OUR SCOPE OF POLICY

Rainbow Foundation of Hope (RFOH) is dedicated to maintaining high standards of confidentiality with respect to protecting personal information that is provided to us. This policy statement has been prepared to affirm our commitment to maintaining the privacy of individuals and to inform those individuals of our practices concerning the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information collected by RFOH. The RFOH commitment, as an organization governed by the British Columbia Personal Information Protection Act, is to impose legal obligations regarding the way it collects, uses, and discloses personal information. Rainbow Foundation of Hope will protect individual privacy, and in particular individual personal information, in accordance with the 10 principles of privacy established by the Government of Canada.

Rainbow Foundation of Hope is responsible for personal information under its control and shall designate one or more persons to be accountable for compliance with the 10 principles of privacy.

Rainbow Foundation of Hope will identify the purposes for which personal information is collected at or before the time the information is collected.

Collection, use, or disclosure of personal information by RFOH shall require the individual’s consent, except where required or permitted by law.

Personal information shall be limited in collection to include only that which is necessary for the purposes identified by RFOH.

Personal information shall be limited in use, disclosure, and retention of  by RFOH to purposes for which the information was collected, except with the individual’s consent or as required by law. Personal information shall be retained by RFOH only for as long as is necessary to fulfill the purposes for collecting such information.

Personal information shall be maintained by The Foundation of Hope in an accurate, complete and up-to-date form as is necessary to fulfill the purposes for which the personal information is to be used.

Rainbow Foundation of Hope shall impose safeguards to secure and protect personal information as appropriate to the level of sensitivity.

Rainbow Foundation of Hope maintains a principle of openness and shall make readily available its policies and practices relating to the management of personal information.

Personal information shall be accessible to individuals, subject to any legal restrictions. Upon request, RFOH shall inform individuals of the existence, use, and disclosure of personal information. Individuals may verify the accuracy and completeness of personal information and may request that the information be corrected or updated, if appropriate. These obligations apply to all professionals, franchisees, employees, contractors and agents who provide services in connection with delivery of services to our clients For the purposes of this Policy, “Personal Information” means any information, recorded in any form, about an identified individual, or an individual whose identity may be inferred or determined from the information. Personal information can include an individual’s name, address, telephone number (home and business), email address, date of birth, place of employment, as well as the nature, frequency, and type of services provided by RFOH and used by the individual.

Provision of personal information to RFOH means that the individual agrees and offers consent that we may collect, use, and disclose personal information in accordance with this policy. Any individual that does not agree with these terms is requested to not provide any personal information to RFOH. Unfortunately, certain services can only be offered if the individual provides personal information. Consequently, if the individual chooses not to provide us with any required personal information, RFOH may not be able to offer the requested service(s). Foundation of Hope collects only such information from individuals or organizations that is required for the purposes of providing services or information.

Rainbow Foundation of Hope does not sell, trade, barter or exchange for consideration any personal information obtained. Unless permitted by law, no personal information shall be obtained without prior consent of the individual for the collection, use, and dissemination of that information. Personal information will be collected, to the extent possible, directly from the individual concerned.

Rainbow Foundation of Hope does not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under the age of 18 and does not use such information if it discovers that it has been provided by a minor. Rainbow Foundation of Hope may disclose personal information to franchise operators that perform services on its behalf. Personal information will only be provided to such operators if they agree to use such information solely for the purposes of providing services to RFOH clients under the instruction of RFOH. With respect to that information, operators shall act in a manner consistent with the relevant principles articulated in this policy.

Please note that there are exceptional circumstances where the use and/or disclosure of personal information may be justified or permitted, or where RFOH is obliged to disclose information without consent. Such circumstances may include: where required by law or by order or requirement of a court, administrative agency or other government tribunal; where RFOH believes, upon reasonable grounds, that it is necessary to protect the rights, privacy, safety or property of an identifiable person or group; where it is necessary to establish or collect money owing to RFOH; where it is necessary to permit RFOH to pursue available remedies or limit any damages that RFOH may sustain; or where the information is public. If, under exceptional circumstances, RFOH is obliged or permitted to disclose information without consent, RFOH will not disclose more information than is required.

Accuracy – Rainbow Foundation of Hope endeavours to ensure that any personal information provided and in its possession is as accurate, current and complete as necessary for the purposes for which The Foundation of Hope uses that information.

Retention – Rainbow Foundation of Hope keeps personal information only as long as it is required for the reasons it was collected. The length of time information is retained varies, depending on the product, service, and/or nature of the information. This period may extend beyond the end of a person’s relationship with RFOH, but it will only be for so long as it is necessary for RFOH to have sufficient information to respond to any issues that may arise at a later date. When an individual’s personal information is no longer required for RFOH’s purposes, we have procedures to destroy, delete, erase or convert it into anonymous form.

