General

The Business Link Business Service Centre (‘Business Link’, ‘we’ or ‘us’) is committed to protecting your privacy. The following Privacy Policy describes how we collect, store, use and share information about users of our website https://businesslink.ca/ (the ‘Website’) and clients in respect of the content, resources and services described in our Terms and Conditions (https://businesslink.ca/terms-and-conditions/). Unless defined herein, all capitalized terms will have the meanings given in our Terms and Conditions. The terms ‘you’ and ‘your’ refer to website users and clients who have registered for an account or who use the Services. Please review the following carefully so that you understand our privacy practices.

Consent

Your use of the Website or our Services, constitutes acceptance of and agreement with this Privacy Policy. If you do not accept this Privacy Policy, do not use our Website or our Services. Your consent to our use of your personal information can be withdrawn at any time by following the directions at the end of this Policy. Any withdrawal of consent may impact our ability to provide Services.

Collection And Use Of Personal Information

We use your personal information to provide you with our Services, to communicate with you and respond to your inquiries, for identification and authentication purposes and for Services improvements. Business Link does not disclose your personal information to any third party to enable them to market their products or services.

Management Of The Website

When you visit our Website, we process technical data such as your IP address, visited webpages, the internet browser you use and the duration of a visit/session to enable us to deliver the functionalities of the Website. In addition, embedded code may collect information for tools that we use to improve the Website, including Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, LinkedIn Insights and Hotjar. Information and data collected enables us to manage and improve the Website.

Account Registration

Use of the Interactive Business Plan Builder requires registration of an Account. By registering for an Account and entering your email address on the Website or any companion site, you are consenting to receive Business Link communications regarding the Interactive Business Plan Builder and your Account.

If you register for an Account, we will collect your full name, email address, business name, country, province, city and chosen password. We will use your contact details to send you a confirmation email, to communicate with you in response to your inquiries, and to send you Interactive Business Plan Builder related communications. We will not use your contact details to send you marketing communications unless you opt-in to such communications.

If you register for an Account, we will collect information about your use of the Services. We use this information to deliver Services to you and to enhance your experience.

Processing Payment

Business Link may from time to time offer certain paid Services on the Websites including, without limitation, Business Plan Review Service and Market Research Service. If you engage Business Link for any paid Services, your credit card information is processed by our payment processing provider Stripe Payments Canada, Ltd. in order to process payments for your orders. Business Link itself does not collect your payment information. Certain payment information may be available through the Stripe Payments account held by Business Link, but all such information is held in strict confidence.

Marketing

You may op-in to receive marketing communications from Business Link. If you opt-in to receive marketing communications from Business Link, we may use your contact details to send you general updates regarding Business Link news, small business updates, events & programs, resources and supports for Alberta businesses. You may opt-out of receiving these updates at any time by following the opt-out instructions in the communication.

Our Disclosure Of Your Information

Under certain circumstances, Business Link will disclose your personal information:

  • when we are required or authorized by law to do so, for example if a court issues a subpoena;
  • when you have consented to the disclosure;
  • if we engage a third party to provide IT services to us (like computer back-up services or archival file storage) and the third party is bound by our privacy policy, please note that such service provider(s) may be located outside of Canada;
  • if the information is already publicly known;
  • where we are permitted to do so under applicable privacy laws.

We may employ third party companies and individuals to:

  • process payment;
  • provide client support;
  • perform Website-related services (e.g., without limitation, maintenance services, database management, web analytics, and improvement of the Website’s features).

These third parties have access to your personal information only to perform these tasks on our behalf and are contractually bound not to disclose or use it for any other purpose. Certain service providers may store information in the United States of America, and accordingly, your personal information may be available to American governments or agencies under a lawful order, irrespective of the safeguards we have put in place for the protection of your personal information.

Business Link will disclose your personal information to the extent that this is legally required, or necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims and legal process; or in the event of an emergency pertaining to your health or safety.

Your Rights

You have the right to information regarding your personal Account, including information that you’ve provided to us and information regarding paid Services requested or delivered via the Website. You may at any time request correction or erasure of your personal information and object to any processing of your personal information by emailing us at [email protected] It may not always be possible for us to comply with your request, for instance if we are under a legal obligation to maintain your personal information.

Retention

We will retain your information only for as long as we reasonably require such information for provision of the Services or until you request that we no longer retain your information. In either case, we will either destroy the records containing your information or we will render the personal information non-identifying. If you wish to cancel your Business Link Account, request that we no longer retain your information or request that we no longer use your information to provide you with the Services, please contact us at [email protected]

Security

Business Link has taken appropriate technical and organizational security measures against loss or unlawful processing of your personal information. We use standard, industry-wide, commercially reasonable security practices to protect your information. However, as effective as our practices are, no security system is impenetrable. We cannot guarantee the security of our database, nor can we guarantee that information you supply won’t be intercepted while being transmitted to us over the Internet. Any transmission of information by you to Business Link is at your own risk. We recommend that you do not disclose your password to anyone.

Cookie Policy

The Website uses “cookies”. A cookie is a small text file that we place on your computer or mobile device to enable various features of the Website and to identify your computer as you use a web browser to access the Website. You can change your cookie settings to accept or not accept cookies in your browser settings. If you do not accept cookie settings, certain features of the Website may be altered.

Changes In This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy to reflect changes to our information practices. We encourage you to periodically review this page for the latest information on our privacy practices.

General

This Privacy Policy is subject to our Terms and Conditions. This Privacy Policy, the subject matter of herein and all related matters will be governed by, and construed in accordance with, the laws of the Province of Alberta and the laws of Canada applicable in Alberta.

Contact Details

If you have questions, comments or concerns around our privacy policy, or if you’d like to access your personal information, you can reach out to:

Attn: Privacy Officer

(800) 272-9675

[email protected]

#500-10150-100 Street NW, Edmonton, AB T5J 0P6

You can also contact us through the feedback form available on the Website.

If you are not satisfied by our response, you can reach out to the Privacy Commissioner of Canada:

Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada

30 Victoria Street

Gatineau, Quebec, K1A 1H3