Terms and Conditions

Contents

Materials on this website were produced and/or compiled for the purpose of providing Canadians with direct access to information about the Office of the Auditor General of Canada.

The material on this site is covered by the provisions of the Copyright Act, by Canadian laws, policies, regulations and international agreements. Such provisions serve to identify the information source and, in specific instances, to prohibit reproduction of materials without written permission.

Non-commercial Reproduction

Information on this website has been posted with the intent that it be readily available for personal or non-commercial use and may be reproduced, in part or in whole, and by any means, without charge or further permission, unless otherwise specified.

Unless otherwise specified, this authorization is also applicable to all published information regardless of its format.

Reproduction of Symbols

The official symbols of the Office of the Auditor General of Canada, including its coat of Arms, may not be reproduced, whether for commercial or non-commercial purposes, without written authorization.

Commercial Reproduction

Unless otherwise specified, you may not reproduce materials on this site, in whole or in part, for the purpose of commercial redistribution without prior written permission from the Office of the Auditor General of Canada (“the Office”), on behalf of the Government of Canada, the copyright holder.

To obtain permission to reproduce Office materials on this site for commercial purposes, please complete and submit the Application for Crown Copyright Clearance to use OAG material. For assistance in completing your application, please contact us.

Third-party Materials

Some of the materials and graphical elements found on this website may be subject to copyrights held by other organizations. In such cases, some restrictions on the reproduction of materials or graphical elements may apply and it may be necessary to seek permission from the rights holder prior to reproducing the material. Please complete and submit the Application for Crown Copyright Clearance to use OAG material. For assistance in completing your application, please contact us.

Hyperlinking Notice

This website contains links to third party sites. The Office of the Auditor General of Canada provides these links only as a courtesy for the convenience of our visitors. We take no responsibility for the content at third party sites and a link to them in no way implies an endorsement or recommendation of the products, services or information found there.

A third party site may have a privacy policy different from that of the Office of the Auditor General of Canada and may provide less security than this site. The Office disclaims all liability with regard to your access to linked websites. When you link to sites external to the Office website, you do so at your own risk.

The Office of the Auditor General of Canada makes every effort to ensure that our links to third party websites lead to content that is accessible and available in both official languages. However, that is not always feasible or possible.

The Office reserves the right to regularly review and re-evaluate any and all links and reserves the right to terminate any link without prior notification.

Official Languages Notice

The Office of the Auditor General of Canada is committed to ensuring that all content presented on this site and on social media is available in both French and English, and that both versions are of equal quality.

However, users should be aware that some information from external sources is available as a courtesy and will only be available in the language in which it was provided. Some hyperlinks direct users to sites of organizations or other entities that are not subject to the Official Languages Act.

Accessibility Notice

The Office of the Auditor General of Canada is committed to equitable access to information, regardless of the technologies used. We are continually striving to make our site accessible to all, including persons with disabilities and to those who use assistive devices. Social media platforms are third-party service providers and are not bound by Government of Canada standards for Web accessibility.

Information Archived on the Web

Information identified as archived on the Web is for reference, research, or recordkeeping purposes. It has not been altered or updated after the date of archiving. Pages that are archived on the Web are not subject to the Government of Canada Web Standards. As per the Policy on Communications and Federal Identity, you can request alternate formats. To do so, please contact us.

Privacy Notice

The Office of the Auditor General of Canada (OAG) is committed to respecting the privacy of those who visit its website. This notice summarizes the privacy practices related to the OAG’s website.

All personal information collected by the OAG is governed by the Privacy Act and the Auditor General Act. This means that if the OAG asks you to provide personal information, you will be informed of the purpose for which your personal information is being collected and how to exercise your right of access to that information.

Protecting the privacy of users on this website

The nature of the Internet is such that web servers automatically collect certain kinds of information about visitors when they view websites, including each visitor’s Internet Protocol (IP) address. IP addresses are unique numbers assigned by Internet Service Providers (ISP) to all devices used to access the Internet. Web servers automatically log the IP addresses of visitors to their sites. An IP address, on its own, may not identify an individual. However, in certain circumstances, such identification is possible with the co-operation of an ISP. For this reason, federal institutions, including the OAG, consider a person’s IP address to be personal information, particularly when combined with other data that is automatically collected when a visitor requests a web page, such as the page or pages visited and the date and time of the visit.

