Privacy Policy
Last Updated:
April 28, 2025
When you use our services, we may collect basic information like your name, email address, and usage data to help us improve your experience. We never sell your data to third parties. Any third-party tools we use are carefully selected to ensure your data remains secure.
Who We Are
For Women & Girls Alberta ("FWGA," "we," "us," "our") is a non-partisan, women-led, volunteer organisation based in Alberta, Canada. Our mission is to restore and protect the sex-based human rights of women and girls.
This Privacy Policy explains how we handle personal information collected through our main website at [DOMAIN] and our secure submission platform linked from this site.
Our Approach to Privacy
We collect as little personal information as possible. We do not sell, rent, or trade personal information. We do not use information you share with us for advertising, marketing to third parties, or any commercial purpose.
Our submission platform is built on GlobaLeaks, an open-source system designed for confidential, anonymous submissions. By default, that platform does not log your IP address, device, or location.
What We Collect
3.1 Information you choose to provide
Contact form messages — your name, email address, and the content of your message, where you contact us through any form on the website.
Newsletter sign-ups — your email address and any other details you choose to share when subscribing.
Submission content — any information you choose to include when making a submission through the secure platform, including answers to questionnaire questions, uploaded documents, and any contact method you provide for follow-up. You decide what to include.
Correspondence — any emails, letters, or messages you send us directly.
3.2 Information collected automatically
Server logs — our website server records technical information such as anonymized request times and error reports. These logs do not identify you and are retained briefly for security and operational purposes.
Cookies — see Section 10.
3.3 Information we do not collect
On the secure submission platform, we do not collect or log your IP address, device identifier, browser fingerprint, or location.
We do not use third-party advertising networks, social-media tracking pixels, or behavioral analytics on the secure submission platform.
How We Use Your Information
We use information you share with us to:
Respond to messages, questions, and feedback.
Send newsletters and organizational updates to people who have subscribed.
Review and analyze patterns of incidents affecting women and girls in Alberta, where information is shared through the secure submission platform.
Inform our advocacy, education, and policy work.
Where you have expressly consented, share submission information in confidence with legal counsel, elected officials, researchers, or media — within the limits set by your consent choices.
Comply with legal obligations and respond to lawful requests.
Where Your Information is Stored
Information collected through this website is stored on servers operated by [HOSTING PROVIDER] in [JURISDICTION]. Submissions made through the secure submission platform are encrypted at rest and stored on a separate secure server in [JURISDICTION].
Access to information is restricted to authorised FWGA volunteers and staff using individual credentials and two-factor authentication.
Sharing With Third Parties
We share information with third parties only as follows:
Service providers. Our hosting providers and email service providers store data on our behalf and operate under contractual confidentiality and security obligations. They do not use your information for their own purposes.
Recipients you have consented to. Where you have given specific permissions in a submission, we share only within those limits.
As required by law. We may be required by court order, search warrant, or other lawful authority to produce information. The submission platform is designed to minimise what can be produced, but we cannot resist a lawful order.
To prevent imminent serious harm. If information discloses an imminent risk of serious harm to a person, we may take steps necessary to prevent that harm, which may include contacting emergency services or, in the case of a child at risk, child protection authorities under Alberta's Child, Youth and Family Enhancement Act.
Retention
We retain personal information only for as long as is necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, or as required by law.
Newsletter subscriptions — until you unsubscribe.
Contact form messages — typically retained for one year, then deleted unless an active matter requires longer.
Secure submissions — by default, retained for the period necessary to support our advocacy, policy, and educational work. You may request a specific retention period when you submit, and you may request deletion at any time using your receipt code.
Your Rights
In Alberta, you generally have the right to:
Ask whether we hold personal information about you.
Access the personal information we hold about you.
Request correction of personal information that is inaccurate or incomplete.
Withdraw consent for the use of your personal information, subject to legal or contractual restrictions.
Request deletion of your personal information, subject to legal or operational limits.
Because the secure submission platform does not collect identifying information by default, we have no way to identify your submission unless you have provided a receipt code or contact method. With your receipt code, you may add to your submission, withdraw it, or modify the consent permissions you have given.
To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at [CONTACT EMAIL]. We will respond within 30 days.
Children & Minors
This website is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 through the website.
The secure submission platform accepts submissions from young women aged 14 and older, and from adults reporting on behalf of girls in their care. If a submission concerns a child at risk of abuse or neglect, we may have a legal duty under Alberta's Child, Youth and Family Enhancement Act to make a report. See our Whistleblower Policy for further detail.
Cookies & Tracking Technologies
Our main website uses a small number of essential cookies to maintain a working session and to remember your preferences (for example, dismissing a banner). These cookies do not identify you to third parties.
Our main website does not use advertising cookies, behavioural tracking, or third-party analytics that follow you across websites. If we add basic analytics in the future, we will use a privacy-preserving service that does not link your activity to a personal identifier, and we will update this policy.
The secure submission platform uses only the technical cookies necessary to maintain a secure session while you are completing the form. It does not use tracking, analytics, or advertising cookies.
Security
We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect personal information from unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. These measures include encryption in transit and at rest, two-factor authentication, access controls, and routine review.
No system is perfectly secure. If we become aware of a privacy breach affecting your personal information, we will notify you and, where required, the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta.
Changes To This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The version date appears at the top. Material changes will be announced on the FWGA website. Your continued use of the website after a change constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.
How To Contact Us
Questions about this Privacy Policy, or about how we handle your personal information, can be sent to:
[CONTACT EMAIL]
If you believe your privacy rights have been breached, you may also contact:
Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta — oipc.ab.ca
Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada — priv.gc.ca