CGA Ontario - Protecting Your Privacy
Types of information we collect
With your consent, we may gather personal information from you in person, at our office, over the telephone, or by corresponding with you via mail or on the Internet through CGA Ontario's website. You can visit the public area of CGA Ontario's website without revealing any personal information, unless you voluntarily choose to provide it. If you seek to visit non-public areas of the website, where access is restricted to CGAs or students of CGA Ontario, we will need to validate who you are.The type of information we may collect about you depends on whether or not you are a CGA or student of CGA Ontario. The information we may collect includes your name, contact information, correspondence with us, comments/questions about our organization and financial information required to order our goods/services (including credit card information). For current or prospective CGAs or students: we may collect additional information, such as your date of birth, gender, languages spoken, language preference, place of residence, CGA Ontario contact ID number, course enrolment information, record of academic results reported by CGA Canada, record of academic and professional accomplishments outside of the CGA program, and particulars of current and previous employment, education, professional development and volunteer activities. For CGAs engaged in professional practice or public accounting as a proprietor, partner or shareholder of a duly authorized incorporated company: we may collect further information, such as your firm name, names of partners, preferred areas of practice, position code, practice review results, and professional liability insurance information.
How we use your personal information
Typically, the personal information collected about you is used by CGA Ontario to confirm your identity, to respond to your inquiries/comments, to send you important notices about the profession, to fulfil the legal and legitimate business requirements of CGA Ontario, to protect the public from unauthorised use of the CGA designation, and generally to provide you with the goods and services you have requested.For current or prospective CGAs or students (including members engaged in professional practice or public accounting), the personal information you provide is also used by CGA Ontario to process financial transactions (including tuition payment, membership fees, and purchases of products such as jewelery or clothing), to process program transactions (including CGAs or student applications, event registration, continuing professional development reporting, professional practice registration, practice inspection, course enrolment, seminar enrolment, academic results processing, advanced standing requests, transcript distribution, and the employment referral service), to provide you with required information (including notice of annual general meetings, and election of governors), and to maintain the legally-required register of member names for public perusal.
We may also use your personal information to provide you with tailored information (including information about products available for purchase, notices of professional development, career and volunteer opportunities including the opportunity to obtain a public accounting licence, speaking engagements or participation in special interest groups) that we believe will be of interest to you ("targeted communications"). You may opt-in to such where an opt-in is offered or you can call 1-800-668-1454 or 416-322-6520 ext. 8307 or by e-mail at any time to provide or withdraw your consent to such use and disclosure.
We may also use your personal contact information to support our analysis, research and management of educational, membership, benefits, marketing, public relations, and affinity programs. If you do not wish your personal contact information to be used in this manner, you may opt-out of this use of your information where an opt-out is offered or you can call 1-800-668-1454 or 416-322-6520 ext. 8307 or by e-mail at any time to withdraw your consent to such use and disclosure.
At times, we may conduct surveys. If you choose to participate in such surveys, we will use the information you provide to better understand your professional profile, your needs, and the needs of users of professional accounting services.
Sharing of personal information
From time to time, CGA Ontario may also share the personal information of CGAs and students with our affiliates, including CGA Canada and regional CGA affiliates (provincial, territorial and international). This shared information may include your contact information, date of birth, gender, language preference, academic and professional accomplishments, course enrolment information, employment information, and place of residence. Our affiliates use the shared personal information for purposes of certifying CGAs, inter-regional mobility of members and students, operation of academic programs, provision of goods and services ordered by members and students, maintenance of membership, managing use of the CGA designation, and to provide you with important material (for example, annual reports, notices of Annual General Meetings, group insurance, and information required by law). Our affiliates may also use your personal contact information to provide you with other material (for example, relating to professional development programs, CGA Magazine, surveys, marketing, and public relations). If you do not wish to receive the latter material, you may opt-out of this use of your information where an opt-out is offered or you can call1-800-668-1454 or 416-322-6520 ext. 8307 or by e-mail at any time to provide or withdraw your consent to such use and disclosure.For CGAs, CGA Ontario may also share your personal information with government entities for the purpose of enabling your privileges. CGA Ontario is also legally required to maintain a register of member names that must be open to public inspection during CGA Ontario office hours. This roster is also provided to all members to facilitate networking amongst members and to aid in ensuring the use of the CGA designation for qualified CGAs only. If you do not wish for your name and contact information to be disclosed to members of CGA Ontario for these purposes, you may opt-out of such disclosure where an opt-out is offered or you may call 1-800-668-1454 or 416- 322-6520 ext. 8307 or e-mail to provide or withdraw your consent to this disclosure.
