Personal Information Protection Policy

At michellemontague.com, Michelle Montague (“the artist”) is committed to providing you with exceptional service.  As providing this service involves the collection, use and disclosure of some personal information about you, protecting your personal information is one of the artist’s highest priorities.

While the artist has always respected patrons and clients privacy and safeguarded their personal information, she has strengthened her commitment to protecting personal information as a result of the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), which sets out the rules under which any organization may collect personal information in Canada, as well as their obligations to protect any data they collect from being acquired by others.

Please read the following carefully to understand the artist’s views and practices regarding your personal information and how it will be treated. By visiting michellemontague.com you are accepting and consenting to the practices described in this policy.

The artist will inform you of why and how she will collect, use and disclose your personal information, obtain your consent where required, and only handle your personal information in a manner that a reasonable person would consider appropriate in the circumstances.

Please note the information collected by this site is primarily for non-commercial and artistic purposes and is not bound by PIPEDA. However, when the artist uses your personal information, she is to the best of her abilities following the the principles and practices outlined by PIPEDA in protecting your personal information.  The artist’s privacy commitment includes ensuring the accuracy, confidentiality, and security of your personal information and allowing you to request access to, and correction of, their personal information.


Scope of this Policy

This policy applies to michellemontague.com and to any service providers collecting, using or disclosing personal information on behalf of michellemontague.com.

Definitions

Personal Information – under PIPEDA means any information that can be used to identify a specific individual, and includes such information as a name, a home address, home telephone number and e-mail address. Personal information may also include age gender and ID numbers. Personal information does not include business or organization contact information

Business or Organization Contact information – means information:

That would enable an individual to be contacted at a place of business and includes name, position name or title, business telephone number, business address, business email or business fax number

or;

An organization’s collection, use or disclosure of personal information solely for journalistic, artistic or literary purposes.

Business or organization contact information are not covered by this policy or PIPEDA.

Controller – means the individual designated responsibility for ensuring that michellemontague.com complies with this policy and PIPEDA.


Policy 1 – Collecting and Using Personal Information

  • Unless the purposes for collecting personal information are obvious and you voluntarily provide your personal information for those purposes, the artist will communicate the purposes for which personal information is being collected, either orally, in writing (by email) before or at the time of collection.
  • michellemontague.com does not automatically gather your personal information. You may anonymously access the website. Personal information is only obtained if you supply it voluntarily by:
    • filling out a form when using website michellemontague.com or;
    • by corresponding with the artist by phone, email or otherwise or;
    • making a purchase or;
    • by subscribing to the artist’s mailing list.

If you make a purchase on michellemontague.com, the credit or debit card numbers are collected directly by PayPal. michellemontague.com. does not collect any credit or debit card details in its database.

The artist will only collect your information that is necessary to fulfill the following purposes:

    • To verify identity;
    • To verify creditworthiness;
    • To understand the performance of service and your needs or to take steps before entering into a contract ;
    • To open and manage an account;
    • To deliver requested products and services;
    • To process a blog or e-newsletter subscription;
    • To provide art services;
    • To enrol you in a mailing list to receive invitations to the artist’s events;
    • To email you with information about goods or services the artist feels may be of interest;
    • To ensure a high standard of service to you;
    • To meet legal and regulatory requirements;
    • To collect and process payments;
  • Website analytics and Cookies – michellemontague.com collects some information about visitors using Matomo – a self-hosted web analytics platform. The artist uses the information to improve the visitor experience and make future improvements to the website.
  • No personal information is collected through Matomo that would allow the the artist or the service provider to identify individuals. This tool uses cookies to anonymously collect and generate:
    • Technical information about your visit to the website including your Internet Protocol (IP) address, browser type and version, time zone setting, operating system and platform.
    • Information about your visit, including the full Uniform Resource Locators (URL), clickstream to, through and from this website (including date and time), pages viewed or searched for, page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, methods used to browse away from the page, browsing history. This includes tracking information from the artist’s social media sites such as, but not limited to, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram.
  • Information the artist receives from other sources – The artist may use third parties to collect conversion tracking data and/or data for remarketing purposes (for example, tailored ads). This is for advertising purposes only. All data is anonymous: you will not be personally identified through this data and the artist does not see any data or contact information on an individual level. These third parties may include, but may not be limited to, Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter. These services recommend that if you wish to limit access to this data as much as possible, enable Do Not Track (DNT) in your browser, and/or opt-out of tailored ads in your account settings, and/or adjust your privacy controls in each account.
  • Links to third-party websites – michellemontague.com may, at times, contain links to third-party websites. Any third-party website (whose link is contained within the site) shall not be subject to the terms contained within this policy. You are encouraged to read each respective privacy policy contained on any third party website accessed via this site. The artist does not endorse, nor is responsible, for the privacy of any information provided by you to the hosts of any third party website which is accessed via this site.


