Privacy Policy for Users (Careseeker) | Carelancer
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Carelancer (“we,” “us,” “our“, “Carelancer”) takes steps intended to meet privacy principles and requirements with respect to personal information under applicable privacy legislation. This Privacy Policy (the Policy) applies to services offered by Carelancer, through our website carelancer.com, through our mobile applications and through our websites optimized for mobile services (the Sites). Carelancer cares about your privacy and is committed to protecting it by adhering to the Policy.

This policy should be read in conjunction with our User Terms and Conditions of Use. By accepting the Policy, you expressly consent to the collection, use and disclosure of your personal information in accordance with this Policy. Care providers should review our Care provider Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions of use.

For the purposes of the Policy, “personal information” refers to information which relates, directly or indirectly, to an identifiable individual. Any personal information collected by Carelancer on the Sites is subject to this Policy. All capitalized terms not defined in the Policy are defined in our Terms and Conditions of Use.

1. Object of the policy

Our main objective when we collect information about you is to offer you a secure, effective and personalized experience, provide you with services and functions that meet your needs and to personalize our service to make your experience more secure and friendlier. The information we collect about you is solely information we deem necessary to achieve this objective.

This Policy describes the information that we collect from you as part of our services and what may happen to that information. Signing up as Carelancer User and providing the necessary personal information is required to access the Sites. You can still opt not to provide the requested information by simply not accessing the functions or services offered on our Sites.

Please read the Policy carefully to understand our policies and practices for collecting, processing, and storing your information. If you do not agree with our policies and practices, your choice is not to use our Sites. By accessing or using the Sites, you indicate that you understand, accept, and consent to the practices described in the Policy.

2. Collection of personal information

In order to use the features of our Sites, we may request that you provide certain personal information. We only collect personal information that is necessary to provide you with our different services. Where possible, we indicate which fields are required and which fields are optional.

● When you sign up as a Carelancer User, you must provide us with certain information such as your family name, first name, email address, home address, telephone number and password, in order to establish your membership file. Only Carelancer has access to your membership file and only Carelancer can disclose the information contained therein in accordance with this Policy.

● When registering as a User, you will be asked to complete a medical record which will be used to provide you with the Assistance Services you wish to obtain. The information provided as part of this medical record can include existing health conditions, medical history, allergies and other restrictions, etc.

● If you subscribe to a mailing list, we will collect your name and email address to send you emails about various news and promotions. Even after subscribing to a newsletter or promotional communication from us, you may elect to modify their preferences by following the “Unsubscribe” link provided in an email or communication received. 

● When you visit our Sites, we may collect information about your visit through cookies and similar technologies (see our section on Cookies and other tracking technologies for more information).

We may collect other information about you, including information you communicated to us in discussion forums, chat rooms, during dispute settlements or in correspondence you sent us. This information will be used to improve the services we provide to you.

Any and all personal information which you may provide via the Sites, including health information such as allergies, medical history and records, health conditions, prescriptions or other medication, or any other information (the Sensitive Information) can be accessed by Carelancer and used in accordance with this Policy once it has been anonymized.

In addition, Care providers may also collect and upload to your Carelancer medical record personal information regarding you and your health condition. Such personal information can include health reports or assessments prepared by Care providers after they have provided you with Assistance Services, as well as localized and anonymous photographs of you, for example to track the condition of flesh wounds or document any potential signs of abuse.

3. Use of personal information

We collect information about you essentially to be able to give you access to our Sites and thereby allow you to benefit from a secure, effective and personalized experience. You agree that we use such information to:

● give you access to our Sites and services, including to provide you with Assistance Services;

● personalize and improve our services, content and advertisements;

● contact you to resolve problems affecting your account or our Sites or for other reasons authorized by law;

● contact you to inform you of our services and the services of our affiliates, send you niche marketing products and give you access to our updated services ;

● prevent, detect and, eventually, investigate fraud and security breaches, activities that may prove to be prohibited or illegal;

● provide you with opportunities to book similar Assistance Services as those you may have previously booked or to otherwise inform you of new services we believe you may be interested in; and

● enforce our Terms and Conditions of Use and meet legal, regulatory, insurance and processing requirements, and otherwise with your consent, or as permitted or required by law.

4. Disclosure of personal information

Carelancer will disclose your personal information if it has legal authority to do so, such as in the following contexts:

● We may use and disclose personal information in the context of a business transaction, in connection with the proposed or actual financing, securitization, insuring, sale, assignment, or other disposal of all or part of Carelancer, or our business or assets, for the purposes of evaluating and/or performing the proposed transaction. Assignees or successors of Carelancer, or our business or assets, may use and disclose your personal information for similar purposes as those described in this Policy.

