Privacy Policy

Disability Screen Office (“DSO”, “we” “us”, “our”) is committed to protecting the privacy and confidentiality of personal information in our custody and control. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and protect personal information in the course of providing our services (DSO programs, activities, community and industry engagement), including the website located at dso-orphe.ca (the “Website”)(collectively, the “Services”).

1. COLLECTION AND USE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

We collect personal information directly from you unless we have your consent or are legally permitted to collect your personal information indirectly.

Inquiries. If you contact us with an inquiry, or interact with us on social media, we will collect your name and contact information, such as your email address, mailing address or social media address, in order to respond to your inquiry.

Industry Resource Hub. If you choose to make an account to access the Industry Resource Hub on the website, DSO will collect your username, password, contact information, city and province, and optionally your mailing address and organization name in order to provide you with secure access.

DSO Programs. If you apply to us for our programs, DSO may collect information from you to help us determine your eligibility, including your name, contact information, current province of residence, gender identity, sexual orientation, disabilities or other health information, race, or creed as needed.

Marketing Communications. We may offer the ability for you to sign up to receive our newsletter and other promotional communications, in which case we collect your name and email address to send you the communications you have requested to receive. You can opt-out of receiving promotional communications from us by following the opt-out or “unsubscribe” instructions provided in our emails, or by contacting us as set out in the “Contact” section below. Please note that upon unsubscribing, you will continue to receive transactional and account-related electronic messages from us.

Job and Volunteer Committee Applications. If you apply for a job, contract position, or volunteer committee at DSO, you may be asked to provide us with certain personal information about yourself, such as your resume, cover letter, or similar employment-related materials, or past community involvement. We use this information for the purposes of processing and responding to your application and assessing your suitability for current and future career opportunities.

We may collect other information that you choose to provide to us, or that we collect with your consent.

Use. We use the personal information we collect to provide our Services. This includes:

• Providing our programs and the services you request, providing customer service and support;
• Communicating with you about our programs and the services and events that may be of interest;
• Aggregating or otherwise anonymizing your personal information (so that it is no longer information that is capable of identifying an individual) for use for technical, research, and analytical purposes including to provide reports to donors and funders or for advocacy purposes;
• Better understanding how you use the Website and our Services, in order to improve the Website, our Services and programs and develop new Services and programs;
• Requesting and collecting feedback and responding to requests and complaints;
• Meeting our regulatory and other legal reporting obligations;
• Managing our business, including to maintain business records for reasonable periods, enforce our agreements, and collect amounts owing to us.

Where personal information is processed with consent, you may (subject to contractual and legal restrictions) refuse to provide your consent, or choose to withdraw your consent, to our processing of your personal information by contacting us as described in the “Contact” section below. Note that if you refuse to consent, or withdraw your consent, to certain processing of your personal information, we may not be able to provide certain parts of our Services.

2. INFORMATION COLLECTED AUTOMATICALLY

Cookies. The Websites uses cookies (small files containing program code that reside on your computer), to provide usage statistics about the Website, and to understand where visitors learn about the Website. We also may use cookies to simplify the re-entering of your data. You may refuse the storage of certain cookies or the collection of behavioral information through the cookie consent tool you are presented with when you use our services. Please note that changing cookie settings may affect the use of certain features, such as automatic login on the website. You may also be able to adjust your browser settings to opt out of the use of cookies by having your browser disable cookies. Look for the cookie options in your browser in the Options or Preferences menu.

Log Files. When you use the Website, our servers automatically record certain information in server logs. These server logs may include information such as your web request, Internet Protocol (IP) address, browser type, referring/exit pages and URLs, number of clicks and how you interact with the Website, domain names, landing pages, and pages viewed, mobile carrier, and similar information. Log files help us to monitor, analyze, improve and maintain the Website and to diagnose and fix technical issues.

Device Identifiers. When you access the Website using a mobile device, we collect information about your device contained in your mobile device’s “device identifier.” This device identifier includes information such as the type of device you are using, its operating system, and mobile network information, which may include your mobile phone number. We use this information to optimize the Website and fix technical issues.

Analytics. We may use third-party service providers like Google Analytics to collect information about your use of the Website, such as the features used and time spent on the Website, to help us better understand our users and improve the Website. The information we gather is used in an aggregate, non-identifiable form. For information about how information is processed in connection with Google Analytics, please read the Google Analytics Policy here.

3. DISCLOSURE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

Service Providers. We may transfer personal information to third-party service providers that provide certain services on our behalf, such as data hosting and processing, marketing, analytics, and information technology services. Some of these service providers may be located outside of Canada, including in the United States. While outside of your jurisdiction of residence, personal information will be subject to applicable foreign laws, which may permit government and national security agencies to access your information in certain circumstances. For more information about the way in which our service providers treat personal information, please contact us as set out in the “Contact” section below.

Business Transactions. We may disclose personal information to parties in connection with a corporate transaction, such as a sale, financing or other disposition of all or part of our business or assets, for the purposes of evaluating and/or performing the transaction.

Other. We may disclose personal information to meet our legal and regulatory obligations or otherwise as permitted or required by law, including to comply with a subpoena or warrant, to law enforcement in connection with an investigation, to protect our rights and the safety and security of our employees, and to enforce our agreements and collect debts owed to us.

4. THIRD PARTY LINKS

The Website may contain links to other websites that DSO does not own or operate. We provide links to third-party websites as a convenience to the user. These links are not intended as an endorsement of or referral to the linked websites. The linked websites have separate and independent privacy policies, notices and terms of use. We do not have any control over such websites, and therefore we have no responsibility or liability for the manner in which the organizations that operate such linked websites may collect, use or disclose, secure and otherwise treat personal information. We encourage you to read the privacy policy of every website you visit.

5. SAFEGUARDS

We protect personal information using administrative, technical, and physical safeguards that are appropriate to the sensitivity of the information. These safeguards may include measures to protect against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure or destruction of personal information. We limit access to personal information to our employees and service providers who require access in connection with their role or function. Each of our employees is responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of all personal information to which they have access. We keep our employees informed about our policies and procedures for protecting personal information. Despite these measures, since no system or security measure is completely secure, it is possible that personal information may be lost, stolen or accessed without authorization.

6. RETENTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

Personal information is maintained on our servers or those of our service providers and is retained as long as necessary for the fulfilment of the purposes for which it was collected, in accordance with prudent business practices on general document retention, or as otherwise required by law.

7. YOUR RIGHTS

You may request access to or correction of your personal information in our custody or control.

You may also have the right, in specified circumstances, to object to our use of your personal information, to request the deletion of your personal information or restrict its use, to request a copy of the information you have provided to us to use for your own purposes, or to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority.

Your rights are subject to applicable legal restrictions and we may take appropriate steps to verify your identity before responding to your request.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us in writing using the contact information set out in the “Contact” section below.

Individuals who wish to unsubscribe from receiving communications or services from us may email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or follow the unsubscribe instructions included in our communications, where available.

8. UPDATES TO OUR PRIVACY POLICY

If we change our Privacy Policy, we will post those changes on this page to keep you aware of what information we collect, how we use it and under what circumstances we may disclose it. Changes to this Privacy Policy are effective when they are posted on this page.