Privacy Policy

CHL Privacy Policy

We care about your privacy.  Thank you for your interest in the Canadian Hockey League (CHL) and our network of websites, newsletters, and other services. We believe in fully disclosing the methods to which we collect and use your personal information. We also invite you to ask us about our policies or feel free to let us know how we can better serve your privacy concerns.

What is Personal Information?

This is information you may have given us about specifically who you are, such as:

1. name, mailing address, email address, user name and password
2. demographic information (such as age and education)
3. your interests and preferences
4. transactional information (such as the history of your purchases or the fact that your name and address was obtained by us on a contest entry)

Personal information is collected by us when you choose to provide it to us when registering for a CHL property, such as when you choose to subscribe to a service, enter a promotion/contest or choose to receive a newsletter. We may also receive personal information from our business partners and other third parties, provided that such third parties confirm to us that you have permitted them to share such information.

Business contact information such as the name, title, business address, email address or telephone number of a business or professional person or an employee of an organization is not considered personal information.

Use of Your Personal Information

Your personal information may be used by us for the following purposes:

1. If you are a customer or member of one of our publications or web sites, we need your personal information to provide you with the CHL services and information you have requested from us. We may from time-to-time use your personal information to contact you about changes, enhancements or similar notices related to the CHL properties.
2. The CHL website will not sell, rent or lease its customer/member lists to third parties but we may contact you by email on behalf of external business partners with offers that may be of interest to you, carefully screened to ensure the company is reputable and their materials appropriate and not misleading. All our email communications of this manner will identify us as the sender and include an “unsubscribe” option from receiving these types of offers.
3. If you enter a contest or other promotion offered on the CHL Network, we may, under the rules of the promotion, use your name and certain other information to administer the promotion, such as contacting, announcing and promoting the winners of the promotion.
4. Your credit card number, debit card number, or banking information for pre-authorized payments is used only for processing payments and for presenting you with payment options – not for marketing purposes.
5. The CHL may also use personal information if we have reasonable grounds to believe the information could be useful when investigating a contravention of a federal, provincial or foreign law or in order to protect or defend a legal interest.

Disclosure of Your Personal Information

We will only disclose your personal information to third parties:

1. Where you have specifically given us your consent to disclose your personal information for a designated purpose.
2. Our website may provide your name and email address to carefully screened partners for the sole purpose of providing an extended service or premium news content that we believe will be of high value to our customers or members. These types of partnerships DO NOT include the right to send direct promotional or product offers to you.
3. Who are acting on our behalf as our agents, suppliers or service providers, solely to enable us to more efficiently provide you with the CHL properties.  Such entities act under strict contractual controls, requiring them to maintain the confidentiality of all such personal information and to use such information solely for purposes related to the provision of the CHL Network.
4. As required by law, including by an order of any court, institution or body with jurisdiction or authority to compel the production of information, or in order to protect or defend a legal interest or
5. In connection with a CHL corporate re-organization, merger or amalgamation with another entity, or a sale of all or a substantial portion of the assets of CHL provided that the Personal Information disclosed continues to be used for the purposes permitted by this Privacy Policy by the entity acquiring the information.

Storage of Your Personal Information

The CHL only stores personal information for a period that is reasonably necessary to meet the purposes for which it was collected. Then, we erase or make anonymous any personal information that is no longer required for a specific purpose.

Security of Your Personal Information

We make every reasonable effort to protect against the loss, misuse, and alteration of personal information under our control. Our security policies are periodically reviewed and enhanced as necessary.

Only authorized individuals and suppliers have access to customer information. Where information is sent to a third party for processing, we make sure, through our contracts with them, that all customer information is kept secure. We keep your information for the time we are providing you with a product or service, and for a reasonable time thereafter in the event that you wish to resume service.

We operate secure data networks protected by industry standard firewall and password protection systems. Credit card information is processed using industry-standard encryption and security. We do not collect personal information from bulletin boards or forums. However, we cannot guarantee that personal information voluntarily disclosed on message boards and discussion groups will not be collected and used by others, which may result in unsolicited messages to you from other parties.

Children and Personal Information

We believe that none of the CHL properties appeal directly to children 13 years old or less. Children may visit these CHL properties and provide personal information, which will be collected, used and disclosed as described in this policy.  We encourage you to talk with your children about communicating with strangers, disclosing personal information online and using Internet services safely.

CHL Use of Non-Personal Information

Non-personal information is collected or derived by us in the course of operating the CHL Network.  For example, our web servers may automatically collect non-personal information which is provided through your browser or stored on a cookie or through a web beacon when you choose to visit the CHL Network.

In addition to CHL's practices related to IP addresses, cookies or web beacons, non-personal information is used generally by the CHL to monitor and improve the operation of the CHL Network, to perform statistical analyses of the collective characteristics and behaviour of our users, to measure user demographics and interests regarding specific CHL Properties, to describe our services to third parties such as prospective business partners and advertisers and to analyze how and where best to use our resources. No personal information will be disclosed during these activities.

