Torstar Digital

Privacy Policy

Our commitment to privacy

Torstar Digital, a division of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited (“Torstar Digital” or “We”), knows that protecting the privacy and confidentiality of your personal information is important to consumers. Collection, use and disclosure of personal information by Torstar Digital and its affiliates are governed by the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (the “Act”), and any applicable provincial legislation. This Privacy Code explains what personal information is collected by Torstar Digital and how it is used. It also explains how you can ask questions, make suggestions, and complain about our privacy practices. This Privacy Code applies to personal information (see below) collected by Torstar Digital. Be aware that the Torstar Digital website may contain links to other websites provided and maintained exclusively by third parties not subject to this Privacy Code.  In addition, many of Torstar Digital’s affiliates have their own privacy policies, which provide details on their information handling practices.  Please review the privacy policies on any external websites, including those of Torstar Digital’s affilitates,  to determine their information handling practices. Torstar Digital will not be liable under any circumstances for any damages whatsoever, direct or indirect, resulting from any use of Torstar Digital or any other third party website linked to Torstar Digital, whether or not we are advised of the possibility of such damages.

For a listing of Torstar Digital affiliates, please go to www.torstardigital.com and click on Properties.

This Privacy Code is available to the public in electronic form via privacy@Torstar Digital.com and in paper form from Torstar Digital’s office at 590 King Street West, Suite 400, Toronto, M5V 1M3. If you have any additional concerns or questions, we encourage you to contact us and we will address your concerns to the best of our ability. Please read this Privacy Code carefully, and check back periodically as we update it from time to time. By submitting your personal information to Torstar Digital, you signify your agreement to the terms and conditions of this Privacy Code.

What is personal information?

Personal information is any information about an identifiable individual. Personal information does not include the name, title, business address or telephone number of an employee of an organization. Information used solely for journalistic purposes is exempted from the Act.

Torstar Digital is responsible for personal information under its control. Our employees are informed about the importance of privacy and receive periodic information to update them about our Privacy Code and related policies. In addition, Torstar Corporation, Torstar Digital’s parent company, has appointed a Chief Privacy Officer to oversee personal information-handling practices of Torstar Digital and its affiliates.

Children

If you are under 18, be sure to obtain your parent or guardian’s permission before you send any personal information to us, or anyone else, over the Internet. We encourage parents to get involved with their children’s online usage and to be aware of the activities in which they are participating.

What personal information do we collect, and why?

Torstar Digital collects personal information for specific, limited purposes. Information is collected by fair and lawful means.

  • We collect personal contact information (for example, name, address, email address and telephone numbers) if you: sign up for a newsletter; register on an online forum or website, or to attend a paid event; purchase any product from Torstar Digital; are an advertiser; or provide it to us when you attend a trade or consumer show. This information is used to fulfill your request and respond to your inquiries.
  • If you enter a contest or other promotion, we use your personal contact information to administer the contest or promotion including contacting, announcing and promoting prizewinners.
  • We collect purchase history and a list of promotions offered to you (“history”), in order to gain a better understanding of your interests so that we may develop better products and services, and to determine eligibility for our products and services.
  • We do not collect, use or store your location history and do not allow location tracking in any form. If you are a ShopCatch customer, we do collect and use the “last known” location on your mobile device to establish a location context when you launch ShopCatch, but we do not permanently store this information.
  • We may also use personal contact and history information from time to time to contact you about changes, enhancements or other notices related to goods or services you requested and which Torstar Digital provides. In addition, we may use this information to send you offers or information from us, our affiliates and from selected sponsors or advertisers (“Marketing Offers”). If you do not wish to receive Marketing Offers, you may opt-out at any time by following the procedure set out in our opt-out policy (see below).
  • We keep notes and special instructions on file for advertisers and subscribers to help us fulfill your request and provide customer service.
  • We collect credit card information if you: register on a paid website; enter a paid contest; register to attend a paid event; purchase any product from Torstar Digital; are an advertiser or an auction participant. This credit card information is used for the purpose of fulfilling your order.
  • If you choose to opt-out of any use of your personal information in accordance with our opt-out policy, we keep your contact information on a list so that your request can be honoured. If you complain to any of our departments, we collect your contact information and the nature of your complaint, for the purpose of investigating and responding to you.
  • If you are a freelancer, or other service provider, we collect your social insurance number for tax reporting purposes and your contact information in order to pay you. We may also collect financial information (for example, banking details and credit history) from our freelancers, other service providers or advertisers, to assess credit risk, sales data to prepare royalty reports and other information to help us evaluate services.
  • Purposes for the collection, use or disclosure of personal information, which are not set out in this Privacy Code, will be set out at the time of collection. You will be given a reasonable opportunity to opt-out of any additional purposes no later than the time of collection.
  • We also collect certain non-personal information, like internet cookies and data for market research:
    • Internet Cookies: An internet cookie is a small piece of information that a website stores on your internet browser. We use cookies to better understand how you use our websites, to make sure our ads and dynamic content are served correctly and to improve the performance of our websites. For example, a cookie may recall a set of preferences you have set for our website and record items that you have registered for. Storing cookies on your web browser allows us to present you with custom web pages and other content that are tuned with your preferences. For example, if you are a registered user, you may see a welcome page with your name on it. These activities are invisible to you, and are generally intended to improve your internet surfing convenience. Unless you have set your preferences so that you will be alerted when a cookie is being stored on your computer, you won’t know about it.
    • If you are concerned about cookies, it is possible to turn them off in your web browser preferences. However, please be aware that by disabling cookies, you may not be able to use all portions of our websites, particularly pages requiring registration.
    • We may place advertising or other links on our sites that originate from outside advertisers. If you view these ads, the advertisers may assign a cookie. Torstar Digital does not control these cookies, nor is it responsible for any marketing or other use of your name by these advertisers.
  • Market research: Occasionally, we ask our customers to complete market research surveys. Survey results are aggregated and shared with our advertisers, sponsors and affiliates in a manner that does not disclose personal information.

