Privacy Policy

1. General Information

1.1 Introduction

Privacy protection is important to Alliance Autochtone du Québec Inc. (hereinafter “The Organization”, “we”, “our”). For this reason, we have implemented protective measures and sound management practices for your personal information in accordance with applicable laws.

This privacy policy (the “Policy”), which should be read together with our website terms of use and service agreements concluded with the Organization, describes our practices regarding the collection, use, processing, disclosure, and storage of personal information of our clients, visitors, and users.

By using our website [website] (the “Website”) or any of our Services, you agree that we may collect, use, process, disclose, and store your Personal Information in accordance with the terms described herein. If you do not agree to abide by this Policy, you are not authorized to visit, access, or use our Website or Services, nor to share your Personal Information with us.

This Policy does not apply to the personal information of employees, representatives, and consultants of the Organization, or to any other person affiliated with the Organization, as well as to any information that does not constitute personal information as defined by applicable law.

1.2 Personal Information Protection Officer

Questions, comments, and complaints regarding the Policy and the Organization’s privacy compliance practices can be addressed to our Personal Information Protection Officer at the following contact details:

Email : siteweb@aaqnaq.com

Address: 21, Brodeur Street, Gatineau (Québec), J8Y 2P6

2. Definitions

The following words and expressions, when they appear with an initial capital letter in the Policy, have the meaning attributed to them below, unless implicitly or explicitly derogated in the text:

“Service Provider”: any natural or legal person who processes data on behalf of the Organization. This refers to third-party organizations or individuals employed by the Organization to facilitate the Services, provide the Services on behalf of the Organization, perform services related to the Services, or assist the Organization in analyzing the use of the Services. “Personal Information”: any information concerning a natural person that allows them to be identified, directly or indirectly revealing something about the identity, characteristics (e.g., abilities, preferences, psychological tendencies, predispositions, mental capabilities, character, and behavior of the concerned person), and activities of that person, regardless of the nature of the medium and the form in which this information is accessible (written, graphic, auditory, visual, computerized, or other).

“Sensitive Personal Information”: refers to Personal Information that, due to its nature or the context of its use or communication, generates a high degree of reasonable expectation of privacy. This may include, for example, medical, biometric, genetic, or financial information, or information about sexual life or orientation, religious or philosophical beliefs, union membership, or ethnic origin.

“Personal Information Protection Officer”: the person in charge of applying this Policy, whose contact details are identified in section 1.2 of this Policy.

“Services”: Services refer to the Website and all related services offered by the Organization, including professional services and, where applicable, associated media, printed documents, and “online” or electronic documentation.

3. Processing of Personal Information

3.1 Collection of Personal Information

Your consent to share your personal information with us For the Organization, respecting your privacy and the confidentiality of your data is paramount. That’s why we have developed this privacy policy to inform you what information we collect, how we process it, and when we need to communicate it to subcontractors or third parties.

By your consent, you authorize the Organization to proceed with the collection and processing of your personal information that is necessary to offer you our services. Be aware that you remain in control of your personal information at all times, and the consent you give us at the time of the collection or processing of your personal information can be withdrawn at any time. We ensure to respect your choice in accordance with our legal obligations.

Furthermore, it is essential to read this Policy together with our document concerning the Website’s Terms of Use as well as the Sale Conditions on our Website.

Via our Website:

contact details, such as your name and surname, your address, your email address, and your company name to subscribe to our newsletter or to create a user account with us
information automatically collected during the use of the Website and our Services, including:
- connection information and other information about your activities on the Website, such as your IP address, the pages you have viewed, the time and date of your visits, the type of browser you are using, your device’s operating system, and other hardware and software information;
- geolocation data, such as your IP address, precise or approximate location determined from your IP address or your mobile device’s GPS (depending on your device’s settings);

information about your credit card or other payment method, as well as other related information for any transactional section that appears on our Website.
- Personal Information may also be captured by our Internet payment partners, including [PAYSAFE] as well as our applicable tax management processor [PAYSAFE]. To learn more about their processing, retention, and destruction methods for your Personal Information, we invite you to consult their privacy policies here: https://www.paysafe.com/ca-en/paysafegroup/comprehensive-privacy-notice