Security – Rainbow Foundation of Hope endeavours to maintain adequate physical, procedural,and technical security with respect to its offices and information storage facilities so as to prevent any loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure or modification of personal information. Foundation of Hope further protects personal information by restricting its accessibility to those franchisees and/or employees that the management of RFOH has determined to be in need of the information, in order that RFOH may provide services to the individual. Rainbow Foundation of Hope franchisees and employees are informed of the importance of protecting individual privacy and are expected to maintain the strict confidentiality of RFOH client information at all times.

In terms of communicating personal information to RFOH, you may wish to note that there is no method of transmitting or storing data that is completely secure. While the physical characteristics of each method may differ, mail, telephone calls, faxes, and transmissions over the internet are all susceptible to possible loss, misrouting, interception, and misuse of the information being communicated or transmitted.

As do many organizations, RFOH attempts to strike a reasonable balance between security and convenience. In communicating with clients and others, RFOH often requests the right to use a method of communication that is less secure than some of its less convenient alternatives; an example of this is email. At this time, when RFOH uses email, it may be sent as unencrypted plain text. This is because RFOH believes that many of our clients and others cannot readily process encrypted email. This is done for the convenience of our clients but has the security concern that, if misrouted or intercepted, it could be read more easily than encrypted email.

Rainbow Foundation of Hope website – Rainbow Foundation of Hope provides clients and others with general access to its website. When an individual visit RFOH’s website without registering or otherwise interacting with the website (i.e., general web surfing), that individual’s personal information and email address are not recorded. To access RFOH services or enter online contests, RFOH requires you to identify yourself. During the course of an individual’s use of the internet, he or she will learn of the common use of “cookies.” “Cookies” are files or pieces of information that may be stored in a computer’s hard drive when an individual visits a website. Most Internet browsers are initially set to accept cookies. If you do not wish to accept cookies, you can set your browser to refuse cookies or to alert you when cookies are being sent. Rainbow Foundation of Hope ‘s website does not presently use cookies, clear GIFs or any type of “web bug”. When an individual leaves RFOH’s website by linking to another website, he or she is subject to the privacy and security policies of the new website. Rainbow Foundation of Hope encourages all individuals to read the privacy policies of all websites visited, especially if any personal information has been shared.

Information collected to date – Rainbow Foundation of Hope would like to have individual consent to continue to collect, use, and disclose personal information for the purposes identified above. Rainbow Foundation of Hope is operating on the understanding that individuals have provided consent to collect, use, and disclose any personal information collected to date. Refusal or withdrawal of consent shall be granted at any time, subject to legal or contractual restrictions, and providing RFOH with reasonable notice of the withdrawal of consent. If the individual chooses to withdraw consent or not provide certain personal information, such a decision may limit the scope of services RFOH is able to offer.

Requests for access to personal information – the law permits individuals to submit written requests to RFOH to provide them with: their personal information under custody or control of RFOH; information about the purposes for which their personal information under RFOH custody or control has been and is being used by RFOH; and the names of persons to whom and circumstances in which such personal information has been obtained and is being disclosed by RFOH. Rainbow Foundation of Hope will respond to requests in the time allowed by the Personal Information Protection Act and will make reasonable efforts to assist applicants and to respond as accurately and completely as reasonably possible. All requests may be subject to any fees and disbursements the law permits us to charge.

An individual’s ability to access his or her personal information under control of RFOH is not absolute. The law provides that RFOH must not disclose personal information where disclosure could reasonably be expected to threaten the safety or physical or mental health of an individual other than the individual who made the request; where disclosure would reveal personal information about another individual; or where disclosure would reveal the identity of an individual who has, in confidence, provided RFOH with an opinion about another individual and the individual providing the opinion does not consent to the disclosure of his or her identity. The law further provides that RFOH may choose not to disclose personal information where it is protected by any legal privilege; where disclosure of the information would reveal confidential commercial information and it is not unreasonable to withhold that information; where the personal information was collected by RFOH for an investigation or legal proceeding; where disclosure of the personal information might result in similar information no longer being provided to us when it is reasonable that it would be provided; where the personal information was collected or created by a mediator or arbitrator in the conduct of a mediation or arbitration for which he or she was appointed to act under legal agreement, under an enactment, or by a court. Failure by RFOH to disclose personal information may also relate to or may be used in the exercise of prosecutorial discretion. The Personal Information Protection Act indicates that it is not to be applied so as to affect any legal privilege. Foundation of Hope will not disclose information that is privileged where the applicant is not the client in whom the privilege is vested.

Requests for correction of personal information – the law permits individuals to submit written requests to RFOH to correct errors or omissions in their personal information that is in the custody or control of RFOH. Foundation of Hope will correct the personal information and, if reasonable to do so, send correction notifications to any other organizations to whom RFOH has disclosed the incorrect information. Please note that RFOH may decide not to correct the personal information or may annotate the personal information that a correction was requested, but not made.