Privacy
Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) is responsible for the administration of the Government of Canada website, Canada.ca, and for providing related services to the federal departments and agencies that publish their content to Canada.ca. ESDC is committed to respecting the privacy and protecting the information of all visitors to Canada.ca.
ESDC’s administration of Canada.ca includes various activities that may require the collection of personal information for both administrativeote 1 and non-administrativeFootnote 2 purposes.
All personal information collected by ESDC about visitors to Canada.ca is authorized under legislation and is done in compliance with the Privacy Act. This means that you will be informed when your personal information may be required, the purpose for which it is collected, and how to exercise your right of access to that information.
While visiting Canada.ca, you may be directed to websites controlled by other Government of Canada institutions or a third-party, or to third-party social media platforms. When visiting a website outside of Canada.ca or a social media platform, personal information will be subject to the terms, conditions, and privacy policies of that other institution or third-party. In these cases, we strongly encourage you to take the time to read the specific privacy notices or statements that describe their specific terms, conditions, and policies.
If you have any questions, comments, concerns or complaints about the activities of ESDC in administering the Canada.ca website as they relate to the Privacy Act, the Department of Employment and Social Development Act, and privacy policies regarding Canada.ca, you can contact the ESDC Access to Information and Privacy Coordinator.
In addition you may also contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner by telephone at 1-800-282-1376.
Web Analytics and Cookies
ESDC is responsible for the Government of Canada website, Canada.ca, as described by subsection 5.1 of the Department of Employment and Social Development Act (DESDA). Under the Government of Canada Directive on the Management of Communications, ESDC has also been identified as the Principal Publisher for the Canada.ca website. This includes responsibilities for web analytics, which is the collection, analysis, and reporting of web traffic data. Web analytics are done to help determine how Canada.ca can be improved to better serve Canadians and other visitors.
In its role as Principal Publisher, ESDC is responsible for the administration of the tools used by the Government of Canada for web analytics. ESDC also performs government-wide web analytics under the authority of section 5 of the DESDA.
For the purpose of performing web analytics, ESDC tracks certain types of information during visits to Canada.ca. For the purposes of the Privacy Act, this information is treated as personal informationFootnote 3. When your computer or other device requests a Canada.ca web page, information is collected for the purpose of web analytics. The type of information collected includes, but is not limited to:
- IP address of the device that has contacted the Canada.ca website (which is not stored or retained in a format that can be used to identify a visitor)
- type of browser used
- type of operating system used
- the date and time of the visit
- pages visited and documents downloaded
ESDC may also use the personal information collected for non-administrative uses, such as communications and information technology statistics, audit and evaluations, content personalisation and testing, research, planning, and reporting. This personal information is not used for decision making processes about an individual or to profile individual visitors to Canada.ca.
ESDC carries out web analytics using services from the third-party service providers Adobe Systems Inc. (Adobe Analytics and Adobe Target) and Google Inc. (Google Analytics). These service providers are based in the United States of America (USA), which means that the personal information collected is transmitted outside of Canada and may be subject to USA laws, including the USA PATRIOT Act. In addition, Adobe and Google operate servers in other countries on which the web analytics data may be processed. Consequently, the data may be subject to the governing legislation of the country where it is processed. For Adobe Analytics, the Government of Canada has specified that personal information can only be stored on servers in Canada, the United States, the European Union, Australia, Israel, New Zealand, Norway, and Switzerland.
For more information about the privacy policies of these service providers, please visit their individual websites or use the following links:
To track visits to Canada.ca for web analytics, both Adobe Analytics and Google Analytics require the use of digital markers (“cookies”). If you wish, you may opt out of having your visit tracked by:
- changing your browser settings to refuse cookies, disabling JavaScript within your browser;
- downloading and installing a browser add-on from and/or Google; or
- downloading an opt-out cookie from Adobe
Cookies are also used to improve user experience. If you change your browser settings to refuse cookies or disable JavaScript so that your Canada.ca visit will not be tracked, no information will be collected but your visit may be affected in other ways, including making it difficult to access any secure services that require a username and password, such as My Service Canada Account and My VAC Account. If you choose opt-out of cookies from Adobe and/or the browser add-ons from Google, your Canada.ca visit will not be affected.
To further protect information about visitors to Canada.ca, ESDC uses a feature from each service provider that hides part or all of the IP address of a visitor before it is stored.
Public Communications on Canada.ca
ESDC is responsible for the Government of Canada website, Canada.ca, as described under Orders in Council 2005-1637 and 2014-0349. This includes engaging in general communications with visitors to the Canada.ca website under the authority of section 5 of the Department of Employment and Social Development Act.
Canada.ca includes a general communications section called “Questions and comments form”, which allows visitors to send questions and comments.. When a question or comment is about a specific activity, program, or service, it may be forwarded to the appropriate responsible officers at ESDC or at another government institution to prepare a reply.
When you use the “General enquiries by email” feature, you are required to provide your email address. ESDC does not ask for or intend to use any other personal information for this activity. IP address are collected incidentally as they are a part of any Internet communication. Consequently, ESDC does not intend or try to associate you to an IP address for this activity, or to create a profile about you. When you use the “General enquiries by email” feature, please do not include any sensitive personal information in the questions/comments box, such as your social insurance number, date of birth, personal finance data, and medical or work history.
The information you provide is collected and stored in the Personal Information Bank entitled Public Communications (PSU 914) or in Executive Correspondence (PSU 902).
Incidental personal information for this activity is collected and stored in the Personal Information Bank Electronic Network Monitoring Logs (PSU 905).
Security Incidents
ESDC is responsible for the Government of Canada website, Canada.ca, as described under Orders in Council 2005-1637 and 2014-0349. This includes using software programs to monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage. This software receives and records information including, but not limited to:
- IP address of the device that has contacted the Canada.ca website
- name of the domain used to access the Internet
- type of browser used
- type of operating system used
- the date and time of the visit
- pages visited and documents downloaded
- IP address of the website that linked directly to Canada.ca
ESDC will not attempt to link these addresses with the identity of visitors to the Canada.ca website unless an attempt to damage the site is detected.
ESDC engages in security monitoring and investigation of the Canada.ca website under the authority of section 161 of the Financial Administration Act. Personal information may be shared with appropriate law enforcement authorities if suspected criminal activities are detected. It may also be used for network security-related statistical purposes, audit, evaluation, research, planning, and reporting.
Personal information for this activity is collected and stored in the Personal Information Bank Security Incidents and Privacy Breaches (PSU 939).
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