In fulfilling mandates that you entrust to us:

professional or employment-related information, such as your resume, place of employment, government titles or positions, employers, owned companies, salary or self-employed income, and information regarding your criminal background and other information you provide when applying for a job with the Organization;
contact details, such as your name and surname, your email address, your phone number, your address, and your business number for creating a client account;
tax information, including your income and other information concerning your personal finances; information related to products or services, such as information about the services we have rendered to you;
transaction and payment information, such as the payment method used, the date and time, the payment amount, the billing postal code, your address, and other related information;
information you choose to provide or transmit to us, for example, when you fill out a form, respond to surveys, or communicate with one of our employees or representatives;

In each case, this personal information is processed in accordance with the legitimate and necessary purposes listed in article 3.2 below. Moreover, we ensure to collect and process only the data and Personal Information that are strictly necessary for the purposes for which you give them to us. If a subsequent use of your Personal Information were to occur, we would notify you as required by law.

3.2 Use of Personal Information

In accordance with the statement in paragraph 3.1, we use your Personal Information only if the law allows us. We may use your Personal Information for the legitimate purposes described below:

to provide you with Services;
to allow you to subscribe to our newsletter;
to verify your identity and review your personal background, as allowed by law;
to operate, maintain, monitor, develop, improve, and offer all the features of our Website;
to manage risk and activities;
to comply with our obligations under applicable laws and regulations;
to develop new Services and improve our Website and our Services;
for marketing and business development purposes, if you have previously consented to the processing of your personal information for these purposes;
to send you messages, updates, security alerts;
to respond to your inquiries and provide you with assistance as needed;
to administer a contest, promotion, survey, or another feature of the Website or our Services; ● to collect feedback and comments regarding our Services;
to conduct research and analyses related to our business and our Services;
to detect and prevent fraud, errors, spam, security incidents, and other harmful activities;
to ascertain, exercise, or defend a right or legal proceeding;
to send you communications in accordance with the law;
to enable the function of applying for a job with the Organization;
for any other purpose permitted or required by law.

Please note that we do not use the information we collect to draw any inferences or interpretations.

The Personal Information we collect and retain remains encrypted and is securely archived on OVH.ca’s servers located at 50 Rue de l’Aluminerie, Beauharnois, QC J6N 0C2. Rest assured that these Personal Information are disclosed only when we have a legal obligation to do so.

3.3 Communication of Personal Information

We may communicate your Personal Information to our employees, contractors, consultants, agents, Service Providers, and other trusted third parties who need this information to help us operate our Website, perform and protect our business activities, or serve you, provided that these Service Providers have previously committed in writing to ensure the confidentiality of your Personal Information in accordance with applicable laws and our Information Governance Program. Moreover, only members of our organization’s Staff who need to access and process your Personal Information will have access to it, in accordance with our internal Personal Information Protection Policy.

We do not sell, trade, or otherwise communicate your personal information to third parties, subject to legal exceptions.

3.3.1 Service Providers and Other Third Parties

Although we try to avoid communicating your Personal Information to third parties, we may call upon Service Providers to perform various services on our behalf, such as IT management and security, marketing, as well as data analysis, hosting, and storage. We have defined below the cases in which such sharing may occur:

We use Cyberimpact and Mailchimp for information collection related to our newsletter. Consult their privacy policy.

When we communicate your Personal Information to Service Providers, we conclude written contracts with them before your personal information is communicated to them, and we provide them only with the Personal Information necessary to perform their mandate. As part of these contracts concluded with our Service Providers, we commit to ensuring that the principles set out in this Policy are respected, and these Service Providers are required to use the Personal Information according to our instructions and solely for the purposes for which they were provided. Moreover, these Service Providers offer us sufficient guarantees regarding the implementation of adequate protective measures that are proportional to the sensitivity of the Personal Information processed or communicated. When our Service Providers no longer need your Personal Information, we ask them to destroy these data appropriately.

