Privacy Policy

The Understory Privacy Policy

Last updated: August 19, 2020

Introduction

The Understory respects your privacy and is committed to protecting it in accordance with this policy. 

Please read this policy carefully to understand our policies and practices for collecting, processing, and storing your information. If you do not agree with our policies and practices, your choice is not to use our Services including the Website. By accessing or using our Services including the Website, you indicate that you understand, accept, and consent to the practices described in this policy. 

This policy describes:

  • how we collect, use, disclose and protect the personal information of users (“you” or “User”) of our website at understory.me (the “Website”);

  • how we collect, use, disclose and protect the personal information of users of the services we make available in connection with the Website (collectively, including the Website, the “Services”); and

  • the types of information we may collect from you or that you may provide when you use our Services including when you visit our Website.

Privacy laws in Canada generally define "personal information" as any information about an identifiable individual, which includes information that can be used on its own or with other information to identify, contact, or locate a single person. Personal information does not include business contact information, including your name, title, or business contact information.

The term “The Understory”, “us”, “we”, or “our” refers to 12263262 Canada Inc. dba The Understory.

We may change this policy from time to time. Your continued use of the Website after we make changes indicates that you accept and consent to those changes, so please check the policy periodically for updates. We will notify you and obtain your consent for changes to this policy that may be more material or as otherwise required by applicable law.

Scope

This policy applies to information we collect about you:

  • on the Website;
  • in email, text, and other electronic messages between you and us; and
  • when you interact with our Services.

The Website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins, services, social networks, or applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow the third party to collect or share data about you. If you follow a link to a third-party website or engage a third-party plugin, please note that these third parties have their own privacy policies and we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies. We do not control these third-party websites, and we encourage you to read the privacy policy of every website you visit. This policy does not apply to information you provide to or that is collected by any third party except as otherwise set out in this policy.

Information we collect about you

We collect and use several types of information from and about you, including:

  • personal information that we can reasonably use to directly or indirectly identify you, such as your name, mailing address, e-mail address, telephone number, Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the Internet, user name or other similar identifier, and billing and account information; 

  • non-personal information that does not directly or indirectly reveal your identity or directly relate to an identifiable individual, such as demographic information, or statistical or aggregated information. Statistical or aggregated data does not directly identify a specific person, but we may derive non-personal statistical or aggregated data from personal information. For example, we may aggregate personal information to calculate the percentage of users accessing a specific feature of the Website; and

  • technical information including your login information, browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform, or information about your internet connection, the equipment you use to access our Website, and usage details.

How we collect information about you

We use different methods to collect your information, including:

  • through direct interactions with you when you provide it to us, for example, by filling in forms including registering to use our Website, subscribing to our Service, posting material, requesting further Services from us or corresponding with us by phone, email, or otherwise;

  • through indirect interactions with you when you provide it to our contractors, service providers, and other third parties we use to support our business (such as email marketing providers or e-commerce platform providers);

  • by providing us with information that you ask us to (or otherwise agree that we can) publish or display on the Website or to make available to other users of the Services or to third parties (collectively, “User Content”); or

  • through automated technologies or interactions, as you navigate through our Website, including usage details, IP addresses, and information collected through cookies.

The technologies we use for the automatic information collection may include cookies, which are small files placed on the hard drive of your computer. You may refuse to accept browser cookies by activating the appropriate setting on your browser. However, if you select this setting you may be unable to access certain parts of our Website. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies when you direct your browser to our Website.

We may also use these technologies to collect information about your online activities over time and across third-party websites or other online services (behavioral tracking).

Third Party Use of Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies

Some content or applications on the Website, including advertisements, are served by third-parties, including advertisers, ad networks and servers, content providers, and application providers. These third parties may use cookies alone or in conjunction with web beacons or other tracking technologies to collect information about you when you use our Website. The information they collect may be associated with your personal information or they may collect information, including personal information, about your online activities over time and across different websites and other online services. They may use this information to provide you with interest-based (behavioural) advertising or other targeted content. 

We do not control these third parties' tracking technologies or how they are used. Though you can opt-out of several third party ad servers' and networks' cookies simultaneously by using third-party opt-out tools including, for example, the opt-out tool created by the Digital Advertising Alliance of Canada (available at https://youradchoices.ca/en/tools). If you have any questions about an advertisement or other targeted content, you should contact the responsible provider directly.

How we use your information

We use information that we collect about you or that you provide to us, including any personal information:

  • to present our Website and its contents to you;
  • to provide you with the Services that you request from us;
  • to fulfill the purposes for which you provided the information or that were described when it was collected, or any other purpose for which you provide it;
  • to carry out our obligations and enforce our rights arising from any contracts with you, including for billing and collection or to comply with legal requirements;
  • to measure or understand the effectiveness of the advertising we serve to you and others, and to deliver relevant advertising to you.
  • in any other way we may describe when you provide the information; and
  • for any other purpose with your consent. 

