The current Privacy Officer for the Quebec Writers’ Federation is:
Lori Schubert, Executive Director
514-933-0878
[email protected]
This Privacy Policy outlines the Quebec Writers’ Federation’s practices regarding the collection, use, and retention of personal information.
1. Collection of Personal Information
Website Visitors
Our website uses Google Analytics to collect de-identified statistical data such as your location and which pages you visited. We use this information for statistical purposes and to better understand the needs and interests of our website visitors.
Google Analytics uses cookies to collect information about your activity on our site as well as the path you took to get there. This information is collected by Google, which operates servers globally, so it may be stored anywhere outside of Quebec and Canada.
All data collected by Google Analytics is de-identified.
It may be possible for you to prevent this information from being collected from you by Google Analytics (and, in turn, by QWF) by using an add-on such as Google Analytics Opt-out or other software. Although we do not discourage you from doing so, QWF takes no responsibility for your use of any such software.
We also use cookies on the site to keep track of your consent to our Privacy Policy. This cookie is created when you accept the privacy notice pop-up and will be deleted if/when you clear cookies on your browser.
We collect your IP address and the URLs of pages you visit to serve you the web pages you request. This information is stored by host, Pressable, which is in the United States, and by our content-delivery network, CloudFlare, which can store data on any of its servers around the world.
QWF Members
When you join QWF, we collect the following information:
- First and last name(s)
- Email address
- Telephone number
- Mailing address
All of the data is provided by you through the sign-up form, and you may opt out of entering any particular information other than name, email address, and postal code. This information is collected in our website database and stored on our host’s and content-delivery network’s servers.
We use this information for various purposes:
- to keep in touch with members about QWF events, programs, and services
- to send members our newsletters and other email notifications, including fundraising messages
- to facilitate requests from event producers, media contacts, and others who wish to reach writers for professional reasons
QWF will not share your personal information without your explicit permission.
Our newsletter is distributed through Mailchimp, which means that some personal information (name, email address) will necessarily be shared with this service. Mailchimp stores your personal data outside of Quebec and Canada.
Workshop Participants and Event Attendees
If you sign up to participate in a workshop or other event hosted by QWF, we might ask for the following information:
- First and last name
- Phone number
- Billing address
- Accessibility needs
We use this information to accommodate your needs and to contact you about the workshop or event you have registered for. We share it with the leader of the workshop you are registered for. Unless you request us not to, we may also contact you about future workshops or events we think you would be interested based on your choice.
This information may be collected through our website or, on occasion, Eventbrite, and some of it might also be stored in our organizational Google Drive. Please note these services store your data outside of Quebec and Canada.
Groups that QWF Has a Relationship With
QWF uses Salesforce as our Customer relationship management (CRM) software. The following information is generally stored in our CRM when an organization makes it available to us:
- First and last name of our main contact in the organization
- Email address and/or phone number of this person
- Job title and organization of this person
- Donations, grants, or corporate sponsorship information
Please note that these external services store your data outside of Quebec and Canada.
Job Applicants, Employees, and Board Members
The following information might be stored on our organizational Google Drive if you apply for a job with us:
- First and Last Name
- Email address, phone number
- The answers that you provide to job-related questions
- Any information that you choose to provide us relating to employment equity
- Your CV and letter of interest
Sensitive employee data, such as salary information, SIN number, employment contracts, and any other HR-related sensitive documents are only accessible by the Executive Director and may be shared with the QWF bookkeeper and accountant on a need-to-know basis.
2. Who Has Access and Security Practices
Access to personal information within QWF is limited to those who need access for the purpose the information was collected. In particular:
- The Executive Director, Membership Services Coordinator, and Communications Officer have access to personal information collected for membership or donation records or for event attendance.
- In addition, the Program Manager for Writers in the Community has access to personal information provided to us by the partners, companies, and foundations who contribute funds for that program (generally this is limited to the contact information of the person who contacts us on behalf of the organization).
- Program coordinators have access to personal information of those working in their program as well as information provided to us by partners or clients for that program.
- The Communications Officer has access to personal information collected through the website, such as newsletter subscribers’ information and information collected through Google Analytics.
- The Executive Director has access to HR-related documents and information, such as SIN numbers, financial and health information of employees, IDs, dates of birth, and addresses of board members.
- The QWF Bookkeeper and Accountant, who are contract employees, have access to employee financial information and invoices from suppliers.
- Workshop facilitators, who are contract employees, have access to the names, email addresses and phone numbers of workshop participants and, if relevant, their accessibility needs.
QWF is committed to keeping our security practices up-to-date to safeguard the confidentiality of your personal information. Some of the practices that we have in place to ensure this are limiting access to sensitive data to a need-to-know basis and password protection on documents with sensitive data.
3. How Long We Keep Your Information
When you visit our website, your IP address is stored by Google Analytics for 14 months; however, QWF will not see your IP address information through Google Analytics due to their own privacy-policy restrictions.
QWF may store job applications for a period of up to six years, after which point they will be deleted or destroyed.
If you sign up to become a QWF member, or if you register for a QWF workshop, the personal information you provide will be stored until you request that they be removed from our database. The same is true for current and past board members, who are required to be QWF members.
QWF will continue to store all relevant information about the organizations that have funded us in our CRM unless they request that we delete the information.
QWF retains employee records unless the employee has left QWF and requests that their information is removed (legal obligations allowing). By Quebec law, we must keep employee information for six years.
When QWF has a legal obligation to retain information for longer periods than those set out in this policy, those obligations will prevail over this policy.
4. How to Access Your Information, Complain, or Exercise Another Right
You may at any time:
- Ask to access the personal information that we have regarding yourself;
- Ask QWF to make a correction to personal information it holds about you;
- Withdraw your consent to the retention of your personal information; or
- Make a complaint regarding your privacy.
To exercise any of these rights, please email our Privacy Officer at [email protected].
If you would like to attend one of our workshops or in another way work with QWF but would like to opt out of providing any of the information that was mentioned in this policy, don’t hesitate to write to our Privacy Officer [email protected] to explore alternative options.