Privacy policy

WHAT DOES THE CURRENT POLICY COVER?

This Confidentiality and Privacy Policy (“Policy”) covers the handling of information about identifiable persons (“Personal Information”) and other information collected by the Gatineau Hot Air Balloon Festival (“Festival”, “we” and “our”) when you use or access our Services (Web site, social networks, online shop, newsletter). This Policy also covers the treatment of Personal Information that the Festival may share with its business partners or other third parties under a very few circumstances. This Policy does not apply to general practices or to the treatment of information by third parties not employed or controlled by the Festival.

This Policy does not cover Personal Information that you may provide to the Festival by any non-secure means, including email, messenger or Twitter, given that such communications are vulnerable to interception, loss or modification. We encourage you to carefully check any Personal Information you send to the Festival through such means.

We are committed to protecting your Personal Information and to letting you know how it is used, in accordance with the terms and conditions indicated below.

This Policy only applies to data compiled and transactions completed on the Festival Web site (“Site”). This Policy does not apply to the Web sites of third parties or mobile apps that may be linked to the Festival Site. Activating those links takes you away from the Site. The Site and the Festival have no control over the Web sites of third parties or mobile apps, and the fact that they are listed on the Site does not imply any liability for the Festival. Any Personal Information you provide to these Web sites and apps is subject to the privacy policies of those Web sites and mobile apps. Hence, the Festival may not be held liable for any resulting abuse or for the manner in which the organizations that administer those Web sites and mobile apps collect, use, disclose or handle your Personal Information. In that regard, it is recommended that you carefully review the confidentiality and privacy policy of those other Web sites and mobile apps.

COLLECTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

The Festival does not automatically collect Personal Information when you access its Services through the Site, unless you are asked to provide such information, for instance when registering for the newsletter. Any time you provide information that way, it will only be used for the stated purpose.

Personal Information may be downloaded from Site when you wish to connect to an integrated third party’s service through the Site or an app, such as Facebook or Instagram (“Integrated Third Party Services”), but such information is not collected or kept by the Festival, and is only used for the stated purpose, that is to say to connect to the Integrated Third Party Services.

When you use online shopping to purchase wristbands, the Festival collects the following Personal Information: name, email address, credit card information and billing information, including the address and phone number. That information is only used for the following purposes: to process the credit card payment, to contact you in case of a cancellation, postponement or any other significant change in an event, or for advertising or marketing, but only with your consent.

When you execute a transaction, we will send you our newsletter for the next 24 months. After that, if you have not registered, we will not send you any more until you do. You can also request that we stop sending you the newsletter at any time by emailing us at info@festivalfmg.ca or calling us at (819-243-2330).

SECURITY OF THE INFORMATION

We only use the best industry practices when it comes to the safe handling of the information collected. That includes the HTTPS/SSL/TLS (Secure Socket Layer) policy in regard to the purchase of wristbands and the authentication and transfer of data to Integrated Third Party Services. In addition, the Festival uses third party suppliers and hosting partners to provide the equipment, software, networks, storage and related technology required to execute the Services, and those suppliers are selected based on their high security standards.

LIMITED COLLECTION OF INFORMATION FOR STATISTICS AND SECURITY

The Festival automatically collects certain information using third party data analytics software—Google Analytics—to help us understand how our users employ the Services, but none of that information can be used to identify you personally. For example, every time you visit the Festival Site or use the Services, we automatically collect your IP address, browser type, computer operating system, access time, the Web site you came from, and the Web site(s) you accessed (if applicable). We only use that information to better understand your needs and those of the Service users in general. The Festival also uses the information collected for statistical purposes, to track the number of hits on the Site and the specific pages on that site in order to make any necessary improvements.

Your IP address and other pertinent information can be used to track any fraudulent or criminal activity, as well as any activity that violates the Terms and Condition of Use.

NON DISCLOSURE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION TO THIRD PARTIES

Notwithstanding any provision to the contrary in the following paragraphs, the Festival does not disclose to third parties any Personal Information collected through the Services. Moreover, the Festival does not sell to third parties any information about its users. Only employees, representatives, sub-contractors and agents of the Festival are responsible for managing and developing the Services, and only they have access to the information collected there. Those employees, representatives, sub-contractors and agents are all required to comply with the Policy.

