Privacy policy | Mary's Meals

1. Introduction

1.1 We are Mary’s Meals Canada (“we”, “us” or “our”), Corporation Number 830423-8 and Charity Number 845360536RR0001. We have our registered address at Millrise RPO, Calgary, Alberta, T2Y 2Z9. We are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy.

1.2 This Privacy Policy (and any other documents referred to in it) sets out the basis on which we will collect, use, maintain and disclose personal information from our interactions with individuals (“supporters” or "you") whether on our website www.marysmeals.ca (“website”), our social media channels, or in our other interactions with you. Please read this Privacy Policy carefully to understand our practices regarding supporters’ personal information and how we will treat it.

1.3 We comply with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, Personal Information Protection Act (Alberta) and with Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation.

1.4 We may make changes to this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we do so, we will post the changes on this page and they will apply from the time we post them. Supporters should check back frequently to see any updates or changes to this Privacy Policy. This Privacy Policy was last updated on August 21, 2024.

2. Personal information that we collect

2.1 Personal information

We may collect and use the following types of personal information about supporters:

(a) personal information such as

name;
address;
phone number(s) (home, work and mobiles as applicable);
email address(es);
contact preferences;
information given when registering to use or completing forms on our website, including work, volunteer and educational experience;
information on donations made;
information that visitors give us – for example, when making donations, such as bank account details for setting up regular direct debits, credit card details for processing credit card payments;
information given when volunteering or engaging with us, including photographs, videos and opinions; and
information given when taking part in our social media functions, engaging with us on social media sites, at our events, or when using our website.

(ii) the marketing preferences of our supporters and whether and when consent to receive marketing communications has been given or withdrawn.

(iii) communications between supporters and ourselves (whether by telephone, e-mail, social media sites, or otherwise).

(b) We also collect and use certain technical information about our supporters’ visits to our website which may include, for example, internet protocol addresses, login information, browser type and version, pages accessed, files downloaded, full Uniform Resource Locators, clickstream to, through and from the website (including date and time), products viewed or searched for, page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages and page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks and mouse-overs).

(c) We collect some of the personal information set out above directly from supporters and some from third parties (for example, we may receive personal information from supporters when they make a donation to us through a third-party website, such as CanadaHelps or Facebook, and the supporter has given the third-party website permission to share information with us).

3. Cookies

3.1 Our website uses cookies to distinguish a supporter from other users of the website and to help us to provide supporters with a good experience when they browse our website. Cookies also allow us to improve our website. For detailed information on the cookies we use and why we use them see our Cookie Policy.

4. Third-party website and social media

4.1 Our website may include links to other third-party websites, including social media platforms. For any linked websites that are not owned or controlled by us, please review that website’s privacy policy before disclosing your personal information. We are not responsible for the collection, use and disclosure practices of companies or organizations to which our sites may provide links.

4.2 We maintain a presence on several social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and X (formerly known as Twitter). Through these platforms and features, we may receive some personal information and some usage information about you, and this Privacy Policy applies to that information as well. In addition, these third-party social networking platforms have their own privacy policies, which explain how the third parties that provide them will use and protect your information. The information we receive from third parties may depend on the privacy settings you have on the third-party platform.

5. How we use personal information

5.1 We process personal information of supporters for the following purposes:

(a) providing supporters with the products, services and information that they ask us for;

(b) corresponding with supporters and recording any relevant communications;

(d) keeping records of donations made and actions taken by our supporters;

(e) selecting and supporting volunteers;

(f) recording campaigning activities by supporters;

(g) performing our obligations under any contracts that we enter into with supporters;

(h) telling supporters about changes to our services;

(i) ensuring that content from our website is presented effectively for supporters and for their computers;

(j) administering our website and for internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, statistical and survey purposes;

(k) improving our website to ensure that content is presented most effectively for supporters and their computers;

(l) allowing supporters to choose to take part in interactive features of our services; and

(m) keeping our website safe and secure.

5.2 We retain personal information for as long as required to fulfil the purposes set out above, where it is required for legal, tax or accounting purposes, or where otherwise permitted or required by law. If you object to the retention of your personal information, see the ‘iIndividuals’ rights’ section below.

