Effective Aug 9, 2018
Introduction
The JoinAStudy.ca website is administered by Trial Management Group Inc. (hereafter referred to as TMG). TMG is committed to protecting our users’ privacy and has taken great care to create a secure and safe online environment that complies with Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and applicable provincial privacy regulations and as such, does not apply to non-Canadian residents. TMG does not knowingly collect information from minors. Our privacy practices are described in this Privacy Policy.
We reserve the right to modify this policy at any time, and without prior notice, by posting an amended Privacy Policy on this website. It is strongly recommended that visitors and registered members review this policy periodically, referring to the effective date at the top of the page.
Personal Information and Consent
“Personal Information” is information about an identifiable individual such as name, address, email, telephone number, health conditions and any other information that can identify a person. It is not necessary for you to provide us with any Personal Information in order to use our website. Anyone can visit the site, read our content, and search our database of clinical studies.
If you wish to join a current clinical study, or receive information about future studies and health news, you will be asked to fill out a form that collects Personal Information. We do not automatically gather Personal Information from you. Information is obtained only if you supply it to us voluntarily. By giving us your Personal Information, you consent to allow us to use and disclose your Personal Information as described in this Privacy Policy.
When you sign up to receive the Canadian Health Newsletter, we will collect your name and e-mail address. When you sign up for the JOINASTUDY.CA community, the following Personal Information is collected:
- Name
- Date of Birth
- Postal Code
- Email Address
- Telephone Number(s) (optional)
- Previous clinical study experience (optional)
If you choose to complete one of our health questionnaires, information about your gender, health conditions and medications may be collected.
Use and Disclosure of Personal Information You Submit
The information you submit on JoinAStudy.ca will be used to provide research doctors and their staff with a way to contact you about a current study or about future studies. It will also be used to provide you with health research news.
Personnel at TMG and/or a study location may contact you to provide you with information about current studies or future studies; to discuss your eligibility for a study that you have indicated interest in; to answer any questions you have about the study; and to determine if you qualify for participation. Personnel at TMG may contact you with information about future studies and with health research information, or to request your feedback on the usefulness of this website. You may choose to stop receiving these contacts at any time as described in the section entitled Withdrawing Consent.
Your information will be disclosed only to authorized personnel; e.g., personnel within TMG; personnel at the study locations who conduct studies; and third-party service providers who assist TMG with our business activities. Personal data about users of the JoinAStudy.ca website will never be sold or licensed to third parties, but it may be used by our service providers to share health and study related information with you. We may be required to share your personal and non-personal information in response to authorized information requests from government authorities, to address national security situations, or when otherwise required by law.
Other Information Collected and Shared
JoinAStudy.ca employs the services of several third-party service providers who may collect information about your visits to the JoinAStudy.ca website without you actively submitting such information. This aggregated, unidentifiable information may be collected using various tracking technologies such as web logs, cookies, clear gifs and Google Analytics. Our business partners use this non-personally identifiable information to provide essential services such as improving site functionality, providing relevant search results, recording analytics data and delivering advertising with relevant content based on user demographics (e.g., age, gender) and user search history.
We partner with third parties to either display advertising on JoinAStudy.ca or to manage our advertising on other sites. Our third-party partners may use technologies such as cookies to gather information about your activities on this site and other sites in order to provide advertising based upon your browsing activities and interests. If you do not wish to have this information used for the purpose of providing you with interest-based ads, you may opt-out by sending us an e-mail using the ‘Contact Us’ form on the JoinAStudy.ca website.
Our website may link to services or properties operated by third parties (e.g., Facebook, Twitter). Your interactions with these services and other third-party service providers (e.g., Google) are governed by the privacy policy of the company providing them and are not subject to this Privacy Policy. You should familiarise yourself with the privacy practices of any third party service providers you use.
Withdrawing Consent
As we expect the need for participants in clinical research studies to be ongoing, all your information will be stored in an encrypted, secure central database and will be kept indefinitely unless you request its removal.
We provide you with the opportunity to ’opt-out’ of having personally identifiable information used for the various purposes described in this policy. For example, if you do not want to receive information about current and future studies by email, you can click on the opt-out button in the email. If you no longer wish to receive our Canadian Health newsletters, you may opt-out of receiving them by following the instructions included with each newsletter. You can also opt out of either service by sending us an email using the ‘Contact Us’ form on the website.
If you wish us to remove your personally identifiable information from the website, please contact us at the address provided at the end of this policy or by sending us an e-mail using the ‘Contact Us’ form on the website. Upon request, all of your identifiable information will be removed from the JoinAStudy.ca database.
In all communications to us, please include the email address used when you signed up and a detailed explanation of your request when applicable.
Security
Ensuring that your personal information is protected during its transmission from your computer to our website, while it is stored on our server, and when it is sent to study locations or third-party service providers is essential to our business and for your protection as a user. TMG uses industry standard physical, technical, and administrative safeguards to secure data against foreseeable risks such as unauthorized use, access, disclosure, destruction, and modification. All data that is sent between the web server and browsers will be coded (encrypted) using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protection.
TMG may host your Personal Information on servers outside of Canada. Personal Information stored in another jurisdiction is subject to the laws of that country and those laws may not provide the same protections as Canada. For example, Personal Information that is transferred to and stored in the U.S. may be available to the U.S. government or its agencies under a lawful order made in that country. By using our website and providing us with your information, you consent to this collection, transfer, storage, and processing of information to and in such countries.
Accountability
TMG is committed to protecting the privacy of our users. We have posted this Privacy Policy to communicate the specifics of this commitment and will update it as required. TMG will address any complaints or questions that our users may have regarding this policy or its implementation. If you have a complaint or question about our Privacy Policy, you may contact our Privacy Officer in writing at the address below, or you may e-mail us using the ‘Contact Us’ form on the website.
Trial Management Group Inc.
42 St Clair Ave East
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4T 1M9
