Website Terms of Use

We respect your privacy and do not sell or lend our e-mail list. We use security measures to protect against the loss, misuse and alteration of data used by our system.

How we use your Personal Information

Personal information that you give us is used to communicate with you, or to facilitate your participation as a volunteer if you want to assist. We take great attention in the way we store and use your personal information. The Green Party of Ontario is provincial organization with a riding-based membership system. Due to this your personal information may also be used by our local riding associations (called Constituency Associations or CAs). As a provincial political party registered under the Elections Act, the Green Party of Ontario, including its CAs are subject to regulation under the Elections Act, including public disclosure requirements for contributions over $100.

Identification and unsubscribe information

To update your mailing: email admin@gpo.ca . To unsubscribe immediately and automatically: click on the opt-out link at the bottom of the last email you received. If you received a mailing from us, you are (a) a member of the Green Party of Ontario (b) a recent donor or volunteer (c) have recently taken action with one of our online tools (d) have reached out to us by phone, mail, email or social media or (e) communicating with voters.

We respect your time and attention by controlling the frequency of our mailings.

Privacy statement

Our commitment to your privacy. We use security measures to protect against the loss, misuse and alteration of data used by our system. Security audits are conducted periodically to ensure the integrity of our systems. Read more about privacy.

Sharing and Usage

We do not share, sell, or rent individual personal information with anyone outside of the party, without your express advance permission or unless so ordered by a court of law. Information submitted is only available to Green Party personnel who manage this information for purposes of communicating with you on matters pertaining to Green Party business, or for determining how best to provide that information according to your wishes. If you have received unwanted, unsolicited email sent via this system or purporting to be sent via this system, please forward a copy of that email with your comments to admin@gpo.ca for review.

Web site privacy policy

The Green Party of Ontario respects your personal privacy and is committed to maintaining your trust and confidence. We believe in ensuring the security of your personal information. Please take the time to read this policy, and contact us if you have any questions or concerns. We strive to protect any personal information you may provide us. If we ask you to provide us with any personal information, we will tell you the purposes for which we intend to use that information. Your personal information is not sold to anyone for any purpose. This statement discloses the privacy practices and policies for the Green Party of Ontario’s Web site, the information contained therein and the information collected therein. If you have any questions about these practices and policies, please email us at admin@gpo.ca.

Information Collection, Use and Disclosure

The purpose of this Web site is to educate and inform the public about the Green Party of Ontario, its goals, its key values, its policies and platform, and its mission. When you visit this site and access information, you are anonymous. We do not require you to provide personal information to view it. Information gathered on gpo.ca falls under the following categories:

• Aggregate site use information
• Online donation information
• Green Party Membership Information
• Action tools (via petitions, surveys and message forms)

Aggregate Site Use Information

We record information about the pages viewed by all of our website visitors. This data includes internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, platform type, date/time stamp, connection speed, read time, display time and number of clicks. We use Google Analytics to record the above website data as well as demographics & behaviour.

We use this data, in aggregate form only, to compile statistics and reports for the Green Party of Ontario’s use, and improve the online experience for all visitors. We reserve the right to provide general descriptions (no personally identifying data) or portions of this aggregate information to vendors, consultants, partner NGOs or news services. Such uses of the data in this fashion would typically be to plan site architecture improvements or to measure public interest in our site.

You can opt out of Google’s advertising tracking cookie or use a browser plugin to opt out of all Google Analytics tracking software.

Cookie Use

A cookie is a small text file stored on the users hard drive that may help you access pages faster and allows our server to recognize you as you navigate within the site. We use cookies to assist with anonymous site traffic analysis, which includes tracking the time/date of visits, pages viewed and referring URLs. Cookies are generally not required to use our site, although some sections of our site may not be available to you if you choose not to accept cookies. You may configure your Web browser to either refuse all cookies, accept them each time they are offered, or accept them at all times. Consult your browser’s help files for assistance on changing cookie settings or removing cookie files.

Online Donation Information

The Green Party of Ontario only reads cookies specifically written for our site and does not use cookies to track a user’s internet history on other sites. If you donated money online, we only request the information needed to complete the processing of that transaction and provide a tax receipt. We also share our users’ personal information with Elections Ontario, CRA or other agencies as required by law. We do not provide any more information than necessary for these purposes. We may also use the information to contact you regarding your donation.

