Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

The Canadian Academy of Osteopathy and its affiliates (“CAO”, “we”, “us” and “our”) are committed to protecting your privacy and safeguarding Personal Information (defined below).

This Privacy Policy (the “Policy”) outlines how we manage your Personal Information as part of our educational and clinical activities and safeguard the privacy of individuals. “Personal Information” generally means information about an identifiable individual.

By providing us with your Personal Information and/or using our website (the “Site”), you accept this Policy and consent to its terms, as well as any other terms that are described to you when your Personal Information is collected. If you do not consent, please do not use the Site or services, and do not otherwise provide your Personal Information to us.

CAO reserves the right to modify or amend this Policy from time to time and we encourage you to refer back to this Policy regularly to ensure you know our then-current Policy.

2. Information We Collect

Personal Information

We may collect Personal Information verbally or by written correspondence, including in person, faxes, emails and telephone inquiries. Often Personal Information is collected directly from our students and clients. Personal Information may also be obtained from other sources such as insurance companies, investigators, government agencies or registries; and accountants and other consultants.

We may collect the following types of Personal Information about you:

  • Contact Information: name, email address, phone number, mailing and residential address.
  • Application & Enrollment Data: academic history, references, resumes, and other admissions materials.
  • Financial Information: payment details, billing records, and information related to tuition or clinic fees.
  • Health Information: when engaging with our teaching clinic, relevant health history, treatment notes, or clinical assessments.

To the extent that you provide to us with Personal Information about another individual you represent that you have the necessary consent or authority to permit us to collect, use and disclose such Personal Information for the purposes set out in this Policy.

Technical Information

We may use the following technologies and collect the following information that is automatically generated by your use of the Site and recorded by the standard operation of our Internet servers (collectively referred to as “Technical Information”). Technical Information is generally used on an aggregate and anonymized basis that it is not linked to an identifiable individual. If we do use such information to identify an individual, we will treat it as Personal Information in accordance with this Policy.

  • Log Files: Log files make a record of each visit to the Site and log a number of details, including: your operating system; the date, time and duration of the visit; the pages and documents accessed; and the previous site accessed by you (such as, the search engine that referred you to the Site). Such information is collected for aggregated statistical purposes only, such as to track the number of visits to the Site, the number of views to particular pages, time-based traffic patterns, and the proportion of visitors using certain devices. CAO will not attempt to identify users according to their browsing activity through such records.
  • Device Identifiers: A device identifier, such as an IP address, is a distinctive number associated with a device. We may use your device identifier to identify you when you visit the Site to determine repeat visitors and detect and prevent fraudulent activity. By using device identifiers to approximate geographic location (to a city level), we can determine your approximate time zone, and better understand the locations of users.
  • Cookies: Cookies are small text files stored on your computer that identify your IP address to our computers each time you visit the Site. We may use both session cookies (which expire once you close your web browser) and persistent cookies (which stay on your computer until you delete them). We may use cookies to collect and store certain information that details your preferences, in order to facilitate a more personalized browsing experience. We may also use cookies to collect aggregated statistical information, similar to that collected through log files. You can disable or block cookies by following the instructions on your web browser. While you do not need to enable cookies to visit the Site, certain features of the Site depend on the use of cookies. Accordingly, if you choose to block cookies you may not be able to use those features or may lose preferences based on those cookies.
  • Web Beacons: We may use web beacons, also known as pixel tags, clear GIFs or other similar technologies in connection with some of the Site pages and HTML-formatted email messages. This allows us to track the actions of users and email recipients, and compile statistics about our Site and email response rates. These technologies usually work in conjunction with cookies. If you do not want your cookie information to be associated with your visits to these pages, you can disable or block cookies as noted above. If you turn off cookies, web beacons (or similar technologies) will still detect visits to these pages, but the notices they generate cannot be associated with other cookie information and are disregarded.
  • Analytics: We use Google Analytics to provide statistics about the visitors to the Site. Google Analytics tracks and analyzes non-personally identifiable statistical information, including, without limitation, search engines, display advertising, pay-per-click networks, email marketing and digital collateral such as links within PDF documents. For more information about Google Analytics, including instructions on how to control the information collected by Google, see: https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites
  • Geo-location: If you permit us to identify your location when using the Site, we will have access to your location.

3. How We Use Your Information

Personal Information

CAO management, staff and faculty use Personal Information of clients for the purposes of student and client work, such as:

  • Processing applications and managing student enrollment.
  • Delivering educational programs and clinical training.
  • Scheduling and administering clinic appointments.
  • Communicating with you regarding updates, events, or services.
  • Processing payments and maintaining financial records.
  • Meeting legal, regulatory, and accreditation requirements.
  • Enhancing our website functionality and user experience.

If an individual is already a client of CAO, or has been in the past, we maintain their client information to facilitate the provision of ongoing services, or anticipated future service, to comply with our regulatory obligations and for risk management.

In addition, we may use your Personal Information to provide you with updates about our services or other information that we believe to be of relevance to you. Individuals may request that they not receive information from us by clicking on the “unsubscribe” link included in each of those communications or by contacting us as set out below and we will adjust our mailing lists accordingly.

