Effective date: July 19, 2026
Canadian Library Association (referred to in this Privacy Policy as “Canadian Library Association,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) respects your privacy and is committed to handling personal information responsibly. This Privacy Policy explains how personal information is collected, used, disclosed, retained, and protected when you visit https://cla.ca/, use the contact form, or otherwise communicate with us.
Canadian Library Association
1150 Morrison Drive, Suite 400
Ottawa, ON K2H 8S9
T: (613) 232-9625
F: (613) 563-9895
This Policy is intended to reflect the requirements of applicable Canadian private-sector privacy laws, including the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (“PIPEDA”) and substantially similar provincial privacy legislation where applicable. The law that applies in a particular situation may depend on the nature of the activity, the location of the individuals involved, and whether information crosses provincial or national borders.
1. Scope
This Policy applies to personal information under our control that is collected through Canadian Library Association and related communications. It does not govern independent third-party websites or services linked from the Site. The Site principally provides public and historical information relating to Canadian library communities.
2. Accountability and Privacy Contact
Canadian Library Association is accountable for personal information under its control. Privacy questions, requests, and complaints may be directed to the person responsible for privacy at:
Privacy Officer, Canadian Library Association
Email: info (at) cla.ca
We may need to verify your identity before completing a request involving personal information.
3. Personal Information We Collect
Information you provide
If you use the Contact Us form or communicate with us, we may collect:
- your name;
- your email address;
- the subject and content of your message;
- any other information you choose to include in your communication; and
- records of our correspondence and response.
Please do not submit sensitive personal information unless it is necessary for your request.
Technical and usage information
When you access the Site, our hosting, security, content-delivery, advertising, and anti-abuse systems may automatically process technical information such as:
- IP address;
- browser type, device type, and operating system;
- date and time of access;
- pages and files requested;
- referring page or website;
- diagnostic, security, and error information; and
- cookie, consent, advertising, or similar device identifiers where applicable.
Administrative accounts
Authorized website administrators may have account identifiers, authentication records, security logs, and profile information processed for website administration and security. Most public content can be viewed without creating an account.
Historical and public content
The Site includes historical materials that may identify individuals in a professional or public context. If you believe historical content contains inaccurate, inappropriate, or unlawfully published personal information about you, contact the Privacy Officer so that the request can be assessed in light of applicable privacy, archival, public-interest, and legal obligations.
4. How We Use Personal Information
We use personal information only for identified and reasonable purposes, including to:
- respond to questions, requests, complaints, or correspondence;
- operate, maintain, troubleshoot, and improve the Site;
- deliver and measure advertising in accordance with consent choices and applicable law;
- protect the Site, visitors, and infrastructure against spam, fraud, abuse, attacks, and other security threats;
- administer authorized accounts and website operations;
- maintain appropriate business, security, and legal records;
- establish, exercise, or defend legal rights; and
- comply with applicable laws, lawful requests, and regulatory requirements.
We do not use information submitted through the contact form to subscribe you to marketing communications without appropriate consent.
5. Consent
Where consent is required, we seek consent appropriate to the sensitivity of the information and the circumstances. Consent may be express, such as submitting the contact form or selecting advertising choices, or implied where permitted by law. You may withdraw consent for future processing, subject to reasonable notice and legal or contractual restrictions. Withdrawal may limit our ability to provide a requested service or response.
6. Cookies, Advertising, and Consent Choices
The Site may use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
| Category | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Essential and security | Operate the Site, protect forms and infrastructure, prevent abuse, maintain security, and support authorized administrator sessions. |
| Consent preferences | Remember the privacy and advertising choices made through the consent interface, including Google Funding Choices. |
| Advertising and measurement | Google AdSense and its partners may use cookies or similar identifiers to deliver, limit, personalize where permitted, and measure advertisements, subject to your choices and applicable law. |
The Site displays a privacy-choice interface where required. You can use that interface to consent or manage available options. You can also restrict or delete cookies using your browser settings, although blocking essential technologies may affect functionality.
Google AdSense and Funding Choices
The Site uses Google AdSense to serve advertising and Google Funding Choices to collect and store applicable consent choices. Google and participating advertising partners may process information such as IP address, browser or device information, cookie identifiers, consent signals, ad interactions, and approximate location derived from an IP address. Their processing is governed by their own terms and privacy practices. Information about Google’s privacy practices is available at Google Privacy Policy.
