Last Revised 11 November 2009

 

Privacy Policy

Your privacy is important to you and we are committed to protecting your personal information. This Privacy Policy will explain what information we collect when you use our website, why we collect information, how we use the information we collect and what your options are.

This policy will be updated and modified as necessary to keep the Privacy Policy up to date with how we are collecting, using and disclosing your information, so please check back from time to time for updated information. If you are an account holder, the Society will update you of any significant changes to this Privacy Policy that we feel may impact the handling of any information you have already provided.

Information We Collect

We collect various types of information from you in order to provide you with the best service we can. As described in detail below, some of this information is collected automatically through cookies and other passive tracking technologies and other information is collected when you register for an account or provide us with voluntary feedback.

Information You Provide

Personal information is generally defined as information about an identifiable individual and is more particularly defined or limited under applicable privacy legislation. Examples of personal information include a person’s age, name, ID numbers, e-mail address, income, ethnic origin, opinions, evaluations and comments. We only collect personal information from you when you voluntarily provide it to us. The Society collects the following types of personal information online:

Information Provided Upon Registration

In order to maintain control over who is able to contribute to the Green Building Brain we require you to register for an account with us. To create an account you must provide us with a unique account name, password and e-mail address. If you do not wish to contribute information or post materials to the Green Building Brain there is no need for you to register for an account with us. If you do choose to register you will also have the opportunity to receive information from us about the Green Building Brain. If you do not wish to receive information about the Green Building Brain please email info@greenbuildingbrain.org and indicate your account name.

Once you register for a user account, you may choose to enter information on your user profile, including a photo or image to represent your "gravatar". This information would be publicly available to all users and visitors to the site any time they click on your username wherever it may appear. If you do not wish to share this information publicly, you do not need to create a user profile or provide any of this information. 

Information Provided Upon Signing up for Mailing List

Should you wish to join our mailing list so that you will receive updates and news about the Society and the Green Building Brain, we require you to provide us with your name and e-mail address. If you do not wish to receive news and updates from us by e-mail, you do not need to join our mailing list or provide this information (unless you provide such information in order to register for an account). When registering for the mailing list you will also be asked to provide information on your level of interest and other information about yourself which you may choose to provide. You are under no obligation to provide this additional information. Should you choose to provide the Society with such additional information it will be used by the Society to help ensure you receive information related to your areas of interest and to help improve our website so as to better address the needs and interests of users.

Sending Feedback and Responding to Surveys

From time to time we may ask you to fill out a short survey or provide feedback on your experience with the Green Building Brain and ways that we can improve our website. You may or may not choose to respond to these requests for feedback.

Contribution Data

If you choose to register for an account, the number of contributions made by you to the project wiki will be tracked and linked to the username you create. If you do not wish to have your number of contributions tracked or made available for viewing on the top contributors tables you can choose not to register for an account.

Information You Provide When Making a Donation

The Society uses PayPal to process all donations made through the website. You should only provide your personal information to PayPal after reviewing the PayPal privacy policy (available at www.paypal.com). We will share information with PayPal only to the extent necessary for the purposes of processing payments you make via our website. PayPal does not provide the Society with any billing information of any parties choosing to donate to the Society and only provides the Society with donors names and e-mail addresses so that the Society can thank donors for their donations, inform donors of upcoming fundraising and other activities of the Society and for internal analysis and records keeping. 

Passively Tracked Information

Our website uses passive tracking technologies to log non-identifiable information such as IP addresses, browser type and website usage and game usage patterns such as how you play the game, how far you are able to progress in the game and any game errors that occur. Collecting this information is important in order to enable us to improve our products so that you can have a better user experience. This information is associated only with your IP address to ensure that we collect only unique data instances and is not directly associated with your e-mail address or any personal information that you may provide to us when you register for an account other than your username.

We may also employ "cookies" or similar technologies that provide additional functionality to the website and our games and help us analyze website usage more accurately. You can set your web browser to disable cookies, but if you do some features of the website may not function normally.

How We Use and Disclose This Information

We use the information that we collect to respond to your requests, provide better service, improve our website, let you know about changes to the website and other news about us, ask for your input and feedback on what we are doing and for any purposes disclosed or apparent to you at the time information is collected.

We use non-personally identifiable site usage data to improve the quality and design of the website and to create new features and services by storing, tracking, and analyzing user preferences and trends. This information helps us to make the Green Building Brain more useful to you and ensure the website is user-friendly.

We use Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. ("Google"). Google Analytics uses cookies to help us to analyse how users use the Green Building Brain. The information generated by the cookies about your use of our sites (including your IP address) will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States. Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of our website, compiling reports on website activity for us and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage. Google may also transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google’s behalf. Google will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google. You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser, however please note that if you do this you may not be able to use the full functionality of the Green Building Brain. By using this website, you consent to the processing of data about you by Google in the manner and for the purposes set out above. Google’s privacy policy is available at: www.google.com/privacy.html.

