Privacy

Privacy overview

Global Affairs Canada (GAC) is responsible for the administration of g7.canada.ca. GAC is committed to respecting the privacy and protecting the information of all visitors to g7.canada.ca.

GAC’s administration of g7.canada.ca includes various activities that may require the collection of personal information for both administrative and non-administrative purposes.

All personal information collected by GAC from visitors to g7.canada.ca is authorized under legislation and is done in compliance with the Privacy Act. This means that you will be notified when your personal information may be required, the purpose for which it is collected and how to exercise your right of access to that information.

While visiting g7.canada.ca, you may be directed to websites controlled by other Government of Canada institutions or a third-party, or to third-party social media platforms. When visiting a website outside of g7.canada.ca, or a social media platform, personal information will be subject to the terms, conditions and privacy policies of that other institution or third-party. In these cases, we strongly encourage you to take the time to read the specific privacy notices or statements that describe their specific terms, conditions and policies.

If you have any questions, comments, concerns or complaints about the activities of GAC in administering the g7.canada.ca website as they relate to the Privacy Act, the Department of Employment and Social Development Act, and privacy policies regarding g7.canada.ca, you can contact the Access to Information and Privacy: Global Affairs Canada.

In addition you may also contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner by telephone at 1-800-282-1376.

In addition, you have the right to file a complaint with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada regarding GAC’s handling of your personal information.

Web analytics and cookies

As part of the administration of g7.canada.ca, GAC is also responsible for the tools used by the GAC for web analytics.

Web analytics is the collection, analysis and reporting of web traffic data. It is used to help determine how g7.canada.ca and other Government of Canada websites can be improved to better serve Canadians and other visitors. We use Google Analytics to provide web analytics services for g7.canada.ca.

For the purpose of performing web analytics, certain types of information are collected during visits to this website:

Date and time of website visits
Type of browser, operating system and device used
How you arrived at the website
Pages visited and buttons/links clicked
Terms entered into our search engine
How long it took to do certain tasks

We make sure you cannot be directly identified by web analytics data. We do this by ensuring any personal data found on the pages you visit is not collected, this includes names, addresses and account information.

The IP address of the device accessing the web page is used to determine the geographic location of visitors (city, province and country), but IP addresses are never stored in a format that can be used to identify an individual.

Google Analytics is part of the Google Marketing Platform. The web analytics information collected by Google Analytics is stored in the United States. This means it could be shared if required by American law. Web analytics information is kept for a maximum period of 50 months.

Privacy information for Google Analytics can be found at the following link:

Google Analytics Privacy and Security

Google Analytics uses digital markers, also known as cookies, to track visits to g7.canada.ca. Cookies are also used to improve user experience by remembering preferences and settings for a particular website.

You can manage your cookie settings within your browser. If you change your browser settings to refuse cookies, no information will be collected but you may limit the functionality of Government of Canada and third-party websites.

If you wish, you may opt-out of having your visit tracked by Google Analytics by using the following link to download the opt-out browser add-on. If you choose the opt-out cookies from Google, your experience on g7.canada.ca will not be affected.

Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on

Public communications on g7.canada.ca

g7.canada.ca includes a contact section with contact information for visitors to send questions and comments. When a question or comment is about a specific activity, program or service, it may be forwarded to the appropriate responsible officers at GAC or at another government institution to prepare a reply.

Security monitoring and incidents

GAC is responsible for administering software programs to monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage. This software receives and records information including, but not limited to:

IP address of the device that has contacted the g7.canada.ca website
name of the domain used to access the Internet
type of browser used
type of operating system used
the date and time of the visit
pages visited and documents downloaded
IP address of the website that linked directly to Canada.ca

GAC will not attempt to link these addresses with the identity of visitors to the g7.canada.ca website unless an attempt to damage the site is detected.

GAC engages in security monitoring and investigation of the g7.canada.ca website under the authority of section 161 of the Financial Administration Act. Personal information may be shared with appropriate law enforcement authorities if suspected criminal activities are detected. It may also be used for network security-related statistical purposes, audit, evaluation, research, planning and reporting.

Personal information for this activity is collected and stored in the Personal Information Bank Security Incidents and Privacy Breaches (PSU 939).