Privacy Policy

CANADA WIDE MEDIA LIMITED WEBSITE PRIVACY POLICY

LAST REVISED: April 9, 2023

This privacy policy (“Policy”) describes how Canada Wide Media Limited and (“Canada Wide”, “we”, “our” or “us”) collects and uses the personal information we gather from or about visitors to the Web sites located at URLs www.canadawide.com, www.bcbusiness.ca, www.bcliving.ca, www.tvweekonline.ca, www.vanmag.com and www.westernliving.ca (the “Sites”) and mobile applications (“Apps”) for our BCBusiness, BCLiving, TV Week, Award, Vancouver Magazine and Western Living brands so you, as a visitor to the Sites or mobile applications using the Services (referred to herein as “you” or “your”) can make an informed decision about using the Sites, Apps and/or the Services. Please take a moment to read the following to learn more about our information practices, including what type of information is gathered, how the information is used, to whom we may disclose the information, and how we safeguard your personal information that we may obtain. As defined in this Policy, “Services” means: (a) our free online products; (b) our for-pay subscriptions; (c) our custom publishing, creative services, advertising services or other special services; and (d) advertising in one of our publications. This Policy should be read in conjunction with our Terms of Use.

Changes to this Policy

We reserve the right to change the provisions of this Policy at any time. We will alert you that material changes to this Policy have been made by announcing the updates on the Sites, so please check back periodically. If we make any change to our Policy, previously collected information will continue to be governed by the protections of the Policy in effect at the time the information was collected unless otherwise required by law. If, at any time, you do not agree with the terms of this Policy, you should not access or use the Sites, Apps or Services.

Jurisdiction

Canada Wide, its Sites and mobile applications operate in Canada and are intended for use in Canada. You agree that your access to and use of the Canada Wide Sites, Apps and Services, including this Policy, are governed exclusively by the laws of the Province of British Columbia and the federal laws of Canada applicable therein (excluding conflicts or choice of laws principles). Applicable laws include the BC Personal Information Protection Act and the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (the “Privacy Legislation”). other applicable laws.. Certain provisions of Canada’s “anti-spam” legislation, commonly referred to as “CASL” may also govern the use of your personal information.

Personal Information

As used in this Policy, “personal information” means any data that identifies a user as an individual or is capable of doing so. Information about your business does not constitute your personal information and is not protected by this privacy policy. Personal information does not include “aggregated” information, which is data we collect about or through the use of the Sites or through the Services from which individual identities or other personal information has been removed. This Policy in no way restricts or limits our collection and use of aggregated information.

Personal Information Collection

We may collect certain information that you voluntarily provide to us which may contain your personal information. Personal information may also be collected by us, among other means, if you provide such information in connection with your (a) sending an email or message to us from the Sites; (b) providing us with your personal information in order to subscribe to receive one of our free or for pay publications; or (c) provide us with information in order to get information about one of our products or services. If you choose to link any of your social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+ to comment on our magazines or to share personal information in your social profiles with our Sites, when you click allow on the permission authorizations screen, you have consented to our collection, use and disclosure of your basic profile information, user ID and other information from the social media Sites that you specifically allow us to access. If you subscribe to or use our Services, we may also collect personal information through your use of those Services. For example, personal information is collected when you provide us with your personal information for the purposes of using our Services. Information that you might provide us might include your name, contact information, credit card number or other payment or account information, home address identification, personal preferences, information about your personal residence, and other identification and contact information. We may collect non-personal information from you by tracking your traffic patterns through the Sites and the pages you visit and your use of the Services. With this information, we are able to measure your interest in the Sites and Services to enhance or develop our products and Services. Any non-personal information we may collect is used for our own internal purposes to improve the Sites and the Services, to enhance your experiences when visiting our Sites or using the Services, to customize the content and/or layout of our Sites, and to provide the products or Services that you may desire. We may automatically collect certain information through the use of “cookies” or web beacons. Cookies are small data files that are stored in a user’s hard drive at the request of a Web Sites to enable the Sites to recognize users who have previously visited them and retain certain information such as customer preferences and history. If we link cookies to any of your personal information, we will treat this information as personal information. We do not use cookies to store any personal information. Web beacons are small, invisible graphic images that may be used on the Sites or in emails relating to the Sites to collect certain information and monitor user activity on the Sites. If you wish to block, erase, or be warned of cookies, please refer to your browser manufacturer to learn about these functions. However, if a browser is set not to accept cookies or if a user rejects a cookie, some portions of the Sites may not function properly. We may also use embedded scripts that collect information about your interaction on our website such as the links you click on. This feature is active only while you are connected to our Sites. We may use HTML5 and some mobile applications. These HTML5 cookies are not stored in a browser “cookies” file and can be used to track users across websites. For some of the mobile applications, you may be asked if you wish us to collect your geo location in order to provide you with information about products and services within your geographic location. If you agree, we will collect that information to assist you in searching. We will not collect or use personal information obtained through the use of computer programs designed for collecting email addresses or other information without your express consent, nor will we ever knowingly use any information collected means of unauthorized access to a computer system.

