Privacy

Privacy Statement

The Government of Canada (GC) is committed to protecting your privacy online. This privacy statement summarizes how we treat all personal information that you may provide to us on the GC Collaboration Tools (GC Tools) platforms (GCXchange, GCconnex, GCCollab, GCPedia, or GCWiki).

What we mean by “personal information”  

Personal information is defined in section 3 of the Privacy Act as “information about an identifiable individual that is recorded in any form.” It includes information related to age, ethnic origin, religion, marital status, home and email addresses, etc.  The personal information that we obtain from you in relation to the GC Tools will be managed in accordance with the Privacy Act, and the associated policies, directives, and guidance governing privacy and the collection of personal information.

Purpose for collection and authority to collect 

Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat has legislative authority to collect personal information to facilitate TBS’ pan-governmental management goals of horizontal collaboration and personnel development. This part of TBS’s mandate falls under section 7 of the Financial Administration Act

How we protect your privacy  

All personal information within the GC Tools is considered to be provided voluntarily and any use or disclosure will be governed by the rights of access to, correction of, and protection of personal information under the Privacy Act.

Users are advised that all information / content posted to a federal government collaborative site is subject to the provisions of the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act. This means that information may be accessed and disclosed in response to a request under either of these Acts.  

For maximum privacy protection, it is recommended that users do not post personal information about themselves or others, such as photographs, home addresses, etc., as this information would then be available to all users.  

Usage  

Individuals must first register to our platforms before contributing content. Our registration processes requires the collection of certain personal information such as: real name and email address. Users can access and make modifications to their information as necessary. However, without the required information, users cannot access the platform. Please contact us immediately to report any inappropriate usage.  

Disclosure  

Your personal information is not shared, sold, rented, traded, or otherwise disclosed to any outside third party except with your consent or where authorized and/or required by law. Please note, your information may be visible to other platform users.  Please do not post personal information of a sensitive nature that you wish to keep confidential.  

Reminder

Users are reminded that they are subject to GC and departmental privacy policy instruments. Before sharing or disclosing information, users should ensure they have the legal authority to do so and that such sharing or disclosure is consistent with the original purposes for which it was collected or created. 

Internet Protocol network addresses and other technical information  

IP networking address information, and its connection to any usernames that share it, may be released only under certain circumstances.  

We do not expose IP address of logged-in contributors. A user’s IP address may be stored on the web servers for a period of time up to 6 months (or longer if associated with a security incident). Period during which it can be seen by network administrators for security monitoring and support purpose.

Contributions or edits to pages are identified with the username of the contributor, and the page’s editing history is aggregated by contributor in a contribution list. Such information will be available permanently.

Cookies 

Logging into certain GC Tools requires the use of cookies. You will not be able to log into certain platforms if you choose to refuse the use of cookies on your browser.

Once logged in, the platforms may use cookies to improve your navigation experience or to allow you to stay logged on across multiple sessions. Although they do not use cookies to determine sites previously visited, the web server log may store traffic information for debugging purposes. These cookies may track things such as how long you spend on the site and the pages that you visit.  

Browsing and reading pages  

When a user browses or reads a page, usage information such as username and page visited is collected for security monitoring and support purpose. This information will not be published or used to track legitimate users.  

Aside from the above-mentioned raw log data collected for general purposes, page visits do not expose a visitor’s identity publicly. Sampled raw log data may include the IP address of any user, but it is not reproduced publicly.  

Privacy and Analytics  

In administering the GC Tools, we use web-analytics programs such as Google Analytics, and Apache, to perform collection, analysis, measurement, and reporting of data about platform traffic and visits for purposes of understanding and optimizing the use of the tool. This anonymized and aggregated user traffic information is used to produce metrics. For more information on how your privacy is safeguarded in relation to web analytics, consult Annex E of the Directive on Privacy Practices

User Contributions  

Contributions are identified with the username of the contributor. User contributions are aggregated and available to system administrators to identify inappropriate content or use of the service. User contributions are aggregated according to the user’s registration and login status. 

Adapting this privacy notice 

Please contact us if you would like to adapt this privacy notice for either written or verbal communication. 

Personal Information Banks 

The GC Tools subscribes to the following standard personal information banks (PIBs) with regards to the collection and use of account information, IP addresses server logs etc. These include: Internal Communications, Public Communications, Employee Personnel Record, and Electronic Network Monitoring Logs. 

Right of access and correction  

Under the Privacy Act, you have the right to access and correct your personal information.

You can access and update your information through your respective GC Tools account.

You can also submit an online request for your personal information, or send a written request through your home department. Members of the public on any of our public-facing tools can access their personal information by submitting a request on the Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) Online Request portal.

Right to file a complaint

Should you have any questions about this notice please contact us. 

Where a user is not satisfied with the actions we may have taken to rectify a matter, or with the explanations given, users may file a complaint with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada