Families Matter Society is committed to safeguarding the personal information entrusted to us by our clients. We manage your personal information in accordance with Alberta’s Personal Information Protection Act and other applicable laws.

This policy outlines the principles and practices we follow in protecting your personal information.
This policy applies to Families Matter Society and to any person providing services on our behalf. A PDF copy of this policy can be downloaded here.

Personal information means information about an identifiable individual. This includes an individual’s name, home address and phone number, age, sex, marital or family status, an identifying number, financial information, educational history, etc.

We collect only the personal information that we need for the purposes of providing services to our clients, including personal information needed to:
• enroll a client in a fully subsidized program
• provide demographic data to our funders
We normally collect client personal information directly from our clients. We may collect your information from other persons with your consent or as authorized by law.

We inform our clients, before or at the time of collecting personal information, of the purposes for which we are collecting the information. The only time we don’t provide this notification is when a client volunteers information for an obvious purpose (for example, registering online for one of our programs).

We use and disclose client personal information only for the purpose for which the information was collected, except as authorized by law. For example, we may use client contact information to complete intake into one of our Individual Support Programs, or send out information to the client about their upcoming registered program.

If we wish to use or disclose your personal information for any new business purpose, we will ask for your consent. We may not seek consent if the law allows this (e.g. the law allows organizations to use personal information without consent for the purpose of collecting a debt).

We make every reasonable effort to ensure that personal information is accurate and complete. We rely on individuals to notify us if there is a change to their personal information that may affect their relationship with our organization. If you are aware of an error in our information about you, please let us know and we will correct it on request wherever possible. In some cases we may ask for a written request for correction.

We protect personal information in a manner appropriate for the sensitivity of the information. We make every reasonable effort to prevent any loss, misuse, disclosure or modification of personal information, as well as any unauthorized access to personal information, including multi-factor authentication for our digital records.

We use appropriate security measures when destroying personal information, including shredding paper records and permanently deleting electronic records.

We retain personal information only as long as is reasonable to fulfil the purposes for which the information was collected or for legal or business purposes.

Individuals have a right to access their own personal information in a record that is in the custody or under the control of Families Matter, subject to some exceptions. For example, organizations are required under the Personal Information Protection Act to refuse to provide access to information that would reveal personal information about another individual.

If we refuse a request in whole or in part, we will provide the reasons for the refusal. In some cases where exceptions to access apply, we may withhold that information and provide you with the remainder of the record.

You may make a request for access to your personal information by writing to the Families Matter Privacy Officer, designated to ensure compliance with PIPA. You must provide sufficient information in your request to allow us to identify the information you are seeking.

You may also request information about our use of your personal information and any disclosure of that information to persons outside our organization. In addition, you may request a correction of an error or omission in your personal information.

We will respond to your request within 45 calendar days, unless an extension is granted. We may charge a reasonable fee to provide information, but not to make a correction. We do not charge fees when the request is for personal employee information. We will advise you of any fees that may apply before beginning to process your request.

Content on this site may include embedded content from outside resources and websites (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.

These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

If you have a question or concern about any collection, use or disclosure of personal information by Families Matter Society or about a request for access to your own personal information, please contact our Privacy Officer.

If you are not satisfied with the response you receive, you should contact the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta:
Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta
Suite 2460, 801 – 6 Avenue, SW
Calgary, Alberta T2P 3W2
Phone: 403-297-2728 Toll Free: 1-888-878-4044
Email: generalinfo@oipc.ab.ca Website: www.oipc.ab.ca

Updated: October 4, 2024