Privacy Statement

Skills Enhancement for Public Health "Building a Solid Foundation for Public Health Practice"

• Our Commitment
• Identifying Purpose, Collection and Use of Information
• Limiting Collection
• Information Sharing, Disclosure and Retention
• Data Integrity
• Information Security
• Openness and Individual Access
• Challenging Compliance
• Contacting us

The Skills Enhancement for Public Health program is committed to respecting your privacy and protecting your personal information. This Privacy Statement explains the current information management practices on our websites.  This statement uses the federal Privacy Act (PA) as its foundation and legal basis.  However for a comprehensive policy on privacy, the Canadian Standard Association’s principles on privacy are adhered to where possible.

Our Commitment – The Skills Enhancement program is fully committed to protecting the information that is gathered as a result of your participation in our online modules and also respects your privacy. Your personal information is protected under the federal Privacy Act, which means that you have the right to be informed of why your personal information is being collected.  You can also challenge the accuracy of the information we have about you in our files.  

Identifying Purpose, Collection and Use of Information – The Skills Enhancement  program provides access to online modules at no charge to frontline public health practitioners in Canada.  This online continuing education program contributes to improving the public health infrastructure across Canada, by developing a highly skilled public health workforce, able to respond to current and emerging threats to health across Canada.  As such, the information you provide when you register for a module serves the following purposes:

1. Program administration:  It provides a means to uniquely identify you as an individual who has registered and completed our modules. 
2. Mobilizing the public health workforce:  This makes it possible to identify public health practitioners across Canada who have developed knowledge, skills and abilities in specific areas through the Skills Enhancement program.  In a public health emergency, provinces/ territories and local organizations will be able to mobilize effective public health human resources and respond to public health crises.
3. Identify points of contact:  Screened and subsequently eligible participants can consult other participants or program champions from their region, province/territory in order to gather information on the Skills Enhancement modules, resources and local implementation.
4. Program evaluation:  To periodically solicit participant feedback on module content in order to continuously improve the program. 

Information collected from participants will be used by the Skills Enhancement Program only for the purposes identified above. 

Limiting Collection – We shall not collect personal information indiscriminately.    You are not monitored upon visiting our website.  The information collected shall be limited to that which is necessary to fulfill the purposes identified above.  The personal information collected will be limited to the data requested for registration on our website.  However we have no control over the personal information that you willingly choose to share with other participants within the various components of the program such as email, online chat and discussion boards.  However, these forms of communication will not be shared outside of the program.

 Information Sharing, Disclosure and Retention – Personal information shall not be used or disclosed for purposes other than those for which it was collected, except with the consent of the individual or as allowed or required by law.  Personal information will not be disclosed to persons or organization(s) outside the Skills Enhancement program unless it pertains to items 2, through 4 of “Identifying Purpose, Collection and Use” or unless it is in accordance with section 8(2) of the Privacy Act.  Personal information will only be shared with provincial/ territorial and federal government public health agencies and organizations in the event of a public health crisis and subsequent human resource mobilization to respond to such crises.  We realize that participants will always have a need to access their grades for the modules they have taken.  We have an obligation to be able to provide this information.

Data Integrity – The Skills Enhancement program processes personal information only for the purposes for which it was collected.  We review our information collection, storage and registration practices to ensure that we only collect, store and process the personal information necessary to access and improve our program.  We take reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information we process at registration is complete, but we also depend on our participants to update and correct their personal information when necessary.

Information Security – We take appropriate measures to protect against unauthorized access and disclosure of your personal information.  The information collected will only be accessed by Skills Enhancement program employees and third party administrator.  The third party administrator handles participant registration and administers the modules on behalf of the Skills Enhancement program. If you have any questions or concerns in regards to our Administrator and this policy, please do not hesitate to contact us using the information provided below.  No other parties external to the Public Health Agency of Canada and the third party administrator will have access to your information.  All individuals having access to the information will be security cleared at the Enhanced Reliability Level. The Skills Enhancement program, along with the third party administrator uses security safeguards to protect your information such as the use of unique User ID’s and passwords.  These security safeguards also include the use of security software and encryption protocols and involve physical, technical and procedural controls to protect your personal information.

Openness and Individual Access – The Skills Enhancement program encourages everyone that participates in the modules to be informed about our information practices.  You may contact us if you have any concerns in this regard.

You may at anytime verify the information we have on file for you by contacting us at the address below. You will then have an opportunity to correct any information that is not up to date. 

Challenging Compliance – An individual shall be able to address an administrative challenge concerning compliance and adherence to the above principles.  If such an administrative process does not sufficiently address the issue, a formal request can be made under the Access to Information Act or a formal complaint can be registered through the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, which will result in an official investigation.

Contacting us – For questions or comments regarding these practices or to address an administrative challenge, you may contact us via email at:

 skills_privacy@Phac-aspc.gc.ca

Or write to us at:

Privacy
Skills Enhancement for Public Health
130 Colonnade Road,
Room 398B A.L. 6503B
Nepean, Ontario
K1A 0K9

To address a formal complaint to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, please follow the link to the Privacy Commissioner’s website at:  

http://www.privcom.gc.ca/index_e.asp