Thyroid Cancer Canada Privacy Policy
Thyroid Cancer Canada is committed to providing its members and general web visitors with policies that respect their privacy. All personal information provided to Thyroid Cancer Canada is protected under the federal Privacy Act.
Following is an explanation of Thyroid Cancer Canada information-gathering and dissemination practices:
Personal Information
Thyroid Cancer Canada does not automatically gather any personal information from website or online forum visitors, such as name, phone number, e-mail or address. This type of contact information is only obtained when it is voluntarily supplied. The same applies to contacts made by email, telephone and in-person contacts.
Thyroid Cancer Canada respects your privacy and your personal data will not be shared, traded or sold to any agencies, government offices, corporations or third parties. Your contact information is used to keep you up to date with Thyroid Cancer Canada (e.g. via newsletters) and also to inform you of upcoming events in your community. Furthermore, your anonymity is respected by allowing you to use a pseudonym on the Thyroid Cancer Canada Online Forum, should you choose to join.
Thyroid Cancer Canada advises you that this website is hosted by a third party service provider on servers which may be located in the United States or Canada. If you are located in a non-USA jurisdiction, you may be sending your Personal Information to the United States or another jurisdiction that does not have laws that provide an equivalent level of data protection to the laws in your home country.
Order Forms
Contact information from registration/order forms may be used to ship printed resources, purchases or donation receipts to Thyroid Cancer Canada members. This information may also be used to contact the member about other products and services and/or to provide quarterly newsletters, surveys and event announcements. Users may opt out of receiving future mailings. Please see the Choice/Opt-Out section below.
Surveys
Thyroid Cancer Canadais committed to the continuous improvement of its programs and services. Periodically, Thyroid Cancer Canada may conduct on-line or hard copy surveys to collect data on members’ satisfaction with our support services and/or in regards to subjects related to thyroid cancer. On-line surveys may ask for contact information (like e-mail addresses). This information is used to contact survey respondents when necessary. Users may opt out of receiving future mailings. Please see the Choice/Opt-Out section below.
From time-to-time outside agencies or academics are interested in gathering information from thyroid cancer patients for research purposes. Thyroid Cancer Canada has a policy in place in regards to whom we will support in this regard, and who meets our qualifications. Thyroid Cancer Canada follows the guidelines of Health on the Net Foundation (HON code) principals. For full details, see www.hon.ch/HONcode/Conduct.html
As per the HON code, the person(s) who are conducting a questionnaire/survey are usually doing so for academic or medical reasons, and must first indicate to Thyroid Cancer Canada that they meet the following criteria:
- Indicate the qualifications of the authors
- Information should support, not replace, the doctor-patient relationship
- Respect the privacy and confidentiality of personal data submitted to the site by the visitor
- Cite the source(s) of published information, date and medical and health pages
- Site must back up claims relating to benefits and performance
- Accessible presentation, accurate email contact
- Identify funding sources
- Clearly distinguish advertising from editorial content
Once a researcher has been approved (met the criteria) a notice may be placed on Thyroid Cancer Canada Online Forum and/or in Thry’vors News and/or in another format indicating that Thyroid Cancer Canada members may participate in the research if they so chose to. Once a member of Thyroid Cancer Canada chooses to participate in outside research, they do so under their own prerogative and discretion and with the knowledge that Thyroid Cancer Canada is not responsible for the process, outcome, or privacy issues involved when the research is conducted by outside persons or agencies.
Involuntary Data
Web browsers connecting to web servers routinely reveal the IP address of your computer. Thyroid Cancer Canada may use IP addresses to help diagnose server problems and in the administration of its website. Rarely, Thyroid Cancer Canada may use an IP address to locate a person(s) who is disregarding Thyroid Cancer Canada Online Forum policies and rules. For information about Thyroid Cancer Canada Online Forum policies and rules, please see the Welcome Message on Thyroid Cancer Canada Online Forum at:
Advertisers
At this time,Thyroid Cancer Canada does not accept advertisements from outside companies for display on its website (www.thyroidcancercanada.org).
