Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

The Ontario Association of Optometrists (OAO) is the voluntary, not-for profit professional association that represents doctors of optometry in Ontario. The OAO is committed to keeping the personal information of our members, customers (general public and non-member doctors of optometry) and industry partners (exhibitors and sponsors) information accurate, confidential and secure. OAO complies with provincial and federal privacy laws when it collects, uses or discloses personal information. This privacy policy describes the personal information that the OAO collects, how it is managed and the circumstances under which it may be disclosed.

1. What is personal information?
Personal information describes most types of information that can be linked to an identifiable individual, such as; name, home address, telephone number and e-mail address, and any financial information including credit card information. Personal information may not include certain types of “business information” that is publicly available in a telephone-book listing or appears on a business card such as; job title, business address, e-mail address, telephone and fax numbers.

2. Collection, use and disclosure of personal information (including e-commerce)
The OAO collects personal information about members, customers and industry partners that is relevant to your relationship with the OAO for the purpose of providing communications, program delivery, events, as well as to establish, maintain and manage our relationship with you.

For our members:
The primary purpose for which we collect and maintain personal information is to ensure that our members qualify for membership within the association, and once established as a member in good standing, to provide members with membership services and exclusive benefits. Personal information is also collected and used for the payment of annual dues and registration fees for programs and/or events throughout the year.

For our customers and industry partners:
Personal information may be collected and used to complete the following transactions:

  • advertising on our Careers and Classified section of our site
  • to provide payment for registration fees for a program and/or event
  • to contact the OAO through our web site and enable a response to be provided

The OAO does not rent, sell, barter, trade or distribute our Membership List. Industry partners will typically be provided with a list of attendees’ business information after an event for follow-up, provide presentation material, etc.

The OAO shall not use or disclose personal information for purposes other than those for which it was collected, except with the consent of the individual or as required by law. Personal information shall only be kept as long as it remains necessary or relevant for the identified purposes or as required by law.

 Under certain exceptional circumstances, OAO may have a legal duty or right to disclose personal information without the individual’s knowledge or consent. Various government agencies such as Canada Revenue Agency, Human Rights Commission, Ontario Ministry of Finance, Ontario Ministry of Labour, etc. and law enforcement, have the authority to review our files and interview our staff when deemed necessary. These agencies have their own strict privacy obligations.

3. Accuracy of Your Information
The OAO relies heavily on our members in order to maintain accurate, current and complete personal information in active files. Members are able to access the system and make changes themselves, or changes can be faxed or e-mailed to the office and we will make them for you. Changes that have been made by members are reviewed at the office and corrections will be made if necessary, however, we will not take responsibility for member postings. Information contained in closed files is not updated.

4. Right to Information
Upon written request, OAO members and former members will have the right to see what personal information is held on file. Before your file will be opened, your identity will need to be confirmed.

If it is found that there is an error or the personal information is incomplete, OAO will promptly correct or complete the information. Any unresolved differences shall be noted in the individual’s file. Where necessary, OAO will communicate with third parties that have access to the personal information and will provide the amended information or the existence of any unresolved differences.

If at any point you no longer wish to participate as an OAO member, your practice information will be deleted for the OAO public website and OAO member’s portal database, but will be stored offline in a secure archive for the legally required time, should you wish to access it or use it to rejoin as a member.

5. Safeguards
OAO uses the appropriate technical and organizational security measures to protect personal information against the risk of loss, theft, unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use, modification or destruction. All on-line transactions and information on the site, are processed using secure 128-bit encryption (Thawte® SSL123 Certificate has been purchased).

OAO shall protect personal information disclosed to third parties by contractual agreements in order to maintain the confidentiality of the information and restricting the purposes for which it is to be used.

All OAO employees with access to personal information shall be required to respect the confidentiality of the information.

6. Changes to the policy
OAO reserves the right to make changes to the on-line Privacy Policy from time to time. Any changes will not alter OAO’s commitment to keep safe your personal information, or the manner in which it is used. Any changes will be posted on this website.

7. Contact OAO
If you would like to contact us for any reason regarding our privacy practices, please contact the OAO Chief Executive Officer by email at: oaoinfo@optom.on.ca.  

 

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