Privacy Policy

1. WHO WE ARE

Mind Your Plastic (MYP) is a registered Canadian charity dedicated to eliminating plastic pollution in Canada by working with municipalities and businesses, as well as providing direct action and education.

2. DATA PROTECTION

MYP takes data protection very seriously and is committed to protecting your privacy and security. This policy governs the personal information you provide to us and the information we learn from your use of this website. This policy explains how and why we use your personal data. Personal information includes information that can be used alone or with other information to identify, contact and locate you.

MYP takes great care to preserve your privacy and safeguard any personal details that are provided to us, and we do not exchange or sell any personal details or information to other organizations without your consent. We assure you that you are always in control of how we use your personal information for marketing and fundraising activities.

You can decide not to receive our communications or change how we contact you at any time. If you wish to do so or have any questions about this privacy policy or how we use your personal data, please contact us via any of the following methods:

1. Call us at +1 (902) 405-3940 between 9:30 am to 4:30 pm (ADT), Monday to Friday, excluding holidays
2. Email at info@mindyourplastic.ca
3. Mailing Address:

Mind Your Plastic 

451-3045 Robie Street, Unit 5

Halifax, NS

B3K 4P6

3. WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT?

We collect and use your personal information for carefully considered and legitimate charitable business purposes that help ensure we can run MYP efficiently, raise funds effectively and deliver our charitable objectives. 

Personal data you give us: We collect personal data you provide us with when you subscribe to our newsletter, make a donation, or use our contact forms on our website.. For example, we could collect your:

• Email address when you join our mailing list. Personal details when you make a donation: name, mailing address, phone number, email address.
• Financial information when you choose to make a donation (payment information such as credit/debit card or direct debit details, date and amount of donation and whether donations are gift-aided.

We currently do not collect information regarding your area of interests, but we could do so in the near future. This information would help us provide you with information based on campaigns that are within your area of interest, the ways you support us or the types of conservation projects you are interested in participating in. If or when we do this, this privacy policy will be updated and this change will be communicated publicly via email and on our website.

Information created automatically: Your activities and involvement with MYP will result in personal data being created, including details of how you have helped us by volunteering or being involved with our campaigns and activities.

Information we generate: We conduct research and analysis on the information we hold, which can in turn generate personal data. For example, by analyzing your location and involvement with our work we would hope to build a profile to help us decide which of our communications are likely to interest you.

How we communicate with you: When you receive communication from us, we may collect information about how you respond to or interact with that communication, and this may affect how we communicate with you in future.

Information from third parties: We may also receive information about individuals from third parties. This can include information such as your name, address, credit/debit card details and whether you are a taxpayer so that we can claim a tax-deductible donation.

We use social media platforms for engaging with our supporters, such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. As a result, we collect information from social media where you have permitted us to do so, or if you post on one of our social media pages.

Sensitive personal data: We do not normally collect or store sensitive personal data (such as information relating to health, race, religious beliefs or political opinions) about supporters and members. However, there are some situations where this may occur to ensure we provide appropriate facilities (for example, if you wish to participate in an extreme running or kayak challenge event). If this does occur, we’ll take extra care to ensure your privacy rights are protected.

Volunteers: If you are a volunteer, we may collect extra information about you (for example, references, details of emergency contacts, medical conditions etc.). This information will be retained for legal reasons to protect us (including in the event of an insurance or legal claim) and for safeguarding purposes.

4. HOW WE USE INFORMATION

We always strive to provide a clear, honest and transparent approach regarding how and when we collect and use your personal data, we’ll only use your personal data where you would expect us to do so and we’ll only use your information for the purpose or purposes it was collected for, including as follows:

Marketing: We use personal data to communicate with people and to promote MYP. This includes keeping you up-to-date with our news, updates, campaigns and ways you can help fundraise. For further information on this, please see Section 6 (Marketing).

Administration: We use personal data for administrative purposes (i.e. to carry out our charity and conservation work). This includes:

• receiving donations such as direct debits.
• maintaining databases of our volunteers, members and supporters.
• helping us respect your choices and preferences. If you ask not to receive marketing material, we’ll keep a record of this.

Internal research and analysis: We conduct internal research and analysis using the data provided by our supporters, donors and volunteers to determine the success of campaigns and appeals, better understand behaviour and responses and identify patterns and trends. This helps inform our approach towards campaigning and makes MYP a stronger and more effective organization. Understanding our supporters, their interests and what they care about also helps us provide a better experience (e.g. through more relevant communications).

Profiling: We evaluate, categorize and profile personal data to tailor materials, services and communications (including targeted advertising) so that we only send you information you may be interested in. This also helps us understand our supporters and improve our organization.

We profile supporters in terms of recency, frequency and value of financial and non-financial support. This information helps us to ensure communications are relevant and timely.

If, based on information that has been provided to us (such as postal code, demographics, or previous donations), it appears supporters might be willing and able to provide more assistance in our fight against plastic pollution, we may contact them to see if they wish to do so.

In the future, we collect information on preferences and interests (for example, whether you have an interest in beach cleanups or municipal action) so that we know what activities you are most likely to be interested in.

We may aggregate and anonymize personal data so that it can no longer be linked to any particular person. This information can be used for a variety of purposes, such as recruiting new supporters, or to identify trends or patterns within our existing supporter base. This information helps inform our actions and improve our campaigns, products/services and materials.

5. DISCLOSING AND SHARING DATA

We will never sell your personal data. If you have opted-in to marketing, we may contact you with information about our partners, or third party products and services, but these communications will always come from MYP and will normally be incorporated into our own marketing materials and communication efforts.

Partners/Sponsors: Occasionally, where we collaborate with other organizations, we may also share information with them (for example, if you register to attend an event being jointly organized by us and another organization). We will only share information when necessary and we’ll make sure to notify you first.

