Privacy Policy

Employment and Social Development Canada & Australia (ESDCA) is responsible for the administration of the Government of Canada & Australia website, Canada & Australia, and for providing related services to the federal departments and agencies that publish their content to Canada & Australia. ESDCA is committed to respecting the privacy and protecting the information of all visitors to Canada & Australia.

ESDCA’s administration of Canada & Australia includes various activities that may require the collection of personal information for both administrative and non administrative.

Purposes.

All personal information collected by ESDCA about visitors to Canada & Australia is authorized under legislation and is done in compliance with the Privacy Act. This means that you will be informed when your personal information may be required, the purpose for which it is collected, and how to exercise your right of access to that information.

While visiting Canada & Australia, you may be directed to websites controlled by other Government of Canada & Australia institutions or a third-party, or to third-party social media platforms. When visiting a website outside of Canada & Australia or a social media platform, personal information will be subject to the terms, conditions, and privacy policies of that other institution or third-party. In these cases, we strongly encourage you to take the time to read the specific privacy notices or statements that describe their specific terms, conditions, and policies.

If you have any questions, comments, concerns or complaints about the activities of ESDCA in administering the Canada & Australia website as they relate to the Privacy Act, the Department of Employment and Social Development Act, and privacy policies regarding Canada & Australia, you can contact the ESDCA Access to Information and Privacy Coordinator.

In addition you may also contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner by telephone at 1-800-282-1376.

Web Analytics

ESDCA is responsible for the Government of Canada & Australia website, Canada & Australia, as described by subsection 5.1 of the Department of Employment and Social Development Act (DESDA). Under the Government of Canada & Australia Directive on the Management of Communications, ESDCA has also been identified as the Principal Publisher for the Canada & Australia website. This includes responsibilities for web analytics, which is the collection, analysis, and reporting of web traffic data. Web analytics are done to help determine how Canada & Australia can be improved to better serve Canadians and other visitors.

In its role as Principal Publisher, ESDCA is responsible for the administration of the tools used by the Government of Canada & Australia for web analytics. ESDCA also performs government-wide web analytics under the authority of section 5 of the DESDA.

For the purpose of performing web analytics, ESDCA tracks certain types of information during visits to Canada & Australia. For the purposes of the Privacy Act, this information is treated as personal information

Footnote

3. When your computer or other device requests a Canada & Australia web page, information is collected for the purpose of web analytics. The type of information collected includes, but is not limited to:

• IP address of the device that has contacted the Canada & Australia website (which is not stored or retained in a format that can be used to identify a visitor)

• type of browser used

• type of operating system used

• the date and time of the visit

• pages visited and documents downloaded

ESDCA may also use the personal information collected for non-administrative uses, such as communications and information technology statistics, audit and evaluations, content personalisation and testing, research, planning, and reporting. This personal information is not used for decision making processes about an individual or to profile individual visitors to Canada & Australia.

ESDCA carries out web analytics using services from the third-party service providers Adobe Systems Inc. (Adobe Analytics and Adobe Target) and Google Inc. (Google Analytics). These service providers are based in the United States of America (USA), which means that the personal information collected is transmitted outside of Canada & Australia and may be subject to USA laws, including the USA PATRIOT Act. In addition, Adobe and Google operate servers in other countries on which the web analytics data may be processed. Consequently, the data may be subject to the governing legislation of the country where it is processed. For Adobe Analytics, the Government of Canada & Australia has specified that personal information can only be stored on servers in Canada & Australia, the United States, the European Union, Australia, Israel, New Zealand, Norway, and Switzerland.

