• To share information about the Rick Hansen Institute with stakeholders and those who may be interested in our activities.
• To track and Issue tax receipts for donations received in accordance with Canada Revenue Agency requirements.
• To establish, build, and maintain relationships.
• To process financial transactions (including donations).
• To determine the eligibility of an individual or community to receive a grant and/or to issue grants.
• To use photographs taken at events related to the Rick Hansen Institute in Institute publications including: newsletters, registration forms or on our website.
• To establish, maintain and manage employment relationships between the Rick Hansen Institute and an employee/volunteer.
• To share other peoples' stories in relation to the Rick Hansen Institute and SCI in general.
• To improve our ability to provide services in accordance with our mission.

In order to achieve the above stated purposes, the Rick Hansen Institute collects the following types of information:

• Contact information including name, address, phone number, and email.
• Financial Information required to process donations.
• Spinal cord injury information.
• Photographs to use in future publications including: newsletters, registration forms, and on our website.
• Personal stories (which are voluntarily provided).

Limits on Collection, Use and Disclosure 
The Rick Hansen Institute will only collect, use, and disclose personal information for the purposes stated above and in accordance with both the Personal Information Protection Act and the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act. If we do require your personal information for any purposes other then those for which it was originally obtained, we will first ask for your permission to do so. 

In the case of employee home contact information, no employee is authorized to share this information with anyone outside of the Rick Hansen Institute unless authorized by that employee. In the case of emergency contact information, it is only to be used in the case of an emergency. 

How We Disclose Personal Information 
The only times in which personal information will be disclosed to other organizations is when service providers are contracted on our behalf to process your information or assist us with various other services such as mail distribution and research, if it is to help an individual in receiving a grant or service in accordance with our mission, or if we are required to do so by law. 

In the case where another organization is contracted to process your information or assist us with other services, legally binding confidentiality agreements exist that commit those organizations to strictly adhere to the Rick Hansen Institute's privacy policy. The Rick Hansen Institute will not rent, sell, lease, or barter your information to any organizations or individuals. 

How We Obtain Consent to Collect, Use and Disclose Personal Information
When the Rick Hansen Institute does find it necessary to collect, use and/or disclose personal information, consent to do so will be obtained either through express consent, deemed consent, or by giving an individual opportunity to decline consent. 

Express Consent signifies that an individual, knowing what personal information is being collected and for what purposes, willingly agrees to the information being collected, used and disclosed as notified. 

Deemed Consent is when an individual provides information for a purpose that, at the time, would be considered obvious to a reasonable person. 

Consent by not declining consent is when an individual has been given a reasonable opportunity to decline consent when they have been given an easy to understand notice of why their information is being collected, used or disclosed prior to the time of collection. 

The Rick Hansen Institute will make every effort to notify an individual of the purpose for collection, use or disclosure of personal information and give a reasonable chance to refuse consent and/or to withdraw consent at a later date. Only extenuating circumstances which are in the best interests of donors/participants will permit the contacting of participants whom have opted out of being on our contact list.

This form of  contact will only be intended for administrative and non-solicitation purposes upon review and approval by one Institute director as well as the  Institute's privacy officer. In the case of photographs or information collected at school events, consent to use this information will be acquired from the school in accordance with its privacy policies and practices. In the case of photographs and film taken by the Rick Hansen Institute at other private events, signs will be placed at the entrances and other visually accessible places to notify people that this will be taking place, what the photographs and film will be used for, and that give the contact information for the privacy officer or delegate should that person wish to not have their photo used or disclosed. 

At any time after collection, an individual may withdraw their consent by giving a reasonable amount of notice to the Rick Hansen Institute. The only time that consent cannot be withdrawn is when it would frustrate the performance of a legal proceeding as required under Part 6 Section 18(1)(i) and (j) of the Personal Information Protection Act of BC. 

By withdrawing consent, the consequence may be the inability of the Rick Hansen Institute to provide certain services which require the use of certain types of personal information. 

For employee personal information, PIPA allows the Rick Hansen Institute to use or disclose certain types of personal information without consent if it is reasonable for the purposes of establishing, managing or terminating an employment relationship with an individual. Employees will be notified of the collection, use, and disclosure of their personal information. 

Retention of Personal Information
The Rick Hansen Institute acts in accordance with the Canada Revenue Agency’s guidelines for retaining donor information for a time period of six years from the end of the year in which the donation was made. Any other personal information used to make a decision about an individual will be retained for a minimum of one year in accordance with PIPA and PIPEDA. Permission for use or disclosure of this information can be withdrawn at any time.  

Accuracy of Information 
The Rick Hansen Institute strives to ensure that any personal information in our custody is accurate and up to date. In most instances we rely on individuals to notify us of any changes to their information.

Security and Protection of Online Donation Information
The Rick Hansen Institute maintains appropriate security measures to safeguard personal information depending upon the sensitivity of the information and how it is stored. Measures include locked cabinets, restricted access to certain records, the use of passwords, the use of encryption, and legally binding confidentiality agreements with all staff members.

Use of "Cookies"
Just like many other websites, the Rick Hansen Institute uses a standard technology called a "cookie." Cookies are small pieces of information that a website can send to a visitor's browser for statistical purposes. When visitors surf our website a small text file called a "cookie" could be placed onto their hard drives. Our cookies identify the number of visitors to different sections of the website, visitors' browser types, time and length of visits, pages accessed, places of origin, and visitors' Internet protocol (IP) addresses. They do not collect other personal information about our visitors. Our use of cookies is solely intended to improve and enhance the experience of returning users by understanding our visitors' preferences, measure website activity, and prevent abuse in online forums.

Most web browsers automatically accept cookies. Users can be notified when this happens, or prevent it from occurring, by setting the appropriate browser selections.

Use of Internet Protocol (IP) Addresses
The Rick Hansen Institute uses IP addresses to assist in diagnosing server problems. We reserve the right to perform statistical analyses of user behavior and characteristics, to measure interest in and user traffic patterns to the various sections of our website, to prevent abuse in our online forums, and to help us improve design, layout and navigation.

Links to Other Websites
The Rick Hansen Institute website contains links to other websites that may be of interest to the visitor to our site. By providing these linkages, the Rick Hansen Institute is not responsible for the privacy practices, content, transactions, and functioning of the linkages of these sites. Users submitting information to these third party websites should review the privacy statements of these sites before providing them with personally identifiable information.

Policy Updates and Changes
We review our privacy practices regularly and annually. As a result, changes to this privacy policy may be made from time to time. The most current policy can be accessed on our website or by contacting the Rick Hansen Institute office.

Privacy Officer
In order to oversee compliance with this Privacy Policy and to address privacy issues or concerns the Rick Hansen Institute has designated a privacy officer. At times, the Privacy Officer may designate other individuals to act on his/her behalf. You may contact the Privacy Officer at:

Rick Hansen Institute
6th Floor, 818 West 10th Avenue
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V5Z 1M9