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Ontario Cattlemen’s Association Privacy Statement - February 2010
The Ontario Cattlemen’s Association (OCA)
represents Ontario’s 19,000 beef farmers in many areas including communications,
research, government lobbying, environmental issues, consumer education and food
quality assurance. We are committed to protecting the privacy and security of
producers’ personal information in compliance with the Personal Information
Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA).
Ontario Beef Magazine
Subscribers to Ontario Beef magazine,
the official publication of the Ontario Cattlemen’s Association, do so on a
voluntary basis. Subscribers are consenting to have their contact information
used for the purposes of receiving the magazine and developing an OCA mailing
list.
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This mailing list will be used for the
distribution of the OCA magazine, Ontario Beef.
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The OCA will not sell, trade or otherwise
share its Ontario Beef mailing list under any circumstances
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A service may be provided whereby items
are submitted to the OCA and mailed internally with the magazine but all
materials must be approved by and acceptable to the OCA.
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In rare instances where external,
non-commercial organizations, like the provincial or federal government or
the Canadian Cattlemen's Association, wish to use the Ontario Beef
mailing list to distribute information, those parties must provide their
mailing materials in a finished format to OCA and/or its mailing house. OCA
will then coordinate the mailing, at the requesting organization’s cost,
thus maintaining confidentiality of the list.
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In cases where the OCA may commission a
mailing, the company providing the service is required to sign a mandatory
confidentiality agreement.
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Subscribers
to the Ontario Beef mailing list who wish to have their names
removed, should call 519-824-0334 or email
accounts@cattle.guelph.on.ca -
please allow 15 business days to allow us to update our records accordingly.
OCA Weekly Update
Subscriptions to OCA’s electronic
update system are received on a voluntary basis. Email addresses are kept
strictly confidential. The service is used to update subscribers on current
issues in the beef industry including news articles, government compensation
programs, updates of activities of the OCA and other relevant events.
Periodically, government or other industry groups may ask to have information
included on a weekly update. OCA will review this information for relevance and
will determine whether or not to accept it. Commercial postings will not be
accepted.
AUCTION MARKET SALES, COUNTY AND
INDUSTRY EVENTS ARE POSTED AS A SERVICE TO MEMBERS. HOWEVER, PRIVATE TREATY OR
PUREBRED SALES WILL ONLY BE POSTED BY REQUEST IF PAID ADS IN
ONTARIO BEEF MAGAZINE HAVE BEEN PURCHASED
DURING THE PREVIOUS TWELVE MONTHS.
Visiting OCA’s Website
OCA is committed to protecting the privacy of
visitors to our Website:
www.cattle.guelph.on.ca
You may visit our Website without telling us who you are or revealing
information about yourself. A visitor to the OCA Website is not required to
reveal any individually identifiable information, such as name, address or
telephone number. Nor is such information collected passively by electronic
means.
Information is collected when an individual voluntarily submits a
question or comment through the “Contact Us” feature. If you supply us with your
name and contact information through the Web site, you will only receive contact
from us regarding information that you have requested and your contact
information will not be retained.
Our server automatically logs information about visits to our
website. Server logs record statistical information, such as visitors’ IP
addresses, type of operating systems, time and duration of each visit, web pages
requested and identifies categories of visitors by items such as domains and
browser types. Our Web server does collect visitor information in the form of
the visitor’s domain or Internet Protocol (IP) address as well as information
regarding which pages are accessed. This information is used internally to
better serve visitors by helping OCA staff to improve the content of our
Website.
OCA does not collect information with the use
of “cookies”.
Links to other Websites
Links to Websites not under the
control of the OCA are provided solely for the convenience of users. OCA is not
responsible or liable for the content of, or the privacy practices employed by
other sites.
Commercial links and advertising
are not accepted on the OCA site.
Email
As we cannot guarantee the
security of electronic systems or e-mail, we do not recommend sending sensitive
personal information or complaints electronically to OCA. For such matters,
please contact us by mail at: The Ontario Cattlemen’s Association, 130 Malcolm
Road, Guelph, ON, N1K 1B1, by calling toll free (for Ontario callers) to
1-866-370-BEEF (2333) or 519-824-0334 from 8:30am to 4:30pm, Eastern Time,
Monday to Friday.
Membership List
OCA’s constitution provides that
anyone who has paid an OCA license fee deduction (check-off) is an OCA member
for that year. Under the Beef Cattle Marketing Act, a compulsory checkoff of
$3.00 per head sold by cattle producers is payable to the OCA to fund programs
and activities (see Beef Cattle Marketing Act for more). Packing plant
operators, auction market operators and livestock dealers purchasing cattle by
private treaty are required to deduct the OCA check-off from the proceeds
payable to the seller, and remit check-off fees and names and addresses of
producers to OCA. Personal Information collected by the Ontario Cattlemen’s
Association as part of this system is used solely for the purposes of conducting
the business of the Ontario Cattlemen’s Association.