Policy 2 – Consent

  • The artist will obtain your consent to collect, use or disclose personal information (except where, as noted below, she is authorized to do so without consent).
  • Consent can be provided orally, in writing (by email), electronically by filling out a form or subscribing to a mailing list on this website, or through an authorized representative or it can be implied where the purpose for collecting using or disclosing the personal information would be considered obvious and the you voluntarily provides personal information for that purpose.
  • Consent may also be implied where you have given notice and a reasonable opportunity to opt-out of your personal information being used for mail-outs, the marketing of new services or products and you do not opt-out.
  • Subject to certain exceptions (e.g., the personal information is necessary to provide the service or product, or the withdrawal of consent would frustrate the performance of a legal obligation), you can withhold or withdraw your consent for the artist to use your personal information in certain ways.  A your decision to withhold or withdraw your consent to certain uses of personal information may restrict the artist’s ability to provide a particular service or product.  If so, she will explain the situation to assist the you in making the decision.
  • The artist may collect, use or disclose personal information without your knowledge or consent in the following limited circumstances:
    • When the collection, use or disclosure of personal information is permitted or required by law;
    • When the artist require legal advice from a lawyer;
    • For the purposes of collecting a debt;
    • To protect the artist from fraud;
    • To investigate an anticipated breach of an agreement or a contravention of law


Policy 3 – Using and Disclosing Personal Information

  • The artist will only use or disclose your personal information where necessary to fulfill the purposes identified at the time of collection [or for a purpose reasonably related to those purposes such as:
    • Complete transactions, deliver the selected product or service;
    • To respond to questions or comments;
    • To contact you directly about products and services that may be of interest;
    • To send you updates by email about changes to regulations such as the privacy policy or terms and conditions;
    • Updating patron or client records
    • To confirm or update your marketing preferences if you instruct her to provide further services in the future, or if there are changes in the law, regulation, or the structure of the website;
    • To comply with legal and regulatory obligations
  • How the artist uses personal information – For each communication the artist uses: your name and email address. For each online art transaction or service the artist collects: your name, address, email address and phone number(s).The artist may also use, depending on the information you have shared and the services that you have purchased (such as an art commission for a personalized painting): information that you have voluntarily chosen to share which may include a personal description, gender, date of birth, location and your website; photographs; comments you have made in the forum and details of products or service you have purchased.
  • Third-party services for daily operations – The use of third-party services may be required for the daily operations and maintenance of the website. In these instances, the artist may have a legitimate interest to use your information, so long as this is not overridden by your own rights and interests. For example:
    • The use of third-party suppliers or companies hired to deliver the artist’s products or services, for example: a shipping company that delivers a package;
    • To improve the daily operations of the website to ensure that content is presented in the most effective manner to improve user experience;
    • The use of statistical analysis to help the artist manage the site, e.g. in relation to financial performance, customer base, work type or other efficiency measures; to measure or understand the effectiveness of advertising served to you and others and to deliver relevant advertising to you;
    • Preventing unauthorised access and modifications to systems as part of the artist efforts to keep the website safe and secure;
    • Ensuring the confidentiality of sensitive information;
    • The use of external service suppliers for the operation of the business such as the artist’s accountant and solicitor.

In some instances, for example online purchases, visitors may be asked to submit credit card information for payment. Credit card transactions are managed by payment processing companies such as PayPal. The artist does not authorize these payment companies to use the information except for the express purpose for which it was provided.

  • Transferring your personal data out of Canada – To deliver services to you, it is sometimes necessary for us to share your personal data outside of Canada, e.g.
    • With our service providers located outside Canada;
    • If you are based outside Canada
  • These transfers are subject to special rules under PIPEDA
  • The artist will not use or disclose your personal information for any additional purpose unless she obtains consent to do so.
  • The artist will not sell or rent patron or client, lists or personal information to other parties.


