Privacy Policy

1. Collection

The Regional Municipality of Durham, through its Durham Tourism Division (“Durham Tourism”) and its third party Website operator SVS Marketing (collectively “we” or “us”) gather various information about users of the Shop Durham Tourism website (the “Website”). By submitting your personal information to Durham Tourism, you confirm your agreement to this Privacy Policy.

Personal information is any recorded information about an identifiable individual and includes:

  • name, address, telephone or email address
  • birth date
  • any identifying number, symbol or other particular identifier
  • information relating to financial transactions, including credit card number or bank account information; and
  • cookies, which are pieces of information transferred to your computer hard drive for record keeping. 

Your data is stored through Shopify’s data storage, databases and the general Shopify application. For further information, please see Shopify’s Privacy Policy.

The personal information collected will be held by us or on our behalf by such other agent as we may appoint from time to time.

2. Payment Information

Transactions are encrypted through the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS). Shop Durham Tourism does not store your payment information. Your purchase transaction data is stored only as long as is necessary to complete your purchase transaction. After that is complete, your purchase transaction information is deleted.

All direct payment gateways adhere to the standards set by PCI-DSS as managed by the PCI Security Standards Council, which is a joint effort of brands like Visa, MasterCard and American Express.

PCI-DSS requirements help ensure the secure handling of credit card information by our store and its service providers.

For more insight, you may also want to read Shopify’s Terms of Service here or Privacy Statement here.

3. Purposes

The personal information you provide will be used for the following purposes:

  • To provide our products and services to you, including:
    (i) to communicate with you about our products and services;
    (ii) to verify your identity and/or eligibility for certain Durham Tourism services;
    (iii) to process financial and other transactions, such as processing a fare payment or issuing a refund;
    (iv) to conduct promotional campaigns, including contests, draws, raffles, promotions and offers for third party products and services;
    (v) to provide you with information on new or current products, services or upcoming events, including third party events sponsored by Durham Tourism; and
    (vi) to conduct and administer rewards or loyalty programs.
  • To manage, develop and improve our operations, products and services, including:
    (i) to respond to comments, questions or complaints;
    (ii) to detect and prevent fraud, theft and other illegal activities;
    (iii) to enforce and administer Durham Tourism rules, by-laws and policies; and
    (iv) to audit internal procedures.
  • To comply with our legal and regulatory requirements and to ensure compliance with this Privacy Policy and the Website Terms and Conditions.
  • For any other purpose required or authorized by law.
  • We may also use your personal information to create aggregated data. Aggregated data is data that is placed in a format that prevents or limits the chance of revealing an individual’s identity. It may be used to show general statistics or track customer behavior as a whole (for example, the number of customers living in a certain area). Such aggregated information is used by Durham Tourism to plan, develop, implement, market and promote our services and products. It will not be used to identify you.

4. Disclosure

You agree that Durham Tourism may disclose:

  • your personal information to third parties where reasonably required to facilitate the provision of our products or services;
  • personal information where required by law; and
  • aggregate information and other information that does not personally identify you to such third parties as we may see fit.

5. Protection of Privacy Statement

With the exception of disclosures listed in section 4 above, we will not sell, lease, share or disclose personal information to private business, organizations or individuals unless required or permitted to do so by Applicable Law.

    Notwithstanding the foregoing, as the internet is not a secure medium, the privacy of your communications cannot be guaranteed. The nature of internet communications means that your use of the Website and communications to Durham Tourism, either through the Website, email or otherwise, may be susceptible to data corruption, unauthorized access, interception and delays.

    6. Notice of Collection

    This information is collected under the legal authority of Section 11 of the Municipal Act, 2001 for the purpose of administering the Durham Tourism Website in the Region of Durham. Questions about this collection should be forwarded to Durham Tourism, Region of Durham at 605 Rossland Rd. E, Whitby ON, L1N 6A3, Tourism@durham.ca or 1-800-413-0017.

    7. Cookies

    When you visit our websites, a small data file called a cookie is sent to your computer. Cookies are generally used to make it more convenient to use our websites. Persistent cookies are stored on your computer when you visit certain websites, while session cookies expire when you close your browser. Durham Tourism may use either or both types of cookies. Session cookies facilitate your use and navigation of our sites, while persistent cookies identify your browser and IP (Internet Protocol) address, but do not collect personal information such as your name and address.

    8. Consequences of non-provision of information 

    Failure to provide necessary personal information requested at the time may result in certain services not being available to you.

    9. Security

    We are committed to your privacy and strive to protect the personal and confidential information of those who use the Website. However, as no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be completely secure, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit or receive through the Website. These activities are conducted at your own risk.

    10. Retention of Your Information

    If you want us to permanently delete your personal information from our servers you must delete your Account. So long as your Account remains active, we will preserve your personal information. We will retain any and all personal information that we are required to retain under any Applicable Laws for the full duration of time required under those laws. We may also retain any anonymized and de-identified information and continue to use this information in accordance with this Privacy Statement.

    11. Changes to this Privacy Statement

    If we decide to make material changes to our Privacy Statement, we will notify you and other users by placing a notice on the Website. You should periodically check for updates. By using the Website after we have so posted notice of such modifications, alterations or updates you agree to be bound by such revised terms.

    12. Access to and Changing Your Information

    We respond to requests for access to one’s personal information, and for rectification as necessary. Please contact us should you desire an update, correction or other change to your personal information, and we will respond to your request as quickly as possible.