Policy Update Version: March 2025
The Canadian Wildlife Federation (“CWF”, “we”, “us” or “our”) is one of Canada’s largest wildlife conservation charities. CWF aims to conserve and inspire the conservation of Canada’s wildlife and habitats for the use and enjoyment of all.
CWF is committed to protecting the privacy of the Personal Information it holds. This privacy statement explains how CWF processes the Personal Information shared with us in the course of our activities, regardless of how it is provided, and how you may obtain further details about our management of such information.
This Privacy Statement is divided into sections to explain:
· The Personal Information We Process
· How We Use Personal Information
· Our Use of Internet Technology
· Our Disclosure of Personal Information
· How We Protect Personal Information
· Where We Keep Personal Information
· How Long We Keep Personal Information
· How to Exercise Your Rights Concerning Your Personal Information
· Who You May Contact If You Have Questions or Concerns
· Changes to This Privacy Statement
The Personal Information We Process
Interpretation. For the purposes of this Statement, “Personal Information” means any information about an individual that is, or can reasonably be, associated with that individual. We may also refer to the
“processing” of Personal Information, which means the collection, use, protection, storage and disposal of Personal Information.
Personal Information Collected or Created. CWF collects Personal Information from (1) donors, (2) individuals who make a purchase something from CWF or subscribe to one of our magazines; (3)
individuals interested in receiving information about CWF’s programs and services; and (4)
individuals who provide business or professional services to CWF. Our treatment of the Personal Information of prospective, current and former employees and volunteers is addressed in our
Employee/Volunteer Privacy Statement.
We may collect, create, record and use your Personal Information in physical and electronic form, and will hold, use and otherwise process such information as set out in this statement and in
accordance with applicable Personal Information protection laws in Canada. We may process Personal Information because:
· You provided it to us.
· It was created or generated by us based on your interactions with us.
The Personal Information we collect generally consists of
Donors: Name, home address, email address, telephone number, credit card number (when received other than through a website).
Individuals making purchases: Name, home address, email address, telephone number.
Individuals subscribing to CWF newsletters, magazine or webinars: Name, home address, email address, telephone number.
Individuals making enquiries or providing comments: Name, home address, telephone number,
email address; comments made; information requested or provided by you, including information regarding experiences with our programs and services.
Individuals submitting or receiving program or activity information: Name, organization (if applicable), email address, information/comments submitted or received.
Service providers who are sole proprietors: Name, home address, email address, telephone number.
Means of Collection. We will most often collect Personal Information directly from the individual concerned. Where Personal Information is held by a third party, other than information held by
other non-governmental organizations, we will obtain the subject individual’s consent before
seeking such information. Where we obtain Personal Information directly from a third party, we will take reasonable steps to ensure that the third party has represented to us that they have the
right to disclose the subject individual’s Personal Information to us. In some cases, involving less sensitive Personal Information, consent may be implied by your actions.
Personal Information may be combined with information provided to us through multiple sources such as our websites, call centres, other non-governmental organizations or in conjunction with events such as seminars and conferences.
Please note that when you contact our Call Center, all audio interactions between individuals and Call Center staff may be recorded for quality assurance and training purposes. CWF may not have control or custody or access to such recordings. Images of individuals visiting CWF offices or facilities may be captured by video recording devices used to maintain the physical security of those offices and facilities. CWF does maintain control or custody or access to such facilities-related recordings.
How We Use Personal Information
The Personal Information collected by CWF is used to:
· Establish, maintain and manage our relationship with donors, program or service participants, and other stakeholders to provide our programs and services.
· Communicate generally with individuals seeking information on CWF programs or services, which includes responding to inquiries and soliciting feedback on programs or services, unless an individual has indicated that they do not wish us to do so.
· Collect or provide information in connection with the operation of, and an individual’s participation in, CWF-operated programs or activities.
· Keep donors and the general public informed about our programs and services and providing information.
· Provide educational opportunities for individuals interested in our programs or services.
· Obtain and process donations, including the issuance of tax receipts, to support CWF programs and services.
· Obtain and process purchases and subscriptions made through a CWF site.
· Administer our organizational operations and protect our organizational interests.
· Maintain our information technology security and the physical security of our facilities.
· Analyze organizational risks and results.
· Analyze marketing and communications needs and results.
· Evaluating, developing or improving our programs and services.
· Meet our legal responsibilities.
· Achieve a specific purpose where we have obtained appropriate consent to collect or use your information for that purpose.
Upon request, we will explain the purposes for which the information is being collected.
