At the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (“RAIC”), we respect the privacy of our members and are committed to keeping personal information accurate, confidential, secure and private. We have adopted the following Privacy Policy to ensure that the RAIC continues to meet its commitment to privacy.
1. Introduction
The RAIC is a membership-driven association providing services to its members and Architects and advocating on behalf of Architects at a national level.
In the course of accepting memberships and processing registrations and online purchase orders, the RAIC may collect, with their consent, certain personal information about its members and Architects.
"Personal Information" means information about an identifiable individual member or Architect. This information may include without limitation, the individual's name, residence address, age, gender, credit card number, employment status, and other information.
Personal information does not include the name, title, business address or telephone number of an Architectural practice or of an organization where the member or Architect is an employee.
2. The Ten Principles of Privacy
The RAIC Privacy Policy complies with the Ten Principles of the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA).
Our Privacy Policy describes the way that the RAIC complies with the Ten Principles of PIPEDA in its collection of personal information. RAIC employees who have access to this personal information must also comply with the Privacy Policy and receive annual awareness training on privacy procedures during staff meetings.
Principle 1 – Accountability
The RAIC national office staff are accountable and responsible for all personal information in its custody and any personal information they may send to third parties for processing.
Principle 2 – Identifying Purposes
The RAIC will inform its members of the purpose of collecting personal information prior to or at the time of collecting the information.
The RAIC collects personal information for the following reasons:
- To complete membership applications/renewals;
- To process document orders and other online purchases as well as to register members and Architects for courses, conferences and other events;
- To record continuing education (professional development) credits;
- To distribute information related to professional architectural practice (such as building products and events) and to fulfill magazine subscriptions;
- To process scholarship applications and honours and awards submissions; and,
- To process donations.
Principle 3 – Consent
The RAIC will obtain consent from its members and Architects at the time of collecting and/or using the personal information. This consent is obtained as part of the membership application and/or renewal process or as part of a registration for an event and is for RAIC internal use. Should the member not provide consent, the RAIC will not disclose his or her personal information until otherwise advised by the member and Architect. Consent for disclosure to third parties is expressively given at the time of membership application/renewal or on other forms for registration, orders or donations.
A member may withdraw consent in writing or electronically at any time. However, the RAIC may collect, use or disclose personal information without the member's knowledge or consent in exceptional circumstances where such collection, use or disclosure is permitted or required by law.
Principle 4 – Limiting Collection
The information collected from the member will be limited to those details necessary for the purposes the RAIC has identified to the member. Information will be collected by fair and lawful means.
The RAIC collects personal information that includes, but is not limited to:
- Home address;
- Date of birth;
- Credit card information;
- Date of graduation, name of university and proof of graduation;
- Architectural registration information including jurisdiction, proof of licence including licence number; and,
- Financial information (for scholarship purposes only).
The RAIC may collect non-personal information. This means that the information collected cannot be traced back to a specific person. For example, our membership database server records certain information automatically when users visit our Members Section website. This information is collected using "cookies" - a small text file that contains a unique identification number identifying the users’ web browser (but not the user) to our computers every time they visit our Members Section website. It does not reveal any personal information about the user. This aggregate data may be disclosed to third parties, but never with personally identifying information.
The RAIC may, from time to time, collect information by means of a survey. Any personal information collected through surveys will be for RAIC internal use only. The RAIC will remove any identifying information prior to publishing the results of the surveys.
Principle 5 – Limiting Use, Disclosure and Retention
Personal information will only be used or disclosed for the purpose for which it was collected unless the member has otherwise consented, or when it is required or permitted by law. Personal information shall be retained as long as necessary for fulfilling the purposes for which it was collected.
Membership applications/renewals will be kept for at least seven (7) years in accordance with Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) rules and regulations (www.cra-arc.gc.ca).
With whom we share your personal information
(i) RAIC employees
In the course of daily operations, access to personal information is limited to those employees with a legitimate reason for accessing it.
Unauthorized use or disclosure of personal information by an employee of the RAIC is prohibited and may result in disciplinary measures including dismissal.
(ii) Third Parties
The RAIC sells its partial membership list, containing only the names and mailing addresses of members who have so consented, to third parties who wish to send information regarding building products, employment opportunities, discounts on products and services, architectural competitions, seminars, and other information that may be of professional interest. Lists, whether in hard or soft copy, are sold for a one-time mailing only. Only members’ names and mailing addresses are included on such lists.
We will only include members’ information with their express consent. A member may withdraw this consent at any time by contacting the Membership Coordinator.
