Privacy Statement

March of Dimes Canada Privacy Statement

Updated September 2024

Our commitment to you


March of Dimes Canada (MODC, “we”, “us”, “ours”) is a leading national charity committed to championing equity, empowering ability, and creating real change that will help the more than six million people living with disabilities across the country unlock the richness of their lives. Visit this link to learn more about MODC

MODC offers a wide range of programs and services for clients and families living with disabilities, available in communities across Canada.  

At March of Dimes Canada (MODC), protecting clients’ privacy is one of our top priorities. We pledge our commitment to respecting your privacy rights. We also ensure that we protect the personal information that will be collected, used, and disclosed to us when you use our programs and services, including our website. 

To support our commitment to provide optimal services to our clients, we have established a robust privacy program designed to protect the personal information that you entrust to us.

Our privacy program includes:

  • policies and procedures to protect personal information
  • practices to receive and respond to privacy complaints and inquiries and
  • staff and volunteer training to ensure our policies are understood and followed at all times
  • consumers in the context of service delivery
  • applicants for employment or volunteer positions
  • non-consumers for purposes of fundraising, education, outreach and others and
  • when using the MODC website 

If at any time you have questions or want to learn more about how MODC manages and protects your personal information, contact our Chief Privacy Officer at any time.

Privacy Statement Scope


This Privacy Statement describe the activities to which it applies and will enable you to understand the circumstances in which your PI/PHI is being processed. In further detail, this pertains to:
  • clients in the context of service delivery
  • applicants for employments or volunteer positions
  • non-consumers for purposes of fundraising, education, outreach and 
  • including when MODC clients use the MODC’s website

What is Personal Information?


Personal information means any information that can be used, either alone or in combination with other information, to identify an individual. Information such as gender, date of birth, name, home address, personal telephone number, social insurance number, financial transactions, considered personal information.

Why and How We Collect and Use Your Personal Information


If you apply for services with MODC, we may collect your personal information directly from you, and in what circumstances such as the form of application forms or questionnaires. Sometimes we get personal information about you from others. For example, if you have a Substitute Decision-Maker or a Power of Attorney, we collect the personal information they provided about you.

In Community Support Services (CSS), when you or your referral source on their behalf contacts MODC CSS (primarily by phone or email) to enquire about applying to a program, we would collect basic PI, so that we can send the relevant application/intake documents to them such as your name, address, phone number and email address. We currently do not have a portal or section on the CSS portion of the MODC website where you would directly enter information. The prompt on the MODC website is for you to contact a local office via phone. 

Our application and applicant interview, samples attached request a variety of PI/PHI (including Health Card number) as is necessary to confirm eligibility for the program and other key points of information which create the basis of a future care plan. 

In Employment Services (ES), we only collect name and email for the SkillingUp through our registration form. No other PH or PHI is collected through the ES website. 

On our After Stroke website, we ask client to provide their full name, address, phone number, email address, date of birth, and preferred language, and if the language is not English, we ask if they have a family member that can act as an interpreter. We also ask what the name of the Referral Organization is – as a Health Care Professional might be the one doing the referral. We ask for all this information so we can prepare for our discussion with the client. With our online virtual programming – the registration form is found on our website and asks the client to provide the following information: If they are a stroke survivor, caregiver or life partner of a stroke survivor. We ask for name, date of birth, phone number, email, and preferred contact method. We also ask for an emergency contact – name and contact information and their address. There is a wavier as well that you sign off on. We ask all of this to ensure that we help our clients find the most appropriate group or program. 

In Human Resources, when candidates apply, we ask for their name, email, phone number, resume and cover letter (optional). Depending on your resume, applicants may disclose their address any other personal details they have on there. 
  • Have you ever been convicted of a crime for which you have not been pardoned for?
  • Are you currently employed by MODC?
  • Were you referred by an existing MODC employee?
  • How did you hear about this opportunity?
  • What is your salary expectation for this role? (hourly/annual)
  • Do you require any accommodation during the recruitment process as a result of a disability?

