Privacy Policy

The Vancouver Community of Care Medical, Dental & Allied Staff Association (VMDAS) complies with the Province of British Columbia’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA) and Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA) and is committed to protecting the personal information you provide when you become a member, subscribe to its various newsletters, participate in its programs, or access its website.

Collection
The personal information that you voluntarily provide to VMDAS is protected under the provisions of British Columbia’s privacy legislation. Depending on the nature of the transaction, the association generally collects your name, the department/division in which you practice, your address (post and electronic), telephone number and payment information related to membership fees and any program costs.

Use
VMDAS uses your information to communicate with you:

  • notify you of special events
  • provide you with newsletters and information updates
  • respond to your inquiries
  • send you membership renewal forms
  • conduct financial transactions
  • generate statistics to track attendance and demonstrate engagement

Disclosure
Your personal information is not shared, sold, rented, traded, or otherwise disclosed to any outside third party except with your consent or where authorized and or required by law. Only authorized people have access to your information.

Retention
Personal information is retained by VMDAS only so long as required by law or as is reasonable to fulfill the purposes for which it has been collected.

Website
Any personal information gathered by VMDAS about visitors to its website is not provided to third parties.

Standard Internet information automatically collected from all visitors
VMDAS employs software programs to monitor network traffic and identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage. When you visit its website, these software programs automatically receive and temporarily store in its Web server logs information that is supplied by your browser (e.g., Internet explorer and Mozilla Firefox). Information automatically collected by its server when you browse its website includes the following:

  • Network location and the Internet Protocol (IP) address of the computer you are using to contact our websites;
  • Name of the domain you are using to access the Internet (e.g., “.com,” “.org,” “.net,” and “.ca”);
  • Type of browser you are using;
  • Type of operating system you are using (e.g., Windows and Mac OS);
  • Date and time you accessed the site;
  • Pages you have accessed and the documents you have downloaded; and
  • Internet address of the website from which you linked directly to our site, if applicable.

In most circumstances, this is anonymous statistical data, and VMDAS makes no attempt to link this data, or the IP addresses of the computers that have contacted its website, with the identity of individuals visiting its site—unless an attempt to damage the site has been detected or it is required by law. The programs are never used to gather specific personal information such as your name, your telephone number or your email address.

Cookies
Cookies are small files that may be placed on your hard drive by a website without your knowledge in order to monitor your use of the site. VMDAS uses “persistent” and “session” cookies to monitor usage of its websites. The cookies it uses do not allow VMDAS to identify individuals. They are compiled into statistical information on traffic patterns and are used to assess and improve the efficiency of the site.

  • Session cookies—Are cookies that are used on some portions of the website to store information within a session. During your visit to VMDAS’s site, your browser exchanges information with its Web server. Session cookies facilitate this exchange by reminding the server which computer is making the request. No personal information is kept in session cookies, and they are stored only in your browser’s temporary (i.e., cache) memory. When you log out of your session, the cookie is no longer valid; it is discarded when you close your browser.
  • Persistent cookies—Are more permanent cookies that can be reread when you return to the site. The information in them is written onto your hard drive and remains there until the expiry date of the cookie or until you delete the file. They are used for tracking traffic patterns to and from VMDAS’s website and can also be used on some portions to find out how visitors access, navigate and use the site. More information on tracking can be found in the next session.

Google Analytics
VMDAS uses Google Analytics, a Web analytics service provided by Google Inc., to help measure traffic patterns to, from, and within its website. This analytics measurement tool uses “session” and “persistent” cookies (persistent cookies are stored on your computer and expire two years after your last visit to the website) to collect standard Internet log information and to track visitor behaviour information in an anonymous form. The information generated by the cookies about your use of the website (including your truncated IP address) will be transmitted to Google. No personally identifying information is recorded or provided to Google. This anonymous information is then used to evaluate visitors’ use of the website and to compile statistical reports on website activity. The aggregate data and statistical reports are only used to help VMDAS make its site more useful to visitors and are only made available to designated staff who require this information to perform their duties.

For further information, consult Google Analytics and its privacy policy.

If you wish, you may opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics by disabling or refusing the cookies, by disabling JavaScript within your browser or by using the Google Analytics Opt-Out Browser Add-On. Disabling Google Analytics or JavaScript will still permit you to access comparable information or services from VMDAS’s website. However, if you change the settings on your browser so that cookies will be denied or so that you will be warned before a cookie is saved on your computer, moving around on the website may be a much slower process. To disable cookies or JavaScript, please refer to your vendor’s browser instruction guide.

Questions or Comments?
Vancouver Community of Care Medical, Dental and Allied Staff Association

Room 380, Blackmore Pavilion, VGH

604-875-4111 (ext. 66271)

info@ourvancouvermsa.ca

If VMDAS is unable to resolve your complaint in a satisfactory manner, or you would like more information on British Columbia’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA) and/or the Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA), you can contact the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissionerat www.oipc.bc.ca.