Your contributions to the project wiki are associated with your username and may be published to the top contributors tables on the website if you are among the top contributors to the Green Building Brain. Your username may also be posted next to entries in the wiki project where you were the most recent user to edit or contribute to that entry. The most recent wiki project entries which you have contributed to will also be included on your user profile page.

Where applicable, we may transfer your personal information to third party service providers (including our volunteers, contractors or affiliates) hired to administer or provide products, services or information on our behalf. As the result of the international nature of the Internet, some of these service providers or affiliates may be located outside of the jurisdiction in which you reside and your personal information may be collected, used, disclosed, stored and processed in other jurisdictions for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy. We require service providers, volunteers, contractors and affiliates to use your personal information only to perform the services we have retained them to provide but you should be aware that while your personal information is located outside Canada it will be subject to legal requirements in those foreign countries applicable to our service providers, for example, lawful requirements to disclose personal information to government authorities in those countries.

Personal information of account holders, users who have joined our mailing list or donors may be made available to our partner organizations. If you do not wish to have your personal information shared with these groups, please email info@greenbuildingbrain.org and indicate your account name.

Personal information may also be disclosed to meet legal, regulatory, insurance, audit, security and processing requirements, to protect the rights, property or personal safety of the Society, our affiliates, agents, service providers, volunteers, contractors, other users or the public, or as may be required or permitted by Canadian or foreign laws and regulatory requirements applicable to us or our affiliates, volunteers, contractors, agents and service providers.

Consent

Consent to the collection, use and disclosure of personal information may be given in various ways. Consent can be express (for example, electronically by accepting terms describing the intended uses and disclosures of personal information) or implied (for example, when you voluntarily provide comments or feedback).

Generally, by providing us with personal information, we will assume that you consent to our collection, use and disclosure of such information for the purposes identified or described in this Privacy Policy or otherwise described to you at the time of collection. You may withdraw your consent to our collection, use and disclosure of personal information at any time, subject to contractual and legal restrictions and reasonable notice.

Note that if you withdraw your consent to certain uses of your personal information, we may no longer be able to provide certain of our products or services. Note also that where you continue to use the Green Building Brain or your account, your consent will be valid for so long as necessary to fulfil the purposes described in this Privacy Policy or otherwise at the time of collection, and you may not be permitted to withdraw consent to certain necessary uses and disclosures (for example, but not limited to, maintaining reasonable business and transaction records, disclosures to Canadian and foreign government entities as required to comply with laws or regulations).

We may be required or permitted under statute or regulation to collect, use or disclose personal information without your consent, for example to comply with a court order, to comply with local or federal regulations or a legally permitted inquiry by a government agency, or to collect a debt owed to us.

Withdrawal of Consent

You may withdraw your consent to our collection, use and disclosure of personal information at any time, subject to contractual and legal restrictions and reasonable notice. You may withdraw your consent by contacting us at the contact information provided below. Note that if you withdraw your consent to certain uses of your personal information, we may no longer be able to provide certain of our products or services. Note also that where we have provided or are providing products or services to you, your consent will be valid for so long as necessary to fulfil the purposes described in this Privacy Policy or otherwise at the time of collection, and you may not be permitted to withdraw consent to certain necessary uses and disclosures (for example, but not limited to, maintaining reasonable business and transaction records and disclosures to Canadian and foreign government entities as required to comply with laws).

Links and Third Parties

Postings on the Green Building Brain will frequently contain links to relevant third party websites where users can find more information, a particular building, product, firm or technology. As a service to you we may also from time to time post links to third party websites which we believe may be of interest. These third party websites are operated by companies that are outside of our control and we are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of any third party websites. Any activities you engage in on third party websites will be governed by the policies and procedures of those third parties. We recommend you review the privacy practices of those parties before disclosing any personal information.

Security

We take reasonable steps to protect your personal information using physical, electronic and procedural security measures appropriate to the sensitivity of the information in our custody and control, which may include safeguards to protect against loss, theft, unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use or modification.

We encourage you to protect your password by not sharing it with anyone else and taking other reasonable steps to prevent the unauthorized access of your account. Passwords should use combinations of letters and numbers that would make it difficult for third parties to guess or for software to generate your password.

Your Rights and Options

We do not sell or rent any of your personal information to any third parties, except as specifically described in this Privacy Policy. We respect your privacy and endeavour to abide by all applicable laws concerning the disclosure of personal information. Generally, if you wish to request access to or correction of your personal information or you wish to inquire about your personal information in our custody or control you may write to the Society’s Privacy Officer.

Changes to Privacy Policy

As indicated at the beginning of this Privacy Policy, from time to time we may update or revise the Privacy Policy. If you are concerned about how your personal information is used or disclosed you should check at this web site periodically to obtain the current version of this policy. Your continued provision of personal information or use of our services following any changes to this Privacy Policy constitutes your acceptance of such changes. This Privacy Policy is effective as of November 2009 (revised on 2011-08-03 to reflect new address for society).

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