Privacy Policy

About Trade Tracks and this policy

Trade Tracks is a not-for-profit organization based in Ontario, Canada.

This policy applies to personal information handled by Trade Tracks through its website, inquiries, registrations, educational activities, Showcase events, volunteer coordination, supporter relationships, and related communications.

It also covers photographs, recordings, testimonials, and stories that Trade Tracks collects or publishes.

Our Trade Tracks Skilled Trades Learning Programs are supplementary, curriculum-connected educational resources independently developed by Trade Tracks.

My Career Journal is a separate service. This policy explains the intended boundary between the Trade Tracks website and the journal. Information collected within My Career Journal is subject to that service’s own privacy notice.

Schools, employers, exhibitors, training providers, and other organizations linked from our website are responsible for their own information practices.

Our approach to privacy

Trade Tracks seeks to collect only the information reasonably needed for a clear purpose.

Our privacy commitments are to:

• Explain why we request personal information.
• Identify required and optional information.
• Limit use and disclosure to the stated purpose, unless another use is appropriately authorized or permitted by law.
• Restrict access to people who need information for an authorized responsibility.
• Apply safeguards appropriate to the information and circumstances.
• Retain information only as long as reasonably necessary for its purpose and applicable obligations.
• Provide a way to ask questions, request corrections, and raise concerns.

We do not sell, rent, or trade personal information or registration lists.

Supporting or sponsoring Trade Tracks does not entitle an organization to student identities, personal contact lists, classroom records, or private journal content.

What personal information means

Personal information is information about an identifiable individual.

It can include a name, email address, telephone number, identifiable photograph, registration record, or message describing personal circumstances.

Information may also identify someone when combined with other details. A class code, student number, or journal identifier is not automatically anonymous. Where an identifier can be connected to a person, it must be handled accordingly.

Information we collect

The information we request depends on your interaction with Trade Tracks.

General inquiries

When you contact us, we receive the information you provide, which may include your name, contact details, message, and attachments.

We use it to respond, address your request, and maintain an appropriate communication record.

Schools and educators

School registrations may include:

• School or organization name.
• An educator’s or school contact’s name and professional contact details.
• Grade levels and expected group size.
• Scheduling and transportation information.
• Group accessibility or accommodation needs.
• Administrative details needed to organize participation.

School registration is intended to collect group information rather than individual student records.

Please do not submit student names, dates of birth, home addresses, personal email addresses, Ontario Education Numbers, report cards, or individual education records through general registration forms.

If an individual accommodation requires additional information, contact us privately so we can determine what is necessary and how it should be shared. Wherever possible, describe the support required without providing a diagnosis or unrelated medical history.

Public attendance

Public registration may include contact details, attendance numbers, and information needed to administer the registration.

Where attendance categories or age ranges are useful for planning, we seek group information rather than unnecessary identifying details about children.

Exhibitors, employers, sponsors, and supporters

We may collect organization names, business contact details, logos, website links, descriptions, career information, participation preferences, sponsorship arrangements, and documents needed for event administration.

Information collected for internal coordination is handled separately from information approved for public display.

Volunteers

Volunteer information may include contact details, availability, role preferences, relevant experience, and information needed for coordination and safety.

If a role requires additional screening or emergency information, we explain the requirement separately.

Financial transactions

We may retain transaction information needed to confirm payments, issue invoices or receipts, reconcile accounts, and meet recordkeeping obligations.

Where an external payment service is used, that provider processes payment credentials under its own arrangements.

Do not send payment card details through ordinary email or general contact forms.

How we use information

We use information to:

• Respond to inquiries.
• Process and administer registrations.
• Coordinate school visits, public attendance, exhibitors, supporters, and volunteers.
• Communicate confirmations, scheduling changes, and necessary event instructions.
• Arrange accessibility support and address safety issues.
• Maintain administrative and financial records.
• Publish approved profiles, acknowledgements, photographs, and stories.
• Understand participation and improve our resources and events.
• Diagnose technical problems and protect services against misuse.
• Meet applicable legal obligations.

We do not use school registration information to create individual student marketing profiles.

Employers and sponsors do not receive access to students’ private interests, reflections, or journal contents through their involvement with Trade Tracks.

