Valuing and Protecting Your Privacy

Our Commitment

The Federation of Invisible Disabilities is committed to protecting your privacy. The privacy of our donors, volunteers, employees and other stakeholders is important to us. Any personal information you provide is kept in confidence.

Personal Information Defined

Personal information is that which can be used to identify, distinguish or contact a specific individual (such as financial information, birth date, family status, beliefs, etc.) This does not include any publicly available information about the individual such as name, title, business address or business telephone number.

Information Use

FIDS policy is only to collect and use information which is reasonably necessary to provide our services or to maintain our membership, donation and charitable tax records as required by law.  In most cases, we only need your basic contact information for these purposes, such as your name, address, etc. 

FIDS also collects personal information from our employees and contractors to assure our proper compliance with employment laws, remuneration, tax payments and other employee/contractor functions.

Consent

Your knowledge of and consent to the Society’s collection, use and disclosure of your personal information is critical. We rely on the following actions by you as indications of your consent to our existing and future personal information practices:

• Your voluntary provision of personal information directly to the Society’s employees or volunteers for the purpose of registering for a program, purchasing a product or volunteering for the Society.

• Your express consent or acknowledgement contained within a written, verbal or electronic application process.

• Your consent solicited by the Society for a specified purpose,

• Your receipt of this privacy policy, until you notify the Society of a withdrawal of this consent.

• Your consent given through your authorized representative such as a legal guardian, agent or holder of power of attorney.

Subject to certain legal or contractual restrictions you may withdraw this consent at any time.

Protecting Your Personal Information

We understand the importance of protecting personal information. Any personal information you provide FIDS is protected under the federal Privacy Act. For that reason, we have put the following safeguards in place that protect personal information against loss or theft, as well as unauthorized access, distribution, copying, use or modification.

Methods of protection include:

• Physical Measures, for example, locked filing cabinets;
• Organizational Measures, for example, limiting access on a “need –to-know” basis; and,
• Technological Measures, for erxample, the use of passwords.

FIDS makes its employees aware of the importance of maintaining the confidentiality of personal information. External consultants and agencies with access to personal information must enter into privacy agreements with us or acknowledge that they abide by the Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA)and the Personal Infortmaion Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA).

Retention and Destruction of Personal Information

The Society keeps your personal information as long as it is needed to provide you with the services you have requested, or for sending you information about services that may be of interest to you and for donation solicitation.

You Can Look at Your Information

With only a few exceptions, you have the right to see what personal information we hold about you. All you have to do is ask. We may require you to confirm your identify. We reserve the right to charge a nominal fee for such requests, If we cannot give you access, we will inform you within 30 days and tell you the reason as to why we cannot give you access.

If you believe there is a mistake in the information, you have the right for it to be corrected. This applies to factual information, and not to any professional opinions we may have formed.

Where we agree that the information is wrong, we will notify anyone whom we sent this information. If we do not agree that a mistake has been made, we agree to hold in our file a brief statement from you on the point and will forward this statement to all who received the earlier information.

Accountability, Openness and Customer Access

The Federation of Invisible Disabilites is responsible for all personal information under its control and has designated a Privacy Officer who is accountable to the Board of Directors for the Society’s compliance with this Privacy Policy. Our privacy Policy Officer is (to be determined) who can be reached by calling or by email at.

If you wish to make general inquiries, the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Canada oversees the administration of the privacy legislation in the private sector. The Commissioner also acts as a kind of ombudsman for privacy disputes. The Commissioner can be reached at:

Federal Privacy Commissioner
Toll free: 1-800-282-1376
E-mail: info@privcom.gc.ca
BC Privacy Commissioner
Toll free: 1-800-663-7867
www.oipcbc.org