Privacy policy

PRIVACY POLICY

The privacy of your personal information is of the utmost importance to CropLife Canada Inc. (“CropLife”, “we”, “us” or “our”, as appropriate).  This privacy policy ("Privacy Policy") explains how your personal information is collected, used, and disclosed by CropLife Canada Inc. (and any of its parent, subsidiary, and affiliated companies) ("CropLife", "us", or "we") when you use our website at http://www.beeconnected.ca and any and all sub-domains of such website (“Site”), as well as the kinds of information we collect when you join BeeConnected and use our services (the “Services”) either through the Site or through the BeeConnected App, which is available for download on your desktop and mobile device on the iTunes App Store and the Google Play Store (“App”). By providing us with your personal information you agree to be bound by the terms and conditions of this Privacy Policy.

We collect your personal information as follows:

• When you visit our Site

You may browse our Site without registering for an account. However, to access certain features of our Site and our App, we require you to register for an account and provide such account information described below (thereafter, a “Member”). Our servers automatically log certain information about your use of our Site and the App, such as your IP address, browser type, operating system, browser language, and service provider. We also collect information about your activities on our Site such as the pages you visit. The first time you visit our Site or download our App, we assign you a unique number, which is stored in one or more cookies on your computer or mobile device's hard drive. These cookies help us distinguish new visitors from returning visitors. If you are a Member or provided other personal information about yourself (for example, if you send us an email), a cookie ID can be associated with you personally.

• When you set up a BeeConnected account

When you register for an account at our Site or through our App, we collect your name, e-mail address, username, location, professional category (Farmer, Contractor or Beekeeper), description of your property, as well as your farming, crop protection product application or bee hiving activities. We will only use this information to manage our business relationship with you, to contact you in order to answer your questions and requests and to provide you with the information or services which you have requested.

• When you use our Services

Once you are a Member and use our Services, we collect information about your location, farming, pesticide spraying or bee hiving activities (for example, dates, times, locations). We use this information to provide and improve the Services, to manage our business relationship with you, to contact you in order to answer your questions and requests and to provide you with the information or services which you have requested, including enabling instant in-app messaging between you and the community of Members.

When using our Services, your user profile (username and professional category, i.e. Farmer, Contractor or Beekeeper), location as well as past and upcoming farming/crop protection product application/bee hiving activities (collectively, your “BeeConnected Profile”) may be visible to the other Members. As a Member you may view the BeeConnected Profile of other Members. Further, the App allows you to send instant messages to other Members. Except for information about you that may appear on your BeeConnected Profile, information that you provide to us as part of your registration or that is collected about you through your use of the Services is generally not visible to other Members or to non-members who visit the Site.

When you use the App, we may collect the following technical data from your mobile device:  mobile device model and version, timestamp, operating system name and version, device identification number, application version, device identifier and stored cookies information. This technical information is used for delivering the Services, delivering push notifications to your computer or mobile device, and displaying to you a map of Members and their activities in your area and may be stored for archival purposes for as long as necessary, in our opinion, to comply with applicable laws.

Other Uses of Personal Information

We may also use personal information collected from you for the following general purposes: (1) to fulfill your requests for Services; (2) to improve our App, our Site and Services; (3) to contact you to resolve problems; (4) to send you information about Services including technical notices, updates, security alerts, support and administrative messages; (5) to communicate with you about products and services offered by us and our selected partners; (6) to conduct research; and (7) to make the App and the Site easier to use by reducing the need for you to enter information. From time to time we may send newsletter emails, from which you may unsubscribe as provided for in the emails.

Technical Information. When you visit the Site, download the App and use our Services, we may collect, using electronic means, technical information. This information may include the IP address of your computer and mobile device, which browser you used to access the Site, download the App, your operating system, resolution of screen, location, language settings in browsers, the site you came from and searched for keywords (if arriving from a search engine). This technical data is aggregated and used to measure and improve the effectiveness of our Site, our App and our Services. We may share this non-identifying information in aggregate. We do not attempt to combine technical information with other personal information we collect through the App or the Site. You can block the use of cookies by activating the settings in your browser but if you choose to withhold consent, or subsequently block cookies, you may not be able to access all or part of the content of our Site.

Sharing of Personal Information. Except as mentioned in this Privacy Policy, unless we have your express consent, we will not sell, rent, share or trade your personal information to any third party, except to external service providers that we use to facilitate or outsource one or more aspects of the operation of our App and our Site. These external service providers are subject to confidentiality agreements with us and other legal restrictions that prohibit their use of the information we provide them for any purpose other than to facilitate the specific outsourced related operation. As described above, your BeeConnected Profile will be shared with the community of Members. Your other personal information will not be shared with other Members.

