1) A privacy policy is required for the following reasons, the foremost of which is the reputation of Free Geek Toronto, and its members, for integrity and ethical conduct. This is something precious to us; we are all accountable for our actions. Other important reasons are the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), tax and credit card laws, human rights, environmental safety, and more. PIPEDA itself was created to protect people from unwanted intrusions e.g. telemarketing and spam email. To this we add:
1.2) Threats to personal safety and security;
1.3) To be able to operate a business, or a social purpose enterprise;
1.4) To build community and a democratic organization;
1.5) To meet information requirements from funders
1.6) To “grandfather in” volunteers from the pre-incorporation phase of CyberEquality as members in CyberEquality Inc. (founded Dec. 22, 2009).
2) Definition
Personal information is any information relating to an identified or identifiable individual. Such information may include name, country, street address, e-mail address, credit card number, Social Insurance Number, IP address, telephone number(s), ethnicity, income, credit or health information, photos, performance reviews or disciplinary actions, Member ID number or any unique identifier that is associated with personally identifiable information in another system. Also known as personal information or personal data, for which there is one personal data owner and many personal data holders.
What is NOT private information:
Employees’ names, titles or occupations, business address and telephone extension (these items are usually provided on an organization’s website), directors’ first and last names, or private information posted by the individual themselves, the data “owner”, on a publicly available website, forum or mailing list. By advertising their own private information, such an individual has given implicit consent for its use by others, and while Free Geek Toronto may try to help remove this information, there is only so much we can do once it is made public by the owner.
The key is to have some reliable way to communicate with the member, and for all parties to acknowledge that this is a shared responsibility. Free Geek Toronto prefers to use less expensive methods such as email and telephone; individually, these may change too often to be deemed reliable. No, we won’t contact you to “give you information about a Thrift Store Sale”, but we may contact you to let you know you’ve forgotten a piece of personal property at our community technology centre, and to call annually to do our part in keeping our member data accurate.
3) Disclosure
Members shall be informed when new information is collected as to why the information is being collected and what it will be used for.
Members have the right to request and authorize disclosure of their own individual information, and to have any errors in their files corrected. Should a member wish access to another member’s information, the second member being a close relative of the first member, the second member must give signed, written permission for such disclosure for every instance of such a request for access.
4) Consent
Consent for use of information will be obtained from members when the information is collected.
Consent will be obtained from members if there is a new use for the information.
5) Maintenance of Records
Private information, as defined above, will be kept in a secure area when it is on paper, and on a encrypted partition of a server when it is stored electronically.
Personnel files including evaluations, recommendations. and disciplinary actions shall only be accessible by staff and board members.
6) Destruction of Records
Once it is legally permissible to destroy member records e.g. 10 years after a member has resigned in writing, all paper files regarding members will be shredded; hard drives used for member and financial data, and no longer in use by our organization, will be physically destroyed on our premises. Serial numbers of such destroyed drives will also be retained, along with the date of destruction.
7) Concrete Examples
7.1) Examples of following the law:
The Canada Corporations Act requires non-profit organizations to have a Register of Members. Such a Register lists the “names, addresses and callings” of all shareholders, which in a non-profit is the same thing as ‘Member”. These names and addresses must be retained for 10 years after the individual ceases to become a member. Similarly, the Income Tax Act and its Regulations requires us to retain credit card and other financial records for specific periods of time.
7.2) Example of preventing unwanted intrusions:
Free Geek Toronto member contact information shall not be sold or provided to a third party without the member’s explicit consent. A third party can be a supplier or partner of Free Geek Toronto. This type of information is often collected by third parties who run advertisements on another organization’s or companies’ website. We do not have third-party advertising on our website(s).
Vice versa, a member can determine contact information for a third party (supplier or partner) of Free Geek Toronto by locating and contacting them directly. This information is generally available in the phone book or through the Internet.
7.3) Examples of use of information to operate a business, or a social purpose enterprise:
Free Geek Toronto communicates to its members primarily by email, as the financial, time and environmental costs of document production and mass mailings, or other methods, on our workers and budgets are too high. We encourage our members to subscribe to our mailing lists and forums with their email address, and require it in some cases.
These addresses are automatically “mangled” to reduce email address “harvesting” by automated software programs designed to generate salable lists for spammers. Our mailing list software specifically states that the email list of subscribers is only available to the Administrator(s).
7.4) Example of building community and a democratic organization;
A member may request the telephone number or email address of another member to contact them for the purpose of Free Geek Toronto business. For instance, a member may want to contact another member for the purpose of planning a meeting, learning from the other member’s expertise or knowledge, or to discuss a new idea. The holder of such contact information, such as the board secretary or other worker, has both the right and, in many cases, the legal obligation to say, “no”. The democratic “right to know” needs to be balanced with the democratic right to manage one’s role to the best of one’s knowledge and ability, as well as respecting the data owners’ rights to privacy.
The authorized holder may very well offer to pass on a message to the second member that the requester is trying to contact. Members are urged to check the mailing lists and phone book first, before requesting others’ assistance in obtaining such information.
Volunteers may, from time to time, request lists of personal data for a defined purpose. The Secretary will determine the method and location for access to this information. Should the volunteer member disagree with the Secretary’s decision, they have the right to appeal to the FGT board of directors. The decision of the board will be final.
7.5) Example of providing services to members, recognition of assistance from them, and safety precautions;
Free Geek Toronto offers store discounts to volunteer members and staff based on minimum hours worked for our organization. Therefore, we collect and record these hours worked by individuals, expect every worker and visitor to sign in and out of the building, and use this visitor’s log for safety purposes as well e.g. fire drills. Total volunteer hours logged for the organization, without reference to individual totals, is also used for funding applications.
The property surrounding our centre will have outdoor lighting and a security camera installed by our current landlord, and the feed will go into his unit on the property. This is to ensure physical and environmental safety of visitors and our shared natural environment. Such cameras are required by provincial environmental protection agencies for our ethical recycling activities, activities that form a core of our non-profit organization’s mission.
Compliance and Complaints
Members have the right to complain about breaches of this and other policies to the designated Chief Privacy Officer, any designated Ombudsman, staff, or directors, and have the complaint addressed in writing within 30 days. Should Free Geek Toronto require more than 30 days to complete addressing the complaint, the member will be informed of this extension, and the reasons why it is needed, in writing.