Privacy Policy

The Porcupine Health Unit is committed to protecting the privacy of its visitors. The purpose of this notice is to explain when and how personal information can be used.

The PHU subscribes to all of the current laws that govern privacy on the Internet.

The Porcupine Health Unit is not responsible for the content or the privacy policies of the websites to which it may link.

What information is collected by the PHU and how is it used?

The PHU does not automatically collect any specific personal information, such as name, phone number or e-mail address. It would only obtain this type of information if supplied through an e-mail or through your completing an online form (as in our Question of the Month feature). The PHU does not disclose, give or sell any personal information about visitors to the website. Only the minimum amount of personal information is used by the Porcupine Health Unit for the purposes of responding to requests or to ensure the security of the system. No information is used to create individual profiles, or disclosed to anyone else without previous consent.

The Porcupine Health Unit employs software programs to monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage. This software receives and records the Internet Protocol (IP) address of the computer that has contacted the website, the date and time of the visit, and the pages visited. There is no attempt to link these addresses with the identity of individuals visiting the site unless an attempt to damage it has been detected.

Unless specifically noted otherwise, neither electronic systems nor e-mail are secure information transmission methods. It is not recommended to transmit sensitive personal information electronically.

Session cookies are part of the this website and reside on the web browser. They have no expiry date since they expire as soon as the visitor closes the web browser. Session cookies remember information only for as long as the visitor operates the web browser in a single "session" (or "sitting"). Session cookies may be used by the Porcupine Health Unit to determine information such as what parts of a website are popular, how long people stay on certain sections of a website, and what browsers people are using.

This website sometimes uses persistent cookies to track how visitors use the site or to determine sites previously visited. (A "cookie" is a file that may be placed on a hard drive without the visitor's knowledge by a website to allow it to monitor their use of the site.)

For more information concerning privacy issues please contact the Porcupine Health Unit at info4you@porcupinehu.on.ca

last reviewed: June 22, 2009