Privacy

 These FAQ’s provide basic information about how user-submitted information is collected and used by Cancerconnection.ca.

For detailed information about the Canadian Cancer Society’s collection and use of personal information through our website, www.cancer.ca, please review our Privacy Policy.
 

What type of information is collected when a person registers with the community?

Required Information

The Online Community provides a forum in which you may share your experiences with cancer and connect with other people affected by cancer over the Internet. Anyone can view content on the Online Community without registration. In order to contribute and interact on the Online Community, however, you will need to register.
When you register with the Online Community, you will be required to create a user profile and provide us with your first and last name, a chosen username and "nickname", your email address and a password.
You will be asked to create a unique nickname; nobody else will be able to post to the site using that name. You will be known to other users of this site only by your nickname, unless you otherwise identify yourself. When you create a nickname, we encourage you to select a pen name or pseudonym that does not include identifying personal information.

Personal Information You May Chose to Provide

You can also provide more personal information in the profile section (e.g., whether you have cancer or are caring for someone with cancer, type of cancer, your age range) so other users can connect more easily with you.
As a registered member, you submit and contribute to the Online Community at your own discretion. Keep in mind that most user content you post on the Online Community will be available to the general public. You should exercise caution when deciding to disclose any personal information in a publicly-available forum such as the Online Community.
 

How will my information be used?

We use your personal information for the following purposes:

• To control and administer access to and use of the Online Community and its features

• To maintain the security of our website and verify and control access to your account

• To administer personalized settings and content depending on your user profile and the options you have selected

• To respond to your requests, inquiries, comments and suggestions, and maintain records of correspondence with us.

• To engage in program evaluation

• To provide cancer-related support services and running CCS events

• Fundraising and promoting CCS events and services

• Communicating with the community, including communications with donors, funders, partners and individuals that participate in CCS events or use CCS services

 
In addition, registered users can also opt-in to receiving further information from the Canadian Cancer Society.

Note that you can opt-out of receiving Society information that you may have previously requested by changing your account preferences online or by sending an email request to cancerconnection@cancer.ca.
 

Should I be concerned about system information collected when I visit www.cancerconnection.ca? (E.g., "cookies" and "tags"?)

In order to improve our site on an ongoing basis, we use cookies to track your visit. This type of data is used to track site usage in an aggregate manner and to improve the services provided on the Online Community.
A cookie is a small amount of data that is transferred to your browser by a web server and can only be read by the website that gave it to you. It functions as your identification card. It is not a program and cannot be executed as code or deliver viruses.
Cookies can also customize the site to your particular interests or store your personal information, such as passwords or user IDs. If a site ever greets you with your name, chances are it's using a cookie to do so.
Most browsers are initially set to accept cookies. You can set your browser to notify you when you receive a cookie this gives you the chance to decide whether to accept it. The alerts will be quite frequent, however, and may eventually become annoying. You can also use the Online Community without cookies, but you may have to re-enter information each time you visit.
To learn more about cookies and how to change your settings, please use the help function in your browser.
 

Who can view the information I post?

We understand you may not want everyone to see the information you create on the Online Community; that is why we give you control of your information. Your privacy settings are intended to allow you to make informed choices about who has access to your personal information.
When you register with the Online Community, you create your profile with as much or as little detail as you wish. You can also choose from three options related to who can see your profile: it can be seen by anyone who visits the site, only registered users you designate as "friends", or it can remain "private" so it cannot be viewed by others at all. You can edit your profile and adjust the viewing settings at any time.
Regardless of the settings you create, identifying information like your real name, local address, email and chosen user name will never be visible to others. Only your nickname is displayed to other users of the Online Community. For example, your nickname appears when you post a message to a discussion forum or as the author of the stories you write in blogs. We recommend that you pick a nickname that does not include identifying information.
Please remember that any information posted publicly on a social network (for example the comments you post in discussion forums or stories you write in blogs) becomes public information that can be searched by Internet search engines such as Google.


How do I change or remove information I have posted on the site?

You can readily edit your information through the profile editing feature. Registered users may modify their profile information at any time by logging into their account. Individuals who wish to deactivate their Online Community account may do so by emailing us at cancerconnection@cancer.ca and making this request.
Removed information may persist in backup copies for a reasonable period of time but will not be made available to other members of the Online Community. Note, even after removal of your user content from our systems, copies of your user content may remain viewable in cached and archived pages or if other users have viewed, copied or stored your user content.
Where you make use of the communication features of the service to share information with other individuals on the Online Community, however, you generally cannot remove such communications, for example, if you send a message to another user via the private messaging feature.
 
Last Modified March 31, 2017