The David Suzuki Foundation aims to protect nature, now and for the future, and help people in Canada understand that we are all interconnected and interdependent with nature. Future Ground Network is a project of the David Suzuki Foundation that offers training, education and resources, including digital tools, to grassroots groups to help amplify their impact on the issues that matter most to them and their local communities.
To carry out our mission, it’s important to communicate with you. And we’re committed to respecting our relationship with you, whether close or distant.
This privacy policy reflects our best efforts to maintain this respect while ensuring we can communicate broadly, personally and accurately in the most cost-effective way possible. It explains how we collect, use and safeguard your personal information.
Information we collect and how we use it
Personal information
“Personal information” is any information that can be used to identify (or infer the identity of) a specific person, including, for example, your name, address, birth date, gender, etc. In some cases, your computer’s IP address can be considered personal information, as it may give some indication of your geographic location.
We may ask you for personal information in a variety of ways, including website forms, surveys, over the phone and in person.
There are a range of reasons why we may ask you for this information, including to fulfil your membership to the network; to allow you to send letters or sign a petition via our online action platforms; to invite you to events; or to provide other information about us that might interest you. We may also contact you by email or phone about opportunities to support our work and the work of the David Suzuki Foundation.
To fulfil your membership to the network we will require your first and last name, email address and location. Providing us with your personal information beyond what is required is at your discretion. You may always elect to withhold information, like your phone number or postal code.
Cookies and data technology
We use cookies and other technology on our websites to make them easier to use and so that we can learn about how you use them. Information collected this way may include (but is not limited to) your IP address and internet service provider, the type of web browser and operating system you used and which of our website pages you visited. We use links in our emails to track open and click-through rates to help us learn what emails appeal to you most.
In some cases, interacting with our websites, social media accounts or emails provides us with “anonymous” data, such as IP address, link clicks, page visits, the time spent on a page, etc. We use Google Analytics on our website to learn where you are, when you’re using our site and what content you find most interesting. This helps us stay relevant.
We may also use third-party cookies, beacons and other storage technologies to understand what website content is most important to you so that we can measure our performance and target sponsored and unsponsored content to you on those third-party party platforms. For example, we use Facebook’s tracking pixel to learn about what content you are interested in on our website so that we can serve only our most relevant advertising to you on Facebook. You can opt out from such Facebook advertising by clicking “Why am I seeing this?” on our Facebook ads, clicking “Options” and then selecting “Hide all ads from this advertiser.”
It’s possible for us to put anonymous data together with personal information you give us to find out more about you. This helps us respect what we know about you. For example, when we have petitions that are meaningful locally, we try our best to send them to the affected communities and avoid sending irrelevant or too many emails.
Aggregate data
In some cases, we may aggregate your information with others peoples’ in order to report on campaigns. For example, we may count the number of people who sign a petition based on their postal code. That way, we can show where people in Canada are taking action — with the number (e.g., “516 people from Toronto have signed this campaign”) or by indicating the total on a map. We do not display your actual postal code or personal information.
Use of third parties
In many cases, we don’t actually collect and store personal information in our systems, but instead use a third party. The network uses various third-party tools to engage with and support members. For example, we use Action Network to send out surveys and online registration forms, Slack to communicate with members, Zoom for online meetings, etc.
Such services have resources dedicated to maintaining security and confidentiality, and we ensure that any third-party partner has written policies about never sharing your information with anyone other than the David Suzuki Foundation. For more information, please refer to the specific platform privacy policies.
Links to other websites
Our websites contain links to websites owned and operated by other organizations. They may have their own privacy policies and terms and conditions and are not governed by this policy. We encourage you to carefully review the privacy policy and terms of use of each website you visit.
What you need to know about consent
By providing personal information to us, you allow “deemed” consent to the collection, use and disclosure of your information in accordance with this policy.
When you provide contact information to us for one purpose, we may contact you using that information for other areas of our work. For example, if you sign up as a leader in the network, we may email you about an upcoming event or collective action.
We respect your right to control your personal information. Please contact us immediately if you want us to stop using it in any particular way. We will fulfil your request in the timeliest way possible.
Updating your consent
If you would like to stop receiving email from us at any time, click the unsubscribe link at the bottom of any of our emails.
Upon reasonable request and notice, you may view and have corrections made to the personal information we hold about you, subject to any legal or contractual restrictions. If you are aware of any inaccuracies in the personal information we hold about you or you want to remove all of your information from our databases, please contact our privacy officer at privacy@davidsuzuki.org and mention that you are subscribed to Future Ground Network communications.
Ways to prevent us from collecting “anonymous” data
Our websites use cookies and JavaScript-based tracking scripts to collect the anonymous data referred to above. To stop this from happening, adjust your web browser’s “cookie,” “cache” and JavaScript settings. Please note that doing so may affect the performance of our web properties, and in some cases may completely prevent you from using some of our pages and forms.
Information we share
General
We sometimes send personal information to outside organizations who help us better communicate with you. We only work with organizations that have comprehensive security and confidentiality policies, including written policies that do not allow them to use or share your information with anyone other than the David Suzuki Foundation.
Email addresses
We do not sell or exchange email addresses with other organizations.
In some instances, we may promote actions or petitions on our websites in partnership with other non-profit organizations. In these cases, we give you the clear option of whether you want us to share your email with them.
How we keep your information secure
We endeavour to maintain appropriate physical, procedural and technical safeguards for your personal information. Some information we collect may be stored and processed on servers located outside your jurisdiction of residence, including outside your country. As a result, this information may be subject to disclosure to governments, courts or law enforcement agencies in those areas, according to their laws, without notice to us or you.
Policy updates and changes
We may change this policy from time to time without notice. Changes will be reflected on this page.
Need more information?
For further information, please contact our privacy officer by email at privacy@davidsuzuki.org or by mail at:
219 – 2211 West 4th Avenue, Vancouver, B.C. V6K 4S2.
This document is available to the public and explains how we collect, use and disclose information, in accordance with this policy, the Personal Information and Electronic Documents Act, the Personal Information Protection Act and other relevant legislation.