Privacy Policy
Our commitment to privacy: The Halton Media Group, a division of
Metroland Media Group Ltd. a wholly owned subsidiary of the Torstar Corporation,
knows that protecting the privacy and confidentiality of your personal information
is important to consumers. This Privacy Code governs Burlington Post, Oakville Beaver,
Oakville Today, Flamborough Review, Milton Canadian Champion, Burlington Shopping
News, Oakville Shopping News, Milton Shopping News, Mississauga West Shopping News,
701 Gold Book, City Parent, Forever Young, News 4 Kids, Premier Consumer Shows (refer
to premierconsumershows.com for
complete list of Shows), Formula Media Group (refer to
formulamediagroup.com for complete list of publications), and www.haltonsearch.com
Collection, use and disclosure of personal information by us and our affiliates
are governed by the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act
(the "Act"), and any applicable provincial legislation. This Privacy Code
explains what personal information is collected from its customers and how it is
used. It also explains how you can ask questions, make suggestions, and complain
about our privacy practices. This Privacy Code applies to personal information (see
below) collected by us, including our websites. Be aware that our websites may contain
links to other websites provided and maintained exclusively by third parties not
subject to this Privacy Code. Please review the privacy policies on any external
websites to determine their information handling practices.
For a listing of our affiliates, please go to www.torstar.com
and click on Torstar Properties, or call Customer Service at 1-800-265-3673 for
information.
This Privacy Code is available to the public in electronic form at
slennox@thespec.com and in paper form from The Hamilton Spectator, 44 Frid
Street, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, L8N 3G3. If you have any additional concerns
or questions, we encourage you to contact us and we will address your concerns to
the best of our ability. Please read this Privacy Code carefully, and check back
periodically as we update it from time to time. By submitting your personal information
to us, you signify your agreement to the terms and conditions of this Privacy Code.
What is personal information? Personal information is any information
about an identifiable individual. Personal information does not include the name,
title, business address or telephone number of an employee of an organization. Information
used solely for journalistic purposes is exempted from the Act.
We are responsible for personal information under our control. Our employees are
informed about the importance of privacy and receive periodic information to update
them about our Privacy Code and related policies. In addition, Torstar Corporation,
our parent company, has appointed a Chief Privacy Officer to oversee personal information-handling
practices of The Halton Media Group and its affiliates.
Children: If you are under 18, be sure to obtain your parent or guardian's permission
before you send any personal information to us, or anyone else, over the Internet.
We encourage parents to get involved with their children's online usage and to be
aware of the activities in which they are participating.
What personal information do we collect, and why? We collect personal
information for specific, limited purposes. Information is collected by fair and
lawful means.
We collect personal contact information (for example, name, address, email address
and telephone numbers) if you: sign up for a newsletter; subscribe to a newspaper;
register on an online forum or website, or to attend a paid event; purchase any
product from us; are a classified advertiser or auction participant; or provide
it to us when you attend a trade or consumer show. This information is used to fulfill
your request, provide targeted advertising and respond to your inquiries. From time
to time it may be used to provide reward points or apply credit, as applicable in
the circumstances.
We retain your subscriber ID and passwords so that upon request by you and receipt
of identification we may remind you of them.
If you enter a contest or other promotion, we use your personal contact information
to administer the contest or promotion including contacting, announcing and promoting
prizewinners.
We collect demographic information, as well as purchase history and a list of promotions
offered to you ("history"), in order to gain a better understanding of
your interests so that we may develop better products and services, and to determine
eligibility for our products and services.
We may also use demographic, personal contact and history information from time
to time to contact you about changes, enhancements or other notices related to goods
or services you requested and which we provide. In addition, we may use this information
to send you offers or information from us, our affiliates and from selected sponsors
or advertisers ("Marketing Offers"). If you do not wish to receive Marketing
Offers, you may opt-out at any time by following the procedure set out in our opt-out
policy (see below).
We keep notes and special instructions on file for classified advertisers and subscribers
to help us fulfill your request and provide customer service. We may tape or monitor
your telephone calls with our customer service representatives for quality assurance
purposes.
We collect credit card information if you: subscribe to a newspaper; register on
a paid website; enter a paid contest; register to attend a paid event; purchase
any product from us; are a classified advertiser or an auction participant. This
credit card information is used for the purpose of fulfilling your order.
If you choose to opt-out of any use of your personal information in accordance with
our opt-out policy, we keep your contact information on a list so that your request
can be honoured. If you complain to any of our departments, we collect your contact
information and the nature of your complaint, for the purpose of investigating and
responding to you.
If you are a freelancer, or other service provider, we collect your social insurance
number for tax reporting purposes and your contact information in order to pay you.
We may also collect financial information from freelancers or other service providers
and from advertisers (for example, banking details and credit history) to assess
credit risk, sales data to prepare royalty reports and other information to help
us evaluate your services.
If you use any of our websites, we may assign an internet cookie. An internet cookie
is a small text file that a website stores on your internet browser and that can
collect and store information. We use cookies to better understand how you use our
websites, to make sure our ads and dynamic content are served correctly and to improve
the performance of our websites. For example, a cookie may recall a set of preferences
you have set for our website and record items that you have registered for. Storing
cookies on your web browser allows us to present you with custom web pages and other
content that are tuned with your preferences. For example, if you are a registered
user, you may see a welcome page with your name on it. These activities are invisible
to you, and are generally intended to improve your internet surfing convenience.
