Mount Arrowsmith Rhododendron Society
Privacy Policy
Updated: October 6, 2023
Who we are
Our website address is: http://marsrhodos.ca. Our mailing address is:
Mount Arrowsmith Rhododendron Society
PO Box 342
Qualicum Beach, BC V9K 1S8
We may revise this policy from time to time. The current version will be posted at http://www.marsrhodos.ca/privacy.
Personal data collected by MARS
For membership purposes, we collect your full name, mailing address, physical address, email address, and telephone number. For certain other member benefits we may request additional types of personal data.
Use of Personal Contact Information by MARS
MARS may use your personal contact information for the following purposes:
- To conduct the administration and business of the organization, including maintaining our membership lists and communicating information about our meeting dates and details and special MARS events
- To register you with The American Rhododendron Society (ARS) so you can receive the full benefits of ARS membership such as the ARS Journal
- To inform you of activities and garden-related events or other information that might be of interest and use to you
- Emailing the MARS Newsletter to you
- MARS may use electronic communication to inform our members of local plant sales, sales by current members in good standing, and other horticultural-related events and activities that our members might want to know about.
- MARS will not allow third parties to use our communication system for commercial purposes, but MARS may mention or recommend products we consider beneficial to our plants and gardens.
Use of Photos of Members Attending MARS Events
- From time to time, photos may be taken at MARS events and at activities of its affiliated chapters. Members will be identified only by their first name, and only if desirable and appropriate.
- These photos may be posted in our newsletter and/or on the MARS Website and Facebook page for the public to view.
Use of the Email Membership List by MARS
- The membership list will not be used for sharing non-garden related information.
- The membership list will only be shared with Executive Committee members in order to carry on the business and activities of the society.
Consent
By signing the Membership Application form for MARS, you agree to:
- Use of your personal contact information to carry on the business and activities of MARS; and
- All prior and possible future use of your picture and your first name on the MARS Website, MARS Facebook page and MARS Newsletter in order to publicize activities and events of MARS and promote community awareness of, and interest in, those activities and events; and
- The disclosure of your personal contact information to the American Rhododendron Society in order to become a member of the ARS and receive the ARS Journal.
Withdrawal of Consent
- You may withdraw consent and request removal of your personal information from our records at any time. However, this may affect our ability to provide you with membership benefits and services, especially as it relates to ARS benefits.
- In certain limited circumstances (e.g., legal subpoenas, medical emergencies, or security reasons), personal information can be collected, used, or disclosed without your knowledge or consent.
Accountability
MARS is responsible and accountable for personal information under its control and has designated a privacy officer who will attempt to resolve all concerns from members regarding the use of their personal information. MARS makes reasonable efforts to keep all personal information accurate and secure, and to permanently delete personal information that is no longer relevant.
Website Comments
When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.
An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.
Website Media
If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.
Website Contact Forms
We may use a third-party plug-in such as WPForms or WPForms Lite to generate our website contact forms. We have no control over the third party’s operations and we are not affiliated with them beyond using their services to create our contact forms and we do not collect any data as a result of their use besides that which you knowingly enter. We rely on their legitimate interests to process this data so that we can use your data as described under “Use of Personal Contact Information By MARS”. They may collect, use, process and/or disclose your data. For more information, please refer to their Privacy Policy.
Website Security
We may use third-party products such as Google ReCaptcha in order to reduce spam email from our site. We have no control over Google’s operations and we are not affiliated with them beyond using their services to create our contact forms and we do not collect any data as a result of their use besides that which you knowingly enter in our contact form. We rely on their legitimate interests to process this data so that we can use your data as described under “Use of Personal Contact Information By MARS”. They may collect, use, process and/or disclose your data. For more information, please refer to their Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.
Our site uses Wordfence for security. Wordfence may collect, use, or share certain personal data from visitors to our site. We use their services in good faith; and to the best of our ability to determine we believe them to be compliant with applicable privacy and cookie legislation. We are not affiliated with them beyond using their services and we do not collect any data as a result of their use. We rely on their legitimate interests to process this data so that we can communicate with you via our website, posts and other updates, but we have no control over their security or operations. Their privacy policy is here. If you object to this, we suggest you do not use this site.
Cookies
If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.
If you have an account and you log in to this site, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.
When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.
If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.
Our web host and/or other applications such as Twitter, Facebook, or WordPress plugins may place cookie scripts on our site without our knowledge and beyond our control. We use all these services in good faith; and to the best of our ability to determine we believe them to be compliant with applicable privacy and cookie legislation. We are not affiliated with them beyond using their services and we do not collect any data as a result of their use. We rely on their legitimate interests to process this data so that we can communicate with you via our website, posts and other updates, but we have no control over their security or operations. If you object to this, we suggest you do not use this site.
Embedded content from other websites
Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.
These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracing your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.
External links
Links to websites not under our control (e.g. Facebook) are provided only for the convenience of our visitors. We do not offer any guarantee of safety or appropriateness of the content of these external sites. You are solely responsible for researching the privacy policies and data security of external sites before using any links on our site to navigate to them.
Who we share your data with
The membership list will only be shared with Executive Committee members in order to carry on the business and activities of the society.
How long we retain your data
Member contact information is retained for historical purposes unless you request its removal from our records.
If you leave a comment on the website, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.
What rights you have over your data
If you have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.
Where we send your data
Our site is hosted by Siteground, which maintains servers in various countries and may result in your personal information being transmitted across international borders. Siteground’s privacy policy is here.
If you choose to join MARS, we will also register you for membership in The American Rhododendron Society (ARS) unless you tell us not to. To do so, we will provide your name, address, phone number, and email address to the ARS. Their policies are here.
Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.
Compliance; viewing/updating your contact information
If you wish to view or edit your personal information or if you feel MARS has not complied with the terms of this policy, the MARS Privacy Officer will respond in a timely manner to investigate and resolve the issue. Please click here to contact us or contact the Privacy Officer in writing at:
MARS
PO Box 342
Qualicum Beach, BC V9K 1S8
Attn: Privacy Officer