As well, MODC collects your personal information for the following purposes:
  1. To make the website or other services easier for you to use by not making you enter your personal information more than once
  2. To help you quickly find services or information 
  3. To communicate with you about new and enhanced services, special offers and other information from MODC
  4. To provide you with services or enable your participation in a program offered by MODC 
  5. To review your qualifications and contact you about a job application or volunteer opportunity you have made to MODC, and to notify you about any future job opportunities where your profile may fit the job description
  6. To process a donation you have made to MODC
  7. To get feedback from you to help improve and develop MODC’s programs and services. For example, research is an intended purpose of collecting information because when we receive feedback from you or invite you to participate in a research study, the research helps MODC to inform, develop, and improve MODC services and programs for you.

The personal information we collect from you to fulfill these requirements also includes:

Name and Contact Information

This information helps us identify you and allows us to send you important correspondence. It also allows us to communicate with you to obtain instructions and respond to your requests and inquiries. Generally, this information is requested when you are making online donations or subscribing for newsletters and other services offered by MODC. 

Job and Volunteer applications

We collect your name, contact information, resume including employment and education history, professional and other work-related certifications, your availability to start and desired salary. This information allows us to determine your qualifications and eligibility for the job or volunteer opportunity you are applying to.

Processing donations

If you choose to make a donation in the Donations section of the website, including mail based, giving and direct solicitations and events, we will request personal information such as: e-mail, credit card number, name, address and telephone number. This information will be used to process and acknowledge your donation and issue a tax receipt if applicable.

We will obtain your consent if we wish to use your information for any other purpose and before collecting information from third parties.

March of Dimes Canada Website Analytics


In order to provide you with a great online and mobile experience, we will collect personal information related to your use of our website. This information will allow us to analyze user trends, evaluate and make improvements to our website and mobile app to serve you better. The personal information we collect includes:
  • IP address
  • Date and time of usage
  • Device type and operating system

We may collect some of the above information using cookies or similar technologies. See ‘How we use cookies’ below for more information.

How we use "cookies"


"Cookies" are small pieces of information that some websites store on your computer's hard drive when you visit them. Like many other websites, marchofdimes.ca uses cookies to keep track of user preferences.

The types of cookies used on the website include:

Required Cookies

Some cookies are necessary to enable you to move around our website and use its features. These cookies enhance the convenience and use of the website. These types of cookies do not track your activity on any other website.

Functional Cookies

These cookies enable additional functionality like saving preferences. For example, the information provided through these cookies is used to recognize you as a previous user of the website.

You can set your Internet browser settings to stop accepting new cookies, to receive notice when you receive a new cookie, or to disable existing cookies. Note that the opt-out will apply only to the browser that you are using when you decide to opt out of cookies. Without cookies though, the features described here will not function properly.

Tracking Cookies

MODC uses Google Analytics to better understand the nature of the traffic on our website, including how long your site visit was, the pages you visited, and whether or not you have visited our site previously. We use the information from Google Analytics for user experience improvements and for tailoring content to improve the overall usability of our website. You can learn more about how Google Analytics handles your privacy at http://www.google.com/analytics/learn/privacy.html

To learn how Google Analytics allows you to opt out of being tracked across all websites visit http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout

Whom We Share Your Information With


MODC, from time to time, will share personal information with contracted vendors to help us fulfill the purposes described in this Privacy Statement. 

When we allow a third-party service provider to access your personal information, we only allow them to do so for the sole purpose of carrying out the above services on our behalf. In our service agreements with these service providers, we require them to treat your personal information as securely as we do.

In other cases, and where we have your consent, we may disclose your personal information to third parties, for these third parties to use. 

When you give us permission to disclose your personal information to these third parties, the information we provide to them is then handled by them in accordance with their own privacy policy. If you have concerns about their handling of your personal information, you should contact them directly.

