British Columbia Crown Counsel Association Privacy Policy

Last updated: December 15, 2024

Introduction and Purpose

The British Columbia Crown Counsel Association (the “Association” or “we”) is committed to respecting and protecting the privacy of your personal information.

The Association’s collection, use, disclosure, retention, protection and disposal of personal information is regulated primarily by British Columbia’s Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA), and Societies Act.

This Privacy Policy provides our members, as well as any other users of the bcprosecutors.com website (“Website”), with information about:

• When this Privacy Policy does and does not apply;
• How we collect personal information;
• The purposes for which we use and disclosure your personal information;
• How we protect personal information;
• How long we keep the personal information we collect and why;
• How we ensure that the personal information that we use or disclose is accurate;
• How to request access to and/or correction of personal information we hold that is about you;
• Who you can contact at the Association to discuss our Privacy Policy and practices; and
• How to challenge our compliance with applicable privacy laws.

Scope

Personal information means information about an identifiable individual that is not the individual’s business contact information or work product information.

This Privacy Policy applies to all personal information that we collect from our members, whether via the Website, via email, through online surveys that we may administer from time to time, and otherwise.

This Privacy Policy also applies to the personal information that we collect from non-members via the Website.

This Privacy Policy does not apply to any personal information that our members may collect, use and disclose in the course of their employment as Crown counsel. Any such collection, use and disclosure falls within the responsibility of the BC Prosecution Service, of which the Deputy Attorney General of British Columbia is the head (“BCPS”). The BCPS is regulated primarily by the Crown Counsel Act and, where applicable, by the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

Collecting Your Personal Information

Members only

By and large, all personal information that we collect about you is collected directly from you. We do collect information about the fact of your employment with the BC Prosecution Service indirectly from your employer, who is legally required to provide that information to us. We subsequently verify that information with you.

(a) Personal information the Societies Act requires the Association to collect:

We are required by Part 3, Division 2 of the Societies Act to collect and maintain the following information about our members:

• A register of directors, which must contain the following information about each director:
  • Name;
  • Contact information as provided by each director;
  • The date each director was designated, elected or appointed, as the case may be;
  • The date each director ceased to hold office;
• A copy of each director’s disclosure of direct or indirect material interests that the director is required to provide to the Association;
• A copy of each senior manager’s disclosure of direct or indirect material interests that the senior manager is required to provide to the Association
• The written consent of each director to act as a director, which includes the director’s signature;
• A register of members, which must contain the name and contact information provided by each member

(b) Personal information we collect via surveys

From time to time, we administer surveys of our members, including surveys that relate to the mental health and well-being of our members. Responding to any such survey is completely voluntary on the part of each member. Each survey will be accompanied by a notice that will explain the purpose of the survey, whether the Association will collect the survey responses in a manner that is anonymous or that identifies the responding member, and the purposes for which the survey responses may be used and disclosed.

(c) Personal information submitted via the Member Portal and various Members’ Forums

Members are requested to create an online account in order to be able to access certain “Members Only” portions, programs or features of the Website. Registration for an online account requires that each member provide us with their name, email address and region, and create a password.

The “Members Only” portion of the Website includes various discussion forums, where members can exchange information, including personal information if the member chooses to provide it. As the administrator of the Website and these discussion forums, the Association has access to the information supplied by members via these forums.

(d) Personal information submitted in the context of a job action

In the event of a possible job action, which may involve our administration of job action-related compensation, we may require members to provide us with certain financial and other personal information. We will specify to you exactly what personal information we require if and when a job action appears likely to occur. In cases where a request for compensation is made on the basis of hardship, we will require you to provide us with sufficient personal information to assess the level of hardship and determine any appropriate compensation to award on this basis.

Non-members only

We collect personal information directly from you when you contact a member of our executive or one of our directors using the email addresses that are made available on the “Contacts” page on the Website. Specifically, we will collect your email address, your name (if you choose to provide it), and the content of your email query.

