Welcome to the website of the Sea Around Us, a research initiative at The University of British Columbia and The University of Western Australia (the “Site”). By using the Site, you consent to the collection, storage and disclosure of information as described in this Privacy Policy. If you do not consent to this collection, storage and disclosure, do not use the Site. We may change this Privacy Policy at any time without prior notice, and your continued use of any of the Site following any changes is an agreement by you to the change in the Privacy Policy.
- Authority to Collect Personal Information
We collect personal information under the authority of section 26(c) of the British Columbia Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (“FIPPA”). Personal information is defined in the FIPPA as “information about an identifiable individual.”
2. Cookies
We may place small data files called “cookies” in the browser file of your computer’s hard drive. These cookies automatically identify your browser to our servers when you interact with the Site. We use and store the cookies to carry information about usage from page to page through the Site. We do not use cookies to retrieve personal information about you from your computer.
3. Information Automatically Recorded
For all visitors to the Site, our servers log your Internet Protocol (“IP”) address as well as traffic and website use statistics. An IP address is a number that is automatically assigned to your computer every time you browse the Internet.
We use general aggregate traffic and website usage statistics derived from automatically collected mechanisms, including cookies, for statistical reporting. For example, we may publicly report usage trends and names of organizations that use the Site (based on IP addresses), though we will not connect specific activity on the Site with specific users or user’s organizations. We may share such reports with organizations with which we have a research relationship and in our public communications. We use the aggregate traffic and website usage information to help us understand usage and allow us to make improvements to the Site. In all cases, our use of the information is not personally identifying, however, we may identify the user or the user’s organization via the domain name associated with the IP address but we will not reveal how a specific user or user’s organization is using the Site. We use stored IP addresses to help diagnose problems with our servers and otherwise to administer the Site and to collect aggregate traffic and website usage information.
4. Information You Provide
We collect any additional information that you provide to us about yourself through an email, form, survey, or other written means that includes questions, information, feedback and/or other comments.
If you choose to provide us with additional information through an email message, form, survey, or other written means, we will never provide your personally identifying information to a third party without your knowledge and consent. We may use this submitted information to contact you for more information, to request your consent to use your name in order to improve our services and Site, to provide testimonials about our work or to ask if you will allow future communication from us. If you provide questions, information, feedback and/or other comments to us in an email or in other electronic form, we may disclose non-identifying information that you provide in the form of a testimonial, for technical troubleshooting, or other internal and external purposes to improve our services and report on usage of the Site without your consent, but in all such cases, it would be anonymous and would not include any personally identifying information about you unless you have provided consent to use your name.
5. Information Use and Disclosure
We may use the information we collect through the Site to administer and improve our website, as aggregate statistics in our public communications, as authorized under the FIPPA, or when we believe in our sole discretion that use and/or disclosure is necessary to:
- comply with the law,
- protect and defend the rights or property of The University of British Columbia and The University of Western Australia, or
- protect the personal safety of the public or users of the Site.
Please be assured we will not sell or rent information collected during your visits to the Site to any third party.
6. Links to Third Party Websites
This Privacy Policy applies only to information collected through the Site. Other websites (including those that the Site may link to) may be governed by other policies. You should read the privacy policies of each website you visit to determine what information the website may be collecting about you.
7. How to Contact the Sea Around Us
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please e-mail us via the Inquiries form.
Last updated: Nov. 12, 2015