At the Southern Georgian Bay Chamber of Commerce, we respect and protect the privacy of our members and those who use our website and services. This privacy statement provides details about how your personal information is collected and used.

Personal information is any information that identifies you or would enable someone to contact you, such as your name, email address, phone number and other non-public information that is associated with the foregoing. This privacy statement applies to the Southern Georgian Bay Chamber of Commerce website.

Information Collection and Use by Us

We will not sell, share, or rent this information to others in ways different from what is disclosed in this privacy statement. We may obtain information that is provided during any voluntary or mandatory registration process, online payment transaction, request for technical support, when you call or email us, or when you visit our website. We collect information only as necessary to fulfill the purposes set forth in this privacy statement.

We keep track of activity on the Southern Georgian Bay Chamber of Commerce website using log files stored on our web servers. We collect information, such as IP address, browser type and version, and pages you view. We also keep track of how you got to our website and any links you click on to leave it. We may gather information about any device or other method of communication you use to interact with the website and we gather aggregated tracking information regarding overall usage of the site, including tallies of page views. We may use this information to assist us in offering statistical data, to assist you with technical support, to diagnose problems with our server, to administer our website, to improve our products and services and do a better job of marketing them, or to tailor our service offerings to you.

Security and Privacy

We employ reasonable technical, administrative and physical safeguards to protect the confidentiality and security of your personal information. We use industry-recognized technical safeguards, such as firewalls, and have adopted and implemented security procedures to protect your information from loss, misuse or unauthorized alteration. We do not collect financial account information, such as credit card numbers, directly. The security of your payment information is the responsibility of PayPal through the use of their encryption protocols.

Notwithstanding our efforts, we cannot guarantee absolute or unqualified protection of this information given the open nature and resulting instability of the Internet and World Wide Web, and we make no representations or warranties as to the effectiveness of our security and assume no liability for security breaches or any failure in the security of your computer equipment, your internet service provider or other networks and communications providers.

Sharing of Information

We will never sell or rent your personal information to third parties for their use without your consent. If you accessed the Southern Georgian Bay Chamber of Commerce website in connection with a solicitation from one of our partners, we may share your information with the partner and the partner may share related information with us. Occasionally, we enter into contracts with third parties so that they can assist us in servicing you (for example, providing customer service). Our contracts with such third parties prohibit them from using any of your personal information for any purpose beyond the purpose for which they were engaged, including for their own purposes, and they are required to maintain the confidentiality of the information we provide to them. We may also share non-personally identifying information in the aggregate with third parties, such as the media, industry observers, potential members or partners. For example, we may disclose the number of users that have been exposed to, or clicked on, our website or evaluated or were successfully matched to one of our professional members.

We may disclose your personal information to courts, law enforcement authorities and/or other relevant third parties, such as internet service providers, when such disclosure is necessary or advisable, in our sole discretion, to conduct an investigation, respond to a third party or law enforcement subpoena or court order, bring legal action or pursue other relief when you or a third party are or may be: (a) violating our terms and conditions of use; (b) causing injury or other harm to, or otherwise violating our property or other legal rights, or those of other users or third parties; or (c) violating any applicable law.

Cookies and Web Beacons

We use a variety of technologies on our Sites. Among these are cookies: a text-only string of information that a website transfers to the cookie file of the browser on your computer so that the website can remember your browser in the future. A cookie will typically contain the name of the domain from which the cookie has come, the “lifetime” of the cookie, and a value, usually a unique number. When you visit our Sites, open our email, encounter our services online (including on one of our customer’s websites), or click on one of our banner ads or videos, we or an authorized third party may send you a cookie.

Cookies may be used by us in many ways: they allow us to verify the login status of members using services linked directly with our Sites, track point of entry to point of registration for those users participating in our affiliate signup programs, and track and measure the success of a particular marketing campaign, and to provide you with more relevant content. Cookies also allow us to track overall site usage and determine areas users prefer, as well as enable us to make your visit to our website easier by recognizing you when you return and help to provide you with a customized experience.

Information gathered through usage of a cookie is not linked to any personal identifying information, unless you become a trial or paying member of ours. Once you submit personally identifiable information on our Sites (for example, by signing up as a member), we may link such information with cookies or other identifiers that are associated with your visit(s) to our Sites. You have the ability to accept or decline cookies by modifying the settings in your browser. If you choose to disable cookies, you may still use our Sites; however, you may have limited access to some areas within our Sites or a different experience.

Some of our web pages, emails, and other online content may contain electronic images provided by us or authorized third parties known as web beacons, also known as single-pixel GIFs, which are invisible graphical images. These web beacons allow us to count users who have visited our Sites, seen our ads, or opened our email, and to track whether messages are shared using our social share features and, once shared, whether these messages are opened by the recipient. Web beacons cannot be declined when delivered using a regular web page, but they can be refused when delivered by email. If you do not wish to receive web beacons by email, you will need to disable HTML images or refuse HTML (select Text only) emails via your email software.

Online Advertising

We also use pixels, or transparent GIF files, to help manage the online advertising of our members. These GIF files are provided by our ad management partners and enable our partners to recognize a unique ad impression cookie on your Web browser, which in turn enables us to learn which advertisements bring users to our website. With both cookies and web beacons, the information that we collect and share is anonymous and not personally identifiable. We give all Internet users the choice to opt-out of receiving our ad impression cookie. If you opt out, your web browser will be associated with a generic “opt-out” cookie, which will prevent us from associating any non-personally identifying information with your browser. Our “opt-out” cookie has no expiration date. Keep in mind that participating in our opt-out program does not prevent you from seeing our online ads; instead, information about the online ads we serve to you will not be recorded.

Our ad management partners include Mediaplex, Google Inc., Advertising.com, LinkedIn Corporation, ShareThis and Facebook. For more information about our ad management partners, including information about how to opt-out of these technologies, visit the privacy policies on their websites.

Choice/Opt-out

Our Anti-Spam Policy tolerates only permission-based email. You may choose to opt-out or select your email preferences when you sign-up for your membership. You always have the opportunity to opt-out or change preferences by emailing us at info@sgbchamber.ca. 

Some communications (for example, important account notifications and billing information) are considered transactional and are necessary for all of our customers. You must cancel your membership account to unsubscribe from these communications.

Access to Personal Information

You can update your profile, including your organizational information and email address, by clicking on “submit updated membership information”. We will retain your information for as long as your account is active. We will retain and use your information as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes and enforce our agreements.

 Third Party Links and Information Collection and Use by Our Customers

The Southern Georgian Bay Chamber of Commerce website provide links to third-party websites, such as those of our business partners and online advertising partners. While on these sites, we or these third parties may collect information about you. Because we do not control the information policies or practices of these third parties or our customers, you should review their privacy policies to learn more about how they collect and use personally identifiable information. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of any third parties.

Accountability

If you have questions or concerns regarding this privacy statement, you should first contact us at info@sgbchamber.ca 

Notification of Changes

We reserve the right to modify this privacy statement at any time, so please review it frequently. If we decide to change this privacy statement in any material way, we will notify you here, by email, or by means of a notice on the Southern Georgian Bay Chamber of Commerce website so our users are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it. For major changes in how we use personally identifying data, we will provide advance notice. In all cases, your continued use of our website constitutes consideration and your binding acceptance to any such changes.

The Southern Georgian Bay Chamber of Commerce frequently communicates with its members through email. As a member it is important that you contact your IT Department to request that info@sgbchamber.ca, or dhayes@sgbchamber.ca be white listed to ensure these important messages are not blocked or considered as spam.