| |
 |
|
Featured
Article - Ten Tips to ensure your web
site compiles with Canadian privacy legislation.
|
|
Newland
Portfolio – Each edition of Navigator
highlight a web site that we have recently completed
and briefly mention its special features. In this
edition we show you UK Trade & Investment Canada.
|
|
Useful
Web Resources - Web sites that are worth
a look. We bet you’ll add them to your favourites.
|
|
Privacy
policy
|
|
|
|
Ten
Tips to ensure your web site complies with Canadian privacy legislation.
January 1st 2004 brought in one of the most significant
laws affecting organizations in Canada: the Personal Information
Protection and Electronic Document Act (PIPEDA).
This federal law significantly impacts the way private businesses,
corporations, federal agencies, not-for-profit organizations and
associations handle the personal information with which they have
been entrusted. While this affects almost every aspect of your
business, it has particular significance if you have a web site.
- Does the law apply to you? The Act extends
to the collection, use or disclosure of personal information
in the course of any commercial activity within Canada. There
are some exceptions in Quebec.
- What is personal information? Pretty much
everything about an individual except an employee's name,
title, business address and telephone number.
- Where might you collect personal information?
The most likely place is a form on your web site where people
contact you. Maybe you have people register for an event or
sign up for a newsletter.
- Explain why you are collecting personal information.
If you have any page that requests “personal information”
you must add an explanation about what you will use it for.
If you later come up with a new use for the information, you
must contact every person affected and explain your plans.
- Obtain the person’s consent. Make
sure the form has a way for the person to show their consent
(a check box is fine) and keep a copy. This might mean keeping
the email generated by the form, or backing up the database
that the form updated.
- Store the information safely. If you keep
data on a computer, you must limit access to the computer,
and be prepared to answer questions on how you are doing this.
If it’s on paper, then it must be locked up and only
available to people who need it for the purposes you collected
it for.
- Store the information only as long as necessary.
You must destroy the information as soon as you no longer
need it. For example, if you have a newsletter mailing list,
ensure people may unsubscribe and that when they do, their
information is removed from your system.
- Ensure you keep the information accurate.
The law requires you to minimize the possibility of using
wrong information when making a decision, or disclosing wrong
information to third parties.
- Develop and publish your privacy policy.
The law has many provisions requiring you to publish your
policies and procedures. You must nominate a person to be
accountable for complying with the law. You must make it easy
for people to contact you and find out what information you
have on them and how you use it. All this can be done in a
well-crafted privacy policy
- There is a silver lining! While this may
appear to be nothing more than even more bureaucracy to distract
you from running your business, it can also be a competitive
advantage. By demonstrating to your web site visitors that
you respect their privacy, you will improve their confidence
in your organization and increase the likelihood that they
will do business with you.
The federal government has a very good web site where you can find
out more about the act. There is everything from the act itself,
to a questionnaire, PowerPoint presentation, links to other resources
etc. The Privacy Commissioner of Canada http://www.privcom.gc.ca/ekit/ekit_e.asp
If you would like help ensuring that your web site meets the new
legislations requirements, please call The Newland Group at 905
274-7100 or email navigator@newland.com
|
|
| |
 |
|
Our featured web site this edition is UK Trade &
Investment Canada: http://www.uktradeinvestcanada.org/
This is an amalgamation of two sites we developed
for the British government some years ago and have
managed ever since.
The client created a new single identity for two previously
separate services, and the new site had to incorporate
both of them in a structure that was easy and intuitive
to navigate. With 480 pages, management must be streamlined,
so we used Java Server Page technology. One feature
that you cannot see is that all the email addresses
on the site are encoded. While they appear normal
to humans, and work correctly if you click on them,
they are unintelligible to programs designed to “harvest”
email addresses for sending SPAM.
If your site needs a face lift, please call us at
905 274-7100 or email navigator@newland.com
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
Useit.com at http://www.useit.com/.
This web site is startling. It looks like no other site. If you
are responsible for a web site or are thinking of creating one,
you MUST visit useit.com.
You will learn more about what makes a web site effective than
you would anywhere else.
E-Consultancy is a UK site at http://www.e-consultancy.co.uk/
It provides a wealth of good information but the real value comes
with a subscription. For around $220 a year, you get access to
case studies, white papers, articles etc., on e-business. It has
a UK focus of course, but much the data available is applicable
anywhere.
|
|
)