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CSA Web Site Privacy Policy

CSA respects the privacy of visitors to this Web site. Your personal information is only collected, used and disclosed by CSA in accordance with this Privacy Policy. In this policy, "CSA" refers to the following divisions that form the CSA Group: CSA International and Canadian Standards Association.

You can visit CSA on the Internet without telling us who you are or revealing any information about yourself. We only collect personal information about you when you specifically and knowingly provide it on our site, for example when you register on our site or complete survey information.

By using our Web site, you are expressly consenting to and have knowledge of the collection, use and disclosure of this information, as identified in this Privacy Policy. If we make any changes to our policy, such changes will be posted here, so you will always be kept informed of our current information-handling practices.

1. INFORMATION COLLECTED AND USED

Customers requesting information, products and services on CSA's Web site will be asked to provide personal information. You will need to register with us if you would like to make a purchase through our Online Store. When you register, CSA collects your name and contact details, as well as a Username and Password that you will use to login to the site in the future. The registrant may also enter their credit card information so as to be able to directly pay for items purchased through the Online Store. We collect this information to set up your account, process your order, and provide you with the items you are purchasing, and with amendments or errata which may be issued to documents that you purchase through this site.

CSA may use your personal account information and transaction history to generate statistics and aggregate reports for internal use as well as to extend further sales and service offerings via telephone, mail or electronic means.

There are a number of other areas of the site where you can enter personal information in order to benefit from our programs and services:

You can pose a question through the "Ask Us" or "Contact Us" pages. Information collected is used simply to respond to your inquiry.
If you fill in an online survey about CSA's site, we ask for your contact information in order to follow up, if necessary, based on your responses.
You can apply to become a Committee Member, Consumer Volunteer or Sustaining Member in order to get involved in CSA's work or benefit from certain privileges such as easy access to information on new projects. Should you choose to enter your contact details and areas of interest in our convenient fill-in forms, your information will be used to set up and facilitate your membership.
You can provide your contact details to obtain agendas and quotes for seminars being offered through the Learning Centre on CSA's site.
Through the online public review portion of our site, draft Standards can be previewed and commented upon. The Standards Council of Canada requires CSA to respond to all comments if requested.
A Certification and Testing Application Form is also available on the site to allow companies to take the first step towards product certification online. Company details and a description of the products to be certified must be provided in order for a certification specialist to obtain some background before contacting you.

Thus, CSA only collects and uses your information for the following purposes:

To provide you with information, products, services and programs that respond to your interests and needs;
To manage your account and maintain responsible commercial relations with you;
To respond to your questions or concerns; and
To meet legal and regulatory requirements.

2. INFORMATION THAT DOES NOT IDENTIFY YOU

CSA collects certain technical information from your computer's Web browser when you visit us on the Internet. This information includes the domain name and IP address of the visitor, the amount of time spent on the site by a visitor, the pages visited and returned to, the operating system and Web browser software used, and the referrer Web site. These server logs do not contain any personal information and can only be accessed by CSA. Server log files are used solely to track visits to our site and improve the content and layout of our site. CSA makes no attempts to link this traffic information to the individuals visiting our site.

CSA's site visitors must accept cookies through their browser in order to use the Online Store or the search engine. A cookie variable is assigned to you when you log in or set up a new account and is placed on your computer for programming purposes only. This is a temporary or session cookie that uniquely identifies you as you move from page to page on this site. For the Online Store, it ensures that you have properly logged in and that your personal information is only accessible to you. For the search engine, it is used to remember the key words you are using to find information on the site. The cookie is destroyed as soon as you close your browser and is never redirected to any other servers.

3. DISCLOSURE AND RETENTION OF YOUR INFORMATION

The personal information you provide to us through our site is NEVER disclosed to any third parties without your knowledge and consent. We do not sell or trade any of your personal information with any other companies. We share your personal information in the following circumstances only:

User profiles entered by those participating in an online public review of draft standards will be disclosed to the Standards Committees that must consider the public comments provided.
The Online Workspace on CSA's Web site is a virtual meeting room for standards development activities. Access is restricted to members of CSA Technical Committees. Technical Committee membership rosters posted here disclose the name, title and organization of committee members to other members of the same Technical Committee, as well as further information if agreed to by individual members. Messages posted to the Online Workspace are also accessible to other members of the same Technical Committee.
When signing up for Web-based training, your contact details will be disclosed to third parties who perform the Web training on CSA's behalf.
CSA must release personal information if required to do so by law or by the Standards Council of Canada.

The account or membership information you provide when registering with us is stored in our secure databases as long as you are a customer or member of CSA. You must notify CSA if you no longer want your information to be retained by us. If you contact us with a question or comment, any information identifying you is only kept long enough for us to provide you with a response, unless we are required to keep it for a longer period of time, in which case we will notify you.

Please note that it may be impossible to delete your information completely without some residual information remaining in backups.

4. ACCURACY OF THE INFORMATION AND ACCESS TO IT

CSA relies exclusively on the information provided by its Web site users, and will only seek independent verification of credit card information supplied when making a purchase. Please contact CSA if your contact details have changed to ensure that you are kept up-to-date on the products and services we offer, and to avoid an interruption in your receipt of communications from us.

To change your information, have your information removed from our databases, or simply confirm the information we hold about you, contact our Privacy Dept via e-mail at privacy@csagroup.org. If you have a CSA account, you will also be provided with a means to review and modify some of the personal information that you provided when setting up the account.

5. HOW IS THE INFORMATION KEPT SAFE?

CSA strives to provide you with the most secure transmission environment possible. To secure the transfer of any personal information, such as credit card details and Usernames and Passwords, CSA has obtained a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) Server Certificate. The SSL Certificate is used by CSA's Online Store and the Members Only section of the Web site. Thus, when setting up an account, making a purchase, or using the Online Workspace, all your information is collected within a secure page, such that it is encrypted while being transmitted to CSA's secure server. The server is protected by a firewall that is immediately updated when new patches and fixes are released.

Information entered anywhere else on our site is transmitted to CSA's servers unencrypted, using standard Internet protocol (HTTP). You should be aware of the inherent risks of interception when communicating with others online without encryption. Visit our Legal Terms for further details.

6. CONTACT US

CSA takes full responsibility for the management and confidentiality of the personal information it collects through this site. If you feel that CSA is not abiding by this Privacy Policy or have concerns about CSA's information-handling practices with respect to this site, please contact our Privacy Dept at privacy@csagroup.org or write to:

Privacy Dept
CSA International
178 Rexdale Boulevard
Toronto, Ontario
M9W 1R3

Your concerns will be addressed in a timely manner.

By providing you with this Privacy Policy, CSA is pledging its continued commitment to protecting the information you provide to us. We regularly review our information-handling practices to ensure that we are abiding by this Privacy Policy.