Members and Non-members – Automated collection of information

We may automatically collect some non-personal information about your visit to our Website, such as your IP address, the type of Internet browser you are using, or the website from which you linked to our Website (e.g. a search engine website such as Google or Bing). We refer to this information as “Site Usage Information”.

We also use cookies and may use web beacons on our Website. To learn more about this, please refer to Site Usage Information, Cookies and Web Beacons subsection in this Privacy Policy, and to the “Cookies and Web Beacons” section of our Terms of Use.

Use and Disclosure of Your Personal Information

We may use and disclose the personal information that we collect about you, as well as Site Usage Information, for the purposes of managing our relationship with you and maintaining the Website, as described in more detail below:

(a) Members

We will use and disclose your personal information for the following purposes:

• To comply with our legal obligations under the Societies Act and other applicable laws;
• To authenticate your eligibility to be a registered member of the Association;
• To reconcile and collect membership dues;
• To provide you with information that is pertinent to all Association members;
• To administer surveys and to use and disclose survey results in the manner and for the specific purposes that are disclosed in advance as part of the survey process;
• To administer the Website and to moderate the discussion forums;
• To respond to your queries and/or to assist you with issues regarding your employment that are consistent with the purposes and mandate of the Association;
• In the event of job action, to administer and pay any job action-related compensation, including, without limitation, on a hardship basis; and
• To the extent not listed here, for purposes that we will explain to you at the time of collecting your personal information, and for which we will seek your consent.

(b) Non-Members

If you are not a member of the Association and you email one of our executive members or directors with a query, we will use your name, email address and any other personal information you may provide to us solely for the purpose of, and to the limited extent necessary to respond to your query.

(c) Site Usage Information, Cookies and Web Beacons

With the exception of dealing with user misconduct on our Website, as discussed in the section immediately below, we will not attempt to connect the collected Site Usage Information to you as an identifiable individual. We only use this information, or disclose it to our service providers in a non-personal, aggregated form, in order to assist us in providing effective services via our Website.

A cookie is a small file containing certain pieces of information that a website creates when you visit the site. It can track how and when you use a site, which site you visited immediately before, and it can store that information about you. Cookies cannot be used to run programs or deliver viruses to your computer. There are two types of cookies, session cookies and persistent cookies.

Our website uses session cookies to facilitate members’ logging in to the members portal by tracking the login information entered. Session cookies are stored in temporary memory and are not retained after you sign out or close the browser session.

Our website also uses persistent cookies when you opt-in to use the “Remember Me” function of the members portal. If you choose this option, the persistent cookie will remain in place, or “persist”, in order to reauthenticate you when you access the members portal in future.

You can choose to have your computer warn you each time a cookie is being sent or you can choose to turn off all cookies through your browser’s settings. Please note that if you disable cookies in your browser, some of our Website’s features that make your site experience more efficient will be disabled and some of our services will not function properly.

“Web beacons” or clear .gifs are small pieces of code placed on a web page to monitor the behaviour and collect data about the visitors viewing a web page. For example, web beacons can be used to count the users who visit a web page or to deliver a Cookie to the browser or a visitor viewing that page. We may use web beacons on the Website from time to time for this purpose.

Some web browsers may transmit “do-not-track” (“DNT”) signals to the websites with which the user communicates. Because of differences in how web browsers incorporate and activate this feature, it is not always clear whether users intend for these signals to be transmitted, or whether they are even aware of them. We currently do not change our tracking practices (which are explained in more detail under “Site Usage Information” above) in response to DNT settings in your Web browser.

(d) Website User Misconduct

If you are using the Website and you engage or attempt to engage in behaviour that is in breach of the User Conduct requirements of our Terms of Use, we may use and disclose your personal information as and to the extent necessary to put a stop to this behaviour and to protect our Website and our rights therein.