Our Use of Internet Technology
Websites. The CWF either operates or is affiliated with the following websites:
· AquaticBarriers.ca
The Canadian Aquatic Barriers Database (“CABD”) identifies barriers within Canada’s freshwater systems that limit the ability of aquatic species to access required habitat. The CABD acts as a valuable source of information to support conservation efforts to restore connectivity and access to vital habitats for aquatic species.
CWF collects Personal Information from CABD users when they submit or download data through the online tool located on this website or by email.
· AquaticHabitat.ca
Aquatic Habitat Canada is a national network focused on helping governments, local communities, Indigenous organizations, industry stakeholders and conservation organizations to protect and restore healthy and resilient aquatic ecosystems more effectively. The CWF is a member of this network. This site is not operated by the CWF, and no personal information is collected by CWF.
· BanWithAPlan.org
This site is operated by CWF. It concerns a specific campaign calling for immediate action to end the use of neonicotinoid insecticides in Canada. The site itself does not collect personal information but does solicit donations. Clicking on a “donate” icon results in the user being sent to a donation page on the CWF main website.
· Canadian Marine Animal Response
The site is operated by the the Canadian Marine Animal Response Alliance. CMARA is chaired and coordinated by CWF but is governed by a national steering committee which guides the actions and administration of the Alliance. Personal information submitted through this site is collected by CWF and consists of name, gender, date of birth, postal address and email address.
· CanFishGear.ca
This site supports the CanFish Gear Lending Program, a program created by CWF to provide solutions and support to fish harvesters impacted by fisheries closures due to whale presence. Harvesters are provided with on-demand fishing gear, free of cost, to allow them to continue fishing and minimize negative impacts to their livelihood.
Personal information collected via this site concerns the borrowing of fish gear. Information collected, which depending on context, may constitute personal information, consists of: Name, Status as fishing license holder, fishing licence number, email address, telephone number, home port, vessel number, description of fishing equipment currently used.
· Foundation
This CWF subsite contains information on the activities and directors of the CWF Foundation. It also includes a page where on-line applications for scholarships may be submitted. Personal information collected in these application forms include:
1. Name
2. Mailing Address
3. Email Address
4. Telephone
5. School Type (Graduate/Undergraduate)
6. School Name and Address
7. Status (Canadian Citizen/Landed Immigrant)
8. Proposed academic terms of study.
9. Academic training (Institution, Years Attended, Degrees (or equivalent) received.
10. Description of the proposed plan of study or research (unstructured data with a maximum of 500 words).
11. Description of future career or profession and how it will benefit wildlife resources related to the criteria (unstructured data with a maximum of 500 words).
12. Description of extracurricular activities and interests, highlighting activities that demonstrate enthusiasm for addressing conservation issues related to the award criteria (unstructured data with a maximum of 500 words).
13. Name, organization and telephone number of three individuals serving as references.
14. Copy of acceptance letter or confirmation of enrollment from University or College chosen
15. Copy of University/College transcripts
16. Any additional information (unstructured data with a maximum of 500 words).
· Hinterland Who's Who
This site is operated by CWF and supported by the Canadian Wildlife Service. It provides access to multimedia materials pertaining to Canada’s wildlife and diverse ecosystems. Personal information may be collected through the site in the use of cookies and other digital markers as well as a contact form (name, age, email address, location and unstructured question/comment).
· iNaturalist.ca
iNaturalist is an American organization that promotes nature observation and supports similar activities in a number of countries. The CWF is the Canadian iNaturalist Network Member. This site, operated by CWF, allows individual Canadians to register and submit personal observations and photographs. The findings are shared with scientific data repositories to help scientists find and use the data. The information is not directly collected by CWF.
Upon registration and use of the application or website, the following information is or may be collected:
1. Unique ID provided to each iNaturalist user.
2. The date the account was created.
3. The last date when the person updated their account settings.
4. The person's iNaturalist username.
5. The person's name, if they had chosen to add it to their public profile. Note most people do not add their name and some use a partial name or alias.
6. The email address associated with the account.
7. The time zone where the account was created.
8. The public profile description the person has added to their account.
9. The number of species observations the person has made in iNaturalist.
10. The number of species identifications the person has made in iNaturalist.
11. If the user has ever had their account suspended.
12. The direct link to view the person's public profile on iNaturalist the language setting of their account.
13. The country in which their account was created.
14. The last time they have been active on iNaturalist (ex. made an observation, identification, added a comment, etc.).
· Love Your Lake
The Love Your Lake program is jointly developed and administered by CWF and Watersheds Canada. This program is delivered by partner organizations in various regions across Canada. Personal Information collected via the Love Your Lake (LYL) website is to manage and improve the website and its content as well as respond to any request submitted.