Policy 4 – Retaining Personal Information

  • If the artist uses your  personal information to make a decision that directly affects you, she will retain that personal information for at least one year so you have a reasonable opportunity to request access to it.
  • Subject to policy 4.1, the artist will retain your personal information only as long as necessary to fulfill the identified purposes or a legal or business purpose.The artist will keep your personal information after you have unsubscribed or closed your user account. The artist will do so for one of these reasons: such as:
    • To respond to any questions, complaints or claims made by you or on your behalf
    • To keep records required by law
    • To enable your account to be re-opened if requested by you
    • To analyse the customer base for the purposes of improving the artist services
  • The artist will not retain your personal information for longer than necessary for the purposes set out in this policy. When it is no longer necessary to retain your personal information, the artist will delete or anonymise it.
  • A request to access your personal information should be emailed to the artist Here.


Policy 5 – Ensuring Accuracy of Personal Information

  • The artist will make reasonable efforts to ensure that your personal information is accurate and complete where it may be used to make a decision about you or disclosed to another organization.
  • You may request correction to your personal information in order to ensure its accuracy and completeness.  A request to correct personal information must be made in writing and provide sufficient detail to identify the personal information and the correction being sought.

A request to correct personal information should be emailed to the artist Here.

  • If the personal information is demonstrated to be inaccurate or incomplete, the artist will correct the information as required and send the corrected information to any organization to which she disclosed the personal information in the previous year.  If the correction is not made, the artist will note the your correction request in the file.


Policy 6 – Securing Personal Information

  • The artist is committed to ensuring the security of your personal information in order to protect it from unauthorized access, collection, use, disclosure, copying, modification or disposal or similar risks.Information may be held at the artist’s studio and service providers as described above (see ‘Third-party services for daily operations’). Some of these third parties may be based outside of Canada as also described above (see ‘Transferring your personal data out of Canada’).
  • The artist has appropriate security measures to prevent personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed unlawfully. The following security measures will be followed to ensure that your personal information is appropriately protected:
    • The use of locked filing cabinets; physically securing studio where personal information is held; the use of user IDs, passwords, encryption;
    • The artist limits access to your personal data to those who have a genuine business need to access it. Those processing your information will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality;
    • michellemontague.com is self-hosted on OVH servers and your data is stored on a secure server behind a firewall.

The transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure and the artist cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to the site. Any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, the artist will use strict procedures and security features to prevent unauthorised access.

The artist has procedures in place to deal with any suspected data security breach. The artist will notify you and the regulator of a suspected data security breach where she is legally required to do so.

  • The artist will use appropriate security measures when destroying your personal information such as shredding documents, deleting electronically stored information.
  • The artist will continually review and update our security policies and controls as technology changes to ensure ongoing personal information security.


Policy 7 – Individual Access to Personal Information

  •  You have a right to access your personal information, subject to limited exceptions such as:
    • If disclosure would threaten somebody else’s life or security; or
    • If disclosure would reveal personal information about another individual.
  • A request to access personal information must be made in writing and provide sufficient detail to identify the personal information being sought.
    • A request to access personal information should be forwarded to the artist by emailing Here.
  • Upon request, the artist will also tell you how your personal information is used and to whom it has been disclosed if applicable.
  • The artist will make the requested information available  within a reasonable time (typically within 30 business days), or provide written notice of an extension where additional time is required to fulfill the request at minimal or no cost to you.
  • A minimal fee may be charged for providing access to personal information.  Where a fee may apply, we will inform you of the cost and request further direction from you on whether or not the artist should proceed with the request.
  • If a request is refused in full or in part, the artist will notify you in writing (by email), providing the reasons for refusal and the recourse available to you.

 

Policy 8 – Questions and Complaints:  The Role of the Controller or designated individual

  • The artist or designated individual is responsible for ensuring michellemontague.com compliance with this policy.
  • The artist or designated individual is responsible as the ‘Controller’ of that personal information for the purposes of PIPEDA. The use of your personal information is subject to your instructions, PIPEDA, other relevant Canadian legislation and the artist’s or designated individual professional duty of confidentiality.

The artist wishes to resolve any query or concern you may raise about the use of your information

Any complaints, concerns or questions regarding michellemontague.com compliance in writing to the Controller.

PIPEDA also gives you right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. Outside of Canada in particular in the country where you work, normally live or where any alleged infringement of data protection laws occurred concerns are handled on a case by case basis. The supervisory authority in Canada is the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.

If the Controller is unable to resolve the concern, then you may also contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, at https://priv.gc.ca/en/contact-the-opc/contact-the-information-centre/ or by telephone: 819-994-5444 (Toll free in Canada: 1-800-282-1376)

Contact information for michellemontague.com Controller or designated individual:

Michelle Montague, Click here to email.