Where CAO shares Personal Information with third party service providers for processing (e.g. for contracted services such as photocopying, computer backup services or archival storage services) or other third party services related to services rendered to and for students and clients, we will attempt to ensure that those third parties agree to only use the Personal Information for the specified purposes and agree to provide a level of protection to the information comparable to that adopted by CAO. Circumstances in which Personal Information may be shared with third parties include:

  • Service Providers: with trusted third parties who assist with payment processing, IT support, or administrative tasks.
  • Legal Compliance: where required by law, regulation, subpoena, or court order.
  • Accreditation/Professional Requirements: when necessary for educational or clinical program compliance.
  • Consent-Based Sharing: where you explicitly authorize disclosure.

Subject to applicable law, we may share or transfer your Personal Information where reasonably required in the context of a prospective or completed sale, merger or other business transaction involving all or part of our business. In any such case, the recipient parties will be contractually required to keep the information confidential and use it only for the purposes of the transaction, or proposed transaction, in question. In the event a business transaction is concluded, assignees or successors of CAO or our business or assets may use and disclose Personal Information only for the purposes as set out this Policy, unless further consent is obtained from you.

Technical Information

Technical Information is used on an aggregate basis and in a non-personally identifiable form for the following purposes: (a) for Site and system administration purposes; (b) to improve the Site; (c) to conduct internal reviews of the number of visitors to the Site; (d) to help us better understand visitors’ use of our Site; (e) to respond to specific requests from our visitors; and (f) to protect the security or integrity of our Site when necessary.

As described above, we share your Technical Information with the Google Analytics analytical platform, to help us understand how you use our Site so that we can enhance your user experience.

4. Personal Information of Minors

We do not knowingly collect Personal Information of minors without parental or legal guardian consent. However, if a minor (as defined by applicable law) provides us with their Personal Information without parental or legal guardian consent, we encourage the parent or legal guardian to contact us to have this information removed from our records.

5. Safeguarding Your Personal Information

CAO takes reasonable precautions to ensure that Personal Information is kept safe from loss or theft, unauthorized copying, use, access, modification or disclosure. Such measures, which may necessarily evolve over time as the availability and effectiveness of methods vary, include physical, organizational and technological safeguards, such as:

  • restricting access to Personal Information to our professionals, staff and third party service providers who need such information in order to facilitate the use of the information that you have consented to, and who are required to abide by this Policy and our privacy and security policies;
  • restricting access to our systems, electronic databases or other electronic formats that may contain Personal Information through password protection and internal security policies; and
  • implementing technical security measures, such as secure servers and encrypted data transmission.

While we take all appropriate steps to safeguard Personal Information under our control, there is an inherent risk involved in the exchange of information using any form of communication, such as via the Internet, email, telephone, fax transmission and courier service. While we employ advanced data encryption technology, you should be aware that there is a residual risk in transmitting any data electronically. Despite our efforts, no security measures are perfect or impenetrable and no method of data transmission can be guaranteed against any interception or other type of misuse. This risk is inherent in all Internet dealings.

We assume no liability for any damages you may suffer as a result of interception, alteration or misuse of information during such transfers.

Your Personal Information may be processed or stored outside of Canada and as a result may be accessible without notice to you by the courts, law enforcement and national security authorities of that jurisdiction.

6. Links to Other Websites

Our Site may provide links or references to websites operated by third parties. These links or references are provided solely as a convenience to you and not as an endorsement by CAO. We are not responsible for the content of linked third-party sites and do not make any representations regarding the content or accuracy of materials on such third party sites. If you decide to access linked third-party sites, you do so at your own risk. This Policy does not extend to the collection of Personal Information by these third parties and we do not assume any responsibility for the privacy practices, policies or actions of third parties. In visiting any third party websites, whether linked to this Site or otherwise, you do so at your own risk and you assume all responsibility in that regard. We make no representations or warranties regarding, and do not endorse, any third party website or any content in such website. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of each website visited before using those websites or disclosing any Personal Information to third parties.

7. Your Privacy Rights

By providing us with your Personal Information, you consent to us using your Personal Information for the purpose(s) set out in this Policy or described to you at the time of collection. Within the scope of our commercial activities, other than as required or permitted by law, your Personal Information will not be used for any other purpose without your consent. You can withdraw your consent to some or all of these uses by contacting our Privacy Office as set out below.

Individuals may also write to our Privacy Officer via the contact information below to request access to Personal Information held about them in order to verify and update it, unless we are permitted or required under applicable laws to refuse your access to such Personal Information. If a request for access or to correct Personal Information is denied, CAO will provide an explanation of the reasons for such refusal.

8. Contact Us

We are accountable for all Personal Information in our custody and control and have designated a Privacy Officer who is responsible for ensuring compliance with this Policy. If you have any questions or concerns about CAO’s Personal Information management practices or wish to exercise your privacy rights, please write to our Privacy Officer at:

Privacy Officer
Canadian Academy of Osteopathy (CAO)
66 Ottawa Street Hamilton, Ontario, L8H 3Z1

e-mail: [email protected]

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