Unless otherwise stated, the OAG does not automatically gather any specific information from visitors, such as name, telephone number, or email address. The OAG would obtain this type of information only if an individual were to supply it—for example, by email or by filling in a contact form. In such cases, details about how the personal information is handled will be provided in a Personal Information Collection Statement.

Communicating with the OAG

If you choose to send an email to the OAG, or complete a feedback form online, your personal information may be used by the OAG in order to respond to your inquiry. The OAG does not use the information to create individual profiles, nor does it disclose the information to anyone except those in the federal government who need it to provide you with a response. Any disclosure of your personal information is done in accordance with the Privacy Act.

Email and other electronic means used to communicate with the OAG are not secure unless it is specifically stated on a web page. Therefore, it is recommended that you do not send sensitive personal information, such as your social insurance number or date of birth, through non-secure electronic means.

Personal information from emails or completed feedback forms is collected pursuant to the Privacy Act and the Auditor General Act. Such information may be used for statistical, evaluation, and reporting purposes.

Understanding how the OAG collects information about users

Web analytics is the collection, analysis, measurement, and reporting of data about web traffic and visits for the purposes of understanding and optimizing website usage. The OAG may use web analytics to improve the way visitors experience its website.

When a computer requests an OAG web page, the OAG may collect the following types of information for web analytics purposes using digital markers (as described above):

Information for web analytics purposes is collected by the OAG pursuant to its need to do so. Such data may be used to improve the OAG website as well as for information and communication and information technology statistical purposes, audit, evaluation, research, planning, and reporting. For more information on how privacy is safeguarded in relation to web analytics, see the Standard on Privacy and Web Analytics.

The OAG also uses software to conduct web analytics internally. This information is not disclosed to any third-party service provider. The OAG retains information collected for web analytics for a maximum period of 18 months. After this period, the information is disposed of in accordance with the Standard on Privacy and Web Analytics and as authorized by the Librarian and Archivist of Canada.

Protecting the security of the OAG website

The OAG employs software programs to monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information or otherwise cause damage. This software receives and records the IP address of the computer that has contacted the OAG website, the date and time of the visit, and the pages visited. The OAG makes no attempt to link these addresses with the identities of individuals visiting the site unless an attempt to damage the site is detected.

If criminal activity is suspected or detected, the OAG may share information with appropriate law enforcement authorities. This information may be used for network security-related statistical purposes, audit, evaluation, research, planning, and reporting, and is included in Personal Information Bank PSU 939 Security Incidents.

Inquiring about the OAG’s practices

You may direct any questions, comments, concerns, or complaints you have concerning the administration of the Privacy Act and privacy policies regarding the OAG’s web presence to the OAG’s Access to Information and PrivacyATIP Coordinator. You can contact the ATIP Coordinator by telephone at 1-888-761-5953 (toll-free), by email at privacy@oag-bvg.gc.ca, or by regular mail at the following address:

240 Sparks Street
West Tower, 9th Floor
Ottawa, Ontario  K1A 0G6

If you are not satisfied with the OAG’s response to your privacy concerns, you may wish to contact the Privacy Commissioner of Canada at the following address:

Privacy Commissioner of Canada
30 Victoria Street
Gatineau, Quebec  K1A 1H3

Third-Party Social Media

The Office of the Auditor General of Canada’s (OAG) use of social media serves as an extension of its presence on the Web. OAG social media account(s) are public and are not hosted on the Office’s servers. Users who choose to interact with us via social media should read the terms of service and privacy policies of these third-party service providers and those of any applications used to access them. The Office uses Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube.

Personal information that you provide to the Office via social media account(s) is collected under the authority of the Auditor General Act. This information is collected to capture conversations (e.g. questions and answers, comments, retweets) between you and the Office. It may be used to respond to inquiries, or for statistical, evaluation and reporting purposes. Comments posted that violate Canadian law will be deleted and disclosed to law enforcement authorities. Comments that violate our terms and policies will also be deleted. The personal information is included in Personal Information Bank PSU 938 Outreach Activities.

Following, “Favouriting” and Subscribing

Our decision to “follow,” “favourite” or “subscribe” to another social media account does not imply an endorsement of that account, channel, page or site, and neither does sharing (re-tweeting, reposting or linking to) content from another user.