Your Personal Information, the PIPED Act, and Rondeau Seminars

The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act is a Federal Act that comes into force January 1^st 2004.  It requires any business or group (non-profit or otherwise) that performs “commercial transactions” (buying, or selling) to take responsibility for the personal information they collect. 

Personal information is defined as anything other than the sort of information that appears on a business card or in a phone book.  This would include credit card information, dates of appointments, buying preferences, records of past purchases, health information, and any other information that can be connected with a person.

In addition, the PIPED Act gives people more clearly defined rights to control their personal information.

What does this mean to you?

Under the new act, you have new rights.

1. You have the right to see any personal information collected about you.
2. Businesses must inform you of what information is collected, why it is being collected, used or disclosed, how long it will be kept, who will be able to see it, and have your consent to collect it.
3. You have the right to request a correction to any of your personal information.
4. You have a process available through the Privacy Commissioner of Canada if our response is not satisfactory.

What happens now?

The first step is providing you with this information sheet.  It will inform you of what information we collect, why we collect that information, how long we keep it, how we protect it, who may see it and why we release information when we do.

Next, we will ask you to sign a consent form.  This form will give us permission to collect that information, and will confirm that we have your information correct.  Each time you register we will check with you to see if anything has changed and have you confirm that the information we have is correct.  You may withdraw your consent in the future and we will explain to you the process and implications of such a withdrawal.

If you have any questions about the PIPED Act, the information we collect, our policies with regards to privacy, or any other privacy concerns please do not hesitate to speak with Joe MacVoy who is the privacy officer for Rondeau Seminars.

Who sees your personal information?

Your personal information is not shared with any other organization except as explicitly defined below and in the PIPED Act. 

The staff of this office sees your client file. This allows them to accept your payment, update your accounts, enter notes, register you for a seminar, print receipts, and contact you about current or future seminars.

In very rare cases, our bookkeeper or technical support staff (such as when they replace a hard drive) may see some parts of your information.  All such personnel are covered under a contract that ensures they use appropriate levels of confidentiality.

Information may be shared with OrthOrama at your request to register additional staff members in related seminars.

How do we protect your information?

Our computer records are protected by a password.  When the computer is left unattended, it will lock after a short time.  This data will only be taken off site for the conference you are registered at, on backup tapes (which are stored in a secured location), or for technical support  (also covered under the PIPED Act). 

All temporary staff entering this office unattended (such as maintenance and cleaning staff) are bound under contract to respect your information and operate under the PIPED Act.

When information is to be destroyed, care is taken to ensure that it is properly destroyed (shredded or physically broken) rather then just placed in the garbage.

How long do we keep personal information?

Your records are kept until you tell us to destroy them.  This allows us to provide you information about continuing education credits you have earned or details of previous seminars you attended at your request.

What information do we collect and why?