Privacy Policy for SIKU Platform

SIKU, operated by the Arctic Eider Society ("SIKU", "we", "us", "our"), is committed to maintaining the accuracy, security and privacy of Personal Information in accordance with applicable legislation. This privacy policy (the "Privacy Policy") sets out how SIKU collects, uses and discloses Personal Information in connection with your access to and use of, including the content and functionality offered on or through, siku.org and the SIKU Mobile Apps (iOS and Android) (collectively, the "Platform").

This Privacy Policy is designed to respect Indigenous knowledge rights holders and ensure privacy, self-determination and stewardship over the information you provide. Our commitment is to only collect, use, and share Personal Information essential to providing the tools and services of the Platform and to allow users informed options for privacy over their posts and information. In order to provide and respect the guiding principles of the Terms of Use, it is of course necessary to store information about users and your posts for basic operation of the Platform. For example, to ensure accountability, users names and profiles are associated with their posts and it is necessary to collect and share this information to operate the Platform. This Privacy Policy outlines how we work to protect your privacy while providing these tools and services and ensuring the integrity of the Platform and it's content.  

Consent

BY SUBMITTING PERSONAL INFORMATION TO SIKU OR BY USING THE PLATFORMYOU AGREE THAT SIKU MAY COLLECT, USE AND DISCLOSE SUCH PERSONAL INFORMATION IN ACCORDANCE WITH THIS PRIVACY POLICY AND AS PERMITTED OR REQUIRED BY LAW. Subject to legal and contractual requirements, you may refuse or withdraw your consent to certain identified purposes at any time by contacting the SIKU Privacy Officer at info@siku.org or using the other contact information provided at the end of the Privacy Policy. If you refuse or withdraw your consent we may not be able to provide you or continue to provide you with certain services or information which may be of value to you.

This Privacy Policy covers the following topics:

  1. What personal information do we collect?
  2. Why do we collect personal information and how do we use it?
  3. To whom do we disclose your Personal Information?
  4. Where do we store your Personal Information?
  5. How may you obtain access to your Personal Information?
  6. How do we protect your Personal Information?
  7. Privacy and our Platform
  8. Changes to the Privacy Policy
  9. Further information

What Personal Information Do We Collect?

Personal Information" means information about an identifiable individual. Not all information we collect identifies you or can be attributed as being identifiably about you. Similarly, we may aggregate your information with other information, or anonymize your information, in a way that it isn't attributable as being identifiably about you. This Privacy Policy does not apply to restrict our collection, use or disclosure of such anonymous or aggregated information, which we refer to in this Privacy Policy as "Aggregated Information".

We collect the following types of Personal Information when you visit or use the Platform:

  • Registration Information. When you sign up for a user account, we may ask you to provide Personal Information such as your name, location, email address etc.

  • User Support Information. We may collect Personal Information through your communications with our user support and outreach teams to respond to your inquiries, improve our Platform and offer you the Platform.
  • Platform Use Information. We automatically collect Personal Information as you visit and use the Platform in our server logs and through the use of cookies. This is described in more detail in the section below entitled "Privacy and our Platform".

Why Do We Collect Personal Information and How Do We Use It?

We use Personal Information for the following reasons:

  • To display your profile, posts and comments on the Platform in accordance with the settings you have selected.
  • To ensure that content from the Platform is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer or other device.
  • To provide you with information or services that you request from us or which we feel may interest you, where you have consented to be contacted for such purposes.
  • To notify you about changes to our Platform and provide you with information that may be relevant to your use of the Platform.
  • To create Aggregated Information.
  • For additional purposes that may be identified at or before the time that the Personal Information is collected, or that you subsequently consent to.

Without limitation, we use Aggregated Information that we produce for the following purposes:

  • To better understand how users use the Platform to allow us to continually improve and expand the Platform.

To Whom Do We Disclose Your Personal Information?

From time to time, we may disclose your Personal Information to:

  • vendors and service providers including organizations or individuals retained by SIKU to perform functions on its behalf such as surveying, data processing, document management, and office services;
  • any third party or parties, where you consent to such disclosure or where disclosure is required or permitted by law (for example, if you assign stewardship of certain posts to a third party project, organization, or individual through the Platform);
  • as permitted by, and to comply with, any foreign and domestic legal or regulatory requirements or provisions; and
  • as consented to by you from time to time, including to fulfill any other purposes that are identified when the Personal Information is collected from you.

We do not rent, sell, or share Personal Information about you with other people or companies for any other purposes.

Where Do We Store Your Personal Information?

We take steps to ensure that your Personal Information is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy, including implementing reasonable industry standard practices. Unfortunately, the Internet cannot be guaranteed to be 100% secure, and we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you provide to us.

Your Personal Information is stored in locations and on servers located in Canada, controlled by SIKU, and located either at our offices or at the offices of our service providers. By submitting Personal Information, you agree to this storage and processing of your Personal Information. You acknowledge and agree that while your Personal Information is in a jurisdiction it may be accessed by the courts, law enforcement and national security authorities of that jurisdiction in accordance with the laws applicable in that jurisdiction.

If you are visiting the Platform from outside of Canada, please note that you are agreeing to the storage and processing of your information in Canada. By providing your information you consent to any transfer, including for storage and processing, in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

How You May Obtain Access to Your Personal Information

Upon your written request, subject to certain exceptions, SIKU will inform you of the existence, use, and disclosure of your Personal Information and will give you access to that information. Access requests should be sent to our Privacy Officer using the contact information below.

There are a few instances where we may not be able to provide some of the Personal Information we hold, including:

  • if it is subject to solicitor-client or litigation privilege;
  • if it contains references to other individuals;
  • if it cannot be disclosed for legal, security, or commercial proprietary reasons; or
  • if it is prohibitively costly to provide.

Your Personal Information will be retained in accordance with SIKU's policies and procedures for storing Personal Information; however you may request in writing to the address below for the earlier deletion of your Personal Information (where reasonably practical).

How Do We Protect Your Personal Information?

To help protect the confidentiality of your Personal Information, SIKU employs physical, administrative and technological safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of your Personal Information. Where Personal Information is sent to a third party for processing we require that all Personal Information is kept secure. Please be aware though that, despite these efforts, no security measures are perfect and no systems are impenetrable. Particularly if you are using the password-protected areas of the Platform, your privacy can be enhanced by taking care to use suitably strong passwords that others cannot guess, that are kept safe by you, and that are not re-used on other websites. Taking steps like avoiding dictionary words or proper names and adding extra character and punctuation marks can also help protect you. If you believe your password has been compromised, you should change it immediately.

Retention and Storage

Your Personal Information is stored on secure servers located in Canada.

Except as otherwise permitted or required by applicable law or regulation, we will only retain your Personal Information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.

Privacy and our Platform

When you browse or use our Platform, you should be aware of the following activities:

  • Cookies - When you browse the Platform, we may use a browser feature called a 'cookie' to collect information such as the type of Internet browser and operating system the visitor uses, the domain name of the website from which the visitor came, date and duration of the visit, number of visits, average time spent on our Platform, pages viewed and number of cookies accumulated. A cookie is a small text file containing a unique identification number that identifies the visitor's browser, but not necessarily the visitor, to our computers each time our Platform is visited. Unless a visitor specifically informs us (e.g. by registering for an event or sending us correspondence from our Platform), we will not know who the individual visitors are. In addition to the identified purposes described in our Privacy Policy, we may use this Platform information and share it with other organizations with whom we have a commercial relationship to measure the use of our Platform, to improve the functionality and content of our Platform and to facilitate usage by a visitor. Visitors can reset their browsers either to notify them when they have received a cookie or refuse to accept cookies. However, if a visitor refuses to accept cookies, he or she may not be able to use some of the features available on our Platform.
  • Online Communications - Visitors may voluntarily submit Personal Information to us for purposes such as asking a question, obtaining information, or reviewing or downloading a publication.
  • Electronic Communications - Occasionally, in compliance with Canada's Anti-Spam Law (CASL), we may send electronic communications to you with information that may be useful to you, including information about SIKU and other third parties with whom we have a relationship. We will include instructions on how to unsubscribe and inform us of preferences if you decide you do not want to receive any future e-mails from SIKU. Such preferences may also be expressed by e-mailing our Privacy Officer at info@siku.org with your name and the electronic addresses you wish to have removed from our database. Please note, however, that in certain circumstances, SIKU may be required or empowered by law to send you certain important electronic messages notwithstanding an earlier unsubscribe request.
  • Links - Our Platform may contain links to other websites which are provided as a convenience only. Visitors are advised that other third party websites may have different privacy policies and practices than SIKU, and SIKU has no responsibility for such third party websites.
  • Children's Privacy - We do not knowingly collect, maintain, or use Personal Information from children under 13 years of age, and no part of our Platform is directed to children under the age of 13. If you learn that your child has provided us with Personal Information without your consent, you may alert us at info@siku.org. If we learn that we have collected any Personal Information from children under 13, we will promptly take steps to delete such information and terminate the child's account.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

SIKU reserves the right to modify or supplement this Privacy Policy at any time. If we make a change to this Privacy Policy, we will post such changes on our Platform and make such revised policy and changes available upon request to SIKU's Privacy Officer. However, SIKU will obtain the necessary consents required under applicable privacy laws if it seeks to collect, use or disclose your Personal Information for purposes other than those to which consent has been obtained unless otherwise required or permitted by law.

Further Information

SIKU's Privacy Officer oversees compliance with this Privacy Policy and applicable privacy laws. For information on SIKU's privacy practices or to inquire about SIKU's collection, use or disclosure of your Personal Information, please contact the SIKU Privacy Officer at:

info@siku.org

The Arctic Eider Society
House 408B Box 174
Sanikiluaq, NU
X0A 0W0
Canda