Privacy - initiasciences

Privacy Policy

Policy objectives

InitiaSciences ("InitiaSciences", "we", "us", "our"), a not-for-profit organization, takes your privacy and the protection of your Personal Information seriously when using our services and platform. This Privacy Policy (the "Policy") describes our privacy practices, the types of Personal Information we may receive or collect from you and how we use, disclose, host and secure it, so that you can make informed choices. We recommend that you read the Policy carefully and return to it periodically, as it may be modified from time to time.

The Policy is designed to comply with applicable privacy legislation.

This Policy applies to our website and platform available at http://www.initiasciences.ca (our "Platform"). However, we wish to draw your attention to the fact that the rights and obligations described in this Policy do not cover third-party websites that may be linked to or mentioned on our Platform. These third-party websites have their own privacy policies and we encourage you to read them carefully.

Personal information

For the purposes of this Policy, "Personal Information" means any information about an identifiable individual, including information that can be used alone or in combination with other information to identify, contact or locate a single individual. In general, Personal Information does not include business contact information, such as your name, title or business contact information.

The Personal Information we collect may include, but is not limited to :

Your contact details, such as your name, postal address or telephone number, in order to identify you and correspond with you;
Your demographic information, such as your date of birth, to check whether you have reached the age of majority;
Your connection information such as the date of your communication with us via the forms available on our Platform, your user name, your e-mail address and your password;
Information about your participation in our programs or activities, such as the type of program or activity and the period of participation;
Any other Personal Information you have provided to us.

What personal information do we collect?

When you visit our website, we may collect and use the following categories of personal information:

Identification: your first and last name.
Contact details: your telephone number and e-mail address.
Interactions: When you communicate with us by e-mail, through our forms, by submitting your request to participate in one of our programs or events, a comment, by telling us about your research project or if you send us your curriculum vitae or other personal information by applying to become an InitiaSciences volunteer or employee, we record your interaction and, where applicable, each attachment.
Use of our site: when you browse our website, we or our web consultant automatically collect certain personal information from your browser's cookies, including your IP address, language preference, date and time of visit and pages viewed.

Sometimes we obtain more information than we need. We strongly encourage you not to provide any information beyond what is requested and necessary.

How do we collect your Personal Information?

Directly to you

As a general rule, we collect the Personal Information we need directly from you, for example when you fill in the application form for one of our Platform programs or when you contact us. We may also collect information relating to your use of the Platform, including technical information about your visits, average visit duration, action taken on the Platform, type of device used or any other information collected through our website host: WordPress. For more information in this regard, we invite you to consult the information relating to the use of a WordPress website.

With your consent

We generally collect your Personal Information with your consent, unless applicable law provides an exception to this principle (for example, to comply with our legal obligations, when necessary to establish, exercise or defend a legal claim or proceeding).

Refusing and withdrawing your consent

You have the right, if you wish, to refuse the processing of your Personal Information. You may also, at any time, and subject to reasonable notice and any applicable legal or contractual restrictions, withdraw your consent (if any) to the processing of your Personal Information in our possession by contacting us. You should be aware, however, that if you choose not to provide us with your Personal Information, this may prevent you, for example, from participating in our activities or applying for one of our programs, as this information is essential for such use. You may contact us as indicated in the "How to contact us" section for any questions relating to this subject.

Why do we collect your Personal Information?

For specific and limited purposes

InitiaSciences generally collects your Personal Information for :

Establish and manage our relationship with you;
Provide and maintain the activities and programs requested;
To improve the Platform and the Services, as well as your user experience;
Respond to your requests for information;
Respond to your requests for participation;
To enable business development and marketing activities, in particular by informing our current and future users of our new offers, with their prior consent.

(collectively, the "Purposes").

To send you messages

If you have consented to receive such information, InitiaSciences may send you newsletters, electronic messages such as e-mails, news, updates and/or other written communications ("Messages") about InitiaSciences' services and/or its partners' products and/or services. You may choose not to receive the Messages in the manner indicated in the "Contact Us" section or through the unsubscribe link included in the Messages. However, InitiaSciences may continue to send you Messages to inform you of available upgrades, critical technical issues related to the Platform or services you have requested (such as training), or to provide you with important account information (if applicable).

For secondary purposes

Depending on the circumstances, InitiaSciences may also aggregate and anonymize the Personal Information you have provided, in order to create statistical data that InitiaSciences may use for secondary purposes (such as studies and funding applications), to improve the Platform, to examine trends, to develop knowledge in scientific research mentoring and teaching, or to respond to statistical requests from some of our partners. This statistical data does not include any Personal Information.

