Privacy Policy

Applicability

This Privacy Statement describes the practices that F12 follows with respect to the collection, processing, use and/or disclosure of personal information provided by website users, employees, contractors and agents and existing/prospective customers. This Privacy Statement is applied by F12 whether or not the collection, processing, use and/or disclosure of personal information occurs online. In this Privacy Statement, “you” and “your” refers to each of the individuals described in the previous sentence.

This Privacy Statement tells you how we maintain your privacy and protect the confidentiality of your personal information. It applies only to personal information, including client data, collected during the course of F12’s commercial activities.

Our websites may contain links to other websites that are provided and maintained exclusively by third parties. We carefully select the third party websites to which we link; however, as such third party websites are not subject to this Privacy Statement, we are not responsible for either their content or privacy practices. We encourage you to read the privacy policy of every website you visit.

Note that the website, www.f12.net, is intended for use primarily by residents of Canada and the United States who are at least 18 years of age.

In respect of users of the websites, by using our website(s), you agree with the terms of this Privacy Statement.

In the event of a conflict between the terms and conditions of this Privacy Statement and a Master Services Agreement currently in effect between F12 and a customer, this Privacy Statement shall prevail to the extent necessary to resolve the conflict.

What is personal information?

Personal information is any piece of information that can be used to identify you and may include, without limitation, the following information:

• race, ethnic origin, age and marital status;
• personal address and telephone number, and numerical identifiers such as a social insurance number and employee number;
• income, disciplinary status, employee files, credit or loan records, and intentions (i.e., to change jobs);
• education, employment and financial history;
• personal health information; and
• personal opinions, evaluations and comments.

The 10 principles of privacy

This Privacy Statement incorporates the following 10 principles:

1. Accountability
2. Identifying purpose – Why we collect information
3. Consent
4. Limiting collection
5. Limiting use, disclosure and retention
6. Accuracy
7. Safeguarding personal information
8. Openness – Keeping you informed
9. Providing individual access
10. Challenging compliance

Changes to the way in which we handle your personal information shall be reflected in timely updates to this Privacy Statement. We reserve the right to add, modify or remove portions of this Privacy Statement to the extent permitted by law when we feel it is appropriate to do so. You may determine when this Privacy Statement was last updated by referring to the “last revised” date found at the end of this Privacy Statement. Changes to this Privacy Statement will apply to personal information collected from the applicable “last revised” date as well as to existing personal information then under F12’s control.

1. ACCOUNTABILITY

F12 is responsible for maintaining and protecting the personal information under its control. Our Privacy Officer(s) may be contacted via the Contact form at the bottom of this page. In conjunction with F12’s Legal Advisors, our Privacy Officer(s) is responsible for analyzing all personal information handling practices at F12 and ensuring that this Privacy Statement is up-to-date at all times. On occasion, specific Privacy Statement responsibilities may be assigned by our Privacy Officer(s) to other F12 staff members.

2. IDENTIFYING PURPOSE – WHY WE COLLECT PERSONAL INFORMATION

With respect to our websites, we may collect the following information about you:

• Information that you provide by filling in forms or submitting resumes on our site (www.f12.net), or customer sites which F12 operates for recruitment purposes. This includes information provided at the time of registering to use our site, subscribing to our service, posting material or requesting further services. We may also ask you for information when you enter a competition or promotion sponsored by F12 and/or when you report a problem with our site.
• If you contact us, we may keep a record of the correspondence.
• We may ask you to complete a survey that we use for research purposes, although you do not have to respond to them.
• Details of transactions you carry out through our site and of the fulfillment of services.
• Details of your visits to our site including, but not limited to, traffic data, location data, IP addresses, weblogs and other communication data, whether this is required for our own billing purposes or otherwise and the resources that you access.

More generally, we collect personal information for the following purposes:

• to fulfill your transaction request or for marketing purposes;
• to develop a new, or enhance an existing, service and product offerings and to advise you of such developments;
• to allow you to participate in interactive features of our service, when you choose to do so;
• to manage and develop F12’s business and operations including personnel and employment matters;
• to ensure that content from our site is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer; and/or
• to meet legal and regulatory requirements.

