Privacy policy

Personal information means information about an identifiable individual (Personal Information Protection Act, Section (1)(k)). This includes information such as an individual’s home address, personal email address, phone number, age, gender, birthdate, financial information, and educational history.

Personal information does not include business contact information such as an individual’s name or title, business telephone number, business address, business email address, business fax number or other similar business information.

ACP collects personal information for any reasonable purposes ACP requires to fulfill its obligations as a regulator, which include but are not limited to:

• to ensure individuals applying for registration meet the minimum requirements for entry to practice,
• to ensure regulated members meet requirements for annual permit renewal,
• to provide registrant-specific services to each registrant,
• to contact regulated members via email when important or urgent practice information must be communicated,
• to support and protect the public’s health and well-being,
• to ensure quality practice,
• to facilitate competence and continuing education administration,
• to investigate a complaint against a registrant or proprietor,
• to grant awards of honour or distinction,
• to facilitate the role and functions of Council and committees,
• to ensure compliance with legislation applicable to ACP,
• to support the requirements of ACP’s complaints process,
• to consider proposals or applications to provide contracted services to ACP,
• to facilitate the payment of invoices and expenses,
• to manage contractors as it relates to ACP’s operations,
• to consider applications to become a Council or committee member,
• to consider applications for employment at ACP,
• to facilitate payroll and benefit plan administration,
• to manage staff as it relates to ACP’s operations.

ACP may collect, use and/or disclose personal information to third parties with consent or as authorized by law.

ACP asks for consent to collect, use, or disclose personal information, except in specific circumstances where collection, use, or disclosure without consent is authorized or required by law, including but not limited to the Health Information Act (HIA), Health Professions Act (HPA), Pharmacy and Drug Act (PDA), and the Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA). ACP may assume consent in cases where personal information is volunteered for an obvious purpose; for example, when providing a credit card to pay a fee when the information will be used only to process the payment.

ACP assumes consent to continue to use and, where applicable, disclose personal information that ACP has already collected, for the purpose for which the information was collected.

ACP may ask for express consent for some purposes and may not be able to provide certain services if consent is not granted for the collection, use, or disclosure of certain personal information. Where express consent is needed, ACP will ask for consent in writing (by signing a consent form), or electronically (by signing a digital consent form with an electronic signature).

For registrants, ACP may disclose your business contact information and email address to other organizations that may be of interest to you based on your express consent to the following categories:

• Member recruitment – opportunities for information from relevant member associations.
• Practice-based research – opportunities to participate in pharmacy/health related research.
• Professional development – opportunities for education related to pharmacy practice.

Consent to use or disclose personal information may be withdrawn at any time unless the personal information is necessary for ACP to fulfil its legal obligations. ACP may not be able to provide certain services to individuals if ACP does not have approval to use or disclose personal information.

ACP may collect, use, or disclose personal information without consent only as authorized by law, including under the HIA, HPA, PDA and PIPA. For example, a registrant’s personal information is collected, used, and disclosed for the purposes of considering an application for registration and issuing an annual practice permit, and maintaining ACP’s regulated members register as set out in the HPA Part 2; consent is not required for this purpose. In addition, ACP does not require consent from employees to use their personal employee information to establish and manage employment relationships but will provide notice about the purposes for which we are collecting and using it.

ACP may contract a technology vendor to collect and store information. The technology vendor may only collect, use and/or disclose personal information in accordance with this privacy policy and in accordance with any contract established between ACP and the vendor. Personal information may be transferred and/or stored within Canada, the United States of America, or other countries, for purposes including, server hosting, survey administration, election administration, communications administration (e.g. invitations to events, corporate email communications, and/or data backup purposes). When sourcing new technology systems that require data storage, ACP seeks Canadian data storage as a desired objective; ACP’s primary registration database is stored only on Canadian servers, however some ancillary purposes may use international servers where a Canadian option is not viable based on ACP’s business needs.

Current vendors outside of Canada that are storing information for ACP:

• None

ACP uses and discloses personal information for the purpose for which the information was collected, except as authorized by law.

If ACP wishes to use or disclose personal information for any other business purpose, ACP will ask for consent, unless it is not legally obligated to do so.

ACP retains personal information only as long as is reasonable to fulfil the purposes for which the information was collected or for legal or business purposes.

ACP will make every reasonable effort to ensure personal information that is collected, recorded, and stored is accurate and complete. ACP relies on individuals to notify ACP if there are changes to their personal information that may affect their relationship with ACP. If you are aware of an error in ACP’s information about you, please let ACP know and your information will be corrected wherever possible. In some cases, ACP may ask for a formalized written request for correction.

ACP protects personal information in a manner appropriate for the sensitivity of the information. ACP makes every reasonable effort to prevent any loss, misuse, unauthorized disclosure, unauthorized access or unintended modification or destruction of personal information.

ACP uses appropriate security measures when protecting and destroying personal information, including utilizing information technology policies and procedures, employing physical security measures to protect documents, providing on-going security awareness training for employees, reviewing vendors security practices related to their technology and the protection of information, shredding paper records, and permanently deleting electronic records when they are no longer required.

Individuals have a right to access their own personal information in a record that is in the custody or under the control of ACP, subject to some exceptions. For example, organizations are required under PIPA to refuse to provide access to information that would reveal personal information about another individual.

If ACP refuses a request in whole or in part, ACP will provide the reasons for the refusal. In some cases where exceptions to access apply, ACP may withhold that information and provide you with the remainder of the record.

You may make a request for access to your personal information by writing to ACP’s Privacy Officer. You must provide sufficient information in your request to allow ACP to identify the information you are seeking.

You may also request information about our use of your personal information and any disclosure of that information to persons outside our organization. In addition, you may request a correction of an error or omission in your personal information.

ACP will respond to your request within 45 calendar days of receipt of your request unless an extension is granted by the privacy commissioner. ACP may charge a reasonable fee to provide information, but not to make a correction. ACP will advise you of any fees that may apply before beginning to process your request.