Policies

Privacy Policy

This privacy policy sets out how Birchcliff Bluffs United Church uses and protects personal information.  Within our website and on digital forms you access through it you may be asked to provide personal information about yourself.  We will collect such information only when you voluntarily provide it to us.  This privacy policy describes what information we may collect and how we may use it and how you can contact us regarding our use of your personal information.

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What Information We Collect

We may collect personal information such as your name, contact information including your email address, demographic information and other information you provide for the purpose of:

• welcoming you as a member or a participant in our church life or in one or more of our programs or activities that are being offered virtually or in an in-person format,

• enabling you to register to purchase tickets to an event, participate in a virtual event such as an online auction or make purchases at an online store, or

• processing donations you make to BBUC, including donations to support its affirming programs such as Dorothy’s Place and Toby’s Place, or to support the Bluffs Food Bank.

 

Payment information you provide in order to make donations through our website or a third party website such as GIGIT Marketplace or CanadaHelps will be collected and processed by the authorized payment processor using secure forms that it provides and will be collected and used by them according to their policies.  We do not process your credit or debit card payments and we discourage you from sending any sensitive or personal financial information, like credit card information, to us or anyone else via a regular email. 

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CanadaHelps, GIGIT Marketplace or its payment processor, or any other payment processing service we use may provide us with reports showing some of your personal information, such as your name, contact information and details of your donation or purchase, for receipting purposes and to enable us to provide the service or item you have purchased.    

  

What We Do With Information We Gather

We require this information to understand your needs and to provide you with information and services, and more particularly for the following reasons:

• internal record keeping,

• issuance of charitable donation receipts,

• to provide you with services and products you have ordered or requested,

• to conduct surveys and gather information to help us evaluate, plan and improve our programs and services, prepare grant applications and reports and develop new ministries,

• to inform you of our church activities and programs, and offer you opportunities to participate, including inviting you to make donations to support our life and work.

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We may communicate with you by email, regular mail or phone, using the contact information you have provided.  You may request at any time that we remove your contact information from our correspondence lists by contacting our church office at bbucoffice@bellnet.ca.

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We have put in place procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online and we are committed to keeping your confidential personal information secure.

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Links to Other Websites

Our website may contain links to other websites for various purposes.  Once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over that other website.  Therefore we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide while visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this privacy policy.  You should exercise caution and review the privacy statement applicable to the website in question.

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Site Traffic Monitoring

During every visit to our website, we collect non-identifiable information by tracking Internet Protocol (IP) addresses on an aggregate basis.  IP addresses do not track personal information about you but do allow us to monitor how our website is being used.  This information is used to assist us to develop and improve our programs and services and our website.

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Cookies

When a user interacts with our website, “session cookies” may be used to collect information anonymously and to track user patterns.  They do not collect personal information, only a numeric identifier, and the data collected is only available during the active session.  We may use this anonymous information to improve our website an provide seamless navigation.

 

Controlling Your Personal Information

We will not distribute or otherwise provide or give access to your personal information to third parties unless we have your permission, are required by law to do so, or need to give access to the information to third parties for the purpose of maintaining our website and social media and offering programs and activities virtually.  For example, third parties may have access to your personal data while providing us with services such as web hosting, order/purchase fulfillment, IT and cloud services, advisory services and other services.  These parties do not retain, share or use personal information beyond the defined purpose of fulfilling the service.  Permissions for children under the age of 13, or at our discretion for anyone under the age of 18, must be given by the person’s parent or guardian.

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If you believe that any information we hold about you is incorrect, incomplete or needs updating, or if you wish your contact information to be removed from our correspondence lists or have questions or concerns about our privacy policy or our use of your personal information, please write to us at Birchcliff Bluffs United Church, 33 East Road, Toronto, ON M1N 1Z9, Attention: Church Administrator, email us at bbucoffice@bellnet.ca, or contact our church office at 416 694-4081.  We will promptly comply with your request or respond to your inquiry as appropriate.