From time to time, CGA Ontario may also share your personal information with our third-party vendors, suppliers, data processors, and providers responsible for administering marketing and promotional activities or providing the products and services you requested, on our behalf. We contractually require the organizations with whom we share your personal information for these purposes to have policies regarding personal information consistent with our privacy policy or to abide by our policies as relevant to the personal information shared with them.
Your consent
If you choose to provide personal information to CGA Ontario, we assume that you consent to the collection, use and disclosure of your personal information as outlined in this privacy policy or otherwise at the time of collection, use or disclosure. If you do not consent, please do not provide your personal information or, where applicable, exercise the opt-in or opt-out options offered. If CGA Ontario requests additional personal information or intends to use or disclose your personal information differently than described in this privacy policy, we will advise you at or before the time of collection, use or disclosure (as the case may be) as to how we will handle that personal information. CGA Ontario will not collect, use or disclose personal information other than as described herein, or at the time of collection, use or disclosure (as the case may be), or as otherwise required or permitted by law. There are limited instances where CGA Ontario may collect, use or disclose your personal information without your consent as required or permitted by law, for example: (1) to collect a debt owed to us; (2) to maintain a register of the names of all CGAs in good standing open to public examination at our head office during regular business hours (as required by applicable Ontario legislation); (3) to meet government tax reporting requirements; and (4) to comply with an order made by a court.Consent may be express or implied depending on the circumstances. Please note that, in some cases, your choice to refuse or withdraw consent to certain collection, use or disclosure of personal information may impact on your ability to meet requirements of CGA Ontario or on our ability to provide you with certain products or services.
Retention of personal information
CGA Ontario will destroy, erase or render anonymous personal information no longer required for the stated purposes or for a legal or legitimate business requirement.Security safeguards
CGA Ontario takes precautions to protect your personal information against unauthorised access, disclosure, inappropriate alternation, and misuse. All safety and security measures are appropriate to the sensitivity level of your information. Access to your personal information is restricted to those persons whose job responsibilities require them to have access. In addition, CGA Ontario uses technological safeguards such as encrypted passwords, secure socket layer (SSL) and 128-bit encryption technologies. Given that electronically transmitted data is not 100 percent secure, we make no warranties as to the security of any such information that you submit, which you do at your own risk.How you can protect your information
There are a number of measures you can take to protect yourself against fraud and uninvited intrusion. For example, you should take precautions in handling your CGA Ontario contact ID number. Your contact ID number is necessary for us to identify you and authenticate your request to access your personal information. You should not share your contact ID number with others unless you clearly understand the purpose of their request and you know with whom you are dealing.From time to time, CGA Ontario engages in research surveys or promotional campaigns via telephone, mail and e-mail. If you are unsure or suspect that a person requesting information via a survey or promotional campaign may not be legitimate, please call us at 416-322-6520, or 1-800-668-1554 to verify that the request is a legitimate CGA Ontario activity.
Access and correction of personal information
If you wish to request access to, or correction of, your personal information in CGA Ontario's records, please make your request in writing to CGA Ontario’s privacy officer by e-mail. Some information may not be accessed in certain circumstances, for example if it contains personal information of other persons or for other legal reasons. You can access some of your personal information online by following the links on our website.Should you identify any incorrect or out-of-date information, please notify us so that we can make the required changes where appropriate.
Cookies, IP addresses, and links to other sites
A technology called cookies may be used to provide you with tailored information. A cookie is a tiny element of data that a website can send to your browser, which may then be stored on your hard drive so we can recognise you when you return. You may set your browser to notify you when you receive a cookie and you may choose to disable cookies if you wish.CGA Ontario's site logs IP addresses (or domain names), but not the e-mail addresses, of visitors. This real time information is aggregated and logged, and used to measure statistical information about usage of the site, including but not limited to the total number of visits, average time spent on the site, and pages viewed, both in real-time, and within a certain historical time frame. CGA Ontario uses this aggregated information to measure the use of our site and to improve the content and usage of our site.
CGA Ontario’s site may contain links to other Internet sites owned and operated by third parties. While we try to link only to sites that share our high standards and respect for privacy, we are not responsible for the content or the privacy practices employed by other sites. You should review the privacy policies applicable to the other sites before you provide any personal information on those sites.