Privacy Notice
Coast Foundation Society (1974) and Coast Mental Health Foundation, collectively referred to as ‘Coast Mental Health’ in this Privacy Notice, are committed to protecting personal information. We recognize our responsibility to be transparent and accountable in how we collect, use, and disclose the personal information of our clients, donors, employees, and other stakeholders.
Coast Mental Health collects, uses, and discloses personal information to deliver services and programs, for fundraising purposes, and to manage our operations. Our privacy practices comply with the Personal Information Protection Act of British Columbia (“PIPA”) and other applicable laws including the Canada Anti-Spam Law (“CASL”).
Accountability
Coast Mental Health is responsible for personal information in its custody or under its control. Our designated Privacy Officer, who is responsible for our compliance with privacy law, can be contacted at privacyofficer@coastmentalhealth.com
What is personal information?
Personal information means information about an identifiable individual and includes employee personal information. Under PIPA, personal information does not include the name, title, business address, telephone number, or other contact information of an individual at a place of business.
Why does Coast Mental Health collect, use, or disclose personal information?
We collect, use, or disclose personal information to deliver our services to clients and members of the public, support our fundraising efforts, and keep individuals informed and up to date on our activities including programs, services, special events, funding needs, opportunities to volunteer or to give.
We do not rent, sell or trade personal information to third parties.
Some of Coast Mental Health’s programs are operated in collaboration with the province of British Columbia, various regional health authorities, and provincial crown agencies. Client personal information relating to those programs may be shared with those public bodies as may be necessary or appropriate under the service provider arrangements and in accordance with applicable law.
Consent
We will not collect, use, or disclose Personal Information except for the identified purposes, unless you have provided your consent (express or implied), or the processing is legally authorized without consent.
Express consent – This is a clear and affirmative agreement, such as ticking a box or signing a form or giving verbal or written consent for example when we collect your personal health information to provide programs and services.
Coast Mental Health is responsible for obtaining valid consent from all clients at the time of admission to our programs, including consent to collect and use their personal information. Coast Mental Health is responsible for obtaining consent from the clients who want to have access to the services provided by Coast.
In accordance with privacy law Coast Mental Health obtains express consent from a client before disclosing the client’s personal health information to a third party, including the client’s family and/or significant others.
Implied consent – This is where the information is provided voluntarily, and the purpose would be obvious to a reasonable person. For example, if you provide your email address to receive updates about Coast Mental Health, your consent for us to use your personal information to send emails to you is implied.
In accordance with CASL, emails with the sole purpose of raising funds and newsletters about our work do not require consent if we identify the sender and include an option to unsubscribe.
Every electronic publication we send our supporters has an unsubscribe feature. You may ‘opt-out’ from receiving e-communications at any time by utilizing the unsubscribe feature in any of these emails.
Donors and personal information
Coast Mental Health also collects and uses personal information for fundraising purposes to:
- Acknowledge and process donations,
- Issue tax receipts, Process requests (e.g., moved / no mail requested),
- Perform fundraising and fundraising-related activities; and,
- Provide impact updates and funding needs.
We will only use or disclose donor personal information where necessary to fulfill the purposes identified at the time of collection, or for a purpose reasonably related to those purposes, or as required by law. We will not rent, sell or trade donor lists or donor personal information to other parties.
Coast Mental Health retains donor information for a minimum of six years, in accordance with Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) guidelines.
Coast Mental Health recognizes that, for the purposes of donations or purchases, supporters may provide us with their banking or credit card information. We only use this information to process the transaction as intended by the supporter.
Credit card transactions processed offline are processed through Level 1 PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) service providers and payment gateways. Credit card transactions processed online through our website are passed through a secure third-party provided SSL verified connection to adhere to industry standard privacy and security standards. Our credit card processing service providers and payment gateways are reviewed annually, or whenever a provider is changed.
What about spam?
Coast Mental Health sends you marketing emails if you have provided consent (express or implied) to receive marketing messages from us. You may periodically receive updates on our programs and services. Each of these emails has a prominent “Opt Out” button or you may opt out by emailing info@coastmentalhealth.com .
Coast Mental Health does not send unsolicited emails except in compliance with applicable laws, including CASL.
