Information collection on our website

By browsing “www.safec.ca” without having registered to the website or by accessing the website from a personalized communication, you are browsing anonymously. Personal information–such as your name, address, phone number or e-mail address–is not collected as you browse. By registering for an online service, by accessing the SAFEC website from an e-mail or other personalized communication sent to you, or by providing us with personal information, you give SAFEC permission to identify you.

For both anonymous and known visitors to our website, SAFEC collects information on the server your computer is logged onto, the domain name of your Internet service provider and your IP address.

The cookies on your computer do not contain your name but an IP address. An IP address is a number automatically assigned to your computer that is required to access the Internet. When the user terminates the session, SAFEC no longer has access to the information contained in the cookies. SAFEC can also store information on the geographic region associated with your IP address.

SAFEC occasionally uses cookies in combination with “web beacons” or similar technologies to collect data on the use of our website, such as average time spent on the website, pages viewed, information searched, access time, response rates to online or email advertising, and other relevant information about your experience online. If you are an anonymous visitor, information described in this paragraph does not identify you.

SAFEC uses tracking technology (cookies) to collect personal information such as the type of browser (e.g. Netscape or Internet Explorer), operating system, landing page, path through the site system, ISP domain, etc. in order to understand how visitors use this website. Cookies help us tailor this website to your personal needs. SAFEC stores all the information collected from cookies in a format that does not identify you.

SAFEC uses third-party cookies that are set by third parties for various services (e.g. website analytics or advertising).

Please ensure that your browser parameters indicate whether you want to accept cookies or not. You can set your browser to warn you before accepting cookies or you can simply set it to refuse them. In the latter case, it is possible that you may not have access to all the features of this website. To proceed, click the “Help” button on your browser. You do not need to have set your browser to accept cookies in order to use or browse many parts of this website or other websites. Remember, you will need to ensure that each browser is set to reflect your cookies preferences if you use different computers in different locations.

Collected data provided on a voluntary basis

In order to provide you a particular online product or service, we request that you provide us with personal information, including your email address, your name and contact information for the following purposes: opening your “User Account,” subscribing to our “Newsletter,” participating in online surveys and otherwise enabling us to provide online products or services to you in an efficient manner. As noted above, you allow SAFEC to identify you by registering for an online service or product, accessing our website from an email or other personalized communication, or providing SAFEC with personal information.

We only collect personal information that YOU want to provide us or that we require to offer you our services and to improve them. We collect direct personal information such as name, address and email address as well as indirect information such as cookies and information associated with the connection and systems.

You may want to provide us your email address, name and phone number so that we may provide you with information on our products, register you in contests or surveys, or simply notify you of the exciting progress at SAFEC.

You can be confident that SAFEC takes all the necessary measures to keep your personal information private and secure.

Use of information obtained on an anonymous basis

SAFEC uses information collected through your use of our website and through cookies, web beacons and similar technologies in order to monitor how our website is used. This helps us make improvements, customize offers, analyze the effectiveness of such offers and personalize the SAFEC website.

Use of information provided on a voluntary basis

When you register, make a request or identify yourself in any other way online, you allow SAFEC to personalize its communications and offers, and provide a more effective experience by recognizing you when you visit our website. This information also assists us in responding to your requests, providing products and services that you have requested and notifying you of account, product or service updates.

SAFEC may store in its database (i.e. marketing database for client relations) the personal information sent to us via this website. SAFEC only retains personal information as long as is reasonably necessary, taking into consideration our need to answer queries or resolve problems, provide new and improved services, and to comply with legal requirements under applicable laws. Thus, we may retain your personal information for a reasonable period after you stop using SAFEC’s services or this website. After this period, your personal information will be deleted from all SAFEC systems.

Safety and confidentiality of your personal information

SAFEC takes all the necessary measures to keep your personal information confidential and secure. Only authorized SAFEC staff, third-party staff (not part of SAFEC, i.e. service providers) or authorized staff of our business partners (who have contractually agreed to keep all information secure) have access to your personal information. In addition, contracts were signed with third parties who have access to your personal information to ensure that the information remains confidential. In order to protect your personal information, SAFEC maintains a secure IT environment and has implemented appropriate measures to prevent unauthorized access (i.e. piracy).

Your personal information will be used for the purposes for which they were provided as well as to manage and sustain the level of our services, obtain feedback, and to prevent breaches in security, law, or contract terms

You have the right to request all the information we have stored about you. To request that your personal information be deleted, corrected or revised, email info@safec.ca, telephone 1 877 461-1583 (Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. EST) or write to 5255 Henri-Bourassa West, Suite 410, Ville Saint-Laurent, Quebec, Canada, H4R 2M6.

Links between the SAFEC website and other websites

SAFEC links to other website to offer you an opportunity to review interesting information related to SAFEC. These third party (non-SAFEC) website are outside of our control and are not covered by this Privacy Policy. If you access other websites using the links provided, the operators of these websites may collect your personal information. Please ensure that you are satisfied with the privacy policies of these third party websites before you submit any personal information. SAFEC tries, as best as possible, to ensure that all non-SAFEC linked website have equivalent measures for the protection of your personal information, but we cannot be held responsible legally or otherwise for the activities, privacy policies or levels of privacy compliance of these third parties.

