Privacy

• As the custodian of the Secretariat’s website, Global Affairs Canada (GAC) is committed to protecting the privacy rights of individuals and safeguarding the personal information under its control according to Canada’s Privacy Act.
• The Secretariat does not automatically gather specific personal information from you such as your name, phone number or e-mail address. The Secretariat would only obtain this type of information if you voluntarily supply it by e-mail or if you register to a secure portion of the site.
• The voluntary personal information provided by individual visitors to this website may be used by the Secretariat for the purpose of responding to your request or to ensure the security of this system. The Secretariat only share the voluntary information you give us with another government department if your inquiry relates to that department. The Secretariat does not use the information to create individually identifiable profiles, nor do we disclose this information to anyone outside the federal government in the US, Mexico or Canada.
• For questions on your right of access to and/or correction of your personal information, and on your right to complain to the Privacy Commissioner of Canada regarding the handling of your personal information under the Privacy Act, you may contact Global Affairs Canada’s Access to Information and Privacy Protection Division at dcp@international.gc.ca.
• The information is collected under the authority of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Act Section 10(2)(k) as the custodian of this website.

Web Analytics

Web analytics is the collection, analysis, measurement, and reporting of data about Web traffic and visits for purposes of understanding and optimizing Web usage. Information in digital markers may be used for the purpose of web analytics to remember your online interactions with Global Affairs Canada.

Any web analytics will be used, disclosed and retained under the provisions of the Privacy Act and description published in Treasury Board Secretariat’s InfoSource, Electronic Network Monitoring Logs PSU 905.

The Secretariat website uses WebTrends. When your computer requests the Secretariat Web page, Global Affairs Canada as the custodian of the Secretariat’s website, collects the following types of information for Web analytics:

• the originating IP address
• the date and time of the request
• the type of browser used
• the page(s) visited

Digital markers

• A digital marker is a resource created by the visitors' browser in order to remember certain pieces of information for the Web server to reference during the same or subsequent visit to the Web site. Examples of digital markers are "cookies" or HTML5 web storage. Some examples of what digital markers do are as follows:they allow a Web site to recognize a previous visit each time the visitor accesses the site;
• they supply Web analytics services to the Secretariat where information obtained is compiled into aggregated statistical reports used to analyze traffic patterns to, from and within our Web sites (for example, most visited pages) and to assess our Web sites' efficiency (for example, analysis of broken links). Such information may be used by the Secretariat for communications and information technology statistical purposes, auditing, evaluations, research, planning and reporting.

For the purposes of the Privacy Act, this information is treated as personal information. The digital markers used do not allow the Secretariat to identify individuals.

You may adjust your browser settings to reject digital markers, including cookies, if you so choose. Doing so will have no significant impact on your browsing experience. Rejecting cookies will not affect the site’s performance or restrict your ability to access information from this site. Please consult your browser's Help Menu for instructions on how to set your browser to detect and reject cookies.