● We may be asked to disclose your personal information to meet certain legal, regulatory, insurance, and audit requirements, enforce our Terms and Conditions of Use, respond to claims to the effect that some content breaches the law or the rights of a third person, including intellectual property rights or ensure everyone’s safety and security, and as otherwise with your consent, or as permitted or required by law (including as required by applicable Canadian and foreign laws applicable to us or our Care providers). In particular, without the need for a subpoena, we are entitled to disclose your personal information, including your family name, first name, postal code, email address, telephone number (if available), your browsing history of our Sites, your IP address, and any other information that might seem relevant, in response to a formal request from a regulatory body in connection with a criminal investigation or allegedly illegal activities or any other activity that might expose Carelancer to legal liability.

We may share our data, including personal information about you, with our affiliated companies, potential partners and third-party Care providers that perform services on our behalf such as data hosting, tech development, payment processing, marketing , and processing , to the extent it is necessary for them to complete their function. To the extent that these entities may have access to your information, they are contractually bound to keep personal information confidential and use it only for the purposes for which we disclose it to them. Our affiliated companies, potential partners and third-party Care providers shall follow privacy practices no less protective of all users than our practices described in the Policy. We may share your personal information with our contracted Care providers that participate in our commercial activities.

● We may sell, transfer or otherwise provide your personal information, including any sensitive personal information pertaining to your health, in an anonymized manner to organizations and centres specialized in medical research, for the purpose of providing them with anonymized data for research purposes, in accordance with all applicable privacy laws. Under these circumstances, your personal information will be collated with that of other users in an aggregated and anonymized manner, and shall not be able to be used to identify you. You may withhold or withdraw your consent to the provision of your personal health information to third parties for research purposes. Such withholding or withdrawal of your consent shall not affect your ability to seek and obtain Home Care Services via the Sites, but may affect your overall experience with the Sites and Home Care Services.

In addition, we can disclose your personal information if we have your consent, or as permitted by applicable privacy laws. If your personal information must be disclosed outside your jurisdiction of residence, we will do so in accordance with applicable laws, and ensure our external partners do the same. In such circumstances, governments, courts, law enforcement, or regulatory agencies of that jurisdiction may be able to obtain access to your personal information through the laws of the foreign jurisdiction. Whenever we engage a Care provider, we require that its privacy and security standards adhere to this policy and applicable privacy legislation. By using the Sites, you consent to such disclosure of your personal information outside your jurisdiction of residence.

If a Decision-Maker is associated to your profile, Care providers may, at their discretion and as they deem appropriate, communicate all or part of your personal information to such Decision-Maker, for example to inform them of any change in your medical condition, or notify your Decision-Maker of any suspected abuse. It is your responsibility to ensure that your User profile only lists the relevant Decision-Maker with regards to the Assistance Services you may require. Carelancer shall not be held responsible for any communication of your personal information by a Care provider to a third party, whether a Decision-Maker or otherwise.

5. Ensuring the security of your personal information

Computers located in Ontario retain and process your information. We take reasonable steps to protect the personal information in our custody or control using physical, electronic or administrative security measures that are appropriate having regard to the nature and sensitivity of the information, including firewalls, information filtering and encryption. We use different security techniques to protect collected data against unauthorized access by Carelancer’s internal and external users and we take reasonable measures to limit access to this data to authorized employees and contractors who need to know that information in order to perform, develop or improve our services, and ensure that those authorized employees and contractors are aware of their responsibilities.

Please note that the safety and security of your information is also your responsibility. Your password is an essential tool to ensure the protection of your account. We advise you to create your password with a unique string of numbers, letters and unique special characters and not give it to anyone. If you give your password or your personal information to other people, be advised that you will be held liable for everything done using your account identifiers. If you lose control of your password, you could also lose, to a large extent, the control of your personal information and will have to bear the consequences of legally binding actions taken in your name. If the security or use of your password is compromised, for any reason whatsoever, please notify Carelancer immediately and create a new password. All Carelancer Users and Care providers are encouraged to use multifactor authentication (MFA) to log on to the Sites. Once a User provides their medical records on the Sites, the use of MFA is mandatory.

Despite all our efforts to preserve the confidentiality of your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information transmitted via the Sites, and third persons may illegally intercept information housed on our Sites or our systems’ security may otherwise be breached. In such a case, we cannot be held liable for any loss, corruption or unauthorized disclosure of information that would be beyond our reasonable control.

6. Cookies and other tracking technologies

When you browse our Sites or use our services, we automatically collect information that is sent to us via your computer, your mobile device or, more generally, whatever device you use. The information thus collected may, in particular, include your IP address, your geolocation data, as well as anonymous information collected as a result of our cookies and our web trackers such as the date and time of your visit, the pages you visit, the features you use, the referring URL you came from and which one you go to after, clickstream behaviour (i.e. the pages you view, the links you click, and other actions you take in connection with our Sites), your browser type and selected language.