Our Site Security

We take appropriate security measures to protect your personal information against loss, theft, and unauthorized access and use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol, to encrypt, or encode, information sent to us. Any personal information you provide to us is exchanged via a secure server. Encryption protects your information, such as your credit card number, name and address information by scrambling it before it is sent from your computer. Only once we receive your information is it decoded. We make all reasonable efforts to ensure its security on our own systems and undergo periodic security audits to ensure the safeguarding of this information. Warning: e-mail is not encrypted, nor is it a secure means to send personal information. We urge you to use our secure servers to process online donations, or call our Toronto office to make a donation by phone (888-647-3366).

Green Party of Ontario Membership Information

As a registered provincial political party, the Green Party of Ontario requires your assistance in providing us with your personal information to fulfill certain legal obligations. If you become a member, you must provide certain information, which is added to our internal membership database that by law must be maintained. The information maintained in the database includes:

• Member number;
• Member name, address and telephone number;
• Amount of member donation(s);
• Date on which the member registered as a member of the Green Party of Ontario, and/or made (a) donation(s);
• Date on which any person ceased to be a member.

The information contained in the database can only be used for official Green Party business such as informational mailings, internal election materials, and other correspondence. The Green Party of Ontario does not sell, rent, or lend our membership lists to anyone.

Updating Membership Data

Membership information previously provided to the Green Party of Ontario can be up updated by calling our Toronto office at 888-647-3366 or 416-977-7476

Opting Out

If you wish to have any of your personal information removed from our databases, or if you no longer want us to send any further communications to you, please send an e-mail to admin@gpo.ca with your request. Please note, however, that as a provincial political party we are required by law to maintain certain information about our members, as noted above. We may be required by law to maintain this information for a period of time after a member has terminated his or her membership.

E-newsletter

Visitors to our site may choose to receive our email newsletters.

E-Newsletter Subscriptions

E-newsletters are sent only to users who choose to provide us with their email address. Our newsletter subscriber database is not sold, rented or otherwise to any other parties. Subscribers wishing to update their contact information, or opt out of receiving newsletters, can use the links provided at the bottom of each newsletter email.

Fraud and Crime Prevention

The Green Party of Ontario reserves the right to co-operate with local, national, or international law enforcement or other authorities in the investigation of improper or unlawful activities and this may require the disclosure of personal information. If such an investigation requires disclosure of personal information on file in our records, we may be required by law to cooperate. We also reserve the right to report improper or unlawful user activities on our site, which may require the disclosure of personal information relating to those individuals conducting such improper or unlawful activities.

Links

This web site contains links to other sites or e-mail addresses. This privacy statement only applies to information collected by our web site. We are not responsible for the privacy practices and/or policies of these or any third parties, nor do we necessarily agree with or endorse the opinions or positions expressed. Links are provided for information only.

Accuracy of, and access to, personal information

We strive to ensure that any personal information we retain and use is as accurate, complete and up-to-date as necessary for the purposes for which we will use it. We do not routinely update personal information except where and as necessary for these purposes. If however our records regarding your personal information are inaccurate or incomplete, we will amend that information at your request. At your request we will provide to you a statement explaining the extent to which we hold personal information about you, and we will explain how that information has been used by us.

Policy changes and updates

This page will be updated if and when information about the collection and use of your personal data changes, and/or policies regarding the use of the site are changed. Your comments and questions are welcome. Our contact page will help you direct your inquiry to the right person.

Privacy Policy
Use of Electoral Products and Voter Information

Scope of Policy

This policy applies to the Green Party of Ontario, its candidates, elected members of parliament, and any person or entity representing or working for the Political Entity on a paid or unpaid basis with regards to their possession and use of data provided by Elections Ontario in the form of the Permanent Register of Electors for Ontario (PREO) in both digital and physical forms.

Restrictions on Use

The use of PREO data is strictly limited to electoral purposes such as communicating with voters, soliciting campaign support, recruiting party members, etc. The data may not be used for commercial or any other purposes.