However, there may be other circumstances requiring the collection and use of your personal information.

Whenever we collect personal information about you, we will explain how we intend to use it, either at the time we collect the information or earlier. We will limit the information we collect to what we need for the identified purpose(s) and we will only use it for such purpose(s). If we propose to use your personal information for a purpose not previously identified, we will identify the new purpose to you prior to our use and confirm your consent in respect of the new purpose.

If you purchase services from our website(s) or by telephone using a credit card, your credit card information will only be used for credit card processing purposes.

3. CONSENT

At the time of collection or in advance, we will use clear, understandable language to confirm your consent to use your personal information. Before we decide what form of consent is appropriate (i.e. direct vs. implied, written, verbal, electronic, etc.), we will consider the type of personal information that we require, the reason for its use and the type of contact with you that is involved. The choice to provide us with personal information is always yours.

Upon request, we will explain your options of refusing or withdrawing consent to the collection, processing, use and release of your personal information and we will record and respect your written choices (subject to any overriding legal requirements or commitments). Note however that your decision to withhold consent may limit the services we are able to offer you. For example, if you refuse to provide certain information when you request technical support, we may not be able to properly identify you as a registered user and be forced to decline your support request. Similarly, if you are a registered user of our products and you request the deletion of your name from our customer list, you will no longer receive e-mail or other notices regarding technical support such as version updates.

4. LIMITING COLLECTION

We collect and process information by fair and lawful means. We only collect and process personal information for one or more specific, limited purpose(s), in accordance with this Privacy Statement.

Our websites, like many other commercial websites, uses a standard technology called a “cookie” to collect information about how our websites are used. A cookie is a small data file that a website can send to a browser, which may then be stored on your computer system as an anonymous “tag” that identifies your computer but not you. When you browse our websites, we may use a cookie to help us provide you with better customer service by (i) identifying your browser as one that has visited our websites before; and (ii) saving and remembering any preferences that you may have set during previous visits to our websites. Cookies help make your visit to our websites more “user friendly”. Cookies cannot retrieve any other data from your hard drive or obtain your e-mail address. Only F12 is able to use our cookies to determine your identity. Any personal information collected about you through our use of cookies will be treated in accordance with this Privacy Statement. You can set your browser to notify you when you receive a cookie, which will give you the opportunity to decide whether you want to accept the cookie or not. Note that if you reject cookies, it may not be possible for you to use F12 services which require registration.

Additionally, we sometimes collect non-identifiable information from visits to our websites (such as the domains from which people visit). This information is known as “clickstream” data. We, or others on our behalf, may use this data to analyze trends and statistics to help us provide better customer service. If you do not want your transaction details used in this manner, you should disable your cookies.

Finally, on select occasions when we collect personal information from you in a transaction, we may extract some information about that transaction in a non-identifiable format and combine it with other non-identifiable information (such as clickstream data). We will only use this combined data at an aggregate level to help us understand trends and patterns. If you do not want your transaction details used in this manner, you should disable your cookies.

5. LIMITING USE, DISCLOSURE AND RETENTION

a. Identified purpose: We will only use your personal information for the identified purpose(s) (subject to any overriding legal requirements or commitments). If we propose to use your personal information for a purpose not previously identified, we will identify the new purpose to you prior to our use and confirm your consent in respect of the new purpose.