Consent and choices

We explain the purpose of collection when requesting information.

Providing information for an inquiry or registration allows us to handle that inquiry or registration. It does not provide unlimited permission for unrelated uses.

Where appropriate, we seek separate permission for:

• Optional newsletters and promotional communications.
• Publication of identifiable stories or testimonials.
• Featured promotional photographs and recordings.
• Sharing personal contact information with another organization.
• Materially different uses of information already collected.

You may decline optional uses without losing access to unrelated public resources.

You may contact us to withdraw consent for an optional use. We will explain any effect on a service that depends on the information.

Some records may still need to be retained for legal, financial, safety, or dispute-resolution purposes.

Email communications

We may send necessary messages about an inquiry, registration, school visit, volunteer role, sponsorship, or other arrangement.

Optional newsletters and promotional communications are handled separately from operational messages.

You can unsubscribe from optional communications using the method provided or by contacting us.

Unsubscribing does not cancel an existing registration. Necessary messages about that registration may still be sent.

We do not use school-provided information to add students to promotional mailing lists.

Public profiles and acknowledgements

Trade Tracks may publish approved information about employers, exhibitors, sponsors, supporters, educators, and community partners.

This may include an organization’s name, logo, description, website, career links, supporter history, and approved quotations or stories.

We do not treat all information submitted through registration as suitable for publication.

Internal correspondence, payment records, insurance documents, personal accommodation information, and administrative contact details are not intended for public display.

A named contact or personal contact detail should be published only when specifically approved for that purpose.

Public content may be indexed by search engines or copied by others. Removing it from our website may not remove copies held elsewhere.

Event photographs, recordings, and media

Trade Tracks events may include photography, video, interviews, and independent media coverage.

We distinguish general event documentation from the deliberate use of an identifiable person in a featured interview, testimonial, story, or promotional image.

Event notices will explain photography arrangements and how to raise a concern or request an accommodation.

For identifiable children featured in promotional material, we seek appropriate permission through a process that accounts for parent or guardian consent and school requirements.

Attendance is not treated as blanket permission for every future promotional use of an identifiable child’s image.

Schools should communicate photography restrictions through the agreed event process while avoiding unnecessary disclosure of student information.

If you have a concern about an image or recording published by Trade Tracks, contact us with enough detail to identify it. We will review the concern and take reasonable steps within our control.

Independent media, exhibitors, and visitors are responsible for their own recordings and publications. Trade Tracks can communicate event expectations and help address concerns, but cannot guarantee control over every recording made at a public event.

Technical information, cookies, and embedded content

Our website and its service providers may process technical information when you visit, even if you do not submit a form.

Depending on the services enabled, this may include IP addresses, browser and device details, pages requested, access times, referring links, cookie identifiers, and error or security records.

This information may support website operation, troubleshooting, usage measurement, and protection against spam or automated abuse.

Cookies are small files stored by your browser. Some support essential functions; others may support preferences, analytics, or third-party content.

Where consent is required for nonessential cookies or tracking, the relevant choice must be provided before they are enabled.

You can manage cookies through your browser, although restricting essential cookies may affect website functions.

Embedded videos, maps, social media content, and other external features may communicate information to their providers when they load or when you interact with them. Those providers apply their own privacy practices.

Statistics and reporting

Trade Tracks may use registration totals, attendance counts, resource-use statistics, and feedback to improve its work and report on participation.

We seek to use aggregate information wherever practical, such as total participating schools, students attending in school groups, exhibitors, or supporting organizations.

Public statistics should not identify individual students or reveal private journal activity.

We take care with small groups and combinations of details that could identify someone. Removing a name alone does not necessarily make information anonymous.

When we share information

We limit sharing to information reasonably needed for the stated purpose.

Information may be shared with:

Authorized Trade Tracks personnel: Board members, staff, contractors, or designated volunteers who need it for assigned responsibilities.

Service providers: Providers supporting hosting, forms, email, registration administration, storage, payments, security, or technical support.

Event partners: Venues or operational partners where limited information is necessary for scheduling, access, accommodations, or safety.

Recipients you authorize: Another person or organization where you specifically request or approve the sharing.