The Party’s Chief Privacy Officer (CPO) will maintain a list to track the distribution of PREO list products, and administer acknowledgement forms to ensure that all who use the data are aware of the restrictions of its use and their responsibility to ensure the secure handling of the data.

Privacy Requirements

Implementation and Enforcement of Privacy Controls

The following security measures ensure that all representatives of the GPO remain in compliance with the privacy requirements in the Election Act. These measures include safeguards implemented to protect electors’ personal information received in printed format and electronically.

Administrative controls

Access to electors’ personal information is only made available to party entities on a “need to know” basis to individuals that have been judged by party officials to be trustworthy and who have signed the appropriate Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) and Written Acknowledgement. The Party’s CPO will oversee the administration of these privacy safeguards and is the person responsible for distributing PREO list products to party entities.

Technical controls

Any computer or other device used to access PREO list products are password-protected and store the list on encrypted volumes. Removable flash drives, etc must also be encrypted.

Online GPO systems are password protected and make use of firewalls, SSL encryption, access logs and other industry-standard technologies to minimize the risk of unauthorized individuals accessing electors’ personal information.

Physical controls

Computers or other devices used to store elector data are to be kept in a secure (locked) locations at all times and only leave GPO workspaces when necessary. Removable flash drives, etc when not in use are stored in a locked cabinet or similar secure location.

Disposal Protocol for List Products

All paper copies of PREO list products will be destroyed via cross-cut shredding at the end of the electoral event. In the event that a paper copy cannot be destroyed securely, it will be returned to Elections Ontario. All digital copies will be securely destroyed immediately after integrating them into the party’s or candidate’s database system either through securely wiping the storage media using software designed to erase every bit of data on a device or via physical destruction of the storage medium (i.e. if stored on a DVD).

The CPO is responsible for collecting and tracking destruction certificates from those that had access to the PREO list products and submitting them to Elections Ontario by the stipulated deadlines.

Training on Privacy Controls

All GPO staff receive yearly training on the party’s privacy controls and regulations to ensure awareness and compliance. This is done via a Zoom meeting or a comparable medium. We also discuss this in-person when onboarding new staff.

Party training is also conducted for volunteers and is a part of the onboarding process for high-level volunteers who may have access to PREO list products in advance of an electoral event. Training is done via a Zoom meeting or a comparable medium.

Breach Management

Online GPO systems are password protected and make use of firewalls, SSL encryption, access logs and other industry-standard technologies to minimize the risk of unauthorized individuals accessing electors’ personal information. User lists are regularly reviewed to ensure that access is restricted to those with proper authorization. Devices containing PREO list products are encrypted and only leave GPO workspaces when completely necessary. When not being used these devices are securely stored in a locked location.

In the event of actual or suspected unauthorized access, loss or theft of documents containing elector information, the CPO will work with party staff to address the situation quickly and thoroughly. Actions taken by the CPO will include notifying Elections Ontario of the breach and of actions being taken to mitigate it, contain the breach and identify its source, mitigate the harm resulting from the breach, if possible retrieve any documents that were lost or stolen, document the circumstances that led to the incident, review and update policies, processes and procedures to prevent a recurrence, and contact the police or other relevant authorities.

Roles and Responsibilities

The Green Party of Ontario’s Chief Privacy Officer is responsible for safeguarding electors’ personal information against accidental or unauthorized access and ensuring the secure disclosure, use, modification and disposal of PREO data, including complying with all filing requirements as set out by Elections Ontario. The CPO is also responsible for the overall implementation and enforcement of this privacy policy and ensuring that all who are given access to electors’ personal information understand the importance of protecting it.

The Green Party of Ontario, its candidates, and members of the Legislative Assembly, employees, volunteers and other agents of the party are responsible for the safe handling of PREO data to which they are given access. This includes abiding by the privacy best practices and rules set out by Elections Ontario and the GPO, appropriately and securely storing all data, both in physical and digital forms in accordance with Elections Ontario requirements, reporting any breach or suspected breach to the CPO and ensuring the safe destruction of digital copies after integration of the data and of physical copies at the end of the electoral event.

Approval

Craig Cantin, Chief Privacy Officer

This policy is effective as of December 18, 2024.