7. Contact Form and hCaptcha
The Contact Us form collects the information entered into its name, email, subject, and message fields. Submissions are transmitted through the Site’s email-delivery infrastructure so that we can review and answer them.
The form is protected by hCaptcha, an anti-abuse service operated by an independent service provider. hCaptcha may process technical and interaction information, including IP address, device and browser characteristics, challenge responses, and usage data, to distinguish legitimate users from automated abuse. Its processing is subject to the hCaptcha Privacy Policy and applicable terms.
8. When We Disclose Personal Information
We do not sell or rent personal information. We may disclose information only as reasonably necessary to:
- hosting and infrastructure providers, including Infomaniak;
- content-delivery and security providers, including Cloudflare;
- advertising and consent-management providers, including Google;
- spam and abuse-prevention providers, including hCaptcha;
- email-delivery and technical service providers;
- professional advisers such as legal, accounting, security, or insurance advisers;
- a successor or proposed successor in connection with a reorganization, transfer, or other change affecting operation of the Site, subject to appropriate safeguards; or
- law-enforcement, regulatory, governmental, or other parties when required or permitted by law, to protect legal rights, or to respond to an emergency involving safety or security.
Service providers are authorized to process information only for the services they provide and remain subject to their own legal and contractual obligations.
9. Processing Outside Canada
Personal information may be processed or stored in Canada and in other jurisdictions where our service providers or their subprocessors operate. These may include Switzerland, the United States, and other countries. Information processed outside your province or Canada may be subject to the laws of that jurisdiction and may be accessible to courts, law-enforcement, or national-security authorities in accordance with local law.
We remain responsible for personal information under our control and use service providers appropriate to the nature of the processing.
10. Retention
We retain personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this Policy, including to respond to communications, maintain security, meet legal or recordkeeping requirements, resolve disputes, and enforce rights. Retention periods vary according to the type and sensitivity of the information:
- contact correspondence may be retained until the request is resolved and for a reasonable recordkeeping period afterward;
- technical and security logs are retained according to operational, security, backup, and hosting cycles; and
- information required for legal, fraud-prevention, or security purposes may be retained for longer where permitted or required.
When information is no longer required, it is deleted, anonymized, or securely disposed of, subject to technical backup cycles and legal requirements.
11. Safeguards and Breach Response
We use administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of the information. These include access controls, encrypted transmission, security monitoring, anti-abuse controls, backups, and restricted administrative access. No Internet transmission or storage system can be guaranteed to be completely secure.
If a breach of security safeguards creates a real risk of significant harm, we will investigate and provide notices to affected individuals and privacy regulators as required by applicable law.
12. Access, Correction, and Other Privacy Rights
Subject to applicable law, you may request:
- confirmation of whether we hold personal information about you;
- access to that information and information about how it has been used or disclosed;
- correction of inaccurate or incomplete information;
- withdrawal of consent for future processing;
- deletion, de-indexation, or portability where a specific applicable law provides such a right; and
- information about our privacy practices and service providers.
Some requests may be limited or refused where permitted or required by law, including where disclosure would reveal another person’s information, privileged information, confidential commercial information, or information that must be retained. We will explain any lawful limitation.
Submit requests to info (at) cla.ca. Please describe the information or page concerned and the right you wish to exercise. We will respond within the period required by applicable law.
13. Children
The Site is intended for a general and professional audience and is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly solicit personal information from children through the Site. A parent or guardian who believes a child has submitted personal information may contact us to request appropriate action.
14. Electronic Communications
If we send commercial electronic messages, we will do so in accordance with Canada’s anti-spam legislation (“CASL”), including applicable consent, identification, and unsubscribe requirements. Operational replies to an inquiry are not used as permission for unrelated marketing.
15. Third-Party Links and Embedded Content
The Site contains links to and may display historical or embedded content from independent third parties. Those third parties may collect information when their resources are requested. Their practices are governed by their own privacy policies, and we encourage you to review them before providing personal information.
16. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy to reflect changes to the Site, service providers, technology, or legal requirements. The revised Policy will be posted on this page with a new effective date. Material changes may also be highlighted on the Site or through the consent interface where appropriate.
17. Questions and Complaints
Contact the Privacy Officer first so that we can review and attempt to resolve your concern:
Privacy Officer, Canadian Library Association
Email: info (at) cla.ca
You may also contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada or the applicable provincial privacy regulator. Information about filing a federal privacy complaint is available on the Commissioner’s Report a concern page.