We do not share personal information with organizations not part of
OCA’s normal business practice without your consent. OCA will only share
non-public personal information in the following manner:
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With a party representing you, such as your
accountant, farm business advisor, feed company representative, veterinarian,
lawyer or other third parties with your written consent.
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When
permitted or required by law, such as in response to a subpoena or other legal
process.
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In an emergency such as a disease outbreak,
up-to-date membership lists may be provided to the Canadian Food Inspection
Agency and/or other appropriate regulatory authorities.
Under circumstances where disclosure of
personal information may be justified or permitted under a legal duty or right,
OCA will not disclose more information than is required.
OCA’s staff is required to follow
procedures with respect to maintaining the confidentiality of non-public
personal information. Additionally, we maintain physical, electronic and
procedural safeguards within our offices and information storage facilities so
as to prevent any unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use or modification
of a member’s personal information.
The OCA will retain personal information provided to it only for so
long as it is required for the purposes stated above.
Market Information
As a service to its members, OCA
assembles and reports cattle prices from across the province. We track live
cattle prices and report on rail grade prices. OCA will be held accountable for
the privacy and protection of all information collected from Ontario producers
for the purposes of market information.
As is the case with OCA’s membership list, OCA’s staff is required
to follow procedures with respect to maintaining the confidentiality of this
information. Additionally, we maintain physical, electronic and procedural
safeguards within our offices and information storage facilities so as to
prevent any unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use or modification of a
member’s personal information. At no time will individual market information be
shared or made public.
Information collected for the purposes of market information
reporting will be compiled and published in an aggregate form only.
Feeder Finance/Breeder Loan Programs
The Ontario Cattlemen’s
Association provides provincial supervision to the Ontario Feeder Finance and
Breeder Loan programs. Under both of these programs, local groups of beef
producers join together to form cooperatives under the “Cooperative Corporation
Act” of Ontario . Each local coop elects a Board of Directors. Board members are
responsible for the complete conduct of that Coop’s activities, including
employing staff as Administrators and Supervisors and arranging for a “lender”
to that Co-op.
Membership
Beef producers become members of a
Co-op on a voluntary basis, and provide personal information to the Co-op Board
and to that Co-op’s lender, to establish their eligibility as participating
members. All inactive files or personal information no longer required are
shredded prior to disposal to prevent inadvertent disclosure to unauthorized
persons.
We do not share personal information with
organizations not part of the Feeder Co-op’s normal business practice without
your consent. Co-ops will only share non-public personal information in the
following manner:
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With a party representing you, such as
your accountant, farm business advisor, feed company representative,
veterinarian, lawyer or other third parties with your written consent.
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When permitted or required by law, such as
in response to a subpoena or other legal process.
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In an emergency such as a disease
outbreak, up-to-date membership lists may be provided to the Canadian Food
Inspection Agency and/or other appropriate regulatory authorities.
Under circumstances
where disclosure of personal information may be justified or permitted under a
legal duty or right, the Co-op will not disclose more information than is
required.
Confidentiality and Security
The Co-op’s directors and staff
are required to follow procedures with respect to maintaining the
confidentiality of this information. All Co-operative Administrators and
Supervisors are understand that they are bound to maintain the confidentiality
of all personal information to which they have access. At no time will an
individual member’s information be shared or made public, other than is required
under the Provincial statutes governing the program.
In addition, all Co-ops will
maintain physical, electronic and procedural safeguards within the Co-op’s
offices and information storage facilities so as to prevent any unauthorized
access, disclosure, copying, use or modification of a member’s personal
information.
Statistical Reporting
Information provided to the Ontario
Cattlemen’s Association by the Feeder Finance Program for the purpose of monthly
program statistical reporting will be compiled and published in an aggregate
form only.
Policy Review
The OCA will periodically review and revise its privacy practices.
Policy changes will be posted on the OCA Website and in Ontario Beef
magazine.
For More Information
The Ontario Cattlemen’s Association has
appointed a Privacy Officer to address any concerns, queries or complaints you
may have. The privacy officer may be reached at 1-866-370-BEEF (2333) or
519-824-0334; Fax: 519-824-9101, by email at
ontbeef@cattle.guelph.on.ca
or by mail at the following address:
Ontario Cattlemen’s Association
130 Malcolm Road
Guelph, ON N1K 1B1 |
