CMA Privacy Policy

The CMA is a non-profit, membership-based professional association that collects, uses and/or discloses mostly business contact information (such as an employee’s name, title, business address, telephone number or email address), solely for the purpose of communicating with an individual in relation to their profession. The CMA Privacy Policy does not impose any limits on the collection, use or disclosure of this information by the CMA, or of any other information about an individual that is considered publicly available by the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA).

In some cases, the CMA collects, uses and discloses personal information when you are:

• Registering for MyCMA, and for subsequent registrations to events, courses, and applying for Membership and/or the Chartered Marketer (CM) program.
• Registering for the CMA Do Not Mail Service.
• Registering for CMA NXT.
• Applying for, or engaging in, an employment or volunteer role with the CMA.

We collect, use and disclose the personal information of individuals only in accordance with PIPEDA, other applicable legislation or regulation, and this Privacy Policy.

This Privacy Policy applies to personal information that we collect, use and disclose about individuals when they access or use the CMA or CMA NXT websites (our “Websites”) and through our service, marketing and support interactions and communications with clients (collectively, our “Services”). It applies to personal information in any form whether oral, electronic or written. In this Privacy Policy, “we” “us” and “our” refers to the Canadian Marketing Association, the “CMA”.

We need certain types of personal information so that we can provide our Services to you. If you do not provide us with such information, or if you ask us to delete it, you may no longer be able to access or use our Services.

Your knowledge and consent are required for our collection, use, or disclosure of personal information, except in certain circumstances exempted by law.

Please read this Privacy Policy carefully to understand how we handle your personal information. If you do not agree to this Privacy Policy, please do not use our Services.

We collect personal information that you provide to us directly, such as by entering it into registration forms or uploading it to our websites, or that arises from your activity on our websites or otherwise engaging with the Services.

The CMA will limit our collection of personal information to only that which is necessary for the purposes identified by the CMA. The CMA will not use or disclose personal information for purposes other than those for which it was collected, except with your consent, or as required or permitted by law.

We collect personal information that you provide directly to us through:

• The Services you use.
• Requests, questions or feedback you submit to us via online forms, email, or otherwise.
• Account registration and administration of your account.
• Your uploads or posts to our Services.
• Your participation at CMA events.
• Your requests for customer support and technical assistance.
• Your application to, or participation in, an employment or volunteer role with us.

The personal information we collect directly from you varies depending on what Services you use, and includes:

• Your name, salutation, company and title.
• Your contact information, including address, phone and email.
• Your language preferences.
• Photos, videos and/or audio of you (only in the case that you attend a CMA event).
• Your photo.
• Your CMA member status.
• Your registration and activity status related to our courses, events, Councils, Committees and other initiatives.
• Your areas of interest (ex: advertising, B2B).
• Your log-in credentials, if you create a MyCMA or CMA NXT account.
• Your online preferences and settings.
• How you heard about the CMA
• Information about your purchases or other transactions with us, including billing information.*
• Information about your customer service interactions with us.
• User-generated content and comments you may post.
• Any other information you choose to directly provide to us in connection with your use of our Services.
• Any other information you choose to directly provide to us in connection with your use of our Services, or in connection to an employment or volunteer role with us.
• Whether or not you are an EU resident.

*CMA uses a payment gateway to collect and process credit card information and does not itself retain this information.

CMA collects personal information primarily from individuals interacting with our Services, and our employees. In some cases, CMA may also collect personal information from other sources including credit bureaus, employers or personal references, or other third parties who represent that they have the right to disclose the information.

When you use our Services, we and our service providers (companies that work on our behalf) collect non-personally identifiable information (described in the paragraph below) and we may use a variety of technologies, including cookies and similar tools, to assist in collecting this information. We use this information for statistical analysis, and to help us customize our websites and Services and to make them more user-friendly.