Personal Information Use and Choice

We use personal information collected for a variety of purposes, primarily to provide you with the Services that you have agreed to receive, to provide you with information regarding news features, products or services, or to contact you regarding the use of our Services. If you have subscribed with us, we will send you information from time to time relating to your account, products and services, such as renewal notices, invoices or service related announcements. If you have consented to receive our email newsletter(s), partner offers and/or other commercial electronic messages, we will use your personal information to send that communication to you. We have a number of communications such as marketing offers and surveys which are sent to recipients from whom we have express or implied consent to send such communications. When we contact you about these special offers or services, you may opt out by following the unsubscribe instructions located at the bottom of these emails or in the case of direct mail marketing offers, contact us at the contact information set forth at the end of this Policy. From time to time we may offer sweepstakes, contests or other promotions. These will require that you register and will be subject to specific rules governing the contest or promotion. You should note that if you consent to participate, your personal information may be disclosed to third parties for the purpose of conducting the promotion. We may use third party service providers to provide advertisements when you visit our Sites or mobile applications. These third party advertisers automatically receive a device identifier and may use tracking technologies to measure the effectiveness of their advertisements and personalize the content. You may choose to opt out of receiving targeted ads from such service providers and ad networks, by consulting the respective privacy policies of any of the advertisers to see your options for opting out of such targeted ads. You will continue to receive random advertising and promotional messages but they will not be customized or personalized to you, and will not involve the use of your specific personal information.

SOCIAL MEDIA

We collect your public profile data only from your consent that you grant before initiating Social Login, from the social network used to login at our website. This data includes your first name, last name, email address, link to your social media profile, unique identifier, link to social profile avatar or the social profile avatar itself in the case of Facebook and Linkedin login. This data is used to create your user profile at our website. You can revoke this consent at any time from your profile page at our website or by sending us an email.

CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS: CALIFORNIA CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT

Without being discriminated against for exercising these rights, California law gives its residents the right to request that we disclose what personal information we collect from you, to delete that information, and to opt-out of the sale of your personal information (if we sell such information), subject to certain restrictions. For security purposes, we will verify your identity—in part by requesting certain information from you—when you request to exercise your California privacy rights. You also have the right to designate an agent to exercise these rights on your behalf. This section describes how to exercise those rights and our process for handling those requests.

RIGHT TO KNOW

If you are a California resident, you may submit, free of charge, but no more than twice in a 12-month period, a verifiable request for the following information.

• The specific pieces of personal information we have about you.
• The categories of personal information we collected, sold, or disclosed for a business purpose about you within the last 12 months.
• The categories of sources from which the personal information was collected.
• The purposes for which the information was collected or sold.
• The categories of third parties to whom the information was sold, disclosed for a business purpose, or otherwise shared.

If possible, we will provide this information to you in a readily usable format that allows transmission to another entity. The easiest way to submit a request and receive your report is to direct your requests to privacy@canadawide.com.

RIGHT TO DELETE

If you are a California resident, you may submit a verifiable request for us to delete the personal information we have collected about you. The easiest way to submit a request for deletion is to direct your requests to privacy@canadawide.com.

RIGHT TO OPT-OUT

California residents may opt out of the “sale” of their personal information, as defined by the CCPA. This does not include the following.

• You direct us to disclose your personal information or use us to interact with a third party and the third party does not sell the personal information.
• We use or share an identifier solely to alert a third party you have opted out of the sale of your personal information.
• Your personal information is transferred as an asset as part of a transaction in which the third party assumes control of all or part of our business, in which case the third party would have to tell you in writing if it materially changes how the information is used or shared.
• We use or share your personal information under a written contract with a service provider necessary to perform a business purpose. Here, the service the service provider performs is on our behalf, and our written contract prohibits it from keeping, using, or disclosing your personal information for any purpose other than for the specific purpose identified in the contract.

In these cases, the disclosure of your personal information would not be considered a “sale” under CCPA. We use and share your information as described in this privacy policy and do not believe this use and sharing is a sale as defined by the CCPA. We have not sold personal information about you in the last 12 months and currently have no plans to do so in the future. However, we have provided you with a system to record your preference that your data not be sold in the future. You may make this request by emailing privacy@canadawide.com.

RIGHT TO BE FREE FROM DISCRIMINATION

We may not discriminate against you because you have exercised your rights, including, for example, by denying you access to our owned and/or operated websites.

