Alpha Canada Privacy Policy
At Alpha Canada, we are committed to providing our members with exceptional service. As providing this service involves the collection, use and disclosure of some personal information about our members, protecting their personal information is one of our highest priorities.
Consent to collect your personal information
Alpha Canada (hereafter referred to as “Alpha” and the owner of alphacanada.org) respects each individual’s right to personal privacy. We will collect, use, and disclose information through our website (https://alphacanada.org/) only in the ways disclosed in this statement.
We will inform individuals of why and how we collect, use and disclose their personal information, obtain their consent in accordance with applicable privacy laws, and only handle their personal information in a manner that a reasonable person would consider appropriate in the circumstances.
This Privacy Policy outlines the principles and practices we will follow in protecting personal information within our control. Our privacy commitment includes ensuring the accuracy, confidentiality, and security of personal information and allowing individuals to request access to, and correction of, their personal information.
Scope of this Policy
This Personal Information Protection Policy applies to Alpha Canada and also applies to any service providers collecting, using or disclosing personal information on behalf of Alpha Canada.
Personal Information
Personal Information – means information about an identifiable individual that directly or indirectly identifies that individual.
Privacy Officer – means the individual designated responsibility for ensuring that Alpha Canada complies with this policy and the applicable privacy laws.
Your Consent to Collection, Use, and Disclosure
Alpha Canada may collect, use, disclose, and store any information you enter on the Alpha Canada website or provide to Alpha Canada in interactions Alpha Canada may have with you, with your consent or as permitted or required by law. How we obtain your consent (i.e., the form we use) depends on the circumstances and the sensitivity of the information collected. Unless the law requires a specific form of consent, your consent may be express or implied, depending on the circumstances and the sensitivity of the personal information in question. If you choose to provide us with personal information, we assume that you consent to the collection, use, and disclosure of your personal information as described in this privacy policy.
Generally, we will seek your consent at the time of collecting your personal information. When we wish to use your personal information for a purpose not previously disclosed to you at the time of collection, we will seek your consent before using this information for the new purpose.
If you provide us with personal information about another person, you are responsible for obtaining that person’s consent to allow us to collect, use, and disclose information about them as described in this privacy policy.
1. Information Collection
1.1 The types of personal information that we collect includes:
– identity information, such as your name, username or similar identifier, marital status, title, date of birth and gender;
– contact information, such as your billing address, delivery address, e-mail address and telephone number;
– financial information, such as your bank account number and payment card details used to make donations or to purchase Alpha products or services;
– technical and usage information when you use our website, such as your internet protocol (IP) address, login data, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform and other technology on the devices you use to access our website;
– event participation information, such as your enrollment and attendance at our events;
– information provided via surveys and contests; and
– marketing and communications information, such as your preferences for receiving our newsletter.
1.2 Cookies
We do employ cookies. A cookie is a small text file that our Web server places on a user’s computer hard drive to be a unique identifier. Cookies enable Alpha to track usage patterns and deliver customized content to users. Our cookies do have an expiration date.
2. Information Usage
2.1 Primary Use of Personal Information
The information collected by Alpha will be used for processing any donations, orders or event registrations placed through any of our websites and for maintaining up to date records.
Individuals who provide information may receive email receipts or announcements.
When you place an order or register for an Alpha event, we may request additional information such as credit card number and expiration date. This information is used for confirmation and billing purposes. The contact information you provide is used to service the order. Also, when you register for an event, we may request additional information about your hotel, meal and other travel preferences. This information is used only for the specific event.
2.2 How to Unsubscribe
2.3 Sharing of Personal Information
2.3.1 Sharing with Third Parties
International and Interprovincial Transfer and Storage of Personal Information
Your personal information is currently hosted in Canada and the USA. In some cases, personal information about you may be hosted and processed in any country where we have facilities or use third-party service providers, including Salesforce, Meta, Intercom and Google. Our service providers may transfer certain personal information about you to countries other than your country of residence, which may have different privacy rules than your country. If this information is outside your country of residence, it is subject to the laws of the country in which it is located and may be disclosed to governments, courts, or law enforcement agencies or regulators in that other country. However, our practices regarding your personal information will continue to be governed by this privacy policy and applicable laws.
In the case of any transfer of your personal information to other countries, Alpha Canada will implement appropriate safeguards to provide an adequate level of protection.