To whom does Torstar Digital disclose personal information, and why?
Torstar Digital may disclose your personal information under the following circumstances:

  • In order to provide you with Marketing Offers (see above), Torstar Digital may disclose your personal contact information to affiliates and selected sponsors and advertisers. If you do not wish to receive Marketing Offers, you may opt-out at any time by following the procedure set out in our opt-out policy (see below).
  • Torstar Digital may transfer your personal information to service providers acting on its behalf in order to perform processing and other specialized services, for example, prize fulfillment of our contests, collection of overdue accounts, product delivery, or credit card processing.
  • When Torstar Digital needs to disclose your personal information to unrelated parties, for example, if we find you have violated any stated terms of service or conditions of purchase, or if we need to comply with applicable laws and lawful governmental requests, other legal and regulatory authorities and other legal reasons.
  • Torstar Digital may disclose your personal information to parties connected with the contemplated or actual financing, insuring, sale, assignment or other disposal of all or part of our business or assets, including for the purposes of determining whether to proceed or continue with such transaction or business relationship or fulfilling any records or other reporting requirements to such parties. We will require such parties to treat your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Code and to use and disclose it only for the purposes for which it was collected.

Consent and opt-out policy
In general, Torstar Digital seeks consent to use your personal information in accordance with our opt-out policy. Except as set out in this section, Torstar Digital obtains your express opt-in consent to use or disclose sensitive personal information.

If you do not wish to receive Marketing Offers, you may opt-out at any time by doing any of the following:

  • Follow the instructions at the bottom of any email Marketing Offer you receive.
  • Inform your telemarketer at the time you are called with a Marketing Offer.
  • Call Client Services at (416) 687-5701 and request that your personal information not be used for Marketing Offers.
  • Email privacy@Torstar Digital.com and request that your personal information not be used for Marketing Offers.

We reserve the right to use and disclose your personal information without consent where required or permitted by law, for example, if we have reasonable grounds to believe the information could be useful when investigating a contravention of a federal, provincial or foreign law, in order to protect or defend our legal interests, or to comply with applicable laws and lawful governmental requests.

Safeguards

Torstar Digital maintains personal information in a combination of paper and electronic files. We take technical, contractual, administrative and physical security measures to protect your personal information. When you provide credit card information to us, we work to help protect the security of your credit card information by using industry standard secure sockets layer (SSL) encryption technology.

Please be aware that email is not a secure medium, and any personal information you send to us by email could be intercepted. If your communication is very sensitive, or includes information such as your credit card number, you should not send it electronically unless the email is encrypted or your browser indicates that the access to our website is secure. Materials posted to online forums such as bulletin boards or chat rooms are public, not secure and may be viewed by anyone. Any personal information you post may be collected and used by anyone and may result in unsolicited messages from other internet users.

How to access and correct your personal information

Torstar Digital provides you with the means to access, update, edit or delete any subscriber or registration information you have provided at any time by going to the appropriate page on Torstar Digital, and changing or deleting such information as desired.

We will give you access to the information we retain about you within a reasonable time, upon written request, satisfactory identification and proof of entitlement. In some cases, we may not provide access to personal information in our possession or control. If we deny your request, we will advise you in writing of the reason for the refusal and you may challenge our decision.

How to challenge our privacy practices

Torstar Digital encourages you to contact us with any questions or concerns you have about your privacy or this Privacy Code. If you have a question concerning Torstar Digital’s Privacy Code, would like a copy, or if you have a complaint, please contact Client Services at:

590 King Street West, Suite 400
Toronto, Ontario
M5V 1M3
privacy@torstardigital.com

Client Services can successfully deal with many issues. If you prefer, or if after contacting Customer Service, your concerns or questions have not been resolved to your satisfaction, you can contact Torstar Corporation’s Chief Privacy Officer in writing as follows:

Chief Privacy Officer
Torstar Corporation
One Yonge Street, 6th floor
Toronto ON
M5E 1P9
Fax: (416) 869-4183

Updated: November 19, 2012