Laing House is committed to protecting the personal information entrusted to us by our members, donors, volunteers, and employees.  We manage your personal information in accordance with the federal Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and other applicable laws.

To ensure consistency with privacy policy best practices, the Laing House Privacy Policy is organized around ten internationally recognized privacy principles, which are contained in Schedule I of PIPEDA.  It also outlines the principles and practices we follow in protecting your personal information.

This policy applies to Laing House and to any person providing services on our behalf.

What is personal information?

Personal information means information about an identifiable individual. This includes, for example, an individual’s name, home address and phone number, financial information, and donation history as well as personal employee information.  Laing House may also collect personal health information from you or your guardian directly, such as your connection to mental health/illness and, if applicable, when you were diagnosed.

What is personal employee information?

Personal employee information is personal information about an employee or volunteer that is collected, used, or disclosed solely for the purposes of establishing, managing, or terminating an employment relationship or a volunteer work relationship.

Accountability

At Laing House, we are responsible for personal information in our custody or control, including personal information that we share with persons operating on our behalf (e.g. information technology providers).  We require all of our employees, volunteers to sign confidentiality agreements to ensure that they protect personal information in compliance with this Policy. 

We have designated a Chief Privacy Officer who is ultimately responsible for overseeing our compliance with this Privacy Policy.  Members, donors, volunteers, and Laing House employees can contact the Laing House Chief Privacy Officer with questions, comments, or complaints by email at info@lainghouse.org by phone at 902-425-9018, or by mail at 1225 Barrington Street Halifax Nova Scotia B3L 4M9.  All correspondence should be directed to the attention of the Chief Privacy Officer.

Identifying Purposes

We inform our members, donors, employees, and volunteers, before or at the time of collecting personal information, of the purposes for which we are collecting the information. We make this information available through this Privacy Policy, our website, and other informational materials available at Laing House events.

We do not collect, use, or disclose personal information for a new purpose that was not previously identified without explaining the new purpose and obtaining consent, unless otherwise permitted by law.

Laing House collects and uses personal information directly from our members, donors and volunteers or from Laing House approved businesses in order to:

• Process donations;
• Track and issue tax receipts for donations received in accordance with Canada Revenue Agency requirements;
• Help individuals fundraise on behalf of Laing House;
• Establish, build, and maintain relationships;
• Provide social and practical support and information to newly diagnosed families or anyone facing the challenges of living with mental health/ illness;
• Promote organizational activities, conferences, or events to raise awareness about mental health/illness;
• Provide information about products, services, events, or activities for which you have expressed an interest in;
• Share information with the Laing House management team to administer Laing House programs, functions, or initiatives;
• Share information with those who may be interested in Laing House programs; and

Laing House may share member, donor, volunteer, employee personal information with Laing House approved businesses/service providers in order to distribute our newsletters or support one of our fundraising campaigns.  Laing House ensures the business/service providers treat information on the same basis as promised in this privacy policy.  Any use of personal information is also subject to that business’/service providers’ privacy policy.

Laing House may disclose donor or participant personal information to the public via a members’ online fundraising page to recognize donors for their efforts in supporting Laing House.  Laing House obtains the consent of all donors prior to disclosing their personal information.

Laing House may collect, use, and disclose personal employee information to meet the following purposes:

• Determining eligibility for employment or volunteer work, including verifying qualifications and references;
• Establishing training and development requirements;
• Assessing performance and managing performance issues if they arise;
• Administering pay and benefits (paid employees only);
• Processing employee work-related claims (e.g. benefits, workers’ compensation, insurance claims) (paid employees only); and
• Complying with applicable laws (e.g. Canada Income Tax Act, provincial Employment Standards Acts).

After an employee or volunteer relationship with us ends, we may be contacted by other organizations and asked to provide a reference.  The personal information we normally provide in a reference includes:

• Confirmation that an individual was an employee or volunteer, including the position, and date range of the employment or volunteering; and
• General information about an individual’s job duties and information about the employee or volunteer’s ability to perform job duties and success in the employment or volunteer relationship.

Limiting Collection

We collect only the personal information that we need for the purposes of providing services to our donors.  For example, we limit the collection of financial and contact information by only collecting information deemed necessary to process a donation or to complete the identified purpose.

We normally collect your personal information directly from you.  We may collect your information from other persons with your consent or as authorized by law.

Consent

We ask for consent to collect, use, or disclose your personal information, except in specific circumstances where collection, use, or disclosure without consent is authorized or required by law.  We may assume your consent in cases where you volunteer information for an obvious purpose.

We assume your consent to continue to use and, where applicable, disclose personal information that we have already collected, for the purpose for which the information was collected.

We ask for your express consent for some purposes and may not be able to provide certain services if you are unwilling to provide consent to the collection, use, or disclosure of certain personal information. Where express consent is needed, we will normally ask you to provide consent in writing.

You can withdraw your consent to Laing House using or disclosing your personal information, at any time. 

