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Privacy Policy

Your privacy is important to us. The City of Hamilton is committed to protecting the privacy of all visitors to our site and will make every attempt to build users’ trust and confidence in the Internet by promoting the principles of disclosure. Therefore, this document is being provided to explain our online information practices. These guidelines have been developed with the recognition that Internet technologies are rapidly evolving, and accordingly, guidelines are subject to change. Any such changes will be posted on this page.

This document will include information about the following:

  • What information this site gathers/tracks about you
  • What this site does with the information it gathers/tracks
  • With whom this site shares the information it gathers/tracks

There are two types of information that can be gathered on any web site:

  • Aggregate Information: 
    Aggregate Information is anonymous data that Web sites use to diagnose problems, administer the sites, gather broad demographic information and help improve the quality of the Web pages. Examples of aggregate information may be your domain name (i.e. “XYZ.com”), the type of browser or operating system you are using or your IP address.
    None of this information is connected with your Personally Identifiable information.
  • Personally Identifiable Information:
    Personally Identifiable Information is any information that personally identifies you. It can be your first and last name, your email address, your home address, or your telephone number. This information is typically gathered in a feedback form, a request for service form, an order form and so on. This information is used to communicate with you to fulfill your requests for products, programs, services or general information. The City of Hamilton will not use this information for any purpose other than to carry out the services we are performing on your behalf.Personal information about you as an individual will not be provided to any third party. The City of Hamilton also does not use this information to send unsolicited email. We have put in place appropriate physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to safeguard and help prevent unauthorized access, maintain data security, and correctly use the information we collect online. We carefully protect your data from loss, misuse, unauthorized access or disclosure, alteration or destruction.

COMPLIANCE WITH LEGAL PROCESS

We may disclose personal information if we are required to do so by law, or we in good faith believe that such action is necessary to:

  • comply with the law or with legal process
  • protect and defend our rights and property
  • protect against misuse or unauthorized use of The City of Hamilton web site
  • protect the personal safety or property of our users or the public (among other things, this means that if you provide false information or attempt to pose as someone else, information about you may be disclosed as part of any investigation into your actions).

COOKIES

To enhance your experience with our sites, some of our web pages may use “cookies.” Cookies are text files we place in your computer’s browser to store your preferences. Cookies, by themselves, do not tell us your e-mail address or any other personally identifiable information unless you choose to provide this information to us by, for example, filling in an online form. However, once you choose to furnish the site with personally identifiable information, this information may be linked to the data stored in the cookie.

Cookies may be used to understand site usage and to improve the content and offerings on our sites. For example, cookies may be used to personalize your experience at our web pages (e.g. to recognize you by name when you return to our site), save your password in password-protected areas, or enable you to use shopping carts. The City of Hamilton will never use cookies to retrieve information from your computer that was not originally sent by us to you in a cookie. The City of Hamilton does not use information transferred through cookies for any promotional or marketing purposes.

How does Invest In Hamilton collect information? 

We and our service providers collect Personal Data and Other Information in a variety of ways, including: 

  • Through the Website:  We collect information through the Website, e.g., when you download content, have a conversation with live chat, register for a webinar, contact us, subscribe to our email newsletter, or register to use our Website.
  • Offline: We collect information from you offline, such as when you have a conversation with one of our team members during phone calls or meetings.
  • Through You: Invest In Hamilton collects information such as your location or your preferred means of communication when you voluntarily provide it. Unless combined with Personal Data, this information does not personally identify you or any other user of the Website. 
  • Information From Other Sources:  In order to enhance our ability to provide relevant marketing and services to you, we obtain information about you from other sources, such as public databases, joint marketing partners, social media platforms, as well as from other third parties.
  • Through Your Browser or Device:  Certain information is collected by most browsers or automatically through your device, such as your Media Access Control (MAC) address, computer type (Windows or Macintosh), screen resolution, operating system name and version, device manufacturer and model, language, Internet browser type and version, and the name and version of the Website you are using. Your “IP Address” is a number that is automatically assigned to the computer that you are using by your Internet Service Provider (ISP). An IP Address may be identified and logged automatically in our server log files whenever you access the Sites, along with the time of the visit and the page(s) that you visited. Collecting IP Addresses is standard practice and is done automatically by many websites, applications and other services. Invest In Hamilton uses IP Addresses to calculate usage levels of the Website, help diagnose problems with its servers, administer the Website, and for monitoring the regions from which you navigate to Invest In Hamiltons’s Website.
  • Through Cookies and Other Similar Technologies:  “Cookies” include commonly used pieces of information in the form of small files that are placed on an individual’s device to enable the individual to more easily communicate and interact with the Website. When you visit our Website, we may send one or more cookies to your device.  They enable us to store information about your device which helps us, amongst other things, to provide you with a good experience when you browse our Website and enhance the level of services and functions provided. We also use third parties to serve advertisements on other websites that may be of interest to you, based on information collected about your use of our Website and other websites. To do so, these companies may place or recognize a unique cookie or similar on your browser.  Invest in Hamilton recognizes automated browser signals regarding tracking mechanisms, which may include ‘do not track’ instructions.
  • By Aggregating Information:  Aggregated Personal Data does not personally identify you or any other user of the Website (for example, we may aggregate Personal Data to calculate the percentage of our users who live in a particular city).

