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This memo provides a summary of the Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation (“CASL”), which came into effect July 1, 2014. As of July 1, Providence has reviewed and determined the nature and purpose of all outgoing electronic communications, primarily to ascertain if they are related to Providence’s core activities or fall within one of the 4 exemptions, or may be viewed as commercial, in which case further analysis has been taken.
The new Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) regulates the sending of commercial electronic messages (CEMs). The law took effect on July 1, 2014 and prevents the distribution of commercial messages sent through electronic means, such as emails, newsletters, text messages, and direct messaging on social media. The new law also requires that all electronic messages clearly identify the sender and include an unsubscribe option. The legislation requires that you must have permission before you communicate electronically with an individual to send a Commercial Electronic Message (CEM).
A CEM is defined as commercial if it encourages participation in a commercial activity. The term commercial activity means any activity that is of commercial nature, whether or not the person who carries out the activity expects a profit.
Providence is of the opinion that electronic communications relating to its core educational activities, broadly defined, are not “of a commercial character”. Thus, CASL does not regulate communications pertaining to our core educational activities. Our core activities relate to education in all its many-faceted aspects, and to the maintenance of an educational community. Thus, the new law will not regulate our communications with:
In addition, there are some exemptions to the law. Emails sent from Providence accounts that do not relate to core educational activities may be exempt from the law if they are emails that are sent:
Electronic communication sent out from Providence deemed "of a commercial character” would include (but is not limited to): messages regarding special offers, contests or promotions that are typically outside of our educational programming etc.
If the communication is commercial, and is not otherwise exempt, express or implied consent is required to send it. In the case of “an existing business or non-business relationship”, the legislation provides a transitional period of three years from July 1, 2014 during which consent to receive emails can be implied, and during which you can receive express consent. Express consent requires three things:
When you give your consent, you agree to receive messages with commercial content from Providence. You may unsubscribe at any time. Your consent will be recorded. For emails of commercial character only: You may continue to receive emails for a period of 18 months if we have your implied consent. You can unsubscribe from any emails at any time.
When you unsubscribe from one email, you may still receive messages that come from a variety of other departments within Providence and each department maintains their own list. Every email that Providence sends has its own unsubscribe button, unsubscribing from one email does not affect other departments.
Providence University College and Theological Seminary believes that this legislation should have only a small impact on the institution since most of our communications pertain to our core activities, which are not of a commercial character. If further guidance is required, please contact pr@prov.ca. See CASL for more information.
Last Updated: August 21, 2019. Providence maintains an official presence on social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and our Providence Mobile App.
Providence social media platforms exist to highlight topics related to the Providence community and its mission to engage the culture and change the world. As a Christian academic community, we do covenant:
This community covenant guides our approach and policy regarding social media.
We encourage you to share feedback and comments on our social media websites and on our app, however, these are moderated online discussion sites, not public forums. We expect remarks to be on-topic and respectful of the rights and opinions of others.
Providence is not responsible for comments or posts made by visitors on our social media websites. Such content does not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of Providence University College or Providence Theological Seminary.
Once posted, we reserve the right to delete comments, images, or links that contain:
If you have any questions concerning Providence social media properties, please contact Marketing.
Providence University College and Theological Seminary (Providence) respects the privacy of all visitors to our website. We do not automatically gather any personal information from you, such as your name, phone number or email address. This information is only obtained if you provide it voluntarily, by contacting us via email or through an online web submission form. Any personal information you do provide through our website is managed according to principles of our Institutional Privacy Policy.
At the point of collection, you will be informed that your personal information is being collected, the purpose for which it is being collected, and that you have a right to access the collected information. Providence is the sole owner of the information collected on our website.
Last Updated: September, 2019
If you should choose to provide us with personal information as in an email or by filling out a form and submitting it to us through our website, we will use that information to respond to your message and to help us get the information you have requested. We do not collect personal information for third-party commercial marketing or distribution to any private organizations. Messages sent via the internet can be intercepted. If you are concerned about sending your personal information to us via the internet, you can use another method such as fax, regular mail or in person.
If you purchase a product from us, we request certain personally identifiable information from you on our web order forms. We use this information for billing purposes to fill your orders. When your order status changes, you may also receive email notifications. If we have trouble processing an order or fulfilling your request, we will use this information to contact you.