AUTHORIZED AGENTS

If you would like to designate an authorized agent to make a request on your behalf, please be sure the agent can (i) demonstrate you have provided written permission for the agent to submit the request on your behalf, and (ii) provide proof of his or her own identity. If the agent does not satisfy these requirements, we will deny the request.

Information Sharing

We will not share the personal information we collect from you with third parties except as otherwise described in this Policy, or the Terms of Use located on the Sites. We may share your personal information with third party service providers who are engaged by or working with us in connection with the operation of the Sites, mobile applications or the provision of the Services who need access to such information to carry out their work for us. We may use third party service providers to verify financial information, such as the validity of a credit card. We may also share personal information with other third parties when you give us your consent to do so. If we transfer any personal information to a third party service provider, we will provide them only with the information needed to perform the subcontracted service, and will use appropriate contractual or other means to provide a comparable level of protection while the information is being used by them. However, you agree that we are not responsible for the actions of service providers or other third parties (even if we would otherwise be vicariously liable) if the third parties do not comply with their contractual obligations to us, nor are we responsible for any additional information you provide directly to these service providers or other third parties, and we encourage you to become familiar with their practices before disclosing information directly to them. We may share aggregate information and other information that does not identify you with third parties without your consent. We may share your personal information in order to provide you with the Services.  We take your conduct in providing us with that information as consent to disclose the information for the purposes of providing the Services.   Unless expressly prohibited from doing so under applicable legislation such as “anti-spam” legislation, we may disclose personal information in the good faith belief that we are lawfully authorized or required to do so, or that doing so is reasonably necessary or appropriate to comply with the law or with legal process or authorities, to ensure compliance with our Terms of Use, respond to any claims, or to protect the rights, property or safety of Canada Wide, our users, our employees or the public, including without limitation to protect Canada Wide or our users from fraudulent, abusive, inappropriate or unlawful use of our Sites. Information about our users, including personal information, may also be disclosed or transferred as part of, or during negotiations of, any merger, sale of company assets, financing or acquisition or in any other situation where personal information may be transferred as one of the business assets of Canada Wide. You may choose to submit various content such as photographs, music video, profiles, or commentary to us and we may reproduce, publish, distribute or otherwise use your personal information submitted in such content. If you have submitted such information, including your personal information, you have chosen to disclose that personal information publicly. Please review our Terms of Use in respect of such situations.

Updating, Correcting or Deleting Your Personal Information

If you have an online account with us, you may change any of your personal information in your account at any time. We encourage you to promptly update your information if it changes. You may at any time ask to have the information on your account deleted or removed, or withdraw consent to receive commercial electronic messages from us. You may also contact us at the email or address listed below and request that we update, correct or delete any personal information we have collected, and we will endeavor to respond to your inquiry or to correct, update or remove the personal information you have provided us as you indicate. However, please note that in some cases, we may believe it is necessary or appropriate to retain certain personal information we have collected, and the deletion of such personal information will be in our discretion unless otherwise required by law. If you withdraw consent to receive any commercial electronic messages from us, we will promptly stop sending those messages to you. If you withdraw consent to any other use of your personal information, we will advise you of the implications (if any) of such withdrawal. As an additional security measure we may “back up” the data stored on our systems. Data archived for back-up purposes at a given point in time may include information that you corrected or deleted after the back-up was made.

Online Information Security

We have endeavored to put into place and maintain reasonable industry-recognized security measures in an effort to protect the security of your personal information. For example, if you have an online account, it is only accessible through the use of a password. To protect the confidentiality of your information, to the extent you obtain a password for access to the Sites or for use in connection with the Services, you must keep your password confidential and not disclose it to any other person. You are responsible for all uses of the Sites and Services by any person using your password. Please advise us immediately if you believe your password has been misused or misappropriated. We also require our partners and Service Providers to adopt and follow stringent consumer privacy policies and communications policies that are consistent with “no call”, “anti-spam” and other applicable legislation. You may choose to link to other third party sites from our Sites or mobile applications in which case you should be aware that we are not responsible for the third parties’ privacy practices or collection, use and disclosure of personal information. You should read the privacy polices of all third party sites before submitting any personal information to those sites.

Changes in Ownership

Canada Wide may decide to sell, buy, merge, or reorganize businesses to further strategic or business interests. Where a transaction of this kind involves disclosing personal information to prospective or actual purchasers, our practice is to seek appropriate protections consistent with our Policy.

Contacting Us 

If you have any questions about this Policy or the practices of our Sites or the Services that this Policy may be applicable to, please contact us by sending a letter to:

Canada Wide Media
Attention: Privacy Officer
130-4321 Still Creek Drive
Burnaby, B.C.
V5C 6S7 You may also contact us by sending an e-mail to privacy@canadawide.com.