How does Invest In Hamilton use personal data? 

We use Personal Data: 

  • To respond to your inquiries and fulfill your requests, such as to send you requested materials and newsletters, as well as information and materials regarding our services.
  • To send administrative information to you, for example, information regarding the Website and content, and changes to our terms, conditions, and policies.
  • To send you marketing communications, including via email in compliance with applicable laws and in accordance with your preferences, that we believe may be of interest to you.
  • To personalize your experience on the Website by presenting content and materials tailored to you.
  • For our business purposes, such as data analysis, audits, fraud monitoring and prevention, developing new content, enhancing, improving or modifying our Website and services, identifying usage trends, determining the effectiveness of our promotional campaigns and operating and expanding our business activities.
  • As we believe to be necessary or appropriate: (a) under applicable law, including laws outside your country of residence; (b) to comply with legal process; (c) to respond to requests from public and government authorities including public and government authorities outside your country of residence; (d) to enforce our terms and conditions; (e) to protect our operations or those of any of our Affiliates; (f) to protect our rights, privacy, safety or property, and/or that of our Affiliates, you or others; and (g) to allow us to pursue available remedies or limit the damages that we may sustain.

Our legal basis for collecting and using the Personal Data described above will depend on the Personal Data concerned and the specific context in which we collect it.  We will collect and use your Personal Data where the processing is in our legitimate business interests, such as for direct marketing and sales of Hamilton Region industries, lifestyle and real estate to prospective Business-to-Business (B2B) customers.  Our legal basis for processing Personal Data in certain circumstances will also be based on your consent to do so or where we need the Personal Data to perform a contract with you or in order to enter into a contract with you. In some cases, we may also have a legal obligation to collect Personal Data from you.

If we ask you to provide Personal Data to comply with a legal requirement or to enter into a contract with you, we will make this clear at the relevant time and advise you whether the provision of your Personal Data is mandatory or not (as well as of the possible consequences if you do not provide your Personal Data). 

How can I access, correct, amend or remove information about me? 

If you would like to access, correct, amend, remove or limit the use or disclosure of any Personal Data about you that has been collected and stored by Invest In Hamilton, or have it transferred to another organization, please notify us at ecdev@hamilton.ca so that we may consider and respond to your request in accordance with applicable law. If you would like to object to the processing of your Personal Data for direct marketing purposes, please use the mechanisms outlined in the next section (“What Choices Do I Have?”). 

For your protection, we only implement requests with respect to the Personal Data associated with the particular email address that you use to send us your request, and we need to verify your identity before implementing your request. We will respond to your request within 30 days. 

Please note that we need to retain certain information for recordkeeping purposes. 

What choices do I have? 

You can always opt not to disclose information. However, if you elect to do so, we will likely be limited in responding to your inquiry or providing services to you. 

You can opt-out of receiving marketing messages from Invest In Hamilton by unsubscribing through the unsubscribe or opt-out link in an email, or by sending an email to ecdev@hamilton.ca. We will comply with your request(s) as soon as reasonably practicable. Please note that if you opt-out of receiving marketing-related emails from us, we may still send you important administrative messages.