Principle 6 – Accuracy
The RAIC will endeavour to keep personal information accurate, complete and current. The onus is on each member to update their own personal information or to advise the RAIC of any changes to their personal information using the Members Section of the RAIC website. If the member does not, or is not able to, update their own personal information, the member may advise the RAIC in writing and allow up to five (5) business days before the personal information is changed in their profile. Only the Membership Coordinator or designate will be responsible and accountable for any changes to the database.
Principle 7 – Safeguarding Personal Information
Personal information is safeguarded using measures appropriate to the sensitivity of the information. The RAIC database is password protected and all RAIC employees authorized to access the database receive annual awareness training on privacy matters.
In order to serve its membership, the RAIC offers members access to information through its Members Section website. To safeguard against unauthorized access to their account, the member is required to "log-in" using an encrypted password. If the member is unable to provide the correct password, they will not be able to access their account.
RAIC servers containing personal information are password protected and have a hardware firewall in order to protect them from unauthorized access. All our servers are maintained in Canada.
Paper files such as membership applications forms are stored in the RAIC national office in standard metal filing cabinets which are locked.
Principle 8 – Openness
The RAIC will make information available to its members about the policies and procedures the RAIC uses to manage personal information. This document will be posted on the RAIC website.
Principle 9 – Individual Access
Upon written request, a member will be informed of the existence, use and disclosure of their personal information. The member may attend, upon appointment, the RAIC national office to review their files and personal information. The RAIC will respond within 30 days of receipt of the written request.
Principle 10 – Challenging Compliance
Members may challenge RAIC’s compliance with this Privacy Policy. The RAIC will receive, investigate and respond to members' complaints and questions. Members and Architects may contact the RAIC Privacy Officer to express any concerns or to request access to their personal information. The contact information for this individual is provided below.
RAIC Privacy Officer
Royal Architectural Institute of Canada
6118 James Bell Drive
Manotick, ON K4M 1B3
613-241-3600
info@raic.org
If a satisfactory response is not obtained, the member or Architect may then contact their Regional Director or the RAIC President.
Third-Party Ad Networks
We use third parties such as network advertisers to serve advertisements on our Site and on third-party websites or other media (e.g., social networking platforms). This enables us and these third parties to target advertisements to you for products and services in which you might be interested. Third-party ad network providers, advertisers, sponsors and/or traffic measurement services may use cookies, JavaScript, web beacons (including clear GIFs), Flash LSOs and other tracking technologies to measure the effectiveness of their ads and to personalize advertising content to you. These third-party cookies and other technologies are governed by each third party’s specific privacy policy, not this one. We may provide these third-party advertisers with information about you.
Users in the United States may opt out of many third-party ad networks. For example, you may go to the Digital Advertising Alliance (“DAA”) Consumer Choice Page for information about opting out of interest-based advertising and their choices regarding having information used by DAA companies. You may also go to the Network Advertising Initiative (“NAI”) Consumer Opt-Out Page for information about opting out of interest-based advertising and their choices regarding having information used by NAI members.
Opting out from one or more companies listed on the DAA Consumer Choice Page or the NAI Consumer Opt-Out Page will opt you out from those companies’ delivery of interest-based content or ads to you, but it does not mean you will no longer receive any advertising through our Site or on other websites. You may continue to receive advertisements, for example, based on the particular website that you are viewing (i.e., contextually based ads). Also, if your browsers are configured to reject cookies when you opt out on the DAA or NAI websites, your opt-out may not be effective. Additional information is available on the DAA’s website at www.aboutads.info or the NAI’s website at www.networkadvertising.org.
Online Behavioral Advertising and How You Can Opt-Out
We may work with third-party advertising companies who may utilize cookies and web beacons, and data collected on our services, to customize advertisements to you on our services, as well as on other websites or mobile applications in their networks beyond our services. Among other things, these customized advertisements may advertise our products and services and third party products and services on websites or mobile applications not affiliated with us. Some of these ads are online behavioral advertising – which serve advertisements that are more likely to be of interest to you using non-personal behavioral information. Such ads may contain cookies that allow monitoring of websites and mobile applications (including our own services) and your response to such advertisements. Cookies or web beacons placed by these companies do not collect personal information, and the third-party advertising companies do not have access to or use your name, address, e-mail address, telephone number or other personal information; they may however, anonymously track your usage across our services and other websites or mobile applications in their networks. We limit companies that place our ads from using information for any purpose other than to assist us in our advertising efforts.
For more information about these third-party advertising companies' privacy policies, visit the Network Advertising Initiative’s website at http://www.networkadvertising.org. If you prefer to not receive targeted advertising, you can opt-out of network advertising programs that use your information. To do so, please visit: the Network Advertising Initiative’s opt-out page.