Cookies are small text files that are stored on your computer’s hard drive and that help us analyze traffic on our Sites’ pages, personalize our services, the content on our Sites and their advertising and gauge the effectiveness of our promotional campaigns. Our Care providers may also download cookies on to your computer to post advertising messages and, on our behalf or on behalf of our advertising partners, gauge the effectiveness of our advertising messages and compile anonymous data on their use by visitors to our Sites. The cookies placed by our server are readable only by us, and cookies cannot access, read or modify any other data on a computer.

Many web browsers allow you to manage your preferences. You can set your browser to refuse cookies or delete certain cookies. You may be able to manage other technologies in the same way that you manage cookies using your browser’s preference. However, in such a case, you might have problems browsing our Sites or using some of their functions.

We also use Google Analytics to better understand who is using our Sites, and how people are using it. Google Analytics uses cookies to collect information such as Sites pages visited, places where users click, time spent on each Sites page, Internet Protocol address, type of operating system used, and location. Please see http://www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/ for information about how Google Analytics uses this information. Google may track your activity over time and across websites. Once again, such information is used to target advertisements and content that may be of interest to you, and also to provide statistical insight through features such as Google Analytics and Google Ads.

In some instances, tracking tools used by third-party Care providers may be disabled. For example, Google allows you to deactivate cookies designed to target ads by accessing the Opt-Out page of its main website. Google Analytics may also be deactivated once you download the browser add-on available for that purpose. You may also decline the use of cookies by other third-party vendors by logging on to the Network Advertising Initiative consumer deactivation page.

Finally, when you download or use one of our mobile applications, or you access one of our mobile-optimized sites, we might receive data on your location and on your mobile device, including a unique identifier of your device. We can then use this information to provide you with services, such as advertisement, research results and other personalized content, taking your location into account. You can use the adjustment menus on most mobile devices to activate or deactivate the location services at your convenience.

7. Links to other sites and voluntary disclosure of personal information

We may offer links to other websites controlled by other entities. We are not responsible for, nor do we accept any liability for how such other entities collect, use, and disclose personal information. You should consult the privacy policies of these other websites before providing any personal information.

Keep in mind that the voluntary disclosure of personal information to a Care provider, whether via the Sites or otherwise, is not covered by this Privacy Policy, so you should always be cautious about giving out your personal information. You provide this information at your own risk. At all times, we advise you to remain cautious and attentive when you are online on the Internet.

8. Accessing, correcting and deleting your information

By law, you have the right to request access to, the correction and/or a copy of the personal information we hold about you. You can post, consult and change most of your personal information by logging on to Carelancer. As a general rule, we do not change your personal information manually as it is very difficult to remotely verify your identity. If your personal information changes or is incorrect, we ask that you update it. You are also allowed to withdraw your consent at any time.

Unless we have your consent to do so and in accordance with applicable laws, we will only retain your information on our servers until it is no longer necessary to provide our services, to prevent fraud, for troubleshooting, to cooperate in connection with any investigation, to comply with the legal requirements prescribed by law and to fulfill any other purposes for which it was collected. Once your personal information is no longer required, we will delete or anonymize it in accordance with applicable laws.

You can delete, upload or update any Sensitive Information from the Sites which is accessible to Care providers. While we have implemented mechanisms to prevent Care providers from downloading or otherwise making a copy of Sensitive Information accessible via the Sites, Care providers with whom you have had contact may have a copy of such Sensitive Information in their own files. We shall not be responsible for the accuracy or existence of any such Sensitive Information which may have been copied from the Sites by a Care provider.

If you have doubts about whether or not we keep a file containing your personal information and you would like confirmation from us, if you want to correct or access information and are unable to do so on your own, or if you want the personal information we hold permanently deleted from our servers, please contact us [email protected]. Note that if you request deletion of certain information or withdraw your consent to the collection of your personal information, we may not be able to provide you with certain services. We will explain the consequences of deletion at that time to assist you in your decision.

Before providing you with access to your information, we may ask you for specific information to help us confirm your identity and right of access, and to provide you with the personal information we hold about you, or to make the requested changes. In some cases, applicable law requires us to refuse to provide you with access to some or all of the personal information we hold about you, or that we may have destroyed, erased or made anonymous in accordance with our legal record-keeping obligations and privacy best practices. If we are unable to provide you with access to your personal information, we will inform you of the reasons why, subject to any legal or regulatory restrictions.

9. Changes to this Privacy Policy

This Policy is effective as of the last updated date above and may be revised from time to time. If we intend to use or disclose personal information for purposes materially different than those described in this Policy, we will make reasonable efforts to notify you of this, including by posting the revised Policy on our Sites or notifying you using the email address you have provided to us. Your continued provision of personal information or use of our Sites following any changes to this Policy constitutes your acceptance of any such changes.

10. Contact us

If you have any questions or concerns about the Policy, or if you wish to make a complaint, please contact our person in charge of the protection of personal information at: [email protected].