3.3.2 Compliance with Legislation, Response to Legal Requests, Harm Prevention, and Protection of Our Rights

We may communicate your Personal Information when we believe that such disclosure is permitted, necessary, or appropriate, including:

to respond to requests from public and governmental authorities, including public and governmental authorities outside your country of residence;
to protect our activities;
to comply with judicial proceedings;
to protect our rights, privacy, safety, property, yours or that of others;
to allow us to implement available remedies or limit the damages we might suffer; and
in accordance with applicable laws, including laws outside your country of residence;

3.3.3 Business Transaction

We may share, transfer, or communicate, in strict compliance with this Policy, your Personal Information in the event of a sale, transfer, or assignment, in whole or in part, of the Organization or our assets (for example, following a merger, consolidation, change of control, reorganization, bankruptcy, liquidation, or any other business transaction, including in the context of negotiating such transactions). In this case, we will inform you before your Personal Information is transferred and subject to a different privacy policy.

3.3.4 Consent of Personal Information

As far as possible, the Organization obtains consent directly from the concerned person for us to collect, use, and communicate their Personal Information. However, if you provide us with Personal Information about other people, you must ensure that you have duly notified them that you are providing us with their information in addition to having obtained their consent for such communication.

We will seek your explicit consent before using or communicating your Personal Information for purposes other than those set out herein.

3.3.5 Retention of Personal Information

Subject to applicable laws, we retain your Personal Information only for the time necessary to achieve the purposes for which this information was collected, unless you consent to your Personal Information being used or processed for another purpose. Moreover, our retention periods may be modified timely due to legitimate interests (for example, to ensure the security of Personal Information, to prevent abuse and violations, or to pursue criminals).

Rest assured that when the purpose for which information was collected is fulfilled, we proceed with the destruction or anonymization of this information, in accordance with applicable legislation.

For more information on the periods during which your Personal Information is retained, please contact our Personal Information Protection Officer using the contact details provided in section 1.2 of this Policy.

3.4 Sensitive Personal Information

It is unlikely but not impossible that under certain circumstances we may need to collect Personal Information considered sensitive. Before proceeding with any collection of this information, we will conduct a privacy impact assessment to determine possible issues regarding the collection of this data. As always, the Organization will only collect Sensitive Personal Information that is strictly necessary for our operations.

Moreover, before proceeding with the collection of this Sensitive Personal Information, we will ensure to have your explicit consent to do so, as required by Law.

For example, here are some types of Sensitive Personal Information we might collect from you, with your consent:

Racial origin;
Political opinions;
Religious or philosophical beliefs;
Union membership;
Health data;
Sexual orientation;
Video surveillance.

4. Your Rights

As a concerned person, you can exercise the rights outlined below by completing the form available here and sending it by email or mail to the attention of our Personal Information Protection Officer at the contact details provided in section 1.2 of the Policy:

You have the right to be informed of the Personal Information we hold about you and to request a paper copy of the documents containing your Personal Information, subject to the exceptions provided by applicable law;
You have the right to have the Personal Information we hold about you rectified, modified, and updated if they are incomplete, ambiguous, outdated, or inaccurate;
You have the right to withdraw or modify your consent for the Organization to collect, use, communicate, or retain your Personal Information at any time, subject to legal and contractual restrictions applicable.
You have the right to ask us to stop disseminating your Personal Information and to de-index any link attached to your name that gives access to this information if this dissemination violates the law or a judicial order;
You have the right to file a complaint with the Commission d’accès à l’information, subject to the conditions provided by applicable law;

To respond to your request, you may be asked to provide appropriate identification documentation or to identify yourself otherwise.

We encourage all our clients to keep their personal information up to date with us. Decisions related to various services we may offer to our clientele can vary according to the accuracy of these data. It is thus crucial to ensure that we have an accurate picture of your situation.

5. Connection Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies

We use connection cookies and other similar technologies (collectively, “Cookies”) to help us operate, protect, and optimize the Website and the services we offer. Cookies are small text files that are stored on your device or browser. They allow collecting certain information during your visit to the Website, including your language preference, the type and version of your browser, the type of device you are using, and your device’s unique identifier. While some of the Cookies we use are deleted after your browser session ends, other Cookies are retained on your device or browser to allow us to recognize your browser during your next visit to the Website. The data collected through these Cookies are not intended to identify you. They allow, in particular, ensuring the operation of the Website, improving users’ browsing experience, and providing certain data that enable us to better understand the traffic and interactions occurring on our Website as well as to detect certain types of fraud. Cookies do not cause any damage to your device and cannot be used to extract your personal information.