b. Third party disclosure: Under no circumstances do we sell customer lists or other personal information to third parties; however, there are some unavoidable types of disclosures of your personal information which may occasionally occur as part of us conducting business in the ordinary course, including for example, to our partners, consultants and suppliers (collectively, our “service providers”), but only: (i) if they agree to abide by this Privacy Statement; and, (ii) to the extent necessary to allow them to provide business services or support to F12. Additionally, F12 may disclose and/or transfer your personal information to a third party in the event of a proposed or actual purchase, sale (including a liquidation, realization, foreclosure or repossession), lease, merger, amalgamation or any other type of acquisition, disposal, transfer, conveyance or financing of all or any portion of F12 or its divisions, or of any of the business or assets or shares of F12 in order for you to continue to receive the same services from the third party as you do from F12. In the event of any transfer of your personal information to a third party, we will require such third party to refrain from using or disclosing your personal information for any purpose except purpose(s) for which F12 uses or discloses your personal information, except upon notice to you or in accordance with applicable privacy laws. By submitting personal information, you agree to the transfer of information to third parties in these circumstances.

c. Contests and surveys: Periodically, we may encourage you to participate in contests and surveys via our websites. The information that we collect from these contests and surveys may be associated with individual customer accounts and used by us to improve your overall customer experience. This type of information will only be shared with our service providers in aggregate.

d. Opting out: Unless you opt-out if you have voluntarily provided your personal information to us, you hereby agree to us sending you mail or e-mail regarding products and services that we believe are of interest to you. If you do not want to receive such mailings from us, at any time you may simply “opt-out” by checking the appropriate box on the original submission form or notifying the Privacy Officer (see Section 1 above).

e. Message boards: We may add message boards, community forums, chat rooms or similar communities (each a “Community”) to our websites from time to time. We do not monitor or provide regular support for any Community. We reserve the right to modify or discontinue any Community without notice in our sole discretion. We further reserve the right (but not the obligation) in our sole discretion to pre-screen, use, delete, refuse, support or move any content submitted to a Community, including but not limited to software code, text, images, photographs, or other graphics (“Posted Material”). You are solely responsible for evaluating Posted Material appearing in any Community. If you use Posted Material, you bear all risks associated with such use. You are solely responsible for any Posted Material you submit to a Community. We assume no responsibility whatsoever with respect to Posted Material. All Posted Material will be treated as Non-Confidential Information. Reference in any Posted Material to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not constitute or imply its endorsement or recommendation by F12. The opinions of the authors expressed in Posted Material do not necessarily state or reflect those of F12 and may not be used for advertising or product endorsement purposes.

By submitting Posted Material, you warrant and represent that (a) you are the copyright owner of such Posted Material, or that the copyright owner of such Posted Material has granted you permission to use such Posted Material consistent with the manner and purpose of your use on the F12 websites and as otherwise permitted by this Privacy Statement, (b) you have the rights necessary to grant the licenses described above, and (c) that each person depicted in such Posted Material, if any, has provided consent to the use of the Posted Material as set forth in this Privacy Statement. By submitting Posted Material, you are granting to all members of the Community and to the general public, subject to this Privacy Statement, a non-exclusive, world-wide, royalty-free license to: use, distribute, transmit, publicly display, publicly perform, reproduce, edit, sublicense, modify, translate and reformat your Posted Material without having your name attached to such Posted Material. The licenses granted above for Posted Material will terminate at the time you completely remove such Posted Material from the Community, provided that, such termination will not affect any licenses granted in connection with such Posted Material prior to the time you completely remove such Posted Material. No compensation will be paid with respect to the use of your Posted Material by F12 or other members of the Community.

f. Legal obligations: In accordance with paragraph (a) we may be required or compelled by law to disclose personal information which we hold about you to certain authorities or to the courts in jurisdictions where we trade. In these circumstances we may not be able to advise you that personal information has been disclosed, the nature of the information disclosed or when the disclosure took place.

g. Retention: F12 will make reasonable efforts to ensure that your personal information is not retained beyond the length of time that it takes to fulfill the purpose for which such personal information was collected, unless otherwise agreed to by you, or required or permitted by law. In the event that you wish F12 to delete your personal information currently in its possession, please make such request to privacyofficer@f12.net. Upon request, we will make reasonable efforts to ensure that your personal information is deleted. Complete destruction of personal information you may provide to F12 can be accomplished in twelve months from the date F12 receives your deletion request. In respect of personal information provided to a F12 customer in conjunction with the use of F12’s software (such as a resume submitted to the website of a F12 customer that is using a F12 hosted application to facilitate such submission), you must first request that the F12 customer delete any of your personal information that it may have in its possession. F12’s destruction of personal information submitted to a customer will commence on the date the customer deletes such personal information and will be completed twelve months from such date.