We may collect, use, or disclose personal information without consent only as authorized by law. For example, we may not request consent when the collection, use, or disclosure is to determine suitability for an honour or award or in an emergency that threatens life, health, or safety.

Laing House can collect, use and, disclose personal employee information without consent only for the purposes of establishing, managing, or ending the employment or volunteer relationship. We will provide current employees and volunteers with prior notice about what information we collect, use, or disclose and our purpose for doing so.

Limiting Use, Disclosure, and Retention

We use and disclose the personal information of members, donors, employees, and volunteers only for the purpose for which the information was collected, except as authorized by law.  For example, we may use financial information from donors to process donations.

Members and donors may request a complete list of the organizations/services to which we share and/or disclose their personal information by contacting the Laing House Chief Privacy Officer (see contact information above).

If we wish to use or disclose your personal information for any new business purpose, we will ask for your consent.

We retain personal information only as long as is reasonable to fulfill the purposes for which the information was collected or for legal or business purposes.

Use of Service Providers Outside Canada

Laing House may have occasion to engage organizations to provide services on our behalf that may process or store personal information outside of Canada.  For example, to support our on-line fundraising tool, email marketing, customer relationship management, or processing of funds.  You can contact the Laing House Chief Privacy Officer to obtain more information about our use of service providers outside Canada, including for example:

• The location of the service provider; and
• How personal information is collected, used, disclosed, stored and protected.

Accuracy

We make every reasonable effort to ensure that personal information is accurate and complete.  We rely on individuals to notify us if there is a change to their personal information that may affect their relationship with our organization. If you are aware of an error in our information about you, please let us know and we will correct it on request wherever possible.  In some cases we may ask for a written request for correction.

Safeguards

We protect personal information in a manner appropriate for the sensitivity of the information. We make every reasonable effort to prevent any loss, misuse, disclosure, or modification of personal information, as well as any unauthorized access to personal information.

Laing House protects personal information in its custody and control through, for example:

• Administrative Safeguards:  We employ administrative safeguards, such as this Privacy Policy, our Information Technology Acceptable Use Policy and confidentiality agreements to ensure that all Laing House employees, volunteers and service providers access personal information for authorized purposes only.  We train our employees and volunteers to understand and follow the practices outlined in this Privacy Policy and the Information Technology Acceptable Use Policy, and regularly remind employees and volunteers of their privacy responsibilities through email bulletins, and/or annual privacy audits and training.
• Technical Safeguards:  We employ technical safeguards, such as passwords, audit logging, encryption, and role-based access controls for information systems from which personal information may be accessed.
• Physical Safeguards:  We employ physical safeguards to protect personal information by locking filing cabinets, restricting physical access to offices and data centers, and shredding paper records we no longer need.

Openness

We make available to our members, donors, employees, and volunteers specific information about our policies and practices that relate to the management of personal information.  We make this information available in this Privacy Policy and by contacting the Laing House Chief Privacy Officer.
This information describes, for example: 

• What personal information is in our custody or control;
• How we collect, use, and disclose personal information, and for what purposes;
• How we protect personal information in our custody and control;
• How you may gain access to and correct the personal information we have about you;
• How to opt out of specific uses and disclosures of personal information; and  
• How to contact the Laing House Chief Privacy Officer with an inquiry or complaint.

Individual Access

Individuals have a right to access their own personal information in a record that is in the custody or under the control of Laing House, subject to some exceptions.  For example, Laing House may not be able to provide access to certain personal information if providing access would reveal personal information about another individual.

If we refuse a request in whole or in part, we will provide the reasons for the refusal.  In some cases where exceptions to access apply, we may withhold that information and provide you with the remainder of the record.
You may make a request for access to your personal information by contacting the Laing House Chief Privacy Officer (see contact information above). You must provide sufficient information in your request to allow us to identify the information you are seeking.

You may also request information about our use of your personal information and any disclosure of that information to persons outside our organization. In addition, you may request a correction of an error or omission in your personal information.  We will record in your record details about your correction request and communicate this information to relevant third parties, where required and feasible.

We will respond to your request within 30 calendar days unless the request is impractical or an undue burden impacting day to day operations.

Questions and complaints

If you have a question or concern about any collection, use or disclosure of personal information by Laing House, or about a request for access to your own personal information, please contact the Laing House Chief Privacy Officer (see contact information above).

If you are not satisfied with the response you receive, you can contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada by phone (1-800-282-1376) or by filling out a complaint form available at http://www.priv.gc.ca/I_I/form_e.cfm and submitting the completed form by mail to:

Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
112 Kent Street
Place de Ville, Tower B
3rd Floor
Ottawa, ON K1A 1H3

You may also contact the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner in the province of Nova Scotia:

http://foipop.ns.ca/
Mailing Address:
Box 181 
Halifax, NS
B3J 2M4

Phone: (902) 424-4684 
No Charge-Dial: 1-866-243-1564 
Fax: (902) 424-8303