Your privacy is important to us. The City of Hamilton is committed to protecting the privacy of all visitors to our site and will make every attempt to build users’ trust and confidence in the Internet by promoting the principles of disclosure. Therefore, this document is being provided to explain our online information practices. These guidelines have been developed with the recognition that Internet technologies are rapidly evolving, and accordingly, guidelines are subject to change. Any such changes will be posted on this page.

This document includes information about:

• what information this website gathers / tracks about you.
• what this website does with the information it gathers / tracks.
• with whom this webite shares the information it gathers / tracks.

There are two types of information that can be gathered on any web site:

Aggregate Information is anonymous data that websites use to diagnose problems, administer the sites, gather broad demographic information and help improve the quality of the website pages. Examples of aggregate information may be your domain name (i.e. “XYZ.com”), the type of browser or operating system you are using or your IP address.

None of this information is connected with your personally identifiable information.

Personally Identifiable Information is any information that personally identifies you. It can be your first and last name, your email address, your home address, or your telephone number. This information is typically gathered in a ‘sign in to win’ form, a feedback form, a request for service form, an order form and so on. This information is used to communicate with you to fulfill your requests for products, programs, services or general information. The City of Hamilton will not use this information for any purpose other than to carry out the services we are performing on your behalf.

The site is a public space on the Internet. All users, with or without a user account, can access and view content on the site. Consequently, the City of Hamilton recommends that you exercise caution when you post personal and confidential information on the site.

The site gives you the possibility to publish certain information in your profile as well as photos, videos, stories or comments. This content may include personal and confidential information about you or another person or information which may specifically identify you or another person. You must therefore carefully select any optional information that you include in your user account profile and any content, including photos, videos, stories or comments that you choose to publish on the site. If you do not want optional information or content to be visible to all users, do not post it.
You must have all intellectual property rights and necessary consent from anyone in your photos or videos prior to posting them on the site.
The City of Hamilton is not liable for the publication of any information, photos, videos, stories, or comments that you choose to post on the site.

Personal and confidential information is required for set-up, management and protection purposes when you create a user account on the goldboxhamilton.ca website. Mandatory information includes a valid email address, a valid and eligible street address, a password, user name and a nickname.

Of the information collected, only your username and Avatar are visible to all users. The rest of the information can only be accessed by you and employees at the City of Hamilton directly involved in managing the accounts and website content and their authorized designates. The personal and confidential information that you agree to provide to the website is protected in accordance with the protection of personal information and with any other applicable law.

Once you have created your user account, you may also provide a variety of optional information. This will not be publicly visible.

By creating a user account on the website, you agree to have your email address added to mygoldbox.ca’s email recipient list. Mygoldbox.ca will occasionally send out recycling-related emails.

Employees of the City of Hamilton will only use any other information you provide when you communicate with the City of Hamilton about the website, particularly with respect to filing a report about copyright infringement or breach of privacy, to respond to your request. Where applicable, the personal and confidential information that you agree to provide to the site is protected in accordance with the protection of personal information and with any other applicable law.

The City of Hamilton applies security measures to guarantee the confidentiality of your email address and the integrity of your user account and content at all times.

You are responsible for the confidentiality of your password.

The City of Hamilton is not liable for unauthorized use of this information. If the confidentiality of the information is compromised, contact the City of Hamilton immediately to prevent fraudulent use of your user account. For additional information on this subject, consult the Terms and Conditions.

If you notice that content published on the site is inappropriate or does not comply with the Terms and Conditions, please file a report with the City of Hamilton by clicking on the “Report” link located underneath any content and follow the appropriate instructions.

To report copyright infringement or breach of privacy, please contact the City of Hamilton by clicking on the “Report” link underneath any content and follow the appropriate instructions.

The City of Hamilton reserves the right to delete any content that has been reported as a violation.

You can have your account deleted by requesting it to be deleted by the website administrator, by clicking on the contact administrator button. You may also have any content removed that you have posted on the site at any time by contacting the website administrator. The website administrator will review your request and take appropriate action within 72 hours.

Deleting a user account or content is final with no option of recovery. Deleting an account leads to the automatic deletion of all photos, videos, stories and comments published by the account user and, where applicable, of elements that are associated with the account, including other users’ votes and comments.

To ask a question or express concern about the Privacy Policy, please contact the person responsible for access to information at the City of Hamilton at the following address: wastemanagement@hamilton.ca

Personal information about you as an individual will not be provided to any third party, except our authorized designates. We have put in place appropriate physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and help prevent unauthorized access, maintain data security and correctly use the information we collect online. We carefully protect your data from loss, misuse, unauthorized access or disclosure, alteration or destruction.

We may disclose personal information if we are required to do so by law, or we in good faith believe that such action is necessary to:

• comply with the law or with legal process
• protect and defend our rights and property
• protect against misuse or unauthorized use of The City of Hamilton web site
• protect the personal safety or property of our users or the public (among other things, this means that if you provide false information or attempt to pose as someone else, information about you may be disclosed as part of any investigation into your actions)

To enhance your experience with our sites, some of our web pages may use ‘cookies.’ Cookies are text files we place in your computer’s browser to store your preferences. Cookies, by themselves, do not tell us your e-mail address or any other personally identifiable information unless you choose to provide this information to us by, for example, filling in an online form. However, once you choose to furnish the site with personally identifiable information, this information may be linked to the data stored in the cookie.

Cookies may be used to understand site usage and to improve the content and offerings on our website. For example, cookies may be used to personalize your experience at our website (e.g. to recognize you by name when you return), save your password in password-protected areas, or enable you to use shopping carts. The City of Hamilton will never use cookies to retrieve information from your computer that was not originally sent by us to you in a cookie. The City of Hamilton does not use information transferred through cookies for any promotional or marketing purposes.