The CHL may also use non-personal information to inform our sponsors and advertisers as to the performance of a particular sponsorship (such as a contest) or advertisement. In such case we may disclose to those third-party sponsors and advertisers the overall aggregate demographics available regarding, for example, who participated in a contest or who saw and "clicked" on an advertisement. No personal information will be disclosed to these sponsors and advertisers as part of this process; only information in an anonymous, aggregate form will be disclosed.

IP Addresses

An IP address is the unique number which is assigned to every direct Internet access point.  Many IP addresses can generally be associated with certain internet service providers or large organizations. IP addresses do not contain any personal information. When you, through your browser, request a web page or similar information from another computer on the internet, your browser automatically provides that computer with an IP address to which it will send the requested information.

The CHL and IP Addresses:

1. Whenever you request a CHL Network web page or certain other similar CHL content, your browser automatically provides our computers with your IP address, to which our computers will send the requested information. Each such request is logged by our computers with information including the IP address of the computer that requested the page and is stored by our computers as needed for the purposes described in this policy.
2. The CHL may use your IP address to display more appropriate and relevant content and advertising, such as content and advertising based on your geographic area. Aggregate information derived from IP addresses may be reported by the CHL to its advertisers and partners. For example, the CHL may report to its advertisers the estimated total number of users accessing the CHL Network from a specific province.
3. The CHL may use your IP address to facilitate the diagnoses and remedy of a technical problem reported by you or our technical team.

Cookies and Web Beacons

The CHL uses "cookies" to help you personalize your online experience. A cookie is a text file that is placed on your hard disk by a web page server. Cookies cannot be used to run programs, deliver viruses to your computer, search your computer for other information or transmit any information to anyone. Cookies are uniquely assigned to you, and can only be read by a web server in the domain that issued the cookie to you. The cookie identifies your browser and will NOT let a web site know any personal information about you, such as your name and address.

The CHL may use cookies to:

1. Monitor website usage and improve the operation and performance of the CHL Network and to make our CHL Network easier and more convenient to use. For example, cookies help us remember who you are through your browser settings so that we can offer and provide more personalized services (e.g. language preference). Cookies also allow us to save passwords and preferences for you so that you will not have to re-enter them the next time you visit the CHL Network.
2. Measure aggregate user traffic and demographic statistics related to the CHL Network and advertisements (e.g. number of users, average time spent, average age and similar statistics). This information helps us to better understand when to update, change or offer new services and provides us with details as to the performance of third party advertisements and content. This information may be reported, in aggregate form only, to our current and prospective sponsors, advertisers and business partners. No personal information will be disclosed in such reports.
3. Displaying advertisements. The CHL and third party advertising providers used by the CHL may use cookies when serving advertisements.

Cookies are used on many major web sites. Most browsers are initially setup to accept cookies. If you prefer, you can reset your browser either to notify you when you have received a cookie, or to refuse to accept cookies. You should understand that while the CHL does not require you to use cookies, certain CHL properties may not function properly if you set your browser to not accept cookies.

Certain CHL properties may contain electronic images or tagging code known as web beacons - sometimes called single-pixel gifs or JavaScript tags - that allow the CHL to count users who have visited those pages and to deliver co-branded services. Web beacons are not used to access your personal information; they are a technique used to compile aggregated statistics about CHL network usage. Web beacons collect only a limited set of information including a cookie number, time and date of a page view, and a description of the page on which the web beacon resides. Certain CHL Network web pages may also contain web beacons placed there by our advertising partners to help the CHL determine the effectiveness of our internet advertising campaigns.

Links

The CHL Network contains hyperlinks to internet sites managed by third parties. These links are only suggested for your convenience. Activating these links may cause you to leave the CHL Network.  Please note that the CHL does not have any control over third party internet sites and the fact that such sites have links to the CHL Network does not incur the CHL's liability in any way whatsoever.  Consequently, any personal information you provide on third party sites will be subject to these other sites’ policies and procedures. The CHL cannot be held liable at any time for any abuses, which may result. We recommend that you read carefully the policies and procedures related to personal information on these other sites.

Limitation of the Collection of Personal Information

The CHL only collects personal information required to meet the objective for which said personal information is collected.

Changes in Policy

The CHL will occasionally update this Privacy Policy to reflect company and customer feedback.  When the CHL posts changes to this policy, it will be immediately reflected on the CHL Network.  If there are material changes to this policy or in how the CHL will use your personal information, the CHL will prominently post such changes prior to implementing the change.  The CHL encourages you to periodically review this policy to be informed of how the CHL is protecting your information.

Questions, Comments, or Suggestions?

If you wish to contact us about any element of this policy or inquire about your personal information, then please direct your inquiry to:

Email:
mdickie@chl.ca

Mail:
Canadian Hockey League
Attn: Mark Dickie
305 Milner Avenue, Suite 201

Scarborough, Ontario

M1B 3V4

Fax:
416-332-1477
Please address your fax to the CHL Manager of Technology, Mark Dickie.