Cookies: Cookies are text files placed on your computer to collect standard internet log information and visitor behaviour information. This information is used to track visitor use of the website and to compile statistical reports on website activity. You can set your browser to not accept cookies; each browser provider will have information on how to do this. 

MYP will not facilitate the merging of personally-identifiable information with non-personally identifiable information collected through any Google advertising product or feature unless there is robust notice of, and the user’s prior affirmative (i.e., opt-in) consent to that merger. 

 6. MARKETING

Marketing is not limited to offering good and services for sell, but also includes news and information about-

• our charity;
• campaigns and conservation work; 
• educating the public on plastic pollution and related topics (ocean literacy); 
• volunteering opportunities and how you can help us with our work; 
• our events, activities and local groups; 
• appeals and fundraising (including donations and competitions).

MYP asks its supporters to “opt-in” for all communications, including all our E-marketing communications (the term marketing is broadly defined and, for instance, covers information about conservation, fundraising and other MYP news).

Receiving marketing messages: You can decide not to receive communications or change how we contact you at any time. If you wish to do so, please contact us via the information provided in section #1 above.

Fundraising and marketing: As a charity, we rely totally on individual donations, grants, corporate giving and support from others to undertake our work. Occasionally, we will contact members and supporters with fundraising communications. These might be about an appeal, a contest or a promotion we’re running, or to suggest ways you can help raise funds (for example, a sponsored challenge event, or buying a product if MYP will receive a percentage of the proceeds).

7. CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE

Parental permission: If your child is under 18, then we need written consent from you as their parent or legal guardian for them to enter one of our competitions, campaigns or to share a picture, video or story with us. Photographs, videos and stories are considered as personal data and we take extra precaution in storing these. These data are collected and used for marketing purposes. We reassure you that this data will not be published or used in our social media and/or on our website without the written consent of the parent or legal guardian.

You can withdraw your consent at any time and request that any photos be taken down. Photos will be removed from any public communication within 48 hours of a written request being made.

Competitions/Campaigns: MYP will state in age-appropriate language that children must only enter the competition or/and campaign if they have prior permission from their parent or legal guardian. We will make reasonable efforts to verify that consent has been given or authorized by the holder of parental responsibility and treat all the identifiable submitted competition materials, including names, ages, emergency contact number and other details as personal data.

If your child enters a competition and is one of the lucky winners or runners-up, we’ll publish their name and winning entry alongside the other winners.

Marketing and fundraising communication with under-18-year-olds: We won’t knowingly send marketing emails, letters or messages to under-18-year-olds.

8. HOW WE PROTECT DATA

We use various physical and technical measures to keep your personal data safe and to prevent unauthorized access to, or use or disclosure of your personal information. Electronic data and databases are stored on secure computer systems and we control who has access to information (using both physical and electronic means). 

Payment Security: All electronic forms that request financial data on our behalf use the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol to encrypt the data between your browser and our servers.

If you use a credit card to donate, your credit card details are securely transmitted via our payment providers (Stripe or PayPal) for donations. MYP complies with the payment card industry data security standard (PCI-DSS) published by the PCI Security Standards Council, and will never store card details. 

We cannot guarantee the security of your home computer or the internet. No data transmissions over the Internet can be guaranteed to be completely secure. Consequently, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us and you do so at your own risk.

9. STORAGE

Where do we store information? MYP’s operations are based in Canada and we store our data within Canada. Some organizations that provide services to us may transfer personal data outside Canada, but we will only allow them to do this if your data is adequately protected.

How long do we store information? We will only use and store information for as long as it is required for the purposes for which it was collected. How long this will be depends on the type of information and how it is used. For example, if you ask us not to send you marketing emails, we will stop storing your emails for marketing purposes (although we will keep a record of your preference not to be emailed).

We continually review what information we hold and delete what is no longer required. We never store payment card information.

10. DATA PROTECTION RIGHTS

We want to ensure you remain in control of your personal data. Part of this is making sure you understand your legal rights, which are as follows:

• the right to confirmation as to whether or not we have your personal data and, if we do, to obtain a copy of the personal information we hold (this is known as a subject access request);
• the right to have your data erased (though this will not apply where it is necessary for us to continue to use the data for a lawful reason);
• the right to have inaccurate data rectified;
• the right to object to your data being used for marketing or profiling; and
• where technically feasible, you have the right to see the personal data you have provided to us that we process automatically based on your consent or the performance of a contract.

Please keep in mind that there are exceptions to the rights above and, although we will always try to respond to your satisfaction however, there may be situations where we are unable to do so.

If you would like further information on your rights or wish to exercise them, please contact us via the information provided in Section #1.

Complaints: Please do not hesitate to contact us with any complaint that you have. We are always happy to directly address any and all concerns that you have. If you do have a complaint, please contact us via the information provided in Section #1 and will respond within 72 hours.

11. LINKS TO OTHER SITES

Our website contains hyperlinks to many other websites. We are not responsible for the content or functionality of any of those external websites (but please let us know if a link is not working by using the ‘Contact Us’ link at the bottom of the page).

Any such links to external websites are not an endorsement of their product or services. When purchasing goods or services from any of the businesses that our site links to, you will be entering into a contract with them (agreeing to their terms and conditions) and not with MYP.

If an external website requests personal information from you (e.g. in connection with an order for goods or services), the information you provide will not be covered by  MYP’s Privacy Policy. We suggest you read the privacy policy of any website before providing any personal information.

12. CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY

This Privacy Policy may change from time to time, for instance, to comply with or reflect new legal requirements. Please visit this website page to keep up-to-date with any changes.

This Privacy Policy was last updated on July 17, 2023.