The Bell Fund is committed the respect of the privacy of visitors and applicants. All personal information collected is informed by the practices set out in the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (“PIPEDA”). This means that you will be informed of the purpose for which your personal information is being collected and how to exercise your right of access to that information.

To better protect your privacy, we provide this Privacy Policy, which explains our information practices and the choices you can make about the way your information is collected and used.

1.Information Collected

This Privacy Policy applies to all information collected by the Bell Fund. The Bell Fund may collect your personal information at different times, including on this website or related sites operated (solely or with other parties) by the Bell Fund such as our Application Portal.

Whenever you access the Bell Fund’s web site, information is automatically exchanged between your computer and our servers.

Bell Fund collects the following type of information:

• The domain name and IP address you used to access Bell Fund’s site;
• The type of browser and operating system you use;
• The date and time you accessed our site;
• The Web pages you visited and the amount of time you spent on each; and
• The address of the site you used to access Bell Fund’s site, if any.

This information is gathered for statistical purposes and to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage. We make no attempt to link these addresses with the identity of individuals visiting our site unless an attempt to damage the site has been detected, and we do not use the information to create individual profiles.

The types of personal information collected may include:

• Name
• Address
• E-mail address
• Mailing address
• Phone number
• Information related to Applications including corporate, financial and banking information)

On certain limited occasions, we may collect other personal information if it is voluntarily provided by you. In such a case, the collection will occur only with your express consent or as otherwise permitted by law.

2. How We Use Information

We use the personal information you provide for the purposes that we identify when we ask you to provide the information, including the following:

• To review applications for funding;
• To respond to requests for information or services;
• For market research purposes;
• To include you in promotional and marketing campaigns; and
• To process payments by us to you, including via electronic funds transfer.

We may use non-identifying and aggregate information derived from your personal information to better understand applicant and visitor preferences, through statistical analyses and studies.

Personal information may be collected, used, or disclosed without the knowledge or consent of the individual in certain circumstances, as permitted or required by law. These circumstances include personal information which is subject to solicitor-client privilege or is publicly available, where collection or use is clearly in the interests of the individual and consent cannot be obtained in a timely way, to investigate a breach of an agreement or a contravention of a law, to act in response to an emergency that threatens the life, health or security of an individual, for debt collection, or to comply with a subpoena, warrant or court order.

When your personal information is no longer required to fulfill the purpose for which it was collected, it will be destroyed, erased, or made anonymous, provided there are no legal requirements for its continued retention. Our systematic practices for information and records retention and destruction apply to personal information.

3. How we Share Your Personal Information

Your personal information may be transferred to other third-party service providers that we use to assist in managing and processing your personal information for the purposes identified above. Our third-party service providers are required to use, maintain, and disclose your personal information only in accordance with our instructions to them and only on our behalf.

The Bell Fund will not sell or lease personal information collected through its web site. We will only disclose personal information if required to do so by law or legal process or in accordance with applicable federal legislation. Barring certain exceptional circumstances, Bell Fund will not disclose personal information to a third-party without the individual’s explicit knowledge and consent.

4. Location of Your Personal Information

While the Bell Fund has engaged service providers whose servers are based in Canada, through third-parties, there is a possibility that your personal information may be stored on servers located outside of Canada or transferred outside of Canada for processing. Please note that the privacy laws in such jurisdictions differ from Canadian privacy laws and are subject to disclosure pursuant to the laws of those countries, and in some jurisdictions your personal information may be accessed by law enforcement authorities or the courts.

5. Your Consent and Electronic Messages

We will only send email, text or other electronic messages to you if you have an existing business relationship with us or have asked for or otherwise expressly agreed to receive emails, texts or other electronic messages from us. Any electronic message that you receive from us will identify us as the sender, enable you to contact us directly.

6. “Cookies”

A cookie is a file that a Web site sends to your browser and places on your hard disk without your knowledge. Cookies enable Web sites to gather information about your use of the site.

Bell Fund uses cookies to recognize previous visitors to its site and thus save certain settings. For example, a cookie will take you to a Bell Fund site in the language you had previously selected (i.e., English or French), thereby relieving you of the need to make a language selection every time you return to the site.