Retention of Personal Information

If we use your personal information to make a decision that directly affects you, we will retain your personal information used to make that decision for at least one year after we use it, so that you have the opportunity to request access to that information.

For members, if we have collected your personal information in order to comply with the requirements of the Societies Act (e.g. the register of directors, the register of members, and the disclosure of direct or indirect material interests provided by directors and senior managers), we are required by the Societies Act to retain that information for at least 10 years after the record of the personal information is no longer relevant to the activities or internal affairs of the Association.

Otherwise, we do not retain your personal information longer than is necessary to fulfill the purposes identified above, unless a longer retention period is required by law.

Access to Society Records and Personal Information

Under the Societies Act, any member or director of the Association has the right to inspect a record that the Association is required to keep pursuant to section 20(1) of the Act. Directors also have a right to inspect, and members may request to inspect a record that the Association is required to keep pursuant to section 20(2) of the Act. Member requests to inspect any section 20(2) records will be determined by the Association Board in its sole discretion.

Under PIPA, where or not you are a member of the Association, you have to right to request access to your own personal information that the Association holds in its custody or control. This right to access, which is subject to limited exceptions, includes the following rights:

• The right to access your personal information;
• The right to receive information about the ways that your personal information has been used; and
• The names of the individuals and organizations to which the Association has disclosed your personal information.

To make a request for inspection of the Association’s records or access to your personal information, please provide your written request to Jennifer Johnston at JJohnston@bcprosecutors.com. Please note that, prior to disclosing your personal information to you, the Association reserves to right to require you to prove your identity to us.

If we are going to charge a fee for inspection or access, we will tell you what that fee (or fee estimate) will be in advance.

If you are requesting access to your personal information, we will generally respond to your request within 30 business days and, if there is information that we are not providing to you, we will explain why in writing. We will also provide you with options for challenging our response should you disagree.

Accuracy of Your Personal Information

We make reasonable efforts to ensure that the personal information in our custody or control is accurate and complete if we plan to use or disclose it for any of the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy.

If we are simply retaining your information for the appropriate retention period, but we have no further plans to use or disclose your personal information for any purpose, other than to provide you with access to your personal information on your request, we will not take any steps to update your personal information unless you request a correction.

We rely on you to inform us of any changes to your personal information. To update your personal information, or to request a correction of the personal information we hold about you, please contact Jennifer Johnston at JJohnston@bcprosecutors.com.

Protecting Your Personal Information

We take reasonable steps, using technical, administrative and contractual measures to protect personal information in our custody or under our control. Access to personal information is limited to those Association board members and service providers who need access to carry out the purposes for which the information was collected and otherwise as described in this Policy. Board and executive members are required to comply with their obligations to maintain and protect personal information, and to use and disclose it only as permitted by our policies.

No data transmission over the Internet or data storage system can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. While we strive to use reasonable precautions to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.

Third Party Websites

Our Website may include links to other third-party websites. 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 Website may provide links.

Changes and Updates

This Privacy Policy is effective as of the date listed at the top of this page.

The Association has the discretion to update this Privacy Policy at any time. You can verify if this Privacy Policy has changed by checking the last updated date that appears at the beginning of this Privacy Policy. We encourage you to frequently check this page for any changes and to stay informed about our practices with respect to the collection, use, disclosure and protection of the personal information we collect.

We may, but are not obligated to, provide you with notice in case of any material changes made to this Privacy Policy. You should not continue using our services if you do not agree with the version of this Privacy Policy in effect at that time. Any changes will be effective only after the effective date of the change and will not affect any dispute arising prior to the effective date of the change.

Questions or Concerns?

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or our personal information practices, or if you have a concern about how we may have handled your personal information, please contact Jennifer Johnston at JJohnston@bcprosecutors.com.

If you are not satisfied with how the Association deals with your question or concern, or how we respond to your request for access to or correction of your personal information, you have a right to ask the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia (“OIPC”) to review our practices. You can access information on how to request a review