We share your personal information with third party service providers who perform some services on our behalf, such as credit card processing companies, shipping companies, mailing houses and event coordinators. When you register for an Alpha event, we provide necessary information to agencies and to third party facilities that are hosting the events. These third parties are allowed to use that personal information only to provide services relevant to the event.
Below is a list of our third-party service providers who may process your personal information:
• Stripe, Intercom, Heart Jar, WeGive, Meta, Google, PostHog, Salesforce, ActiveCampaign, Campaign Monitor, Alpha International
If we provide your information to service providers to support our business, then we require those service providers to maintain the confidentiality of your personal information and keep your personal information secure. We also require that they
only use your personal information for the limited purposes for which it is provided. When our service providers no longer need your personal information for those limited purposes, we require that they dispose of the personal information. We do not authorize the service providers to disclose your personal information to unauthorized parties or to use your personal information for their direct marketing purposes. If you would like more information about our service providers, please contact us using the contact information on our website.
2.3.2 Other Disclosures
Additionally, we may disclose your information when we believe such disclosure is permitted, necessary or appropriate:
• under applicable law, including laws outside your country of residence;
• to comply with legal process;
• to respond to requests from public and government authorities, including public and government authorities outside your country of residence;
• to enforce the terms of the agreements for our products and services;
• to protect our operations or those of any of our affiliates or subsidiaries;
• to protect our rights, privacy, safety or property, and/or those of our affiliates, you or others; and
• to allow us to pursue available remedies or limit the damages that we may sustain.
If we otherwise intend to disclose your personal information to a third party for a new purpose, we will identify that third party and the purpose for the disclosure and obtain your consent.
Furthermore, we may transfer your personal information and other information to a third party in the event of a reorganization, merger, sale, joint venture, assignment, transfer, or other disposition of all or part of our business, brands, affiliates, subsidiaries, or other assets.
2.4 Retention of Personal Information
We will keep your personal information for as long as we need it to fulfill the purposes set out in this Policy, or as required by applicable laws, regulations, or government orders. After the relevant amount of time has passed, we will securely delete your information.
If you would like more information about the periods during which your personal information will be retained, please contact us using the contact details provided in the “Contact Us” section below.
2.5 Children’s Personal Information
Our products and services are not intended for children under the age of 14 and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 14. Children under the age of 14 should not use our products and services unless their parent or guardian has consented to their use. If you believe we might have
any information from or about a child under 14 without the consent of their parent or legal guardian, please contact us as per the “contact us” section below.
2.6 Links from third-party Websites
We offer links to other websites. Please note: When you click on links to other websites, we encourage you to read their privacy policies. Their standards may differ from ours.
We have no control over and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third-party sites or services.
2.7 Changes to This Policy
Changes to this Privacy Policy may be made from time to time. If we make changes, we will revise the date at the top of the Policy. If we make material changes to this Policy, we will advise you by email within 5 working days of such a change.
2.8 Your Personal Information Rights
Individuals have a number of rights concerning their personal information under privacy laws. We will take necessary steps to ensure that your personal information is accurate, complete, and up-to-date. We will not routinely update your personal information unless such a process is necessary. We expect you to provide us with updates to your personal information from time to time when it is required.
Individuals may contact us about inaccuracies or request copies of their personal data by emailing office@alphacanada.org.
Where applicable, you may also have the right to request that Alpha Canada provide your personal information to you in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format.
You may withdraw your consent to the use, disclosure and retention of your personal information. How this request is handled depends on the situation and the purpose for which it is made.
Where applicable, you may request that personal information held about you no longer be disseminated or be de-indexed.
In all cases, we may be required to keep certain personal information to comply with our legal obligations.
Please note that such rights are not absolute. There may be legal or regulatory circumstances that allow us to refuse to provide some or all of the personal information that we hold about you. In cases where we cannot fulfill your request, we will explain the reasons, except where we’re restricted by law.
Additionally, you can file a complaint with the appropriate data protection or privacy authority, such as the Office of the Privacy Commissioner.
We may require that you provide sufficient identification to fulfill your request. Any such identifying information will be used only for this purpose. We will not charge you any fees to access your personal information in our records without first providing you with an estimate of the approximate fees, if any.
Please note that some personal data may take up to 30 days to take effect.