You can configure your browser to be informed about the placement of Cookies during your visit to the Website, so you can decide in each case whether to accept or refuse the use of certain or all Cookies. Please note that disabling Cookies on your browser could harm your browsing experience on the Website and prevent you from using some of its features.

6. Security Measures

The Organization has implemented physical, technological, and organizational security measures aimed at adequately protecting the confidentiality and security of your personal information against loss, theft, or any unauthorized access, disclosure, reproduction, communication, use, modification. These measures include, among others, encryption, access control, segregation of duties, internal auditing, etc.

Among the various measures implemented:

Our Website is equipped with an SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) Protocol that ensures a secure connection between your device and our server;
The employees of the Organization have been informed of this Policy and have committed to comply with it and to respect the confidentiality of the Personal Information concerning our potential and existing clients. Moreover, each employee commits to follow and respect a data governance policy applicable to the entire staff of the Organization;
As mentioned in section 3.3, we have implemented measures for access to Personal Information that limit access only to individuals who have a valid reason to consult, process, communicate, or otherwise use your information;
As mentioned in section 3.3, subcontractors and third parties who do business with the Organization and with whom we sometimes have to communicate your Personal Information have previously committed to protecting the confidentiality and privacy of this information;
When the purpose for which your Personal Information was collected is satisfied, and we no longer need to retain them, the Organization proceeds with the destruction or anonymization of these data, subject to applicable laws.

Despite the measures described above, we cannot guarantee the absolute security of your Personal Information. If you have reasons to believe that your Personal Information is no longer protected, please contact our Personal Information Protection Officer immediately using the contact details provided in section 1.2 above.

7. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We reserve the right to modify this Policy at any time in accordance with applicable legislation. In the event of a modification, we will publish the revised version of the Privacy Policy and update the update date indicated in the footer of it. We will also inform you by email at least thirty (30) days before the new version of our Policy comes into effect. If you do not approve the new conditions of the Privacy Policy, we invite you not to use our Website and Services anymore. If you choose to continue using our Website or Services after the new version of our Policy comes into effect, your use of our Website and Services will then be governed by this new version of the Policy.

8. Links to Third-Party Websites

Occasionally, we may include on our Website references or links to websites, products, or services provided by third parties (the “Third-Party Services”). These Third-Party Services, which are not operated or controlled by the Organization, are governed by entirely separate and independent privacy policies from ours. We thus assume no responsibility for the content and activities of these sites. This Policy applies only to the Website and the services we offer. This Policy does not extend to Third-Party Services.

9. Limitation of Liability

The Organization commits to take all reasonable means to ensure a level of confidentiality and security of Personal Information in accordance with adequate technological standards considering its sector of activity.

Despite the foregoing, you declare to understand and acknowledge that no computer system offers absolute security and that a risk is always present when transmitting Personal Information over the public network that is the internet.

You thus accept that the Organization cannot be held responsible for any breach of confidentiality, hacking, virus, loss, theft, misuse, or alteration of Personal Information transmitted or hosted on its systems or those of a third party. You also declare to waive any claim in this regard, except in case of gross negligence or intentional fault on the part of the Organization. Consequently, you agree to release the Organization and its directors, officers, related persons, and business partners from any liability for any damage of any nature whatsoever, whether direct or indirect, incidental, special, or consequential in connection with the use of your Personal Information.

In the event of a breach of confidentiality or security of your Personal Information that presents a high risk for your rights and freedom, this breach will be notified to you as soon as possible, and the Organization will take the necessary measures to preserve the confidentiality and security of your Personal Information.

10. Individuals Under the Age of 14

We do not knowingly collect and use Personal Information from individuals under the age of 14. If you are under 14 years old, you should not provide us with your Personal Information without the consent of your parents or guardian. If you are a parent or guardian and learn that your child has provided us with Personal Information without consent, please contact us using the contact details provided in section 1.2 above to request that we delete the child’s personal information from our systems.

11. User Content Publication

The Website user has the possibility, via their user account, to post comments and other information they wish to share. We remind you that the Organization cannot be held responsible for the content of your statements, as well as the consequences that may result from them. We strongly advise against posting any Personal Information about yourself on our Website to ensure the protection of your personal data.

12. Contact Us

Any question, comment, request, or concern regarding this Privacy Policy should be transmitted to our Personal Information Protection Officer at the contact details provided in section 1.2 of this Policy.