Personal Information is collected using cookies and other digital marker technologies. Through these cookies, CWF receives only technical information such as internet protocol address, computer’s operating system and browser type, the address of a referring website, if any, the path taken through LYL web pages, and system activities.
Because of the joint administration of the Love Your Lake program, the program partners have agreed that a separate privacy statement will apply to any Personal Information collected through that program. To view the applicable privacy statement, please visit https://loveyourlake.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/LYL-Privacy-Policy.pdf.
Donation Processing. In connection with donations made using a credit card through our website, CWF uses the services of third-party service providers. We receive information from our third-party service providers in order to obtain the details of the donation for tax receipt purposes.
Social Media. CWF maintains a public presence on the following social media platforms:
o Canadian Wildlife Federation
o Hinterland Who’s Who
o The Watch/Le Garde
o Canadian Wildlife Federation
o Hinterland Who’s Who
o Canadian Wildlife Federation
o Hinterland Who’s Who
o Wild Outside
o Canadian Conservation Corps
o Canadian Wildlife Magazine
o Canadian Wildlife Federation
■ TikToc
o Canadian Wildlife Federation
o Hinterland Who’s Who
o Wild Outside
o Canadian Conservation Corps
If you choose to share our digital content through social networks, you may be sent cookies from these third-party websites. We do not control the setting of these plugins/cookies and CWF has no knowledge of the content of the data transmitted to these social networks or of how they individually use such data. If you choose to interact with CWF via social media, you should read the terms of service and privacy policies of these third-party service providers and those of any applications you use to access them. learn how to modify account settings to manage their cookies and similar technologies.
Analytics. Web analytics is the collection, analysis, measurement, and reporting of data about web traffic and visits. This data is generally used to improve a website and complete administrative tasks such as:
· Communications and information technology statistics
· Audit and evaluation
· Research
· Planning
· Reporting.
CWF uses Google Analytics. We do this to ensure a CWF site is meeting the needs of its users and to help us make improvements. Google Analytics stores information about:
■ The pages you visit on our website, and how long you spend on each page how you got to the site.
■ What you click on while you’re visiting the site.
■ Your demographics and searches.
■ How often you visit a given page or pages.
Google Analytics doesn’t collect or store your personal information (e.g., your name or address.) We don’t allow Google to use or share our analytics data.
Data collected by Google Analytics is sent to Google servers which may be in the United States and may be subject to the applicable legislation in that country. Your IP address is anonymized prior to being stored on Googles' servers to help safeguard your privacy.
If you do not wish to have your information shared with the Analytics software, Google makes available a “plug-in” for users of the Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Chrome browsers which prevents your browser from sharing any information with the Analytics software. You may download and install the “plug-in” here: http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
Surveys. Occasionally CWF conducts online surveys, some of which are managed on our behalf by a third party. Our third-party service providers may use cookies to identify unique visitors, to provide per-user customization, and to make the site easier to use. Such service providers do not share such cookies or use them to track your behavior on other sites.
Our Disclosure of Personal Information
In connection with any of the purposes outlined in the above section “How We Use Personal Information”, we may disclose Personal Information with to other companies, organizations and individuals outside of the CWF. This will occur in a variety of circumstances:
· When we have your consent to do so.
· Where we have requested third party agents or service providers to process information for us, to carry out the requested services or as necessary for otherwise lawfully processing
Personal Information.
· If required to do so pursuant to any applicable law, regulation, legal process or enforceable governmental request.
· Where we need to establish or exercise our legal rights or defend against legal claims or in connection with an emergency that warrants use or disclosure of the information.
· Where it is necessary in connection the execution or performance of an agreement where we have or propose to transfer any legal rights or obligations.
Where we disclose Personal Information to a non-governmental third party, we will contractually require that third party to reasonably ensure the protection of Personal Information and to have
appropriate security measures in place to do so.
We may disclose Personal Information in an anonymized or de-identified form (i.e., after
information has been removed to ensure the identity of any one individual cannot reasonably be ascertained).
While CWF does not rent or sell our donor list, we do exchange it with other non-governmental organizations that also engage in fundraising activities.
Your Consent
Consent. Unless permitted or required by law, CWF will not collect Personal Information without first obtaining your consent. In the event we want to use the information for a new or different purpose and believe consent is required, we will seek your further consent to use and disclose your Personal Information.
CWF will usually seek your express consent. However, there may be situations where your consent is implied by your actions. By providing your Personal Information to CWF in any manner, you agree that we may collect, use, disclose or otherwise process your Personal Information in accordance with this Privacy Statement and applicable laws.
