Terms and Conditions

Privacy Notice

Your privacy and the GCKey Service

The Government of Canada and Shared Services Canada are committed to providing measures that respect and value your privacy and security. This page summarizes the purpose of collection, use and disclosure of your personal information as it applies to your GCKey. All personal information we collect is governed by the Privacy Act, Privacy Regulations, and the Treasury Board of Canada policies, standards, and directives for privacy and the protection of personal information.

What personal information do we collect and why?

Your GCKey

Your GCKey personal information includes your Username, Password and Recovery Questions, Answers and Hints, and your email address. This information is collected only for the purpose to issue, manage and validate anonymous credentials of individuals accessing and/or communicating with Government of Canada systems and applications. If you do not wish to use a GCKey to access electronic services, you may apply for the service by phone, fax, mail, or in person. For further details, refer to the departmental service contact information.

The personal information that is collected and used for signing up and managing a GCKey is described in the Personal Information Bank PCU 607. This personal information will be retained for a minimum of two years.

Web analytics

Web analytics is the collection, analysis, measurement, and reporting of data about web traffic and visits. When your computer requests one of our web pages, we collect the following types of information:

  • the originating IP address of the computer that has contacted our website;
  • the date and time of the request;
  • type of operating system and browser used;
  • the page(s) visited;
  • the page previously viewed through which you arrived on our site (for example, Enabled Services);
  • GCKey account activities (creation, management, validation, revocation of credential).

This data is used to:

  • assess what services are of most and least interest to our clients, determine technical design specifications, and identify system performance or problem areas;
  • protect the security of our website, identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or to otherwise cause damage;
  • identify and resolve any problems or difficulties you encounter in attempting to sign in to our sites.

Cookies

A Cookie is a small piece of information sent to your computer by a website and used by your browser. It contains settings, such as language preference, to help you use our services. There are two types of cookies: Session Cookies and Persistent Cookies.

The GCKey service only uses Session Cookies and does not use Persistent Cookies. Session Cookies are active only while you are signed in with your GCKey and do not contain any personally identifying information. A Session Cookie is used only during the browser session. It expires when the user closes the browser and it is not stored on your hard-drive.

You may set an option on your browser to refuse Cookies, however, you will not be able to obtain a GCKey or use any Enabled Services. If you choose this option, you can still use Government services by phone, fax, mail, or in person.

Unless otherwise noted, we do not automatically gather any personal information from you. The only way we could get this information is if you give it to us, for example, when calling the GCKey Service Desk.

Protecting the security of our website

We use software programs to ensure the security of our website and to monitor network traffic and to identify unauthorized attempts to change information, or damage our systems. We make no attempt to link these addresses with the identity of individuals visiting our site unless we have detected or been advised of an attempt to damage the site.

This information may be used for network security related statistical purposes, audit, evaluation, research, planning and reporting. In the case of suspected security or privacy breaches, personal information may be shared with departmental security and access to information and privacy officials, as well as the federal government department or agency which collects and uses the personal information considered to have been compromised. The information may be shared with law enforcement authorities if we suspect criminal activities (refer to Standard Personal Information Bank (PIB) Security Incidents and Privacy Breaches - PSU 939 and Electronic Network Monitoring Logs - PSU 905).

This information is used for no other purposes and is scheduled for regular destruction in accordance with the Library and Archives of Canada Act and the Privacy Act.

How we protect your personal information

It is not recommended that you send sensitive personal or financial information through non-secure electronic means such as using standard email, as we can only ensure the protection of information that is entered on our website.

For more information about how you can access or correct personal information, or if you have any questions, concerns and complaints regarding this notice, or the administration of the Privacy Act in connection with your GCKey please contact the Access to Information and Privacy Protection Division by email at [email protected] or by writing to the following address:

Director, Access to Information and Privacy
Shared Services Canada
PO Box 9808, STN T, CSC
Ottawa ON K1G 4A8

If you are not satisfied with our response to your privacy concern, you may want to contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner Toll-free at 1-800-282-1376 or TTY at 819-994-6591, or by online form or visit the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada website.

Each Government Program or Enabled Service has their own Privacy Policy. For more information, please refer to the Terms and Conditions of each enabled service's web page.

Providing content in Canada's official languages

For details please see Government of Canada Terms and conditions.

Linking to non-Government of Canada websites

For details please see Government of Canada Terms and conditions.

Ownership and usage of content provided on this site

Materials on this website were produced and/or compiled for the purpose of providing Canadians with access to information about the programs and services offered by the Government of Canada. You may use and reproduce the materials as follows:

Non-commercial reproduction

For details please see Government of Canada Terms and conditions.

Commercial reproduction

For details please see Government of Canada Terms and conditions.

Trademark notice

For details please see Government of Canada Terms and conditions.

Our commitment to accessibility

For details please see Government of Canada Terms and conditions.

External Service Providers

In order to effectively operate the GCKey service, we use external service providers for the Government of Canada. Such service providers are bound by contract to treat any personal information they receive in a manner consistent with the provisions of the Privacy Act and Privacy Regulations.

Disclaimers

The Government of Canada disclaims all liability for losses or damages arising from tort (except in cases of gross negligence or willful misconduct), contract or any other form of claim in relation to the use of, delivery of, licence of or reliance upon the GCKey service.

Without restricting the generality of the foregoing, the Government of Canada disclaims all liability for any claim in relation to:

  • any matters or factors outside of its control, including the availability, unavailability or security of the Internet, or telecommunications or other infrastructure systems, such as email services;
  • the availability or unavailability of the GCKey service for any reason;
  • any illegal or fraudulent use of your GCKey, Username or Password;
  • the use of your GCKey for the exportation or importation of cryptographic products;
  • the use of your GCKey in a foreign country where such use is prohibited by the laws of that country.

Please refer to the departmental website of the services for which you choose to use your GCKey for details of any service-specific disclaimers of liability.