these Social Networking Services into the Services, we can offer you a richer and more personalized experience with our products and services. When you connect your current account to a social media account, we may collect certain personal information you have provided to the Social Networking Service. For example, when you log in with your Facebook credentials, we may collect personal information from your Facebook profile, such as your email address, profile picture, and friend list.
8. Changes to This Privacy Statement
We may update our Privacy Statement from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Statement on this page and updating the effective date at the bottom of this Privacy Statement. You are advised to review this Privacy Statement periodically for any changes. Changes to this Privacy Statement are effective when they are posted on this page. Your continued use of our website will be regarded as acceptance of our practices around privacy and personal information.
February 2, 2024