If you request information about a product or service, we will communicate with you in response to your inquiry, to provide the information you have requested. We may, depending upon the importance and urgency of the information request, choose to contact you via telephone or postal mail.
If you register for a course or service, we may require that you provide certain personally identifiable information, including your name, postal address, email address, phone number, alternate contact information, credit card number and, in some instances, your social insurance number. We may also require you to submit other information relevant to the course or service. Only information that is needed to complete the processing of your registration will be collected.
Our website contains registration forms for events and conferences. These forms are designed to register your place in the event and collect basic information that we need to organize the event and ensure we meet the needs of participants.
When you donate to us, we collect personal information from you. This information is used for the purposes of having an accurate record of your involvement, ensuring appropriate use of your giving, contacting you to acknowledge your gifts, sending receipts, informing you about ourselves or offering you further opportunities to partner with us.
Where financial information is requested, such as completing an online transaction, personal identifiable information along with credit card numbers and expiration dates are required for routine processing of payments.
We may occasionally provide you the opportunity to participate in surveys or feedback forms on our site. If you participate, we may request certain personally identifiable information from you. Participation in these surveys or feedback forms is completely voluntary, and you therefore have a choice whether or not to disclose personal information.
Where personal information is provided that enters a system of records, it is collected in compliance with the Institutional Privacy Policy. Providence collects, creates and maintains information for the purposes of admission, registration, fundraising and other activities directly related to its education programs. Information collected is only kept for the length of time necessary to fulfill the purpose for which it was collected. If you wish to decline or withdraw consent to your personal information being collected, used and disclosed for the purposes described above, please contact Public Relations.
Providence logs requests to our server. These logs capture computer information, navigation and page requests. The information collected does not identify who you are. Other information, such as your domain name or IP address, may identify you depending on the naming standards followed by your Internet service provider. You may wish to ask them about their policies and practices.
A cookie is a small piece of text information that is sent to your browser when you access a web site. Your browser will return this cookie information to the domain where the cookie originated. Cookies are destroyed after the visitor leaves our site. The cookies are used to track the browser's stay at our site to enable the following functions:
Providence also uses Google analytics to collect statistics on visitors to our websites. Providence only allows Google to collect analytics for users that are not logged in. As soon as an individual is logged into the Providence website, the analytic code is disabled for that session. If you are concerned about the use of cookies, you can refer to the help information in your browser software for information on how to disable cookies. If you wish to delete cookies from your machine, consult your browser’s help files for instructions on how to do so.
Providence routinely collects and stores information from online visitors to help manage our web site and improve services. This information includes the pages visited on the site, and the date and time of the visit, the internet address of the referring site, the domain name and IP address from which the access occurred, and the version of browser used. We make no attempt to identify individual visitors from this information.
For site security purposes, we employ software and server programs to monitor network traffic that identifies unauthorized attempts access information, to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage. In the course of such monitoring, these programs may detect such information as e-mail headers, addresses from network packets, and other information. Information from these activities is used only for the purpose of maintaining the security and performance of Providence’s network and computer systems. Except for authorized law enforcement investigations, no other attempts are made to identify individual users or their usage habits.
The Providence website may contain links to other sites. We are not responsible for the content and the privacy practices of other websites and encourage you to examine each site's privacy policy and disclaimers. This will enable you to make your own decisions regarding the accuracy, reliability, and correctness of material and information found.
Providence realizes that users have a right to view information collected about them. Users may access their own personal information and contact Providence administration through phone (1-204-433-7488 / 1-800-668-7768), fax (1-204-433-7158) or email (pr@prov.ca) about inaccuracies they may find. While Providence cannot guarantee immediate compliance, we will make every effort to assure that such requests are carried out to the fullest of our ability and in a reasonable time frame. If there are any further questions regarding information usage or handling, please contact Providence administration.
Providence is dedicated to preventing unauthorized data access, maintaining data accuracy, and ensuring the appropriate use of information. We strive to put in place appropriate physical, electronic, and managerial safeguards to secure the information we collect online. To this end we use firewalls, data disconnection from the Internet, and regular backups. If you have more concerns about how data is stored and protected at Providence, please feel free to contact Providence administration through email at pr@prov.ca.
By using Providence web services you agree not to use this service to do any of the following:
Providence reserves the right to remove any information deemed inappropriate or infraction of these terms of use at its sole discretion. Providence also reserves the right to terminate anyone’s access to our services without notice, at any time, for any reason.
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