Privacy Policy


This Privacy Policy describes how the Choose Canadian Seafood Task Force, as overseen by the Fisheries Council of Canada and the Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance (the “CCS Task Force”, “we” or “us”) collects, uses and discloses personal information when you visit or interact with the www.chooseseafood.ca website (the “Website”).

This Privacy Policy also explains how you can contact us if you have a question about, want to make a change to or delete any personal information that the CCS Task Force may be holding about you. We strongly recommend that you take the time to read this Privacy Policy and retain it for future reference.

Personal Information

For the purpose of this Privacy Policy, "personal information" means information about an identifiable individual, or information that when combined with other, readily available information, may be used to identify an individual. Personal information excludes anonymous or de-identified data that is not associated with a particular individual (herein referred to as “non-identifiable information”).

What Information We Collect

When you visit or otherwise interact with the Website, we collect and use several types of information from and about you, including:

  • Personal information, that we can reasonably use to directly or indirectly identify you, such as your name, mailing address, e-mail address, telephone number or IP address. We may also collect information relating to your lifestyle (including your occupation, age range, other household information and your seafood consumption habits), through surveys, contests or other links on our Website.

  • Non-identifiable Information, such as demographic information, or statistical or aggregated information. Statistical or aggregated data does not directly identify a specific person, but we may derive non-personal statistical or aggregated data from personal information. For example, we may aggregate personal information to calculate the percentage of users accessing a specific website feature.

  • Technical information, including your login information, browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform, or information about your internet connection, the equipment you use to access our website, and usage details.

  • Non-personal details about your website interactions, including the full URLs, clickstream to, through and from our Website (including date and time), products you viewed or searched for, page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks, and mouse-overs), methods used to browse away from the page, or any phone number used to call our customer service number.

How We Collect Information About You

We use different methods to collect your information, including through:

  • Direct interactions with you when you provide it to us, for example, by filling in forms or corresponding with us by phone, email, or otherwise.

  • Automated technologies or interactions, as you navigate through our Website. Information collected automatically may include usage details, IP addresses, and information collected through cookies and other tracking technologies.

Information We Collect Through Cookies and Other Automatic Data Collection Technologies

As you navigate through and interact with our Website, we may use cookies or other automatic data collection technologies to collect certain information about your equipment, browsing actions, and patterns, including:

  • Details of your visits to our Website, including traffic data and other communication data and the resources that you access and use on the Website.

  • Information about your computer and internet connection, including your IP address, operating system, and browser type.

The technologies we use for this automatic data collection may include cookies. A cookie is a small file placed on the hard drive of your computer or mobile device. You may refuse to accept browser cookies by activating the appropriate setting on your browser. However, if you select this setting you may be unable to access certain parts of our Website. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies when you direct your browser to our Website.

We may also use these technologies to collect information about your online activities over time and across third-party websites or other online services (behavioral tracking).

The information we collect automatically is statistical information and may include personal information, and we may maintain it or associate it with personal information we collect in other ways or receive from third parties. It helps us to improve our Website and to deliver a better and more personalized service, including by enabling us to:

  • Estimate our audience size and usage patterns.

  • Store information about your preferences, allowing us to customize our Website according to your individual interests.

  • Speed up your searches.

  • Recognize you when you return to our Website.

Third Party Use of Cookies

Some content or applications on the Website, including advertisements, are served by third-parties, including advertisers, ad networks and servers, content providers, and application providers. These third parties may use cookies alone or in conjunction with web beacons or other tracking technologies to collect information about you when you use our Website. The information they collect may be associated with your personal information or they may collect information, including personal information, about your online activities over time and across different websites and other online services. They may use this information to provide you with interest-based (behavioural) advertising or other targeted content.

Interest Based Advertising

To opt-out of interest-based advertising, and to find information about how to block or limit cookies, visit AdChoices, the Canadian self-regulatory program for online interest-based advertising, administered by the Digital Advertising Alliance of Canada (“DAAC”).

How We Use Your Personal Information

Your personal information will be used only for the purposes identified in this Policy or identified to you at or before the time the information is collected, or as required by law.

These purposes include sending you, by way of email or mailings, materials that you have requested such as CCS Task Force newsletters, updates, recipe books, health and nutrition tips, educational materials and other information items. You may ask us to stop sending you such materials at any time, for example, by clicking the “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of an email. We may also use the information that you voluntarily provide to gain a better understanding of seafood-related consumption habits and to improve our Website and our educational and information materials.

The information that you provide to us through contest and sweepstakes entries may be shared with the CCS Task Force's marketing and promotions agency for the sole purposes of administering a contest and to generate aggregate research about consumption habits.

More generally, we use the information we collect through our Website for the following purposes:

  • to provide you with access to the Website;

  • to provide you with information relating to our Website;

  • to provide you with information, products or services that you request from us;

  • to follow up on your comments and suggestions;

  • to fulfil the purposes for which you provided the information or that were described when it was collected, or any other purpose for which you provide it;

  • to notify you about changes to our Website or any products or services we offer or provide through it;

  • to improve our Website, products or services, marketing, or customer relationships and experiences;

  • to manage and develop our business systems and operations;

  • to monitor and conduct an analysis of our website traffic and usage patterns;

  • to post customer testimonials, comments or reviews;

  • to protect our rights and property; or

  • to lessen a serious threat to personal safety, health or security.

Disclosure of Your Personal Information

We will not sell, license, trade or rent your personal information to or with third parties.

We may disclose aggregated information about our Website visitors and information that does not identify any individual, without restriction.