3. Security
Alpha has implemented commercially reasonable physical, organizational, contractual and technological security measures with a view to protecting your personal information from accidental or unlawful destruction, loss or theft, unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use or modification. All personal information is stored behind a firewall and only accessible by a limited number of employees who have special access rights to our database systems. Confidential personal information sent to us is transmitted using Secure Socket Layer technology. This information is then encrypted in our secure database. The database is further protected behind a firewall.
We have taken steps to ensure that only authorized staff members who reasonably require access have access to your personal information. This is how we limit access to your personal information to employees who need it or who need to provide you with any other information about Alpha Canada.
Despite the measures described above, no method of information transmission or storage is 100% secure or error-free. Therefore, unfortunately, we cannot guarantee absolute security. If you have reason to believe that your interaction with us is no longer secure (e.g., if you believe the security of the information you provided to us has been compromised), please contact us immediately using the contact details provided in the “Contact Us” section below.
Contact us
All comments, questions, concerns or complaints regarding your personal information or our privacy practices should be sent to our Privacy Officer using the following details:
privacy@alphacanada.org or call 604.304.2082 | 1.800.743.0899
Reproduction Permission
If you use or adapt content from Alpha Canada websites, we ask that you follow the guidelines described below.
Images
You may use images from our website that you find useful and appropriate. Please provide an adjoining copyright credit that states: Images and text © Alpha Canada 2006-2020.
Articles
You may reproduce any article in full without modification of its content. We also ask that you credit the source. If you are quoting only a part of an article from the website, then you must credit the source and include an adjoining copyright credit that states: Images and text © Alpha Canada 2006-2018.
Product and Materials
For proper use and permissions of the products and materials on this website please refer to shop.alpha.org/tc sections 12 and 14 for complete information.
Copyright & Permissions
Alpha Canada having obtained permission in accordance with Alpha International Brand License; that they may create Translations and Derivative Products only to the extent necessary to utilize the Products in the form required for Canada, and as required for the Purpose of the propagation and advancement of Alpha and Alpha Canada and each of their respective related ministries in accordance with the mutual values and standards of Alpha and Alpha Canada. Alpha Canada may not change, amend or develop the Products in any way without Alpha’s prior written consent save for the purpose of producing a Translation or Derivative Product.
In consideration of Alpha International’s undertakings to Alpha Canada in this agreement, Alpha Canada, for the duration of the Licence Period grants to church (but only for the Purpose) the non-transferable, non-exclusive licence to use MyAlpha and Alpha Derivative Products.
Terms and Conditions for the 2025 Back-to-School Campaign, August 7 to September 5 | Terms and Conditions
© Alpha International | alpha.org
“We have always been keen to allow individuals who are running an Alpha International Course the flexibility to adapt it where it was felt necessary to allow for locally felt needs and where there was the desire to retain the essential elements, nature, and identity of the course. Experience has shown though that this has been misunderstood and the resulting loss of integrity in some courses has given rise to considerable confusion.
Now that Alpha International resources and publications are being used all around the world we have reluctantly had to draw up a copyright statement more tightly in order to preserve confidence and quality control. We are sure you will understand. With the exception of books published by Kingsway or its licensees (in which the author is stated to hold the copyright), all Alpha International publications and materials including booklets, tapes, and graphics are copyright to Alpha International.
Alpha International publications cover a wide range of ministries including the Alpha Course, The Marriage Course, Caring for Ex-Offenders, Building a Twenty-First Century Church and Dynamic Prayer in The Local Church. In no circumstances may any part of any Alpha International publication be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system without permission in writing from the copyright holder or that holder’s agent.
Use of Alpha International publications is permitted only when in conjunction with the running or promotion of Alpha International courses. Resale or the obtaining of payment in any other connection with any Alpha International publication is not permitted. Alpha International asks that the name of any Alpha International course, or names similar to it should not be used in connection with any other Christian course. This request is made in order to: avoid confusion caused by different courses having similar titles ensure the uniformity and integrity of the courses and to maintain confidence in courses listed on the Alpha International register.
Alpha International accepts that minor adaptations to Alpha International courses may occasionally be desirable. These should only concern the length of the talks or the number of sessions. In each case, the essential character of the course must be retained. If an Alpha International course is adapted the person responsible must: only use such a course in their own church or parish, not allow such a course to be used elsewhere, and not publish or promote such a course.”