6. How we share personal information

6.1 We may share supporters’ personal information with Mary’s Meals International Organisation (company registration number SC488380 and charity number SC045223), which has its registered office at Craig Lodge, Dalmally, Argyll PA33 1AR (“MMI”) in their role as the provider of our supporter database platform. MMI will only access personal records of supporters if requested to do so by us, to assist us in the delivery of our services. Beyond this, we will only share supporters’ personal information if:

(a) we or MMI are working with partners whom we or MMI have carefully selected to carry out work on our behalf, such as service providers and sub-contractors (for example, IT services providers and providers of technical, payment and delivery services) to perform any contract we or MMI enter into with them. The kind of work we or MMI may ask them to do includes processing, packaging, mailing and delivering purchases, answering questions about us and any services we provide, carrying out research or analysis to assist us in our mission and processing credit card payments.

We and MMI only choose partners we trust and only pass personal information to them where they have undertaken to keep your personal information secure. We do not allow, and we ensure that MMI does not allow, these partners to use your information for their own purposes or disclose it to other third parties and we will take all reasonable care to ensure that MMI and such partners keep your information secure; or

(b) we are legally required to do so (e.g., by law or by an order of a court of competent jurisdiction).

We do not sell supporters’ information.

7. Legal basis for processing personal information

7.1 We rely on various legal bases to justify our processing of supporters’ personal information. Further details of these are set out below.

(a) The supporters have given their consent to the processing of their personal information for the specific purposes mentioned above.

Supporters may withdraw their consent to this processing at any time by contacting us using the contact details set out in the “Contact and complaints” section of this Privacy Policy below, but this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing of their personal information which was carried out before a supporter withdrew their consent.

(b) The processing is necessary for our legitimate interests. These legitimate interests include processing, packaging, mailing and delivering purchases, answering questions about us and any services we provide, carrying out research or analysis to assist us in our mission and processing credit card payments.

(c) The processing is necessary to perform a contract to which the relevant supporters are parties or to take steps that they have asked us to take before entering into a contract, such as buying a book or a DVD or requesting a free film screening pack about our work.

(d) The processing is necessary for us to comply with our legal obligations, such as sharing personal information where we are legally required to do so (e.g., by law or by an order of a court).

8. Where we transfer and store personal information

8.1 The personal information that we collect from supporters may be transferred to and/or stored at destinations outside of Canada. As such, adequate protection for such personal information will be ensured. However, it may also be processed by staff operating outside Canada who work for one of our or MMI’s suppliers (e.g., IT service providers).

8.2 All information that supporters provide to us is stored on our secure servers and/or on the servers of our suppliers who we have engaged to host various IT systems for us. Any payment transactions will be encrypted using TLS technology. Where we have given supporters (or where they have chosen) a password which enables them to access certain parts of our website, they are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask them not to share this password with anyone.

8.3 Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we take reasonable steps to protect supporters’ personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of data transmitted to our website; any transmission is at supporters’ own risk. Once we have received personal information, we will use reasonable procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.

8.4 We will keep supporters’ information only for as long as they engage with us in any of the above ways, and only as long as we need it:

(a) to administer their relationship with us;

(b) to comply with the law; or

To assist us in this process we will review on a regular basis the personal data of supporters that we collect and hold to ensure that such data is only kept for an appropriate length of time.

9. Individuals' rights

9.1 Supporters have certain rights in respect of the personal information that we hold about them. To exercise any of the rights set out below, please contact us using the contact details set out in the “Contact and complaints” section of this Privacy Policy below:

(a) Rectification. We will correct any inaccurate personal information and complete any incomplete personal information (including by providing a supplementary statement) that we hold about supporters without undue delay at their request.

(b) Restriction. We will restrict the processing of supporters’ personal information in certain circumstances (for example, among other things, if they believe that their personal information held by us is inaccurate), if requested by them to do so.

9.2 We will use all personal information in line with supporters’ rights in each case to the extent required by and in accordance with applicable law only (including, without limitation, in accordance with any applicable time limits and requirements regarding fees and charges).

9.3 We will respect supporters’ rights regarding use of their personal information for direct marketing purposes. In particular, we will not begin or we will cease using any personal information of individuals for direct marketing purposes if at any time a supporter asks us to stop.

9.4 Supporters can exercise their rights by contacting us using the contact details set out below in the “Contacts and complaints” section of this Privacy Policy.

10. Contact and complaints

10.1 Questions, comments, requests or complaints regarding this Privacy Policy and/or our use of supporters’ personal information should be addressed to info@marysmeals.ca or Mary’s Meals Canada, PO Box 76244, Millrise RPO, Calgary, Alberta, T2Y 2Z9, Attention: Privacy Officer.

10.2 If supporters have any complaints regarding this Privacy Policy, they may also contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner at https://www.priv.gc.ca/ or toll-free at 1-800-282-1376 or the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta at https://oipc.ab.ca/ or toll-free at 1-888-878-4044