Withdrawing Your Consent. Generally, you may withdraw your consent to our use of your Personal Information. If you do so, this may prevent CWF from providing you with information or our programs and services. If you withdraw your consent, we will inform you of any consequences in doing so. Please note that there may be circumstances where you cannot withdraw your consent because of legal, regulatory or contractual requirements. To withdraw your consent, please contact our Privacy Officer at privacy@cwf-fcf.org to find out how to withdraw your consent.
Please note the use or disclosure of Personal Information may occur without consent in specific circumstances. These circumstances include situations when required by law or necessary to protect CWF, our employees or others. Such uses generally concern:
■ When necessary for the supply or delivery of a product or the provision of a service requested by the individual.
· When necessary for the prevention and detection of fraud.
· When necessary for the evaluation and improvement of protection and security measures.
· When clearly for your benefit.
· When consistent with the purposes for which the information was collected.
· When necessary for study or research purposes or to produce statistics to the extent that the information is de-identified.
Should CWF believe it appropriate to disclose Personal Information without consent, it will limit the disclosure of information to what is necessary.
How We Protect Personal Information
CWF endeavours to maintain appropriate physical, procedural and technical safeguards to prevent any loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, or modification of Personal Information in our custody. Our measures to keep your Personal Information secure include:
· Technical security controls, including firewalls, encryption, and anti-virus and endpoint detection and response software.
· Administrative measures to restrict access to Personal Information to only those personnel who require access for organizational reasons.
· Physical security measures to control access to our premises.
· Education and training to relevant staff to ensure they are aware of our privacy and security obligations when handling Personal Information.
We also endeavour to ensure that any Personal Information in our custody is as accurate, current and complete as necessary for our use of that information.
You should note that the transmission of data over the internet, including through e-mail, is never completely secure and accordingly we cannot guarantee the security of Personal Information sent to or by us using the Internet.
Where We Keep Personal Information
Currently, CWF stores the Personal Information it receives in Canada. We will update this privacy statement in the event the residency of your Personal Information changes. Whether in Canada or not, Personal Information is subject to the laws of those jurisdictions where it is located.
When we, or our authorized third parties, transfer your Personal Information outside of Canada, we will impose contractual obligations on the recipients of that data to protect the Personal Information we hold to the same standards we are required to meet.
How Long We Keep Personal Information
CWF will only retain your Personal Information for as long as is necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was processed, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, tax, reporting or accounting requirements. We will generally hold your Personal Information for any period of time established in our data retention schedule and any applicable law.
If a legal claim is made against CWF, relevant Personal Information may be retained for a longer period in order that it may be referred to by all parties in relation to that claim and any subsequent appeal.
Personal Information which is (i) scheduled for removal or (ii) no longer needs to be retained will be securely destroyed or permanently erased from our records and we will also require third parties to destroy
or erase such Personal Information where applicable. Please note your rights to access or correction cease after the information has been destroyed.
In some circumstances, we may anonymize your Personal Information so that it no longer permits your identification. In this case, we may retain such information for a longer period.
How to Exercise Your Rights Concerning Your Personal Information
Individuals who provide CWF with Personal Information may:
· Be informed about the processing of your Personal Information (i.e., the type of
information; our purposes in using it; to whom it is disclosed; how long we retain it; whether it was collected directly or from a third-party sources).
· Request that we update or correct the Personal Information we hold about you.
· Withdraw your consent to our processing of your Personal Information, under certain
circumstances and to the extent such processing is based on consent. You may withdraw your consent by contacting our Privacy Officer at privacy@cwf-fcf.org.
· Receive a copy of the Personal Information concerning you in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format, to the extent required or permitted by law and to the extent
the processing is based on consent.
· Request that we stop or start sending you marketing messages at any time.
Any requests to exercise your rights can be directed to CWF’s Privacy Officer. These requests can be exercised free of charge and will be addressed as early as possible.
Who You May Contact If You Have Questions or Concerns
If you have any questions or concerns about how the CWF processes your Personal Information, please contact our Privacy Officer:
By email: privacy@cwf-fcf.org
By mail: 350 Michael Cowpland Drive, Ottawa ON, K2M 2W1 By telephone: 1-800-563-9453
Depending on your province of residency, the activity in question and which law applies, the CWF will be subject to the jurisdiction of either the federal or a provincial privacy authority. If we are unable to resolve a particular matter to your satisfaction, you may bring it to the attention of the appropriate privacy authority. Please contact our Privacy Officer to assist you in determining the appropriate privacy authority to contact.
Changes to this Privacy Statement
CWF reserve the right to update this privacy statement at any time. When changes are made, we will amend the revision date at the top of this page, and we encourage you to review this statement from time to time.
The modified or amended privacy statement will apply from the indicated date of last revision. Should the changes affect processing activities performed on the basis of the individual’s consent, we will seek a new consent where required.