PRIVACY POLICY

Last Updated: August, 2022

Discover Counselling Services operates https://discovercounsellingservices.ca Website and we are committed to protecting your privacy.

This page will inform you of our online information practice regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of personal data when you use our Website Services and the choices you have related with that data.

During the course of your appointment booking, assessment and treatment we collect a variety of personal health information about visitors to our Website. This information is regulated provincially under the Personal Health Information Protection Act, 2004 (PHIPA) and federally under the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, 2004 (PIPEDA).

Under these two Acts, your consent to collect personal health information in order that you can receive Social Work and Psychotherapy services from Discover Counseling Services is implied by your presence and you providing of such information.

Your consent is not assumed for the disclosure of personal health information to any person or organization other than your formal consent to release your personal information. This means that formal written or verbal consent must be obtained by Discover Counselling Services Professionals from you the client or your substitute decision-maker(s) before any information can be disclosed.

1. INFORMATION COLLECTION AND USE

Personal Data Collection

Discover Counselling Services uses Website Contact Forms in which you give us your identifiable contact information (“Personal Data”) including:

• First name and last name
• Address
• IP address
• Email address
• Telephone number
• Cookies and Usage Data

Usage Data:

We receive and store on our Website any information you enter on the contact forms or provide to us in any other format i.e., including information sent through your browser when you visit our Website, emails and messages sent through a mobile device in response to questions (Usage Data”), or administratively when dealing with our customer services department. You do not need to give us any personal information in order to use our Website.

The Usage Data may include information such as your Internet Protocol address (e.g. IP address), browser type, browser version, the pages or website that you visit, the time and date of your visit, the time spent on those pages, unique device identifiers and other diagnostic data. 

Usage Data collected by the mobile phone you use to access the Website Services may include the unique ID assigned to your mobile phone, your mobile devise IP address, your mobile operating system the type of mobile internet browser you use, identifiers distinctive to your device and other diagnostic data.

Use of Data

At Discover Counselling Services, Health Professionals use the collected data for a variety of purposes:

• To provide and maintain the Website Services
• To notify you about changes to our Website Services
• To allow you to participate in interactive features of our Website Services when you choose to do so
• To provide customer care and support
• To provide analysis on valuable statistical information
• To monitor the usage of the Website Services
• To detect, prevent and address technical issues

Transfer of Data

Unless we have your expressed signed consent, we will not share, trade or sell or otherwise use any information we receive from you. The information we collect is used to improve our services and to help determine and meet your individual and some cases your collective needs.

We also do not share, trade or sell any of your health or mental health information under any circumstances. Should you require that we share health and mental health information with a third party provider or other professionals, you must request it from us directly accompanied with a signed “Release of Information” form.

Storage of Data

Your information, including Personal Data, may be stored – and maintained on – computers located outside of your state, province, country or other governmental jurisdiction where the data protection laws may differ than those from your jurisdiction. If you are located outside Canada and choose to provide information to us, please note that we transfer the data, including Personal Data, to Canada and process it in Canada.

Your consent to this Privacy Policy followed by your submission of such information represents your agreement to that transfer. At Discover Counselling Services, all steps reasonably necessary is taken to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy and no transfer of your Personal Data will take place to an organization or a country unless there are adequate controls in place including the security of your data and other personal information.

Children’s Privacy

Discover Counselling Services Website does not address anyone under the age of 13 (“Children”). We are committed to protecting the online privacy of children and will not knowingly collect any personally identifiable information from children under the age of thirteen (13) years. If you are a parent or guardian and you are aware that any of your Children has provided us with Personal Data, please contact us. If it comes to our attention that we have collected Personal Data from children without parental consent, we will take all steps to remove the information from our servers.

2. DISCLOSURE OF DATA

Legal Requirements

Discover Counselling Services Professionals may disclose your Personal Data in the good faith belief that such action is necessary:

• To comply with a legal obligation
• To protect and defend the rights or property of Discover Counselling Services
• To prevent or investigate possible wrongdoing in connection with the Website Services
• To protect the personal safety of users of the Website Services or the public
• To protect against legal liability

Security of Data

The security of your data is important to us, but remember that no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage is one hundred percent secure. While Discover Counselling Services will strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your Personal Data, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.

Service Providers

Discover Counselliing Services may employ third party companies and individuals to facilitate our Website Service (“Website Service Providers”), to provide the Website Service on our behalf, to perform Website related-services or to assist us in analyzing how our Website Service is used. 

Third parties have access to your Personal data only to perform these tasks on our behalf and are obligated not to disclose or use it for any other purpose.

3. ANALYTICS

Discover Counselling Services may use third-party Service Providers to monitor and analyze the use of our Website Service.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic. Google uses the data collected to track and monitor the use of our Service. This data is shared with other Google services. Google may use the collected data to contextualize and personalize the ads of its own advertising network.

For more information on the privacy practices of Google, please visit the Google Privacy & Terms web page: https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en

Links to Other Sites

Discover Counselling Services, Website Services may contain links to other sites that are not operated by us. If you click on a third party link, you will be directed to that third party’s site.

We strongly advise you to review the Privacy Policy of every site you visit. We have no control over and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies or practices of any third party sites and their services.

4. CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY

We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting a new Privacy Policy on this page.

We will let you know via email and/or a prominent notice on our Website Service, prior to the change becoming effective and update the “effective date” at the top of this Privacy Policy.

You are advised to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any changes. Changes to this Privacy Policy are effective when they are posted on this page.

Contact

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us:

• By email: ingrid@discovercounsellingservices.ca
• By telephone: 647-951-3112

If you have a concern please reach out to the: Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, 2 Bloor Street East, Suite 1400 Toronto, ON M4W 1A8

Telephone: 416-326-3333 or 1-800-387-0073. Website: www.ipc.on.ca

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Disclaimer: The information provided through this website is for informational purposes only. It is not clinical advice. It is not intended to and does not create a therapist-client relationship. E-subscribers and other website visitors are receiving general advertising and information about mental health services if and when they are needed and should not act upon this information without seeking consultation from a certified medical or mental health professional. All e-subscribers join through a request for information iterated by the subscriber with the opportunity to opt out at any time.