We aim to be clear about what personal information this website collects, why we collect it, and how you can control it. Although we’re a non-profit, we follow the 10 fair information principles of Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), which currently applies only to organizations that handle personal information in the course of commercial activities. We encourage our member clubs to follow them too.
We also follow Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL). If we, including our youth sailing program, send a commercial electronic message, we get your consent, identify ourselves, and include an unsubscribe option. Much of our activity and many of our membership emails are not commercial messages under CASL.
Who We Are
We’re a federation of volunteer-run sailing clubs and a youth sailing program in Toronto’s Outer Harbour. Our website address is outerharboursailing.ca. Our member clubs are independent and run their own websites, which have their own privacy practices.
What Personal Data We Collect and Why
Comments
When you leave a comment, we collect the data in the comment form, plus your IP address and browser user agent string to help detect spam. After your comment is approved, your profile picture, if you have one, is visible to the public alongside it.
An anonymized string created from your email address (a hash) may be sent to the Gravatar service to check whether you use it.
Contact Forms
If you send us a message through a contact form, we collect the information you enter, such as your name, email address, and message. We use it only to respond to you and to direct your message to the right OHSF or club contact.
Media
If you upload images to the website, avoid images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS). Visitors can download images from the site and extract any location data they contain.
Analytics
We use analytics tools, including Google’s Site Kit plugin, to understand how visitors use the site, such as which pages are viewed, the type of device and browser, and approximate location. We use this information to improve the site and don’t use it to identify individual visitors.
Cookies
Cookies are needed for website functions such as saving your privacy preferences, logging in, and completing forms. We also use third-party analytics cookies to understand how visitors use our site. By continuing to use the site, you agree that we may place these cookies on your device.
Withdrawing consent: You can withdraw your consent to cookies at any time by clearing or blocking cookies in your browser settings, or by contacting us. Blocking some cookies may affect logins and forms.
The cookies we set include:
- Comment cookies: If you opt in when commenting, your name, email address, and website are saved so you don’t have to re-enter them. These last one year.
- Login test cookie: If you visit the login page, a temporary cookie checks whether your browser accepts cookies. It contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.
- Login and screen options cookies: When you log in, cookies save your login information and display choices. Login cookies last two days, or two weeks if you select “Remember Me”, and are removed when you log out. Screen options cookies last one year.
- Editing cookie: If you edit or publish an article, a cookie records the ID of that article. It contains no personal data and expires after one day.
Embedded Content from Other Websites
Pages on this site may include embedded content, such as videos, images, and webcams. Embedded content behaves as if you had visited the other website. Those sites may collect data about you, use cookies, add their own third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with the content, including if you have an account and are logged in there.
Who We Share Your Data With
We don’t sell your personal data. It is shared only with service providers that help us run the site:
- An automated spam detection service, which may check visitor comments.
- Gravatar, as described under Comments.
- Google, for analytics, as described under Analytics.
- Websites whose content is embedded on our pages, as described above.
If you request a password reset, your IP address is included in the reset email. Some of these providers may store or process data outside Canada, where different privacy laws may apply.
How Long We Keep Your Data
If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are kept indefinitely. This lets us recognize and approve follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them for moderation.
For users who register on our website, we also store the personal information in their user profile. Users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time, except their username. Website administrators can also see and edit it.
Contact form messages are kept only as long as needed to respond and for reasonable record-keeping.
Your Rights
If you have an account on this site or have left comments, you can ask for a file of the personal data we hold about you, ask us to correct it, ask us to erase it, or withdraw your consent to how we use it. We may need to keep some data for administrative, legal, or security purposes.
If you have a concern we can’t resolve, you can contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.
Contact Us
For privacy questions or requests, email info@outerharbour.net.
Changes to This Policy
We may update this policy from time to time, and the date below shows the latest revision.
Last updated: October 2026