Unless you have set your preferences so that you will be alerted when a cookie is
being stored on your computer, you won't know about it.
If you are concerned about cookies, it is possible to turn them off in your web
browser preferences. However, please be aware that by disabling cookies, you may
not be able to use all portions of our websites, particularly pages requiring registration.
We may place advertising or other links on our sites that originate from outside
advertisers. If you view these ads, the advertisers may assign a cookie. We do not
control these cookies, nor are we responsible for any marketing or other use of
your name by these advertisers.
We generally use your personal information for the purposes of: managing, administering,
collecting or otherwise enforcing accounts; maintaining business records for reasonable
periods of time and generally managing and administering our business; and meeting
regulatory, legal, insurance, audit, security and processing requirements.
Occasionally, we ask our customers to complete market research surveys. Survey results
are aggregated and shared with our advertisers, sponsors and affiliates in a manner
that does not disclose personal information.
Other than as permitted or required by law, purposes for the collection, use or
disclosure of personal information, which are not set out in this Privacy Code,
will be set out at the time of collection. You will be given a reasonable opportunity
to opt-out of any additional purposes no later than the time of collection.
To whom do we disclose personal information, and why? We may disclose
your personal information under the following circumstances:
In order to provide you with Marketing Offers (see above), we may disclose your
personal contact information to affiliates and selected sponsors and advertisers.
If you do not wish to receive Marketing Offers, you may opt-out at any time by following
the procedure set out in our opt-out policy (see below).
We may transfer your personal information to service providers acting on our behalf
in order to perform processing and other specialized services, for example, prize
fulfillment of our contests, collection of overdue accounts, product delivery, or
credit card processing.
We may disclose your personal information to our affiliates for internal audit,
management, billing, administrative or other business purposes.
We may disclose your contact information on a confidential basis to our advertisers
for the sole purpose of newspaper delivery verification.
When we need to disclose your personal information to unrelated parties, for example,
if we find you have violated any stated terms of service or conditions of purchase,
or if we need to comply with applicable laws and lawful governmental requests, other
legal and regulatory authorities and other legal reasons.
We may disclose your personal information to parties connected with the contemplated
or actual financing, insuring, sale, assignment or other disposal of all or part
of our business or assets, including for the purposes of determining whether to
proceed or continue with such transaction or business relationship or fulfilling
any records or other reporting requirements to such parties. We will require such
parties to treat your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Code
and to use and disclose it only for the purposes for which it was collected.
Consent and opt-out policy. In general, we seek consent to use
your personal information in accordance with our opt-out policy. Except as set out
in this section, we obtain your express opt-in consent to use or disclose sensitive
personal information.
If you do not wish to receive Marketing Offers, you may opt-out at any time by doing
any of the following:
follow the instructions at the bottom of any email Marketing Offer you receive.
inform your telemarketer at the time you are called with a Marketing Offer.
call Customer Service at 1-800-265-3673 and request that your personal information
not be used for Marketing Offers.
email Customer Service at slennox@thespec.com
and request that your personal information not be used for Marketing Offers.
Please allow a reasonable time (approximately 2-4 weeks) for processing of your
request.
Generally, by providing us with your personal information, we will assume that you
consent to our collection, use and disclosure of such information for the purposes
identified or described in this Privacy Code, if applicable, or otherwise at the
time of collection. We reserve the right to use and disclose your personal information
without consent where required or permitted by law, for example, if we have reasonable
grounds to believe the information could be useful when investigating a contravention
of a federal, provincial or foreign law, in order to protect or defend our legal
interests, or to comply with applicable laws and lawful governmental requests.
Safeguards: We maintain personal information in a combination of
paper and electronic files. We take technical, contractual, administrative and physical
security measures to protect your personal information. When you provide credit
card information to use, we work to help protect the security of your credit card
information by using industry standard secure sockets layer (SSL) encryption technology.
Please be aware that email is not a secure medium, and any personal information
you send to us by email could be intercepted. If your communication is very sensitive,
or includes information such as your credit card number, you should not send it
electronically unless the email is encrypted or your browser indicates that the
access to our website is secure. Materials posted to online forums such as bulletin
boards or chat rooms are public, not secure and may be viewed by anyone. Any personal
information you post may be collected and used by anyone and may result in unsolicited
messages from other internet users.
How to access and correct your personal information. You may call
Customer Service at 1-800-265-3673 and we will update, edit or delete certain subscriber
or registration information you have provided upon receipt of appropriate evidence.
We will give you access to the information we retain about you within a reasonable
time, upon written request, satisfactory identification and proof of entitlement.
In some cases, we may not provide access to personal information in our possession
or control. If we deny your request, we will advise you in writing of the reason
for the refusal and you may challenge our decision.
How to challenge our privacy practices. We encourage you to contact
us with any questions or concerns you have about your privacy or this Privacy Code.
If you have a question concerning our Privacy Code, would like a copy, or if you
have a complaint, please contact Customer Service at:
The Hamilton Spectator
44 Frid Street
Hamilton, ON
Canada L8N 3G3
905 526 3156
slennox@thespec.com
Customer Service can successfully deal with many issues. If you prefer, or if after
contacting Customer Service, your concerns or questions have not been resolved to
your satisfaction, you can contact Torstar Corporation's Chief Privacy Officer in
writing as follows:
Chief Privacy Officer
Torstar Corporation
One Yonge Street, 6th floor
Toronto ON
M5E 1P9
Fax: (416) 869-4183
This Privacy Code was last updated on February 20, 2007