6. ACCURACY OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

We encourage you to review and confirm the accuracy of all personal information provided to us. To the extent that updated personal information is relevant to the purpose(s) for which it was originally collected, we will make reasonable efforts to keep your personal information accurate and up-to-date based on the information that you provide. If you find any errors in your personal information, please contact the Privacy Officer as soon as possible (by mail or e-mail – see Section 1 above) and we will make the appropriate corrections.

7. SAFEGUARDING PERSONAL INFORMATION

We use security safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity and nature of the personal information being protected to guard against loss or theft, as well as unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use or modification. Generally, our measures of protection include:

• physical measures, for example, locking filing cabinets and restricting access to offices;
• organizational measures, for example, security passes and limiting access to personal information on a “need-to-know” basis;
• technological measures, for example, the use of firewalls, intrusion detection, passwords and encryption; and
• procedural measures, for example, the shredding of sensitive personal information.

The personal information that we collect from you may be transferred to, and stored at, a destination outside the United States, Canada or the European Economic Area (“EEA”). It may also be processed by staff operating outside the EEA who work for us or for one of our suppliers or service providers. Such staff may be engaged in, among other things, the fulfillment of your order, the processing of your payment details and the provision of support services. By submitting personal information, you agree to this transfer, storing or processing.

When we provide personal information to service providers acting on our behalf, we will make good faith commercially reasonable efforts to have such organizations or individuals agree to abide by this Privacy Statement. We will give them only the information necessary to perform the services for which they are engaged. We will take reasonable commercial efforts to ensure that they comply with this Privacy Statement; however, we have no liability to you if such service providers fail to do so.

If you send us an e-mail message that includes personal information (such as your name in the “address”), we will use that information to respond to your inquiry. Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. Unless your e-mail is encrypted or your browser indicates that the access to our website(s) is secure, you may want to refrain from sending sensitive personal information to us electronically.
If you use passwords, ID numbers or other special access features on our websites, it is your responsibility to safeguard them.

8. OPENNESS – KEEPING YOU INFORMED

We are committed to being open about our policies and practices with respect to the handling of personal information. This Privacy Statement is available via hard copy from our Privacy Officer (see Section 1 above) and in electronic form at f12.net/privacy.

9. PROVIDING INDIVIDUAL ACCESS

You may request a copy of your personal information in our possession by submitting a written request, satisfactory identification and proof of entitlement to our Privacy Officer (see Section 1 above). You have the right to know how we collected your personal information; how we are using it; and, to whom it may have been disclosed (with the exception of disclosures to government bodies or our service providers in connection with the conduct of our business in the ordinary course).

If you find any errors in your personal information, please contact us as soon as possible (by phone, fax, mail or e-mail) and we will make the appropriate corrections.

On occasion, we may decline your request for access to personal information within our possession or control. For example, this may occur if providing access to you would be likely to reveal personal information about a third party and the information cannot be segregated or consent cannot be obtained from the third party to such a disclosure and it would be unreasonable for us to comply with the request in the circumstances. Further a request may be declined if the information has been collected during the investigation of a legal matter or cannot be disclosed for other legal reasons, such as a non-disclosure agreement. If we deny your request for access, we will advise you in writing of the reason for our refusal so that you may decide whether you wish to challenge our decision.

10. CHALLENGING COMPLIANCE

Please contact the Privacy Officer (see Section 1 above) with any questions or concerns that you may have about your privacy or our compliance with this Privacy Statement. We will investigate and provide you with a timely response to your concerns. Please be sure to include your name, address, preferred method of communication, nature of your concern and relevant details, including any past communications with us. If our response to your concerns does not meet with your satisfaction, we will provide you with information regarding other complaint procedures that may be available to you.