We may also use your information to contact you about our or third-party products and services that may be of interest to you, as permitted by law. If you do not want us to use your information in this way, please email us at hello@understory.me

We may use the information we have collected from you to enable us to display advertisements to our advertisers' target audiences. Even though we do not disclose your personal information for these purposes without your consent, if you click on or otherwise interact with an advertisement, the advertiser may assume that you meet its target criteria.

Disclosure of your information

We will not disclose, trade, rent, sell or otherwise transfer your personal information, without your consent, except as otherwise set out in this policy.

We may disclose aggregated information about our users and information that does not identify any individual, without restriction. 

We may disclose your personal information:

  • to our subsidiaries and affiliates;

  • in accordance with applicable law, to a buyer or other successor in the event of a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of our assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, in which personal information held by us about our users is among the assets transferred;

  • to advertisers and advertising networks that require the information to select and serve relevant advertisements to you and others. We do not disclose data about identifiable individuals to our advertisers, but we may provide them with aggregate information about our users (for example, we may inform them that 400 women between 30 and 45 have clicked on their advertisement on a specific day). We may also use such aggregate information to help advertisers target a specific audience (for example, men in a specific location). We may make use of the personal information we have collected from you to enable us to display our advertisers' advertisement to that target audience.

  • to contractors, service providers, and other third parties we use to support our business (such as analytics and search engine providers that assist us with Website improvement and optimization) and who are contractually obligated to keep personal information confidential, use it only for the purposes for which we disclose it to them, and to process the personal information with similar standards set out in this policy;

  • to fulfill the purpose for which you provide it. For example, if you give us an email address to use the "email a friend" feature of our Website, we will transmit the contents of that email and your email address to the recipients;

  • for any other purpose disclosed by us when you provide the information; or

  • with your consent. 

We may also disclose your personal information:

  • to comply with any court order, law, or legal process, including to respond to any government or regulatory request, in accordance with applicable law;
  • to enforce or apply our Terms of Use (available here: [insert URL]) and other agreements, including for billing and collection purposes; or
  • if we believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to protect the rights, property, or safety of The Understory, our users, or others.

Transferring your personal information

We may transfer personal information that we collect or that you provide as described in this policy to contractors, service providers, and other third parties we use to support our business (such as analytics and search engine providers that assist us with Website improvement and optimization) and who are contractually obligated to keep personal information confidential, use it only for the purposes for which we disclose it to them, and to process the personal information with substantially similar standards as set out in this policy.

We may process, store, and transfer your personal information in and to a foreign country, with different privacy laws that may or may not be as comprehensive as Canadian law. In these circumstances, the governments, courts, law enforcement, or regulatory agencies of that country may be able to obtain access to your personal information through the laws of the foreign country. Whenever we engage a service provider, we contractually require that its privacy and security standards adhere to applicable Canadian privacy legislation.

Choices about how we use and disclose your information

We strive to provide you with choices regarding the personal information you provide to us. 
 
If you have opted in to receive certain emails from us but no longer wish to have your contact information used by The Understory to promote our own or third parties' products or services, you can opt-out by by sending us an email stating your request to hello@understory.me

If you do not want us to use information that we collect or that you provide to us to deliver advertisements according to our advertisers' target-audience preferences, you can opt out by sending us an email stating your request to hello@understory.me 

We do not control third parties' collection or use of your information to serve interest-based advertising. However, these third parties may provide you with ways to choose not to have your information collected or used in this way. You can also set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when cookies are being sent. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of the Website may not be accessible or may not function properly.

Where you have provided your consent to the collection, use, and transfer of your personal information, you may have the legal right to withdraw your consent under certain circumstances. To withdraw your consent, if applicable, contact us at hello@understory.me. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide you with a particular product or service.  

Data Security

The security of your personal information is important to us. We use reasonable physical, electronic, and administrative measures designed in an effort to secure your personal information from accidental loss and from unauthorized access, use, alteration, and disclosure. 

The safety and security of your information also depends on you. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password for access to certain parts of our Website, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share your password with anyone.

Retention of personal information

Except as otherwise permitted or required by applicable law or regulation, we will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. 
 
Accessing and correcting your personal information

It is important that the personal information we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal information changes. By law you have certain rights to request access to and to correct the personal information that we hold about you. If you want to review, verify, correct, or withdraw consent to the use of your personal information you may send us an email at hello@understory.me.

We may request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and your right to access and to provide you with the personal information that we hold about you or make your requested changes. Applicable law may allow or require us to refuse to provide you with access to some or all of the personal information that we hold about you, or we may have destroyed, erased, or made non-personal information (e.g., statistical or aggregated data) from your personal information.

We welcome your questions, comments, and requests regarding this privacy policy and our privacy practices. Please contact us by email at:

Attention: Privacy Officer 
hello@understory.me

Volunteer-run, accredited and registered non-profit organization offering transformative online courses and CME credits to busy women doctors in Canada.