Notwithstanding any provision to the contrary in this Policy, we may share the information that we collect about you or that you submit: (1) if ordered to do so by a court or an appropriate authority, or in good faith contingent on the fact that the action is required to comply with any law or regulation in effect or to create, protect or exercise our legal rights or to defend ourselves against a claim or legal request; (2) if we determine that it is necessary to do so in order to investigate, prevent or take steps concerning illegal activities, fraud, situations involving potential threats to the safety of a person; (3) if we determine that it is necessary to do so in order to investigate, prevent or take steps concerning situations that involve abuse of the infrastructure of the Services or the Internet in general (e.g. voluminous spam, denial of service attacks, attempts to undermine the security of the Site infrastructure or of the Services in general); (4) with a parent company, subsidiaries, joint ventures or other companies under common control with the Festival (in which case, those entities are required to comply with this Policy); (5) if the Festival is acquired by or merged with another entity (in which case, that entity is required to assume our obligations under this Policy, or to inform you that you are covered under a new confidentiality policy), or; (6) if you expressly consent to have that information shared with third parties, such as our business partners, when the information is only used for the purposes indicated.

In addition, the Festival uses certain Integrated Third Party Services to enhance the Services. Personal Information is transferred from the Festival to the operators of those Integrated Third Party Services, but only inasmuch as is required for them to function properly, and only after you have consented to the transfer of your Personal Information.

Finally, the Festival may transfer your email address to Facebook, but only in order to create a Facebook Custom Audience to disseminate ads on Facebook that may be of interest to you. Refer to the “Announcements” section below in this Policy for additional information.

REMOVAL FROM THE DISSEMINATION LIST AND SUPPRESSION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

You can unsubscribe from the Festival newsletter at any time by following the link provided at the bottom of every email from the Festival. Please note that unsubscribing from the newsletter in this manner will not necessarily delete all of your Personal Information from the Festival databases. If you wish to have all of your Personal Information deleted from our databases, please email us at info@festivalfmg.ca.

COOKIES

The Festival uses cookies on the Site, and when using the Services you agree to their application. Cookies are small text files placed on your hard drive when you visit a Web site that help track the use of the site and improve the user experience by storing certain data on your computer. The Site uses session cookies to improve your user experience by storing certain information about your current visit on your computer.

Your browser may be configured to block cookies or delete them after they have been collected.

The online shop uses certain cookies, but none of them can be used to identify you personally. Please note that removing or blocking those session cookies can prevent you from being able to purchase wristbands through the online shopping system, and the Festival cannot be held liable for any damage, material or moral, resulting from your inability to purchase wristbands if you remove or block such cookies.

In addition to the Festival cookies on the Site and the online shopping system, the Site also uses third party cookies such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter to integrate content and various widgets. The use of such third party cookies is governed by their respective owners, and the Festival has no control over them, and cannot be held liable for their use. Those cookies may be removed or blocked by your browser at any time, even if their removal reduces or inhibits the use of certain functionalities of third parties integrated into the Services.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

The Festival currently uses Google AdWords, and by using the Services, you consent to that practice. More specifically, the Festival uses the ad remarketing functionalities based on the interests of Google AdWords, which offers you announcements that may be of particular interest to you, based on your browsing history on the Site. Those ads will appear on third party Web sites. Google uses specific cookies to enable them to disseminate those announcements on the Web that may be of particular interest to you.

You can avoid those types of ads by removing the appropriate Google cookie through your browser, but that may not be permanent. For a more permanent solution, you can unsubscribe from that Google ad at any time through your Google settings page.

The Festival may use your email address when creating a personalized Public Facebook. We may forward your email address to Facebook to determine whether you are a registered Facebook user, in which case we will post ads directed at you on Facebook that may have a particular interest for you. If you do not wish to receive such Facebook ads, please email us at info@festivalfmg.ca. The Festival reserves the right to use supplementary retargeting or other advertising services in the future. In that case, the Festival will update this section of the Policy with further details.

RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH THE INTERNET

Despite the steps taken by the Festival to prevent a third party or any external party from consulting or obtaining your Personal Information as a result of your use of the Services, there is no means of data transmission on the Site or over the Internet in general that provides full confidentiality and security. Communications over the Internet are subject to interception, loss and modification. You acknowledge and accept that the Festival cannot be held liable for damage resulting from the transmission of confidential information or of Personal Information over the Internet, and that such communication is at your own risk.

LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

The Festival and/or its directors, officers, owners, agents, partners, partnerships, managers, employees, affiliates and other related entities, representatives, successors and assigns, may not be held liable for Personal Information transmitted by you that third parties my use or misuse, if the Personal Information is intercepted during transmission over the Internet or the Site, or if we are hacked.

© Gatineau Hot Air Balloon Festival