Privacy Policy

BioTalent Canada Privacy Policy

BioTalent Canada is committed to the protection of the Personal Information of its members, partners and other stakeholders. On January 1, 2004, the federal Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) began to apply to organizations that collect, use and disclose Personal Information in the course of commercial activity. BioTalent Canada has developed the following Privacy Policy to ensure compliance with PIPEDA, as well as to inform individuals of our continuing commitment to the protection of their Personal Information.

What is Personal Information?

Personal Information includes any factual or subjective information, recorded or not, about an identifiable individual. This includes information in any form such as a person’s e-mail address, credit card numbers, and home address. It does not include the name, title or business address or telephone number or e-mail address of an employee of an organization.

Who is responsible for protecting the Personal Information collected, used and disclosed by BioTalent Canada?

The Executive Director of BioTalent Canada is the Privacy Officer for the organization and is responsible for ensuring compliance with PIPEDA and with this Privacy Policy. Other individuals, such as members of the Board or Chairs of various Committees may be delegated to act on behalf of the Privacy Officer or to take responsibility for occasional collection, use and disclosure of Personal Information.

Why does BioTalent Canada collect Personal Information?

BioTalent Canada is committed to providing its members and clients with quality professional development opportunities, excellent networking events and up-to-date information in the field of Human Resources. In the normal course of providing our services, BioTalent Canada collects Personal Information, including for the following purposes:

  • To verify the identity of BioTalent Canada’s clients and who the sector includes;
  • To promote upcoming events and opportunities;
  • To register Directors and clients for BioTalent Canada’s events; and
  • To provide information via e-mail and/or regular mail to BioTalent Canada’s Directors or clients.

In some instances such as product registration and purchases, surveys, or through your use of certain online services provided by BioTalent Canada, there is information that we are required to collect to enable us to process your request, or to provide you with certain online services.

The following are some examples of when BioTalent Canada may require that you provide Personal Information on one of our websites:

  • To complete an online order for a product or service (if you do not wish to complete an online order form, we will always provide an option for you to complete an order by calling a toll free phone number 1-866-243-2472);
  • To request more information about new or current BioTalent Canada products or services;
  • To provide services, including job alerts and resume development and submission, related to the operation of The PetriDishTM, the national, bilingual bio-economy online job bank;
  • To facilitate services provided through the BioSkills Recognition Program, which allows individuals who have created ePortfolios (using an advanced online resume builder) to have them reviewed by our Competency Committee. The Competency Committee is made up of volunteers from industry and BioTalent Canada who work together to evaluate and recognize those candidates who have the skills to make a valuable contribution in Canada’s biotechnology sector industry
  • To have them participate in BioTalent Canada activities.

BioTalent Canada’s use of Personal Information is limited to these purposes or is consistent with them. BioTalent Canada does not sell, trade, barter, exchange or disclose for consideration any Personal Information it has obtained. Personal Information about Members will be collected, to the extent possible, directly from the individual concerned. Unless permitted by law, no Personal Information is collected about a member, partner, or other stakeholder without first obtaining the consent of the individual to the collection, use and disclosure of that information.

Use of Cookies

The biotalent.ca website will store your email address and a unique key associated with your password within a cookie on your computer should you choose to use the “Keep me logged in” option. There is no way to determine the original password from the unique key that is being stored. All information stored in the cookie is obfuscated to ensure that somebody simply viewing the cookie cannot determine the information readily.

How do individuals provide BioTalent Canada with their consent for the collection, use and disclosure of their Personal Information?

When clients contact BioTalent Canada, they may provide their Personal Information expressly through a registration process. When BioTalent Canada holds events, including partnered events, Personal Information is also collected directly from individuals who attend that may provide business cards, for example. This information is added to the BioTalent Canada database and upon receiving the BioTalent Canada electronic newsletter they can choose to unsubscribe to this service. Of course, consent can be withdrawn at any time, upon reasonable, advance notice, by contacting BioTalent Canada’s Privacy Officer who will ensure that the individual’s Personal Information is no longer used or disclosed by the organization.

BioTalent Canada will not collect any personally identifiable information about you unless you provide it to us voluntarily. Your provision of Personal Information to BioTalent Canada means that you agree and consent that we may collect, use and disclose your Personal Information in accordance with this Privacy Policy. In addition, specific authorizations or consents may be obtained from time to time. If you do not want your Personal Information collected, used or disclosed, please do not submit it to us. If you have already submitted this information and would like for us to remove it from our records, please contact us by telephone, by email or in writing at the address listed at the bottom of this Policy. We will use reasonable efforts to delete your information in a timely fashion from our existing files unless we are required by law to maintain the information. You should note that certain services can only be offered if a person provides Personal Information to BioTalent Canada and, consequently, if an individual chooses not to provide us with the required Personal Information, we may not be able to offer the services requested.

