Access My Info – Privacy Policy
Last Revised: April 2, 2020
The website accessmyinfo.ca is maintained by the Citizen Lab, an interdisciplinary laboratory based at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, University of Toronto. As part of an Ontario university, the Citizen Lab complies with Ontario’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA).
The Citizen Lab respects your privacy, and accessmyinfo.ca has been designed to collect as little of your personal information as possible. This policy informs you about what personal information we do collect through the Access My Info website and how this information is handled. We may update this policy from time to time and will notify you by changing the Last Revised date at the top of this page.
Please note that other web pages linked to from the Access My Info website will be governed by different policies.
What personal information is collected by the Citizen Lab when you submit a request through accessmyinfo.ca?
The Citizen Lab does not collect any of the personal information you provide when compiling a data access request on the Access My Info site. This information is used only to generate a letter, which is done entirely in your web browser.
If you consent when filling out the form, the Citizen Lab may collect your email address for the sole purpose of providing you with reminders, tips, and invitations to help further research regarding your data access request. This feature is powered by the third party service Sendgrid, who will have access to your email address. For more information about SendGrid’s privacy practices, please consult their privacy policy.
In addition, you may also consent to the Citizen Lab receiving basic information about from whom you requested data. This information is used solely for research and monitoring purposes and does not contain information that can personally identify you.
What other personal information is collected through accessmyinfo.ca and why?
The Citizen Lab collects data that may be considered personal information in order to provide access to accessmyinfo.ca. The website’s web server technology logs your public IP address in association with web resources requested by your browser. The time and URL of each resource you request is logged and stored on our web server in a directory accessible only to system administrators.
The Access My Info site only uses cookies or other tracking technologies to retain the user’s language preference for a period of two hours.
Is Citizen Lab authorized to collect my personal information?
The Citizen Lab only collects personal information when we have your consent or when it is necessary for the legitimate interest of providing access to accessmyinfo.ca.
As part of the University of Toronto, our collection of personal information is authorized by section 2(14) of The University of Toronto Act, 1971.
How long do we keep your information?
We keep your personal information for as long as it is necessary in connection with the purposes for which it was collected.
Where and how is your personal information stored?
We store your personal information in Canada and use appropriate safeguards to keep your data safe. Our handling of your personal information is governed by Ontario’s FIPPA through which you have enforceable rights.
If you choose to provide us with your email address, that data will be stored in the United States and will be safeguarded by security practices described on Sendgrid’s Security page.
What rights do I have regarding my personal information?
You have the right to access and correct your personal information. You have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario.
We will comply with all requests that are legally required and assist with other requests as appropriate in the circumstances, including erasure of your personal information, objection to processing of your personal information, and requests to receive your personal information in a manner that facilitates the portability of your data.
Who do I contact if I have further questions?
If you have further questions about our privacy practices you can contact the Citizen Lab at privacy@citizenlab.ca.
For further information on FIPPA and the University of Toronto, you can contact the University of Toronto’s Freedom of Information & Protection of Privacy Office:
Rafael Eskenazi, FIPP Director
University of Toronto
McMurrich Building, Rm 104
12 Queen's Park Crescent W
Toronto, ON M5S 1A8
416 946-5835
The Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario can be contacted at:
2 Bloor Street East,
Suite 1400
Toronto, ON M4W 1A8
416-326-3333
1-800-387-0073
This version of Access my Info is supported by
Access My Info was translated by
Questions? contact ami@citizenlab.ca to learn more.
About this project
Access My Info (AMI) is a web application that enables you to find out what a variety of different companies know about you. It guides you via a step-by-step wizard to generate a formal letter that requests access to your personal information. This letter can then be sent via postal mail or email to the respective company’s privacy officer.
For more information
This work is based on Access My Info by the Citizen Lab and Open Effect and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.