We may disclose personal information that we collect or you provide as described in this Policy:

  • To contractors, service providers, and other third parties we use to support our business (such as analytics and search engine providers that assist us with Website improvement and optimization) and who are contractually obligated to keep personal information confidential, use it only for the purposes for which we disclose it to them, and to process the personal information with the same standards set out in this Policy.

  • To fulfill the purpose for which you provide it. For example, we may share the information that you provide to us through contest entries with our marketing and promotions agency, which is prohibited by us from using your personal information for any purposes other than those described above and from disclosing the information to any third party. The agency is required to protect the personal information it receives from us and to comply with the general principles described in this Privacy Policy. A limited amount of a contest winner's information (for example, first name and city and province of residence) may be posted on our Website, but only after we have obtained the winner's explicit consent to do so.

  • For any other purpose disclosed by us when you provide the information.

  • With your consent.

We may also disclose personal information to a third party if a law, regulation, search warrant, subpoena or court order legally requires or authorizes us to do so.

Transferring Your Personal Information

We may transfer personal information that we collect or that you provide as described in this Policy to contractors, service providers, and other third parties we use to support the CCS Taskforce (such as analytics and search engine providers that assist us with Website improvement and optimization) and who are contractually obligated to keep personal information confidential, use it only for the purposes for which we disclose it to them, and to process the personal information with the same standards set out in this Policy.

We may process, store, and transfer your personal information in and to a jurisdiction outside of Quebec and/or Canada, with different privacy laws that may or may not be as comprehensive as the law in your jurisdiction of residence. In these circumstances, the governments, courts, law enforcement, or regulatory agencies of that jurisdiction may be able to obtain access to your personal information through the laws of the other jurisdiction. Whenever we engage a service provider, we require that its privacy and security standards adhere to this Policy and applicable Canadian privacy legislation.

Consent

By submitting personal information to the CCS Task Force Website, or our service providers and agents, you consent to the collection use, disclosure, and transfer of your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy and as permitted or required by law.

We will not, as a condition of the supply of a product or service, require you to consent to the collection, use or disclosure of information beyond that which is required to fulfill the purposes for which the information is being provided by you. However, your voluntary provision of additional information helps us to improve and expand the educational and information services that we offer and to conduct research about seafood-related consumption.

You may withdraw your consent to our collection, use or disclosure of your personal information at any time, subject to legal or contractual restrictions and reasonable notice, by contacting us. Please note that if you withdraw your consent we may not be able to provide you with a particular product or service. We will explain the impact to you at the time to help you with your decision.

How We Protect Your Personal Information

We make all commercially reasonable efforts to ensure that the personal information that you provide to us is protected against loss and unauthorized access, use or disclosure. This protection applies in relation to information stored in both electronic and hard copy form. Access to your personal information is restricted to selected employees or representatives who need to know the information. In addition, we employ generally accepted information security techniques, such as firewalls, and access control procedures to protect personal information against loss and unauthorized access, use or disclosure.

Retention of Your Personal Information

We retain your personal information only for as long as is necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected and to comply with applicable laws.

For example, the information that you provide to us through contest entries is retained only for the duration of the contest and any further period required to generate aggregate research about seafood-related consumption. When you provide information about seafood consumption or related matters, we aggregate the information before using it for research purposes, and do not retain your personal information once aggregation is complete. The information that you provide to us when you request materials from us is retained only for as long as is required to process your request.

Accessing and Updating Your Personal Information

The CCS Task Force will take reasonable steps to ensure the personal information we hold is accurate, complete and up-to-date. Upon your written request, and subject to certain exceptions provided by law, we will inform you of the existence, use, and disclosure of your personal information and give you access to that information. We may charge a minimal fee for providing such access to you.

If you believe that the personal information that we hold about you is not accurate or complete, you may write to us at info@chooseseafood.ca. If you are able to establish that the information is not accurate or complete, we will take reasonable steps to delete and/or correct the information so that it is accurate, complete, and up-to-date. In order to facilitate a request to correct or update information, we may ask you to provide additional information to confirm your identity. Any such information will only be used for the purpose of confirming your identity and will not be retained by us.

Canada’s Anti Spam Law (“CASL”)

We will only send you commercial electronic messages (“CEMs”) where we have your express or implied consent to do so. Your consent to receive CEMs is implied where we have an existing business relationship with you, or you have reached out to us and made an inquiry within a certain time frame. You may unsubscribe from receiving CEMs at any time, by clicking the unsubscribe button on an email or following the direction provided in a text message.

Links to Third Party Sites

Our Website may offer links to other third party websites. You should be aware that operators of linked websites may also collect your personal information (including information generated through the use of cookies) when you link to their websites. The CCS Task Force is not responsible for how such third parties collect, use or disclose your personal information, so it is important to familiarize yourself with their privacy policies before providing them with your personal information.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We reserve the right to modify this Privacy Policy at any time without notice. The Privacy Policy posted at any time or from time to time via our Website shall be deemed to be the Privacy Policy then in effect.

Contacting Us

In the event that you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, wish for us to delete or update your personal information, to make a complaint about our privacy practices, or for any of the other reasons indicated above, you may contact us at the addresses below.

E-mail:

Please fill out the online contact form

Mail:

Fisheries Council of Canada

170 Laurier Avenue West, Suite 610

Ottawa, ON K1P 5V5

Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance

220 Laurier Avenue West, Suite 650

Ottawa, ON K1P 5Z9


The Choose Canadian Seafood Task Force is the trade name established by The Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance (CAIA) and The Fisheries Council of Canada (FCC) in May, 2022.