The information we or our service providers collect about you varies depending on what Services you use, and includes:

• Website and Service Usage Information: When you use our websites and otherwise engage with our Services, we will collect and analyze information about your usage such as your IP address, browser type, browser language, operating system, software and hardware attributes (including device IDs), referring and exit pages and URLs, number of clicks, pages viewed and the order of those pages, the date and time you used the Services, error logs, number of downloads, email open rates, clicked links and other similar information.
• Location Information. When you use our Services, we and our service providers may automatically collect general location information (e.g., IP address, city/state and or postal code associated with an IP address) from your computer or mobile device.
• Analytics: We use service providers that provide analytics on your usage of our Services, including Google Analytics, SiteImprove, Klaviyo, Microsoft Dynamics 365 and ClickDimensions. For a description of how these third parties handle your information, including the cookies they may use, please refer to their privacy policies and terms of use, which may permit you to modify your privacy settings. For example, to prevent Google Analytics from using your information for analytics, you may install the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on by clicking here.

We will only use your information for one or more of the following purposes:

• To identify you and determine your eligibility for our Services.
• To deliver the Services you have requested, including to establish, maintain, communicate and renew your membership in the CMA.
• To complete a purchase, including invoicing and accounting.
• To help us better understand your interests and serve your needs, and to measure, analyze and improve the effectiveness of our Services and marketing endeavours.
• To respond to your requests for information and to provide you with more effective and efficient customer service.
• To provide you with updates and information about our Services.
• To contact you by email, mail, or phone regarding CMA or third-party products, services, surveys, research studies, promotions, special events and other subjects that we think may be of interest to you, and that we have consent to contact you about.
• To manage and develop CMA's business operations, including personnel and employment matters.
• To protect CMA against error and fraud.
• To customize the advertising and content you see on our Services.
• To secure our websites and resolve technical issues.
• To comply with any procedures, laws, and regulations that apply to us, including any potential contractual reporting obligations to government funders.

Aggregate/Anonymous Data: We may aggregate or anonymize any information collected through our Services so that it can no longer be linked to you or your device. We may use or share anonymized and aggregated information for any purpose including, without limitation, for research and marketing purposes.

Cookies and Similar Technologies: We and our service providers use the information collected through these technologies for statistical analysis to help us make our websites and Services more user-friendly, to save you time, and to offer you a more meaningful visit in the future by understanding and remembering your browsing preferences.

Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer or mobile device when you visit a site that enable us to recognize your device, store your preferences and settings, understand the web pages of the Services you have visited, enhance your user experience by delivering and measuring the effectiveness of content tailored to your interests, perform searches and analytics, and assist with security and administrative functions. Some cookies are placed in your browser cache while those associated with Flash technologies are stored with your Adobe Flash Player files.

You can change your settings so that you are notified when a cookie is being set or updated or you can block cookies altogether. Please consult the “Help” section of your browser for more information. You can also manage the use of Flash technologies, including flash cookies and local storage objects, with the Flash management tools available on Adobe's website. Please note that by blocking, disabling, or managing any or all cookies, you may not have access to certain features or offerings of our Services.

Note on Online Advertising: Periodically, our sites may allow the use of third-party cookies or similar technologies to measure and improve the effectiveness of our advertising campaigns. From time to time, this information may be shared with a third party who uses it to serve you advertising relevant to your interests (known as “interest-based ads”) as you are browsing the internet. For this activity, the CMA and/or its agents may use the services of Google, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and their affiliated networks. You can visit www.youradchoices.ca to learn more about this type of advertising and choose whether to continue receiving interest-based ads. We do not have access to the use of cookies or other tracking technologies that non-affiliated third parties may place on the device you use to access our Services, and this Privacy Policy does not govern those technologies.

We may share or disclose your information in the following circumstances:

• To a third party who, in the reasonable judgment of the CMA, is seeking the information as an agent of the individual.
• To a third party that we have hired to supply, develop, enhance, market or provide any of our products or services.
• To a third party engaged by the CMA to perform functions on its behalf, which may involve storage or processing of personal information in other countries, which may mean that information may be accessible to law enforcement and national security authorities of that jurisdiction.
• To a public authority or other third party, such as a collections or credit reporting agency, to enforce our Online User Agreements, this Privacy Policy, or other contracts with you, including investigation potential violations of our agreements.
• To a public authority or other third party to protect the rights, property or personal safety of the CMA, its employees, affiliates, users or the public. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organizations for fraud protection, spam/malware prevention, and similar purposes.
• To a third-party organization registered for the CMA Do Not Mail Service, if you sign up as a consumer to the Do Not Mail Service to reduce the number of personally addressed marketing offers you receive.
• To a third party where you consent to such disclosure or disclosure is required or permitted by law.