Limiting collection, use, disclosure and retention
Coast Mental Health only collects the personal information necessary for the purpose identified. We limit the use and internal distribution of personal information, and the external sharing of personal information, to the extent reasonably necessary for the purposes and programs of Coast Mental Health.
Coast Mental Health is also entitled to collect, use and disclose personal information as required or permitted by applicable law, including PIPA.
Retention periods will vary depending on the type of personal information and how it is used, for example we retain:
- Client information as needed to deliver services and in accordance with our legal obligations and appropriate guidelines.
- Employee information based on applicable laws and business needs.
- Other types of personal information for at least one year when we use it to make a decision that directly affects the individual.
We retain personal information for as long as necessary based on legal or business purposes.
Disclosure of personal information of individuals in crisis
While PIPA generally requires consent to disclose personal information, it allows disclosure without consent where there are reasonable grounds to believe that compelling circumstances exist that affect the health or safety of an individual. It also authorizes disclosure without consent where disclosure is clearly in the interests of the individual and consent cannot be obtained in a timely way. PIPA also authorizes an organization to disclose personal information if the disclosure is for the purpose of contacting the next of kin or a friend of an injured, ill, or deceased individual.
Is the personal information Coast Mental Health has about me accurate?
We do our best to ensure your personal information is as accurate and up to date as necessary for the purposes for which it is provided. When you provide us with your personal information, we assume that it is accurate, and we rely on you to help keep your information up to date.
Protecting your personal information
Coast Mental Health is committed to protecting personal information from loss or theft, unauthorized access, use or disclosure, modification or destruction through appropriate administrative, technical and physical security measures and safeguards.
The level of safeguards used to protect personal information will depend on the:
- sensitivity of the personal information,
- amount, distribution and format of the information; and,
- method of storage.
Safeguards may include secure systems and password processes, locked paper files, and limited access to electronic and paper-based documents.
Where we keep your personal information
We use service providers in Canada and other countries to help deliver our services and support our business activities. Your personal information may be located at our headquarters in British Columbia and may be stored and processed in other countries, including the United States, where it is subject to the applicable laws of that country. For more information, please contact our Privacy Officer.
Your right to access your personal information
You have a right to see your personal information and ask for corrections to it. Coast Mental Health requires you to provide your request in writing and responds to requests within 30 days. You can make a request by contacting our Privacy Officer.
Coast Mental Health Websites
Using trackers on our websites, Coast Mental Health collects information that cannot identify visitors personally. This information identifies how visitors use our sites and may include identification of which pages and services are visited most. We use this information only for internal review to quantify interest in our services and to improve site content to make your visitor experience more valuable.
Our websites may contain links to other sites. Once you link to another site, you are subject to the privacy and security policies of the other site. Coast Mental Health is not responsible for the contents of any linked websites or the privacy practices of other organizations. The inclusion of a link on our websites does not mean that Coast Mental Health endorses that website.
We encourage you to read the privacy statements of all websites you visit, especially if they request any personal information from you.
Complaint Process
Coast Mental Health has a complaint-handling process to provide you with an opportunity to express concerns about our compliance with this notice and privacy laws.
If you have questions, concerns or complaints relating to our treatment of personal information, please contact our Privacy Officer at privacyofficer@coastmentalhealth.com . You can also contact by mail:
Coast Mental Health
Attn: Privacy Officer
293 East 11th Avenue
Vancouver, BC V5T 2C4
If we are not able to resolve your privacy concerns, you may contact the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of British Columbia:
PO Box 9038, Stn. Prov. Govt.
Victoria, BC V8W 9A4
Telephone (250) 387-5629 or 1-800-663-7867
E-mail: info@oipc.bc.ca
Web site: www.oipc.bc.ca
Terms of Use
Staff are required to respect the confidentiality of all information they acquire through their employment or activities with Coast Mental Health except when: a) it is authorized by Management to release it; and b) it is provided to a person who has a lawful right to the information. All reporting processes must be followed as outlined in all Coast Policy / Procedures, as well as all legal contracts entered into by Coast Mental Health. If you have any questions regarding this policy, please contact privacyofficer@coastmentalhealth.com.