If you are willing to accept cookies but would like to be notified before they are placed on your hard disk, you must configure your browser settings accordingly. If you do not wish to accept cookies, you must disable the appropriate settings in your browser.

7. Pixel Tags

We may use “pixel tags”, which are small graphic files that allow us to monitor the use of our websites. A pixel tag can collect information such as the IP (Internet Protocol) address of the computer that downloaded the page on which the tag appears; the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) of the page on which the pixel tag appears; the time the page containing the pixel tag was viewed; the type of browser that fetched the pixel tag; and the identification number of any cookie (please see “Cookies”) on the computer previously placed by that server. When corresponding with you via HTML capable email, we may use “format sensing” technology, which allows pixel tags to let us know whether you received and opened our e-mail.

8. Our Commitment To Data Security

Because your privacy is important to the Bell Fund, we use additional technologies and measures to prevent unauthorized access or disclosure, maintain data accuracy, and ensure appropriate use of this information.

Personal information will be protected with safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of the information. Our Board, employees and contractors will be made aware of the importance of maintaining the confidentiality of personal information, and we will exercise care in the disposal or destruction of personal information to prevent unauthorized parties from gaining access to it. We will safeguard personal information by physical measures (for example, restricted access to offices), organizational measures (for example, security clearances, continued training and limiting access on a “need-to-know” basis), and technological measures (for example, the use of passwords and encryption).

9. Your Consent to Our Use of Your Information

You have the choice of whether or not to give us your personal information. Your consent may be given expressly or implied, depending on the circumstances. Providing your personal information, whether in person, by telephone, or on-line, constitutes your consent to the collection, use and disclosure of such personal information by us in accordance with this Privacy Policy and with our statements provided to you at the time you provide information to us.  The supply of services will not be conditional upon your consent to the collection, use, or disclosure of your personal information beyond that required to fulfill legitimate purposes.

At any time, subject to legal restrictions, you may withdraw, verify or change your consent to our use of your personal information, or request us to delete it from our files. For example, if you have previously consented to having your personal information used to include you in promotional or marketing campaigns, you may withdraw your consent from having your personal information used for this purpose. You may also stop the delivery of future promotional and marketing e-mails from us by clicking the unsubscribe link in the e-mail you receive. If you do not agree to our use of cookies or pixel tags at any time, you should set your browser settings accordingly. If you disable the cookies or pixel tags that we use, this may impact or prevent your user experience while on our websites.

10. Minors

We do not seek to obtain, nor do we wish to receive, personal information directly from minors; however, we cannot always determine the age of persons who access and use our websites. If a minor (as defined by applicable law) provides us with his or her data without parental or guardian consent, we encourage the parent or guardian to contact us to have this information removed and to unsubscribe the minor from future Bell Fund promotional and marketing communications.

11. Third-Party Social Media

Bell Fund’s use of social media serves as an extension of its presence on the Web. Social media account(s) are public and are not hosted on Bell Fund servers. Users who choose to interact with us via social media should read the terms of service and privacy policies of these third-party service providers and those of any applications you use to access them. Bell Fund uses Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, YouTube.

Personal information that you provide to the Bell Fund via social media account(s) is collected to capture conversations (e.g. questions and answers, comments, “likes”, retweets) between you and the Bell Fund. It may be used to respond to inquiries, or for statistical, evaluation and reporting purposes. Comments posted that violate Canadian law will be deleted and disclosed to law enforcement authorities.

12. How You Can Access or Correct Your Information

We are committed to ensuring that the personal information we hold for each individual is accurate, up-to-date and complete. You have the right to access your personal information in our files and to update or remove that information as necessary, subject to any legal or contractual restrictions and reasonable notice. To access your personal information, please contact us by e-mail, phone or post at the numbers and address provided below. Please be sure to specify what information requires updating or removal. Please note that requests for access to your personal information may be refused to the extent permitted or required by law.

13. Privacy Contact.

Any questions regarding the use of your personal information maybe directed to the Bell Fund’s Privacy Officer, as below: