Hope Air Privacy Policy
Hope Air (“we”, “us” or “our”) takes the privacy and confidentiality of personal information in our custody or control seriously. This Privacy Policy describes the manner in which we collect, use, disclose and otherwise treat personal information when providing our travel arrangement services to eligible individuals (“Travel Services”) and through our website at https://www.hopeair.ca (the “Website”). In this Policy, “personal information” refers to information about an identifiable individual.
Table of Contents
1. Collection and Use of Personal Information
2. Information We Collect Automatically
3. Disclosure of Personal Information
4. Third Party Links
5. Safeguards
6. Retention of Personal Information
8. Your Rights
9. Updating the Privacy Policy
10. How to Contact the Privacy Officer
Collection and Use of Personal Information
Hope Air and its agents or representatives collect personal information from you in a number of circumstances in the course of providing our Travel Services and operating our Website. You may visit the Website without providing any personal information. However, in order to use certain features of the Website, including to make a travel request, you may be asked to provide personal information.
The amount and type of personal information collected by Hope Air varies depending on the nature of your relationship with us and may include the following:
Contact Information:
If you contact us by phone or email, we will collect your full name, email address, phone number, and other information you choose to provide. We use this information to respond to your inquiry.
Donation Information:
If you donate to Hope Air, we will collect your full name, email address, phone number, mailing address, donation amount and payment information. We use this information to process your donation.
Travel Request Information:
If you make a travel request, we will collect your full name, mailing address, email address, phone number, travel dates, date and time of medical appointment, referring doctor’s contact information, government-issued photo identification, travel escort information (if applicable), income information for eligibility verification, and other information you choose to provide. We use this information to determine eligibility of an individual for Travel Services and to deliver and provide our Travel Services.
Other Information:
We may also use the personal information we collect to:
• Conduct public education, outreach, and advocacy activities.
• Conduct fundraising activities
• Manage relationships with stakeholders
• Communicate with you about services and events that may be of interest.
• Better understand how you use the improve the Website and our services and develop new services.
• Request and collect feedback and respond to requests and complaints.
• Meet our regulatory and other legal reporting obligations.
• Manage our business including to maintain business records for reasonable periods, enforce our agreements, and collect amounts owing to us.
De-identified Information
We use the information we collect, including Donation Information and Travel Request Information to create de-identified data that cannot be associated with, or used to identify an individual. We may use and share de-identified data with third parties to improve our services, create new services, for research purposes, or otherwise as permitted or require by law
Information Collected Automatically
When you visit our Website, we automatically collect your IP address, the date and time of your visit, the pages you visit, the features you use, and the referring URL’s you came from. We use this information to improve our Website and services.
We also use technology called “cookies”, a tiny element of data that our Website sends to a user’s browser, and similar technologies to help our Website function. We use cookies to remember your preferences and to authenticate you. Cookies may be stored on the user’s hard drive so that we can recognize the user when they return to our Website. Remember your preferences and settings when you navigate through our Website, and for security purposes.
You may be able to control cookies using your browser settings. For example, you may be able to set your browser to block or delete cookies, or to notify you before a cookie is set. If you block cookies, you may not be able to use all of the features of our Website.
Disclosure of Personal Information
Your Health Care Provider: If you make a request for Travel Services from us, we may share your personal information with your health care provider to confirm appointments and medical fitness to travel.
Your Travel Provider: If you make a request for Travel Services from us, we may share your personal information with a travel provider or other related agency, to assist in the provision of airline flights, accommodation, ground transportation or other services. This includes other government or charitable agencies that may support, fund or facilitate Hope Air travel requests, where applicable.
Service Providers: We may use service providers to provide certain services on our behalf such as website hosting, data hosting and processing, analytics, marketing and advertising, communications and other services. Some of these service providers may be located outside of Canada, including in the United States.
Business Transactions: We may transfer personal information as an asset in connection with a prospective or completed merger, acquisition or sale (including transfers made as part of insolvency or bankruptcy proceeding) involving all or part of Hope Air or as part of a corporate reorganization or other change in corporate control.
Legal: We and our service providers may disclose personal information without consent in response to a search warrant or other legally valid inquiry or order or as otherwise required or permitted by law. We may collect and use personal information for other purposes with your consent or as permitted or required by law.
Third Party Links
Our Website may contain links to other websites that Hope Air does not own or operate. We provide links to third party websites as a convenience to the user. These links are not intended as an endorsement of or referral to the linked websites. The linked websites have separate and independent privacy policies, notices and terms of use. We do not have any control over such websites, and therefore we have no responsibility or liability for the manner in which the organizations that operate such linked websites may collect, use or disclose, secure and otherwise treat personal information. We encourage you to read the privacy policy of every website you visit.
Safeguards
When you make a donation to Hope Air online, a secure connection is established and your information is encrypted to prevent interception during the transaction. This secure connection is maintained until the transaction is completed or terminated. The software that enables these processes is routinely updated to maximize protection of your information.
We have implemented reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards in an effort to protect against unauthorized access, use, modification and disclosure of personal information in our custody and control. We limit access to personal information to our employees, volunteers, and service providers who require access in connection with their role or function. Each of our employees and volunteers are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of all personal information to which they have access. We keep our employees and volunteers informed about our policies and procedures for protecting personal information. However, please note that no security measures can offer absolute security and we cannot guarantee that your personal information will not be stolen or accessed without authorization.
Retention of Personal Information
Personal information is maintained on our servers or those of our service providers and is retained as long as necessary for the fulfilment of the purposes for which it was collected, in accordance with prudent business practices on general document retention, or as otherwise required by law.
Your Rights
You may request access or correction of your personal information (subject to limited exceptions prescribed by law) by submitting a written request to us (see “How to Contact the Privacy Officer” below). You may also have the right, in specified circumstances, to object to our use of your personal information, to request the deletion of your personal information or restrict its use, to request a copy of the information you have provided to us be transferred to another person, or to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. Your rights are subject to applicable legal restrictions and we may take appropriate steps to verify your identity before responding to your request. If you have any questions about these rights, or you would like to exercise any of them, please contact us as described in the “How to Contact the Privacy Officer” section below. We may take steps to verify your identity prior to responding to your requests.
Updating the Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy may be updated periodically to reflect changes to our personal information practices. The revised Privacy Policy will be posted on our Website. We encourage you to refer to this Privacy Policy often for the latest information about our personal information practices.
How to Contact the Privacy Officer
Questions, concerns or complaints relating to Hope Air’s Privacy Policy or the treatment of personal information should be call 1-877-346-4673. You can also write to us at:
Privacy Officer
Hope Air
720 Bathurst St.
Toronto, ON
M5S 2R4
Last modified: August, 2023