In certain narrow circumstances, the law permits us to disclose your personal information without your consent. For instance, we may disclose your personal information to government, regulatory or law enforcement agencies as requested by these agencies, if we have a good faith belief that the disclosure is required or permitted by law. We may also disclose your personal information in order to enforce our legal rights; to detect, prevent or address fraud or security issues; in connection with a court or regulatory proceeding; and to enforce ours or others’ legal rights, property, or safety.
 
MODC Canada will not rent or sell your personal information.

When Community Support Services needs to contract Attendant Services for our clients to a third party (i.e., Bayshore nursing) we need to provide PHI for the purpose of service provision. A contract would be in place with the third party to ensure obligations around PHI are confirmed. 

How We Protect Your Personal Information


We take the responsibility to protect your personal information very seriously.

We have implemented commercially reasonable measures designed to safeguard the personal information in our custody and control against theft, loss and unauthorized access, use, and disclosure, including regular staff training and adherence to our internal policies and procedures for the protection of personal information.

We restrict access to your personal information only to the associates, affiliates, service providers, employees, volunteers, agents and contracts that require that information to carry out the purposes identified above. Anyone with access to your personal information is subject to strict confidentiality obligations. 

While we make every reasonable effort to keep your personal information safe and secure, you should be aware that no safeguard is 100% secure, and despite our best efforts, we cannot guarantee that your information will be secure at all times.

How You Can Access and Update Your Personal Information


We are committed to ensuring that the personal information we hold about you is accurate, up-to-date, and complete. We will give you access to the personal information we have about you upon request. To make such a request, please contact our Chief Privacy Officer.

When you make a request related to your personal information, we will inform you of the result your specific request. There may be exceptions where we cannot honour your request based on legal, regulatory, or contractual requirements. If we cannot honour your access request, we will provide you with the reasons which may include:
  • The information that consists of the personal information of another individual cannot be separated from your personal information;
  • Commercially confidential information might be revealed and the confidential information cannot be severed from yours; 
  • Someone's life or security might be threatened as a result of giving you access and the personal information about the other person cannot be separated from yours; 
  • The information was collected for purposes related to an investigation of a breach of an agreement or contravention of the law and; 
  • the information is subject to solicitor-client privilege. 

If you no longer wish MODC to collect, use and disclose your personal information, please contact our Chief Privacy Officer. However, if you withdraw your consent, it may affect our ability to provide you with our services, or fulfill the other purposes described in this Privacy Statement. 

How long we keep personal information


We keep personal data for as long as we need to provide our program services, and comply with the law. 

However, the longevity of keeping personal information does not deal with program delivery (e.g., fundraising, applications for employment, etc.)

CRM Collection Notice for MODC Clients


March of Dimes Canada collects your Personal Information (PI) and Personal Health Information (PHI) within our Client Relationship Management (CRM) database for the following purposes in compliance with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPDEA), the Personal Health Information and Protection Act, 2004 (PHIPA), and other provincial privacy legislation as applicable. 

PI and PHI can be collected in many ways (paper, over phone, and forms) and are also be stored in the CRM. 
  • To provide you with the delivery of our services, including accessing our programs 
  • To assist you with creating a plan or other advisory needs you may have 
  • To help us understand your business needs to serve you better  
  • To let you know about new services or opportunities, or contact you regarding the use of or changes to our services 
  • To meet requirements set out by our regulators i.e., our funder(s)

Your personal information and personal health information will only be kept for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it is collected.

Contact Us


If you have a question, concern or complaint about this privacy notice, how we manage your personal information, MODC’s privacy practices in general – or if you have a specific request regarding your personal information, please contact our Chief Privacy Officer who may be reached as follows:

Attn: Privacy Office
March of Dimes Canada
202-885 Don Mills Rd. 
Toronto, ON M3C 1V9

Tel: 416-425-3463
Toll-free: 1-800-263-3463
Fax: 416-425-1920

Updates to Privacy Statement


We will update this statement periodically to reflect any changes in the way we manage your personal information or if there are any new regulatory requirements we need to comply with.

The statement will be posted showing the effective date. We encourage you to review this page for the latest changes.



March of Dimes Canada Privacy Policy

Revised: June 2023

MODC Privacy Policy (PDF)