Who can consult your Personal Information?

The personal information you provide and that we collect is used only for the purposes indicated at the time of collection, i.e. when you browse, disclose your information on our website or communicate with us. We use your personal information primarily to:

Communicate with you and keep you informed: to answer a question, comment or request for information, to respond to your application request, etc;
Process applications for participation in our programs, including our Mentored Research program, where applicable;
Process your request to join the team;
Contact you about InitiaSciences projects;
Any other use permitted or required by applicable law.

Access to personal information within InitiaSciences will be limited to those employees and volunteers who need the information to perform their duties. These employees and volunteers will treat the information as strictly confidential and will only provide access to authorized individuals. The level of access to personal information will be granted to employees and volunteers on a need-to-know basis.

Any person with whom we establish a partnership must comply with the provisions of the Privacy Act, as well as this policy and related internal procedures. Any violation may result in cancellation of the partnership, exclusion from the InitiaSciences team or exclusion from participation in our activities.

Your Personal Information may be held by InitiaSciences or accessed by its team members or partners in jurisdictions other than your province, territory or country of residence. InitiaSciences may also subcontract the processing of or share your Personal Information with third parties located elsewhere, in regions other than your province, territory or country of residence. In such cases, we endeavour to limit access to Personal Information by such third parties to that which is necessary to perform the tasks entrusted to them. Please be aware that we also strive to establish contractual agreements with these agents and service providers to ensure the confidentiality and security of your Personal Information. This may include implementing robust and effective security measures. In addition, InitiaSciences will ensure that your Personal Information is adequately protected by appropriate technical, organizational or other legal means. If you would like more information about these security measures, please contact us as indicated in the "How to contact us" section.

How do we protect your Personal Information?

We take all reasonable steps to protect personal information against loss or theft, unauthorized access, use or disclosure, alteration or destruction, through appropriate administrative, technical and physical security and protection measures.

The level of protection afforded personal information depends on the sensitivity of the information.

How do we use or disclose your Personal Information?

InitiaSciences does not rent or sell any of your Personal Information to third parties and will not share it with third parties without your consent, unless required by law or for the reasons set out below.

With our employees and volunteers

In the course of their work, our employees and volunteers may need access to your Personal Information, for example, when you contact us or request assistance. Their access is limited to what is necessary for the performance of their duties.

With strategic partners

InitiaSciences may share your Personal Information with its partners to facilitate its activities, such as our financial partners and hosting service providers. Our service providers may have access to your Personal Information for a limited time for statistical purposes. Where InitiaSciences engages third parties to process any Personal Information, InitiaSciences endeavours to implement commercially reasonable contractual and technical protections to ensure that such third parties keep all Personal Information they process strictly confidential. Please note that these third parties may not be located in your geographical area. In such cases, InitiaSciences takes commercially reasonable measures, as described below in the section "Who may access your Personal Information".

Where required by applicable law

We may also share your Personal Information if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to: (i) comply with the law; (ii) comply with an order of a competent judicial authority in any jurisdiction; (iii) comply with legal process served on InitiaSciences; (iv) protect and defend the rights or property of InitiaSciences ; (v) enforce or verify your compliance with any agreement you have entered into with InitiaSciences, if any; (vi) prevent fraud or other illegal activity perpetrated through the Platform; or (vii) act in urgent circumstances to protect the personal safety of users of the Platform or the general public.

For other purposes, with your consent

Where you have expressly consented, your Personal Information may be shared with other third parties. For example, there may be specific cases where additional conditions apply and through these we make it clear that specific third parties are processing your Personal Information.

Our roles and responsibilities

InitiaSciences is responsible for personal information that is collected, retained, used, disclosed and destroyed. We have developed and will continue to develop policies and practices to ensure that this information is handled in strict compliance with the Privacy Act. InitiaSciences' Privacy Officer is responsible for overseeing the application of these policies and practices to ensure compliance, including:

ensuring open, complete and timely communication with employees, volunteers and others about InitiaSciences' policies, practices and expectations with respect to the handling of personal information;
establishing standards for classifying the sensitivity of personal information in order to determine the appropriate level of protection for that information;
implementing systems to ensure that only employees and volunteers whose duties require access to personal information are authorized to have access to the information in question;
monitoring the degree of compliance with this policy and, if necessary, taking steps to correct any shortcomings.

