Privacy Policy

Policy Objectives

The Quebec Agrifood Innovation Center (“CDBQ”) is committed to ensuring the protection and confidentiality of the personal information that you provide or that we collect when you visit our website or interact with us. In this regard, this privacy policy (hereinafter the “Policy”) aims to inform you of the personal information that we collect as well as how this same information is stored, processed, used, shared and communicated by us.

The Policy is designed to comply with applicable laws regarding personal information protection.

What Personal Information Do We Collect?

When you visit our website, we may collect and use the following categories of personal information:

  • Identification: your first and last name.
  • Contact details: your phone number and email address.
  • Interactions: when you communicate with us through email, chat, comments, submitting your membership application, telling us about your project, requesting a quote, or sending us your resume by applying for a job with us, we record your interaction and, if applicable, attachments sent.
  • Use of our site: when you browse our website, we or our web consultant automatically collect certain personal information from cookies from your browser, including your IP address, the language of correspondence, the date and time of your visits, and pages consulted.

Sometimes we get more information than necessary. We strongly encourage you not to provide information beyond what is requested and necessary.

Who Has Access to Your Personal Information?

The personal information you give us and that we collect is only used for the purposes indicated at the time of collection, i.e., when you browse, disclose your information on our website, or communicate with us. We use your personal information primarily to:

  • Communicate with you and keep you informed: to respond to a question asked, a comment, or a request for information, to respond to your quote request, etc.;
  • Process job applications and resumes, if applicable;
  • Process your membership request;
  • Communicate with you about CDBQ projects;
  • Any other use permitted or required by applicable laws.

Access to your personal information will be limited to CDBQ employees who require the information to perform their duties. These employees will treat the information as strictly confidential and will provide access to this information only to authorized persons. Level of access to personal information will be granted to employees on a need-to-know basis.

Any person or firm we hire under contract or otherwise to perform functions on our behalf must comply with the provisions of the Privacy Act, as well as this Policy and related internal procedures. Any violation of any part of the contractual agreement may result in the cancellation of the contract.

How Do We Protect Your Personal Information?

We take all reasonable steps to protect personal information against loss or theft, unauthorized access, use or disclosure, modification, or destruction by appropriate administrative, technical, and physical security and protection measures.

The level of protection given to personal information depends on its sensitivity.

Retention and Destruction of Personal Information

We retain personal information only as long as necessary according to a pre-determined life cycle to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected, or as permitted or required by law.

Our Roles and Responsibilities

The CDBQ is responsible for personal information collected, stored, used, communicated, and destroyed. We have developed and will continue to develop policies and practices to ensure that this information is handled strictly in accordance with the Privacy Act. The CDBQ’s Personal Information Protection Officer is responsible for monitoring the application of these policies and practices to ensure compliance, in particular:

  • By ensuring open, full, and timely communication with employees and others about CDBQ’s policies, practices, and expectations with respect to the handling of personal information;
  • By establishing standards for the sensitivity classification of personal information to determine the appropriate level of protection for that information;
  • By implementing systems that ensure that only those employees whose duties require access to personal information are authorized to have access to the information in question;
  • By monitoring the level of compliance with this Policy and, if necessary, taking action to correct any shortcomings.

Employees — Staff members who collect personal information on behalf of the CDBQ must explain the purpose of its obtention. Each CDBQ employee is responsible for knowing their obligations under this Policy and the Privacy Act. Employees must report any Policy or Privacy Act violation to the CDBQ’s Personal Information Protection Officer.

CDBQ Personal Information Protection Officer — The CDBQ Personal Information Protection Officer will be the first point of contact for individuals seeking information about their personal information processing by the CDBQ or concerns in this regard.

Any violation of this Policy, whether intentional or negligent, will result in disciplinary action up to and including dismissal. Legal sanctions may also be taken, if necessary.

Questions or Complaints

Any access request must be made in writing by a person proving their identity and will be answered within thirty (30) days of receipt by the CDBQ.

For any questions regarding this Policy or your personal information, please contact our Privacy Officer at the following address: info@cdbq.net.

Updates

The CDBQ reserves the right to modify this Policy at any time and to communicate updates on its website.