How does BioTalent Canada protect Personal Information?

BioTalent Canada is committed to ensuring that Personal Information is protected from unauthorized access, unintended disclosures or theft. This protection is provided by maintaining adequate physical, procedural and technical security with respect to its offices and information storage facilities, including the use of firewalls in the computer system, passwords to protect databases, locked filing cabinets. BioTalent restricts access to Personal Information to those employees we determine need to know that information in order that BioTalent Canada may provide its services. This also applies to our disposal or destruction of Personal Information.
Members of the Competency Committee who evaluate ePortfolios as part of the BioSkills Recognition Program are required to sign a confidentiality agreement before they may participate in review of ePortfolios. The Competency Committee may not use that information for any purpose other than assisting us in providing this service.

BioTalent Canada may share Personal Information with external service providers in the course of their provision of services to BioTalent Canada. BioTalent Canada takes steps to ensure that its external service providers treat the information in accordance with this policy.

From time to time, BioTalent Canada may rely on external service providers who are located in the United States and other countries. Some Personal Information collected by BioTalent Canada may therefore be retained in countries other than Canada where privacy laws may offer different levels of protection from those in Canada and Personal Information may be subject to access by and disclosure to law enforcement agencies in those jurisdictions. BioTalent Canada chooses its external service providers carefully and will take steps to protect Personal Information to the greatest extent possible.
We audit our procedures and security measures from time to time to ensure that they remain effective and appropriate.

When does BioTalent Canada disclose Personal Information?

BioTalent Canada may disclose Personal Information when an individual has provided consent for the disclosure. For example, BioTalent may disclose resumes as part of the job application process related to our PetriDishTM service.

BioTalent Canada will generally only disclose Personal Information if the individual or organization to whom it is disclosed, agrees to use such Personal Information solely for the purposes for which it was provided and to protect the information using appropriate means of security.

Personal Information may also be subject to transfer to another organization in the event of a merger, sale of assets or change of corporate status of all or part of BioTalent Canada.
There are other circumstances where the use and/or disclosure of Personal Information may be justified or permitted or where BioTalent Canada is obliged to disclose information without consent. Such circumstances may include:

  • Where required by law or by order of a tribunal;
  • Where BioTalent Canada believes, upon reasonable grounds, that it is necessary to protect the rights, privacy, safety or property of an identifiable person or group;
  • Where it is necessary to collect a debt;
  • Where it is necessary to permit us to pursue available remedies or limit any damages that we may sustain; and
  • Where the information is public.

Where obliged or permitted to disclose information without consent, BioTalent Canada will not disclose more information than is required and will notify the specific contact, when applicable.
BioTalent Canada will only disclose Personal Information about former clients, partners or other stakeholders in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
BioTalent Canada retains the right to use non-identifiable information in any ethical way that it determines appropriate.

How long does BioTalent Canada retain Personal Information?

BioTalent Canada only retains Personal Information for as long as is required to fulfil the purposes listed above or as otherwise required or permitted by law (e.g. record keeping requirements prescribed by the Canadian Revenue Agency for tax purposes).

Once this purpose has been fulfilled, BioTalent Canada destroys the information in a secure manner that protects the privacy of the individual to which the information relates. Currently, the principal place in which we retain Personal Information held by BioTalent Canada is in the City of Ottawa, Ontario.

How accurate is the Personal Information collected, used and disclosed by BioTalent Canada?

BioTalent Canada endeavours to ensure that any Personal Information in its possession is as accurate, current and complete as necessary for the purposes for which it uses that data.

How do individuals exercise their right to access and review their Personal Information?

BioTalent Canada recognizes an individual’s reasonable right to access and review his/her Personal Information held by us and will endeavour to provide the information in question within a reasonable time and no later than 30 days following the request. We will endeavour to provide information from our records in a form that is easy to understand. Individuals listed in the BioTalent Canada database can also access their information at anytime by logging on to their BioTalent Canada Account at www.biotalent.ca. BioTalent Canada will also provide a list of organizations that may have received such information.

A reasonable charge may be imposed for photocopying, mail charges, etc., to the individual making the request.