Use of email and declining email offers

If you provide us with your email address, or have done so in the past, we may send you marketing offers, our "Newsletter" or provide services to you if you are a member. When we send you emails, we may be able to identify information about your email address such as whether you can read graphic-rich HTML emails. If your e-mail address is HTML-enabled, we may choose to send you graphic-rich HTML emails.

We do not provide your email address to third parties without your consent. The agreement between SAFEC and its commercial partners is clear as to the formulation of the clause that states that:  "SAFEC will not permit any form of solicitation of its "members," "users" or "visitors" by its partners, suppliers or collaborators unless expressly authorized by the "members," "users" or "visitors."" 

However, it is essential to know that if you accept an offer from one of SAFEC's commercial partners, and become its client, the latter can send you messages or offers by email. In this case, you will need to inform them separately if you wish to decline receiving future emails from them.

Users, members and visitors can easily decline receiving email offers or other messages. Although some clients tell us they appreciate receiving these emails, we recognize the importance of giving you a choice. At any time, you may request to discontinue receiving these emails and messages by writing to cancelsubscription@safec.ca, by clicking on the opt-out link usually located in the footer of the email or simply by replying to the email and typing "Unsubscribe" in the subject line.

You can be confident that SAFEC takes all the necessary measures to keep your personal information private and secure.

Email Marketing

Spamming is when unsolicited emails are sent to you containing advertisements or marketing material without your consent.

SAFEC DOES NOT SEND SPAM EMAILS. SAFEC itself uses an anti-SPAM tool to protect our employees from SPAM. Sending emails without consent is illegal in many countries. SAFEC will not use your personal information (including your email address) for direct marketing or follow-up communications unless you give us your EXPRESS permission. This is called "OPT-IN" consent.

Also, SAFEC does not share your personal information with any third party (non-SAFEC) company who might use your personal information for SPAM emails.

The SAFEC website gives you the opportunity to receive marketing information by email. Every email sent by SAFEC will give you the opportunity at any time to stop receiving marketing emails.

If for any reason you believe you have received SPAM emails from SAFEC, please inform us immediately at the address provided.

There have been cases of emails sent to individuals or organizations falsely purporting to be from SAFEC or a partner organization of SAFEC. These scams may ask you for information such as username or password and even sums of money in return for more money or other benefits such as winning a SAFEC contest or promotion in return.

These emails sometimes look quite convincing because they have a SAFEC or SAFEC brand logo or come from an email address that looks as if it could be from SAFEC.

In any case, these emails are false and are not at all associated with SAFEC itself or any partner organizations. Therefore, we strongly suggest that you make sure of the authenticity of such mails (or any other communication) before sending any reply. Furthermore, SAFEC strongly suggests that you do not send money or any other information; it is simply not SAFEC's policy to ask for money or other information in return for winnings, prizes, job interviews or any sort of registration.

If you are worried about an email that you have received, please write to info@safec.ca to notify us of such incidents and take action against these people. You may also inform or ask your Internet service provider for advice or help.

About cookies and related technologies

A cookie is a small piece of information that a website transfers to the hard drive of a visitor’s computer for record-keeping purposes. A web beacon, also known as a "clear GIF" (a common format for image files), is an invisible file located on web pages that you visit. They are often used in combination with a cookie to track the navigation of a website. If you visit a page that contains a web beacon, it communicates with your computer to determine, among other things, whether you have been to that page before or viewed a particular advertisement.

A cookie is used to help a website distinguish a user's browser as a previous visitor and thus save and remember any preferences that may have been set while the user was browsing the site. Cookies can also be used to collect information about how websites are used and help to manage online advertising by enabling us to understand which ads bring users to our website and tailor offers on this and other websites on which we advertise.

Cookies do not contain information that identifies you personally. A cookie cannot retrieve any other data from your hard drive, pass on computer viruses or capture your email address or other personal information. SAFEC uses both session cookies and permanent cookies at www.safec.ca.

Session cookies are only active during the period that you are logged onto the SAFEC website and are removed when you leave. We use session cookies to maintain security, to facilitate your session and to keep track of the sections of the website that have been visited. This temporary cookie allows us to better serve you by enhancing your visit in accordance with your selected preferences.

Permanent cookies remain on your hard drive until you remove them through your browser’s internet security settings. Permanent cookies are used to provide a more comfortable and personalized online experience. They store user preferences such as language, thus eliminating having to specify the same preferences on each visit.

If you become a registered user on SAFEC's website (with a designated user ID and password), we use permanent cookies so that we can provide customized information that we believe will be of value to you based on indicated preferences and, other information we have about you as a SAFEC user or member.

It is possible to set your browser to inform you when a cookie is being placed; this way, you have the opportunity to decide whether to accept the cookie. If you are just browsing our website and are not a registered user, you do not have to accept a cookie and you may still continue to use the site. However, if you will be accessing your confidential account information (such as your "user account"), you must accept our website's cookies as they are essential for website administration and security. By accepting a cookie, your choice to decline email offers or other messages remains unaffected.