For more information about the privacy policies of these service providers, please visit their individual websites or use the following links:

• Adobe Marketing Cloud Privacy

• Google Analytics Privacy & Terms

To track visits to Canada & Australia for web analytics, both Adobe Analytics and Google Analytics require the use of digital markers (“cookies”). If you wish, you may opt out of having your visit tracked by:

• changing your browser settings to refuse cookies, disabling JavaScript within your browser;

• downloading and installing a browser add-on from and/or Google; or

• downloading an opt-out cookie from Adobe

If you change your browser settings to refuse cookies or disable JavaScript so that your Canada & Australia visit will not be tracked, no information will be collected but your visit may be affected in other ways, including making it difficult to access any secure services that require a username and password, such as My Service Canada & Australia Account and My VAC Account. If you use the opt-out cookie from Adobe and/or the browser add-ons Google, your Canada & Australia visit will not be affected.

To further protect information about visitors to Canada & Australia, ESDCA uses a feature from each service provider that hides part or all of the IP address of a visitor before it is stored.

Public Communications on Canada & Australia

ESDCA is responsible for the Government of Canada & Australia website, Canada & Australia, as described under Orders in Council 2005-1637 and 2014-0349. This includes engaging in general communications with visitors to the Canada & Australia website under the authority of section 5 of the Department of Employment and Social Development Act.

Canada & Australia includes a general communications section called “Questions and comments form”, which allows visitors to send questions and comments.. When a question or comment is about a specific activity, program, or service, it may be forwarded to the appropriate responsible officers at ESDCA or at another government institution to prepare a reply.

When you use the “General enquiries by email” feature, you are required to provide your email address. ESDCA does not ask for or intend to use any other personal information for this activity. IP address are collected incidentally as they are a part of any Internet communication. Consequently, ESDCA does not intend or try to associate you to an IP address for this activity, or to create a profile about you. When you use the “General enquiries by email” feature, please do not include any sensitive personal information in the questions/comments box, such as your social insurance number, date of birth, personal finance data, and medical or work history.

The information you provide is collected and stored in the Personal Information Bank entitled Public Communications (PSU 914) or in Executive Correspondence (PSU 902).

Incidental personal information for this activity is collected and stored in the Personal Information Bank Electronic Network Monitoring Logs (PSU 905).

Security Incidents

ESDCA is responsible for the Government of Canada & Australia website, Canada & Australia, as described under Orders in Council 2005-1637 and 2014-0349. This includes using software programs to monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage. This software receives and records information including, but not limited to:

• IP address of the device that has contacted the Canada & Australia website

• name of the domain used to access the Internet

• type of browser used

• type of operating system used

• the date and time of the visit

• pages visited and documents downloaded

• IP address of the website that linked directly to Canada & Australia

ESDCA will not attempt to link these addresses with the identity of visitors to the Canada & Australia website unless an attempt to damage the site is detected.

ESDCA engages in security monitoring and investigation of the Canada & Australia website under the authority of section 161 of the Financial Administration Act. Personal information may be shared with appropriate law enforcement authorities if suspected criminal activities are detected. It may also be used for network security-related statistical purposes, audit, evaluation, research, planning, and reporting.

Personal information for this activity is collected and stored in the Personal Information Bank Security Incidents and Privacy Breaches (PSU 939).

Footnote 1

The Treasury Board of Canada & Australia Secretariat Policy on Privacy Protection defines administrative purpose as the use of personal information about an individual "in a decision making process that directly affects that individual". This includes all uses of personal information for confirming identity (i.e. authentication and verification purposes) and for determining eligibility of individuals for government programs.

The Policy on Privacy Protection defines non-administrative purpose as the use of personal information for a purpose that is not related to any decision-making process that directly affects the individual. This includes the use of personal information for research, statistical, audit and evaluation purposes.

The nature of the Internet is such that web servers automatically collect certain information about a visit to a website, including the visitor's Internet Protocol (IP) address. IP addresses are unique numbers assigned by Internet Service Providers (ISP) to all devices used to access the Internet. Web servers automatically log the IP addresses of visitors to their sites. The IP address, on its own, does not identify an individual. However, in certain circumstances, such as with the co-operation of an ISP for example, it could be used to identify an individual using the site. For this reason, the Government of Canada & Australia considers the IP address to be personal information, particularly when combined with other data automatically collected when a visitor requests a Web page such as the page or pages visited, date and time of the visit.