Website Privacy Statement

We are committed to respecting your privacy rights as a visitor to OTF’s website.

Our website practices are consistent with Ontario’s privacy legislation. We want you to be aware of when your personal information is being collected, the purpose for which it is being collected, and that you have a right of access to the information. If we retain your personal information, we take the necessary precautions to protect it from unauthorized access, linkage, disclosure or alteration.

When you visit the OTF website, we only collect what you voluntarily provide to us, usually when contacting us via e-mail, phone/voice-mail, customer service feedback survey or registering in a secure portion of the website. OTF collects and analyzes website usage data strictly for internal purposes, using non-identifiable data. We do not sell, rent, exchange, or otherwise disclose any information that we collect about our website visitors to third parties, except in the case of a malicious attack or as required by law.

A “cookie” is a small text file sent from a Web server and placed on your computer’s hard drive in order to remember certain pieces of information for the Web server to reference during the same or subsequent visit to the website. Cookies are used for many purposes, such as to track language preferences, provide customized web page content, and display website navigation history. Cookies used by our website cannot identify you, do not give us access to anything on your hard drive, and cannot do anything to your computer. Cookies used are encrypted for security purposes to make any information in the cookie unreadable to anyone except OTF. You can choose to set your browser to detect and reject cookies, to accept cookies from all sites, or to prompt you when a site wants to send you a cookie.

This website also contains links to external websites. OTF is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of any external website. We encourage you to examine each site’s privacy policy and disclaimers and to make your own decisions regarding the accuracy, reliability and completeness of material and information found there. Others may not comply with the same privacy laws, policies and practices that we do.

OTF may update this Website Privacy Statement from time to time. The most current version will always be posted to this website. This Website Privacy Statement supplements Ontario’s Privacy Statement, available at www.ontario.ca/page/privacy-statement.

For questions or comments regarding this Website Privacy Statement, contact us at: 1 800 263-2887 or otf@otf.ca.

OTF Social Media Terms of Use

The Ontario Trillium Foundation (“OTF”) welcomes comments, posts, messages and creative content (“posts”) on all OTF social media channels (the "Channels"), provided that your posts comply with the following Terms of Use (“ToU”).  By accessing the Channels, you are agreeing to these ToU. Please review these ToU carefully.  Each time you access the Channels you indicate your acknowledgment and acceptance of these ToU, which may be revised periodically without prior notice. These ToU affect your legal rights and obligations. If you do not accept these ToU, do not access the channels.

It is helpful to remember that your posts may also be bound by the Terms and Conditions of each social media platform (e.g., Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube).

A. Content posted by us

OTF provides support through our Channels in a variety of ways resulting in a variety of frequency of posting and types of content shared. However, you can expect us to share helpful information about granting opportunities as well as sharing links to more in-depth resources.

  • Monitoring: Unless otherwise noted, we monitor OTF Channels during normal business hours.
  • Responding: We make every effort to support you through our Channels by responding to your posts, however, depending on the volume of posts received, we may not be able to respond to everyone and will focus on those we can most effectively aid. Note: on some Channels, OTF does not respond to posts (e.g., YouTube).
  • Languages: OTF maintains Channels in both French and English, following our French Language Services Policy and The French Language Services Act.
  • Accessibility: OTF complies with The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act where we can.  However, each Channel is a 3rd party service provider and is not legally bound by the standards for web accessibility.
  • Links to Other Websites.  We may display links to other websites because they may be of interest to you. Providing a link to them doesn’t mean that we endorse or recommend them to you.  Also, since these other websites are controlled and maintained by other people, we can’t be sure that the link will still work when you click on it or that the service or content is useful, appropriate, virus-free or reliable. Therefore, you need to decide for yourself whether you want to follow any link or to agree to receive or rely on any service or content that is made available to you. 

 

OTF employee & volunteer social media personal use

OTF employees and volunteers may use social media outside of work hours or use it personally under their names or pseudonyms. Only comments posted on OTF channels by authorized OTF employees represent the official position of OTF.

B. Content posted by the public

We support an inclusive, diverse, equitable, and respectful environment, free of discrimination and harassment on OTF Channels. We also encourage focused, thoughtful questions and discussion responding or related to OTF funding opportunities, topics, new initiatives or upcoming events.

With these goals in mind, we have set in place these ToU to foster the positive community experience we aim to provide. On the other hand, we reserve the right to remove, edit or move, at any time, any post which does not fully comply with these ToU.

Repeated violations may result in the offender being blocked or banned from future use of our Channels. We may also notify the channel service provider of the offending behaviour.