As described above, we may share or disclose your information to third parties and service providers who have access to perform these services but are prohibited from using your information for other purposes. The CMA uses contractual or other means to provide a comparable level of protection while information is being processed or used by a third party.

Employee Information: The CMA may disclose personal information about current or former employees:

• For normal personnel and benefits administration of current employees, such as the initiation, management or termination of the employment relationship.
• In the context of providing references regarding current or former employees in response to requests from prospective employers.

Only CMA employees with a business "need-to-know", or whose duties reasonably so require, are granted access to personal information about members and employees.

In addition to your choices surrounding the use of cookies and other technologies described above, you have legal rights under applicable privacy laws. If you would like further information about your legal rights or would like to exercise any of them, please contact our Privacy Officer (see below) at any time.

Canada’s privacy law may permit you to request that we:

• Provide you with access or a copy of the personal information we have about you.
• Amend or update your personal information if it is out of date or incorrect.
• Revoke your consent for our continued use and disclosure of your personal information.

We will consider all requests and provide our response within the time period stated by applicable law. Please note, however, that certain information may be exempt from such requests in some circumstances.

Requesting to Access or Amend Your Information: The CMA will inform you of the existence, use, and disclosure of your personal information upon request and will provide you with a copy of that information except where inappropriate. You will be able to challenge the accurateness and completeness of the information and have it amended as appropriate. In providing an account of disclosure, the CMA will provide a list of third parties to which it may have disclosed personal information about you when it is not possible to provide an actual list.

Personal information will be provided in understandable form within a reasonable time, and at minimal or no cost to you. In certain situations, the CMA may not be able to provide access to all the personal information that we hold about you. For example, if doing so would likely reveal personal information about a third party, such as another individual, or could reasonably be expected to threaten the life or security of another individual. Also, the CMA may not provide access to information if disclosure would reveal confidential commercial information, if the information is protected by solicitor client privilege, if the information was generated in the course of a formal dispute resolution process, or if the information was collected in relation to the investigation of a breach of an agreement or a contravention of the law.

In order to safeguard personal information, you may be required to provide sufficient identification information to permit CMA to account for the existence, use and disclosure of personal information, and to authorize such access. Any such information will be used only for this purpose.

The CMA will promptly correct or complete any personal information found to be inaccurate or incomplete. Any unresolved differences as to accuracy or completeness will be noted by the CMA. Where appropriate, we will transmit to third parties having access to the personal information in question any amended information or the existence of any unresolved differences.

Requesting to Withdraw Your Consent: You may withdraw your consent at any time in order to put a stop to any further collection, use or disclosure of your personal information by the CMA. This is subject to legal or contractual restrictions, and provided that reasonable notice of withdrawal of consent is provided to the CMA and the withdrawal of consent is in writing and includes understanding by the individual that withdrawal of consent could mean that the CMA cannot provide the individual with a related product or service. You may contact the CMA for more information regarding the implications of withdrawing consent.

There may be limited circumstances where we may need to retain some of your information after you have withdrawn consent. For example, a “do not contact” list of email addresses could be retained for individuals who have requested no further communication from us. Moreover, other laws may require that information be retained.

The CMA will update personal information about you as necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined above in the section “How We Use Your Information”, or upon your request as noted above.

The CMA will keep personal information only as long as it remains necessary or relevant for the identified purposes, or as required by law. Depending on the circumstances, where personal information has been used to make a decision about an individual, the CMA will retain, for a period of time that is reasonably sufficient to allow for access by the individual, either the actual information or the rationale for making the decision, after which such information will be destroyed, erased or made anonymous.

We use your name and email address to contact you for administrative, transactional and promotional purposes. You may opt out of receiving all or certain kinds of emails from us by using the “unsubscribe” feature in emails, through your MyCMA account, and at the link at the bottom of the page on the CMANXT website. Please note that, regardless of your request, we may still use and share certain information as permitted by this Privacy Policy or as required by law. For example, you may not opt out of certain operational emails, such as those reflecting our relationship or transactions with you.