Employees and Volunteers - Employees who collect personal information on behalf of InitiaSciences shall explain the purposes for which the information is collected. It is the responsibility of each member of the InitiaSciences team to be aware of his or her obligations under this policy and the Privacy Act. Employees and volunteers are required to report any violations of the Policy or the Act to the InitiaSciences Privacy Officer.

InitiaSciences Privacy Officer - The InitiaSciences Privacy Officer. Mélanie Le Berre, will be the first point of contact for individuals seeking information or having concerns about InitiaSciences' handling of their personal information.

Any violation of this policy, whether committed intentionally or through negligence, will result in disciplinary action up to and including exclusion from the InitiaSciences team. Legal sanctions may also be taken, if necessary.

How do we protect your Personal Information?

With necessary and appropriate measures

InitiaSciences has security measures in place to protect your Personal Information. The standard security measures we use depend on the type of information collected. However, InitiaSciences uses electronic, physical and procedural safeguards to protect your Personal Information. We encourage you to be cautious when using the Internet, which includes not sharing your passwords. If you believe that unauthorized contact or inquiry has been made using your name, please contact us as indicated in the "How to Contact Us" section.

Children's privacy

The Platform is primarily available and designed for persons 14 years of age or older. If a user is a child under the age of 14, we can only collect Personal Information with the consent of his or her guardian or person with parental authority. If you are a minor, the consent of your guardian or person with parental authority will be required for participation in our programs. If you have any questions or require further information, please contact us as indicated in the "How to contact us" section.

Retention and Destruction of Personal Information

Personal Information will be retained only as long as necessary for the fulfillment of the Purposes or as required by law. At the end of this period, we endeavour to destroy or anonymize such information. In determining the appropriate retention period for your Personal Information, we take into account the amount, nature and sensitivity of the Personal Information, the potential risk of harm arising from unauthorized use or disclosure of your Personal Information, the Purposes for which we process your Personal Information and the possibility of achieving those Purposes by other means, as well as applicable legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or other requirements. If you would like more information on this subject, please contact us.

Depending on the applicable legislation, you have various rights such as the right to be forgotten, the right to access or rectify your Personal Information, the right to withdraw your consent (if applicable), the right to de-indexation, or the right to data portability , i.e., the right to receive a copy of all Personal Information that InitiaSciences holds about you in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format. To exercise any of these rights (insofar as they are available), please contact us as indicated in the "How to contact us" section.

Third-party services and platforms

We may include links on the Platform to third-party sites or services that we do not control, for example, if you use an integrated Google feature or social networks (Facebook, X, Instagram, YouTube, etc.). These third parties may share certain information about you with us. You may also be able to share content from the Platform (for example, events or articles) on social networking platforms. If you click on one of these links, you will be directed to sites that we do not control. Please read the privacy policies of those sites, applications or platforms that may collect Personal Information to understand their privacy policies and Personal Information collection practices.

You may also be able to access the Platform through the sites or platforms of some of our partners. In that case, your activities on the Platform will continue to be subject to this Policy. However, InitiaSciences has no control over, and assumes no responsibility for, your activities outside the Platform, including when you browse our partners' sites and platforms. This Policy applies only to Personal Information processed by or on behalf of InitiaSciences.

How to contact us

If you have any questions about any aspect of this Policy, wish to send a comment, file a complaint or exercise any of the rights available to you under applicable law, please do so through the "Contact Us" link on the Platform, where available, or please contact our Privacy Officer as follows:

Alexandrine Pimont
admin@initiasciences.ca

Any request for access must be made in writing, by a person who can prove his or her identity, and will be answered within thirty (30) days of its receipt by InitiaSciences. Your request may be granted or denied by InitiaSciences in accordance with applicable laws. InitiaSciences will take prompt corrective action upon learning of any breach of this Policy. InitiaSciences shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, consequential or punitive damages related to this Policy. You may at any time file a complaint with the appropriate authority if you believe that InitiaSciences is not handling your Personal Information in a manner consistent with this Policy or applicable law.

Updates

InitiaSciences may, at its discretion, update, revise, modify or supplement this Policy from time to time. If material changes are made to the Policy, you will be notified on the home page of the Website. The Policy and any related documents will be posted on our Platform. InitiaSciences asks its users to review and accept the revised Policy before continuing to use its Platform.

Last update: September 30, 2023.