External Links
Thyroid Cancer Canadawebsite contains links to other websites. Thyroid Cancer Canada is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of those websites.
Public Forums
Thyroid Cancer Canadais the operator of Thyroid Cancer Canada Online Forum as a service to its members. Please remember that information disclosed in that area is shared information. Please exercise caution when deciding to disclose personal information in any forum open to the public.
Also, please be aware although caution has been taken and policies are in place to prohibit advertisers and spammers from joining Thyroid Cancer Canada Online Forum, it is possible that they may join the site and “harvest” email addresses or other information. This is an internet-wide problem that Thyroid Cancer Canada cannot take responsibility for.
Security
Thyroid Cancer Canadahas security measures in place to protect the loss, misuse and alteration of information under its control. Thyroid Cancer Canada takes all of the necessary precautions to safeguard members’ information stored electronically and in hard copy. In all cases, information is retained in secure facilities, protected from unauthorized access and is kept only as long as is reasonably required. Our electronic files are backed up for redundancy, password protected where need be and accessible only by authorized employees/volunteers, on a need-to-know basis.
Thyroid Cancer Canada volunteers are made aware of our privacy practices through periodic communications and training. TCC volunteers are also required to agree in writing to the Terms of Reference of TCC, a document that outlines privacy policies. As well, we limit access to private and confidential data only to those volunteers with a specific need to retrieve this information.
Choice/Opt Out
By using www.thyroidcancercanada.org you signify your agreement to our privacy policy as stated above. Note that this policy may be revised periodically without notice. Please re-read this policy prior to submitting any personal information if you have concerns about how your information is being collected and used.
Thyroid Cancer Canada provides users with the opportunity to opt out of receiving mailings, be removed from the list of Online Forum members and to be removed from the general membership list. To opt-out of any or all of the above, and/or to change contact information, please do one of the following:
Use the Get Connected Form (General Comments box)
Send an e-mail to info@thyroidcancercanada.org or
Contact Thyroid Cancer Canada at 416-487-8267
Funding for the Thyroid Cancer Canada Website
Thyroid Cancer Canada does not accept advertisements of any type on our websites. As well, the organization does not accept funds from any corporation, company, government agency or other outside body to help fund the website or its contents. The design, hosting and other costs associated with its production and maintenance are fully covered by donations made by members of Thyroid Cancer Canada.
Publication Content of the Thyroid Cancer Canada Website
The content of the Thyroid Cancer Canada website was written and edited by a committee of thyroid cancer patients and others including Rita Banach, Isaiah Banach, Mel Gellner, Alice Gellner, Ginette Herald, Sarah Lyons and Nina Moritsugu. The director of the publication committee was Rita Banach rbanach@thyroidcancercanada.org
Medical content on this website was reviewed and edited by the following member of Thyroid Cancer Canada’s Medical Advisory Panel. We greatly appreciate her wisdom and great support with this project:
Alice Y.Y. Cheng, MD, FRCPC
Endocrinology and Metabolism
Assistant Professor (Adjunct)
University of Toronto
Contact Us
Questions regarding the administration of the Privacy Statement of Thyroid Cancer Canada may be directed to the President by e-mail at info@thyroidcancercanada.org or by calling 416-487-8267.
We can be reached by mail at:
Thyroid Cancer Canada
PO Box 23007
550 Eglinton Ave. West
Toronto, ON M5N 3A8
If you are not satisfied with our response to your privacy concern, you may wish to contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner http://www.privcom.gc.ca/.
All matters relating to privacy are governed by the laws of the province of Ontario in the country of Canada.
For further information about the Privacy Act of Canada visit:
What's New
Thyroid Cancer Canada is having its 10th Anniversary this year! In 10 years we've grown from less than a dozen members to now over 3,000! To learn how we got started, view our history HERE.
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