Our Services may contain links to third-party websites. If you choose to use these sites or features, you may disclose your information not just to those third parties, but also to their users and the public more generally depending on how their services function. We are not responsible for the content or practices of those websites or services. The collection, use, or disclosure of your information will be subject to the privacy policies of the third-party websites or services, and not this Privacy Policy. We urge you to read the privacy policies of these third parties.

When you register and attend a CMA in-person event, you enter an area where photography, audio and/or video recording may occur. The CMA may publish, reproduce or share these images and recordings for the purposes of highlighting the event and promoting the CMA’s own offerings (on our website, social media, email communications, trade show and event signage, direct mail/flyers and press releases).

If at any point before, during or after a CMA event you wish to not appear in photographs or recordings, or to withdraw your consent and request that the CMA stop using your images or records, please email privacyofficer@thecma.ca. (Note: Should the CMA wish to use any images or recordings for anything beyond the above purposes, such as for paid promotions (e.g. sponsored content/advertorials, interstitials and/or out of home media) or for sharing with third parties beyond the CMA, separate express consent will be collected)

Our Services are not intended for anyone under the age of 16. If we become aware that we have inadvertently collected personal information from children under the age of 13 without valid parental consent, we will take reasonable steps to delete it as soon as possible. We will delete all information obtained from a teenager aged 13-16 where a teenager, parent or guardian revokes or declines permission. We also comply with other age restrictions and requirements in accordance with applicable laws.

The CMA will protect personal information against such risks as loss or theft, unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use, modification or destruction, through appropriate security measures, regardless of the format in which it is held. For example, we protect the security of your online transactions on our website by using SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) web server certificates that offer secure communications by encrypting all data going to and from our websites.

The nature of the security safeguards, including physical, organizational, technological and investigative measures, will vary depending on the sensitivity, amount, distribution and format of the information, and the method of storage. All CMA employees with access to personal information will be contractually required to respect the confidentiality of that information.

You may address a challenge concerning compliance with the Privacy Policy to the CMA’s Privacy Officer (see below).

The CMA has procedures for addressing and responding to all inquiries or complaints from individuals regarding our handling of personal information. We will investigate all complaints received. If a complaint is found to be justified, the CMA will take appropriate measures to resolve the complaint including, if necessary, amending its privacy practices and procedures. An individual will be informed of the outcome of the investigation regarding their complaint. We may seek external advice where appropriate before providing a final response to individual complaints.

The CMA implements a Privacy Management Program to protect your personal information, and to give effect to our commitments under PIPEDA, other applicable legislation, and this Privacy Policy. We regularly review and implement practices and procedures to ensure we:

• Identify the purposes for the collection, use and/or disclosure of your information at or before the time it is collected.
• Obtain your valid, informed and meaningful consent.
• Limit the collection, use and disclosure of your personal information.
• Keep your personal information correct, complete and up to date as reasonable in the circumstances.
• Implement adequate security safeguards to protect your personal information.
• Implement a retention and destruction timetable for your personal information.
• Respond to your complaints, inquiries and requests to access your personal information.
• Implement incident-management protocols in the event of a breach.
• Conduct privacy risk assessments.
• Protect your information if and when it is transferred to third parties for processing.
• Train employees to understand and respond to our practices and procedures.

CMA will make readily available to individuals specific and understandable information about its practices and procedures relating to the management of personal information. For more information, please contact our Privacy Officer (see below).

We may change this Privacy Policy periodically. If we make changes, we will post the amended version on our website and update the “Last Updated” date above. Changes will take effect immediately when we post them. If, in our sole discretion, the changes are material, we may also notify you by sending an email to the email address you have provided to us. By continuing to access or use our Services on or after the “Last Updated” date of the Privacy Policy, you will be deemed to agree to the changes.

Responsibility for compliance with the provisions of this Privacy Policy rests with the CMA Privacy Officer. Other individuals within the CMA may be delegated to act on behalf of the CMA Privacy Officer or to take responsibility for certain personal information management practices and procedures.

For more information regarding the CMA’s Privacy Policy, practices and procedures, please contact the CMA Privacy Officer by leaving a message in our general mailbox at 416-391-2362 or via privacyofficer@thecma.ca. Requests for access or amendment of your personal information, or other inquiries or complaints should be addressed in writing to:

Canadian Marketing Association
145 Wellington Street West
Suite 203
Toronto, Ontario
M5J 1H8
Attention: Privacy Officer