Posting guidelines

You are responsible for your posts on OTF Channels.  If you choose to post, please keep in mind that you must not:

  1. mislead us or anyone else as to your identity or the origin of the posted content, or falsely claim to represent a person, organization or entity;
  2. solicit personal information from other users (e.g. a person’s home address, health card number);
  3. post or transmit any message, content or link to content that:
  • you either do not own or do not have the necessary rights to post or transmit;
  • violates any law, rule or regulation or any 3rd party right, or promotes illegal activity or conduct that would contravene any law, rule or regulation or 3rd party right;
  • is abusive, hateful, homophobic, discriminatory, malicious, aggressive, threatening, violent, sexist, harassing, inflammatory, indecent, tortious, defamatory, knowingly false, misleading, deceptive, vulgar, obscene, offensive, scandalous, sexually explicit, profane;
  • incites hatred, racism, bigotry, discrimination or physical harm of any kind against any individual or class of individuals based on a protected ground in the Ontario Human Rights Code, including ancestry, colour, race, citizenship, ethnic origin, place of origin, creed, disability, family status, marital status, gender identity, gender expression, sex (including pregnancy and breastfeeding) or sexual orientation;
  • is unsolicited or unauthorized, such as unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional material, "junk mail," "spam," "chain letter," "pyramid scheme," or any other form of solicitation (commercial or otherwise);
  • includes advertising or solicitation content, spam/malware or other irrelevant material;
  • is in breach of any confidence;
  • includes personal data or information about others; or
  • can result in us being liable to anyone else under any intellectual property rights law.

 

If we suffer costs or damages as a result of your violating these guidelines, we expect you to cover our costs and damages.

While we may moderate posts, we are not required to, nor should you expect that we will, take action in response to any content posted on our page or feed. The views expressed by others represent their own views and are not endorsed or approved by us, nor do we endorse or approve any events or other activities posted by a user.

Your posts and privacy

Avoid posting personal or confidential information.  OTF Channels are publicly accessible and posts are visible to the public. Therefore, please don’t post any personal information about you or anyone else.  All or part of any posts containing personal or confidential information (e.g. a person’s home address, health card number) may be removed.

To the extent that we collect any personal information through an OTF Channel, we will handle it according to our Privacy Statement.

We will cooperate with law enforcement officials and comply with any court order concerning any claim or investigation due to any posts and will provide such content and information regarding your identity as well as other relevant information.

For any matter that is confidential, or too complicated for posting to the public, please contact the Ontario Trillium Foundation’s Support Centre at otf@otf.ca or 1 800 263-2887.

If you choose to communicate with OTF through a social media channel, please note that we don’t have any control over the social media channel and therefore we have no responsibility or liability for the manner in which those organizations collect, use, disclose, secure or otherwise treat your personal information. You should review the privacy policies of any social media channel before providing any personal or other information. Others may not comply with the same privacy laws, policies and practices that we do.

Updates to our Terms of Use

OTF reserves the right to add to, remove or update these ToU at any time without notice. Please check this website regularly for any changes. If you visit our Channels following a change to these ToU, you will be deemed to have accepted the changes.

Disclaimers

Use of all OTF Channels is at your own risk. They and all of their content are provided "As Is". You must not rely on any content published on or linked from our Channels without first making your own enquiries to verify it is accurate, current and complete.  We do not make, and expressly disclaim, any representations, warranties, covenants and conditions, express or implied, arising out of operation of law, course of performance, course of dealing, usage of trade or otherwise, including any express or implied warranties and conditions of: merchantability; merchantable quality; fitness for a particular purpose; non-infringement; safety; quality; freedom from defects or that defects will be corrected; uninterrupted, virus-free or error-free use of our channels; or accuracy, currency, reliability, completeness or appropriateness relating to the content of them.

Under no circumstances will OTF, its employees or volunteers have any responsibility or liability for any loss or damage whatsoever (including without limitation direct, indirect, special, incidental, consequential, punitive, exemplary or other damages, and including without limitation to any loss of profit, costs, expenses, harm to business, business interruption, reputation, loss of information or programs or data, loss of savings, loss of revenue, loss of goodwill, loss of tangible or intangible property, legal fees or legal costs, wasted management or office time or damages of any kind whatsoever), whether based in contract, tort, negligence or any other legal basis, arising out of or in connection with our social media sites, any linked website or linked social media platform (including without limitation any damages suffered as a result of the use, inability to use or failure of, or any omissions or inaccuracies on, our social media sites, any linked websites or linked social media platforms, or any of the services or content of the foregoing), even if OTF, its employees or volunteers have been specifically advised of the possibility of such damage or loss, or if such damage or loss was foreseeable.

Legal jurisdiction

These ToU are governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario and deemed to be entered by you in the Province of Ontario.