From time to time, we may be required to provide personal information in response to a valid court order, subpoena, government investigation, or as otherwise required by law. We also reserve the right to report to law enforcement agencies any activities that we, in good faith, believe to be unlawful. We may release certain personal information when we believe that such release is reasonably necessary to protect the rights, property, and safety of others and ourselves.

We may also disclose your personal information in connection with a corporate transaction, proceeding, or reorganization involving the Site, the App or our other business activities for which the information is maintained. In the event that ownership of CropLife or its business was to change as a result of a merger, acquisition, or transfer to another company, your personal information may be transferred. In the event the transaction goes through, we will require that the receiving party be similarly bound by the provisions of this Privacy Policy and that it will only use and disclose your personal information as we are similarly entitled under this Privacy Policy. If such a transfer results in a material change in the way your personal information is used, we will provide notice about the choices you have with respect to such a transfer. In the event the transaction does not go through, we will require the receiving party not to use or disclose your personal information in any manner whatsoever and to completely erase the same.

Transfer of Personal Information Outside of Canada. Our head office is located in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. In some cases, personal information that we manage may be disclosed, processed and stored outside of Canada, and therefore may be available to government authorities under lawful orders and laws applicable there. We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your personal information is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy and Canadian law.

Hyperlinks. The Site may contain hyperlinks to other Web sites unrelated to CropLife. Those links are provided as a convenience. However, in using those sites, you will leave this site and shall assume any risk involved. We are not responsible for the privacy practices, security or content of any such Web sites. Links to other sites do not imply that CropLife endorses or is affiliated with such other sites. We cannot be held liable for any damages whatsoever arising from the use of the information or such links or the functionality of the sites to which these links direct, whether direct, indirect, consequential, special, punitive, exemplary or otherwise, and whether the claim is for contract, negligence, strict product liability or otherwise.

Security of Personal Information. We will use reasonable security measures to protect your personal information against unauthorized access. Please be careful whenever sending personal information to us via e-mail. E-mail is generally not a secure means of transferring information. We therefore cannot guarantee that this information will not be lost or used in a fraudulent manner and we encourage the use of e-mail encryption to communicate with us.

Anti-Spam. We are committed to providing transparency to outside parties (which we may electronically communicate with) with respect to our practices in complying with Canada’s anti-spam legislation and its relevant rules and regulations (“CASL”).  CropLife may send you commercial electronic messages (“CEM”) from time to time which could include messages pertaining to the Site, the App, the Services and other CropLife’s products and services.

If you have received a CEM from CropLife it is because either you have previously provided your express consent, we have your implied consent under CASL, or because the type of message sent is exempt under CASL.  If you have received a CEM, and you believe that you should not have, please contact us immediately at info@croplife.ca in order to unsubscribe and we will remove your electronic address from our list within 10 business days.

Enforcement. The purpose of this Privacy Policy is to set out the principles governing the use of personal data you give to us, or we obtain about you. We comply with this Privacy Policy as well as applicable Canadian private sector data protection laws such as the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act and substantially similar provincial laws pertaining to the collection, use and disclosure of personal information. When we receive formal written complaints, we will contact the person who made the complaint to follow up. We work with the appropriate regulatory authorities, including local privacy commissioners and authorities, to resolve any complaints regarding the collection, use or disclosure of personal information that we cannot resolve directly with the relevant individuals.

Change of Privacy Policy. If there is any material change in our Privacy Policy, the revised statement will be posted on this Site and will be available through the App. Regardless of any changes we make to our Privacy Policy, we will only use your personal information in accordance with the version of the Privacy Policy in place at the time you provided your information, unless you later give your express consent for us to do otherwise.

Contact for Questions or Concerns.  If you have questions or concerns regarding this Privacy Policy, or if you wish to review or edit your personal information, please contact: info@croplife.ca.

Unless restricted by law, we will take all reasonable steps to functionally delete your personal information from our database(s) upon request, although we may keep a copy for archival purposes for as long as necessary, in our opinion, to comply with applicable laws. We will respond to your request to access, update or delete your personal information within thirty (30) business days. Before we are able to provide you with any information, correct any inaccuracies or delete any information, however, we may ask you to verify your identity and to provide other details (in a secure manner) to help us to respond to your request.

This Privacy Policy was last updated on June 5, 2015.

Please note that both the English and French versions of our Privacy Policy have equal legal value.