BioTalent Canada reserves the right to decline to provide access to Personal Information where the information requested:

  1. Would disclose
    1. The Personal Information of another individual; or
    2. Trade secrets or other confidential business information that may harm BioTalent Canada or the competitive position of a third party or interfere with contractual or other negotiations of BioTalent Canada or a third party or result in a significant financial loss or gain to BioTalent Canada or a third party.
  2. Is subject to solicitor-client or litigation privilege, or a professional privilege or obligation;
  3. Is not readily retrievable and the burden or cost of providing would be disproportionate to the nature or value of the information;
  4. Does not exist, is not held, or cannot be found by BioTalent Canada;
  5. Could reasonably result in serious harm to an individual;
  6. May harm or interfere with law enforcement activities and other investigative or regulatory functions of a body authorized by law to perform such functions; or
  7. Any other grounds under applicable legislation.

Where information will not or cannot be disclosed, the individual making the request will be provided with the reasons for non-disclosure.

BioTalent Canada will not respond to repetitive or vexatious requests for access and, in doing so, will consider such factors as the frequency with which information is updated, the purpose for which the information is used, and the nature of the information. To guard against fraudulent requests for access, BioTalent Canada may require sufficient information to allow it to confirm the identity of the person making the request before granting access or making corrections.

What are the specific policies with respect to the BioTalent Canada Websites?

This Privacy Policy applies to biotalent.ca and other sites on the World Wide Web owned and operated by BioTalent Canada (collectively “our websites”). BioTalent Canada respects the privacy of those who visit our websites, order products or services or send us e-mail.

Security

All forms on our websites have the option of employing a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) or Secure Electronic Transaction (SET) protocol for browsers.

How do I know if my browser is secure? A change in the URL from http:// to https:// notifies you that you are using SSL. If the URL on a page asking you to provide Personal Information remains as http://, beware as this may result in an unsecure transmission.

Privacy and Third Party Links or Websites

BioTalent Canada sometimes offers links to the sites of our alliance, co-marketing and channel partners and we also offer links to many other Websites that are not affiliated with us. When using some of our on-line services, you could be directed to these other sites. BioTalent Canada is not responsible for the privacy policies or other terms of use of these third party sites or other sites you may link to while using the BioTalent Canada sites. This includes links from advertisers. These other sites may send their own cookies to users, collect data, or solicit Personal Information.

Use of Cookies

In order to make your Web experience with BioTalent Canada easier, certain BioTalent Canada on-line services may use Cookies. When you view one of our Websites, we may store some information on your computer. BioTalent Canada uses cookies for authentication and control of access to the secure areas of its website. Cookies save your preferences while you are at our site so you do not have to fill out forms or other areas with information you may have already provided. This will be used to determine ways to improve our websites, products or services. For example, Cookies allow us to tailor a website to better match customer preferences.

With most Internet Browsers, you can erase Cookies from your computer hard drive, block all Cookies, or receive a warning before a Cookie is stored. Please refer to your Browser instructions or help screen to learn more about these functions.

How can individuals learn more about BioTalent Canada’s Privacy Policy?

BioTalent Canada will update its privacy practices from time to time and all updates will be reflected in this Privacy Policy. Policy changes will apply to all Personal Information maintained by BioTalent Canada. Updated versions of this Privacy Policy will continue to be posted on BioTalent Canada’s Web site at www.biotalent.ca/privacy. This policy is also available in hard-copy at BioTalent Canada’s office, a copy of which can be requested by contacting BioTalent Canada.

How can individuals relay their concerns about their Personal Information held by BioTalent Canada?

If individuals have a question or a complaint related to access to their Personal Information; collection, use or disclosure of Personal Information; or this Privacy Policy, they can contact the Privacy Officer at the following address by telephone or in writing:

BioTalent Canada
650 – 130 Slater Street
Ottawa, ON
K1P 6E2
613-235-1402
Attn: Privacy Officer

BioTalent will investigate all complaints and if a complaint is justified, we will take all reasonable steps to resolve the issue. If the Privacy Officer is unable to resolve the concern, or if there are further complaints, individuals can contact the Privacy Commissioner of Canada at www.priv.gc.ca.

If you have submitted Personal Information through one of our websites, and your information has changed, you have become aware that there is an error in your information or you would like the information deleted from our records, you are also welcome to contact us at our email address, [email protected]. We will endeavour to update the information or delete it within a reasonable time of receiving your request.