Legal or safety recipients: Where disclosure is required or permitted by applicable law, including a valid legal demand or a serious safety concern.

We do not provide general participant contact lists to exhibitors or sponsors simply because they are taking part in an event.

Service providers may process information to deliver their services. Trade Tracks remains responsible for selecting appropriate arrangements for information under its control.

External organizations and websites

Our website links to employers, educational institutions, government resources, apprenticeship services, and other organizations.

Their privacy notices apply when you use their services or provide information directly to them.

If you give contact information to an exhibitor or employer, that organization is responsible for explaining how it will use it.

A link from Trade Tracks does not mean that an external service follows the same information practices as Trade Tracks.

Processing locations

Digital services used by Trade Tracks may store or process information in Canada or other countries.

Main databases, backups, email delivery, support, and security systems may operate in different locations. A Canadian database location does not necessarily mean that every related process occurs exclusively in Canada.

Information processed outside Canada may be subject to that country’s laws and lawful access requirements.

You may contact us for information about the processing arrangements relevant to your interaction with Trade Tracks.

My Career Journal’s privacy notice should separately describe its hosting and processing arrangements.

Protecting information

Trade Tracks is responsible for applying safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of information and the circumstances in which it is handled.

Our approach includes limiting access, protecting administrative accounts, handling shared documents carefully, and disclosing information only to authorized recipients.

No website, email system, or storage service can guarantee absolute security.

Please contact us promptly if you believe information has been exposed, misdirected, or accessed without authorization.

Do not send passwords, sign-in codes, payment card details, or private journal contents through a general inquiry form.

Retention and disposal

We retain information for as long as reasonably needed to fulfil its purpose and meet applicable obligations.

The period depends on the record:

• Inquiries may be retained for responses and follow-up.
• Registration records support event delivery, reconciliation, and related issues.
• Volunteer records support coordination and appropriate administration.
• Financial records are retained for applicable accounting and legal requirements.
• Consent records help us honour and demonstrate permissions.
• Approved public profiles may remain while relevant and authorized.
• Security records support troubleshooting and investigation.

We do not retain identifiable student information simply because it might be useful in the future.

When information is no longer needed, our approach is to delete it securely or remove identifying details where there is a legitimate reason to retain aggregate information.

Copies in backups may expire later than records in active systems and remain subject to protection during that period.

Access, correction, and deletion

You may contact us to:

• Ask whether we hold personal information about you.
• Ask how it has been used or disclosed.
• Request access, subject to applicable limitations.
• Request correction of inaccurate or incomplete information.
• Withdraw consent for an optional use.
• Request deletion where continued retention is unnecessary.
• Request review of a published photograph, quotation, or story.

We may need to verify your identity or authority before acting. Verification should be proportionate to the request.

Parents, guardians, and authorized representatives may make requests where appropriate. We will consider their authority and the privacy interests of the individual concerned.

If we cannot fulfil a request in full, we will explain the reason and available next steps, subject to legal restrictions.

Classroom record requests should normally go to the school. Private journal account requests should follow My Career Journal’s own privacy process.

Privacy incidents

If we discover a privacy incident, we will assess the circumstances, take steps to contain it, and review the information and individuals affected.

Where required by applicable law, we will notify affected individuals and the appropriate authority and maintain required incident records.

Our response may include correcting access permissions, seeking recovery of misdirected information, working with providers, and improving procedures.

Please report suspected unauthorized access, accidental publication, or misdirected messages using the contact below.

Questions and complaints

You may contact Trade Tracks with a privacy question or complaint. We will review the concern and explain our response.

You do not need to include sensitive information in your first message. Describe the issue generally, and we can arrange an appropriate way to discuss necessary details.

If a concern remains unresolved, you may seek guidance from the privacy regulator with jurisdiction over the issue. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada provides information about privacy rights and the appropriate authority to contact.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as our services and information practices change. The date at the top identifies the current version.

For a materially different use of personal information, we will provide appropriate notice and seek new consent where required.

Updating this page does not, by itself, authorize an unrelated use of information previously collected.

New features involving student identifiers, educator assignments, journal sharing, or other sensitive information require clear explanations before use.