The Neurodevelopmental & Educational Assessment Centre´s (NEAC) Privacy Policy
Privacy of personal information is an important principle to The Neurodevelopmental & Educational Assessment Centre. We are committed to collecting, using and disclosing personal information responsibly and only to the extent necessary for the goods and services we provide. We also try to be open and transparent as to how we handle personal information. This document describes our privacy policies.
WHAT IS PERSONAL INFORMATION?
Personal information is information about an identifiable individual. Personal information includes information that relates to: an individual´s personal characteristics (e.g., gender, age income, home address or phone number, family status); health (e.g., health history, health conditions, health services received by them); or educational and child development information. Personal information is different from business information (e.g., an individual´s business address and telephone number). This is not protected by privacy legislation.
WHO WE ARE
Our organization, The Neurodevelopmental & Educational Assessment Centre, includes at the time of writing, 2 psychologists, 2 psychometrists, 2 secretaries, 1 nurse and 4 academic tutors. We use a number of consultants and agencies that may, in the course of their duties, have limited access to personal information we hold. These include computer consultants, office security and maintenance, accountants, credit card companies, website manager, cleaners, lawyers and insurance companies. We restrict their access to any personal information we hold as much as is reasonably possible. We also have their assurance that they follow appropriate privacy principles.
WE COLLECT PERSONAL INFORMATION: PRIMARY PURPOSES
About Clients
Like all health care professional we collect, use and disclose personal information in order to serve our clients. For our clients, the primary purpose for collecting personal information is to provide services. For example, we collect information about a client´s health history, including their family history, educational and school history in order to help us assess their strengths and weaknesses and educational needs. A second primary purpose is to obtain a baseline and needs for tutoring.
WE COLLECT PERSON INFORMATION: RELATED AND SECONDARY PURPOSES
Like most organizations, we also collect, use and disclose information for purposes related to or secondary to our primary purposes. The most common examples of our related and secondary purposes are as follows:
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To invoice clients for goods or services that were not paid for at the time, to process credit card payments or to collect unpaid accounts. |
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Psychologists are regulated by the College of Psychologists. Ontario Association of Consultants, Counsellors, Psychometrists and Psychotherapists regulate psychometrists who may inspect our records and interview our staff as a part of their regulatory activities in the public interest. In addition, as professionals, we will report serious misconduct, incompetence or incapacity of other practitioners, whether they belong to other organizations or our own. Also, our organization believes that it should report information suggesting serious illegal behaviour to the authorities. External regulators have their own strict privacy obligations. Sometimes these reports include personal information about our clients, or other individuals, to support the concern (e.g., improper services). Also, like all organizations, various government agencies (e.g., Canada Customs and Revenue Agency, Information and Privacy Commissioner, Human Rights Commission, etc.) have the authority to review our files and interview our staff as a apart of their mandates. In these circumstances, we may consult with professionals (e.g., lawyers, accountants) who will investigate the matter and report back to us.
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The cost of some goods/services provided by the organization to clients is paid for by third parties (e.g., community colleges and universities, WSIB, private insurance, Assistive Devices Program). These third-party payers often have your consent or legislative authority to direct us to collect and disclose to them certain information in order to demonstrate client entitlement to this funding. |
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Clients or other individuals we deal with may have questions about our goods or services after they have been received. We also provide ongoing services for many of our clients over a period of months or years for which our previous records are helpful. We retain our client information for a minimum of ten years after the last contact to enable us to respond to those questions and provide these services (our regulatory College also requires us to retain our client records for 10 years past there 18th birthday). |
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If The Neurodevelopmental & Educational Assessment Centre or its assets were to be sold, the purchaser would want to conduct a "due diligence" review of the Clinic´s records to ensure that is a viable business that has been honestly portrayed to the purchaser. This due diligence may involve some review of our accounting and service files. The purchaser would not be able to remove a record of personal information. Before being provided access to the files, the purchaser must provide a written promise to keep all personal information confidential. Only reputable purchasers who have already agreed to buy the organization´s business or its assets would be provided access to personal information, and only for the purpose of completing their due diligence search prior to closing the purchase. |
You can choose not to be part of some of these related or secondary purposes (e.g., by declining to receive notice of special events or opportunities). We do not, however, have much choice about some of these related or secondary purposes (e.g., external regulation).
PROTECTING PERSONAL INFORMATION
We understand the importance of protecting personal information. For that reason, we have taken the following steps:
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We do not share information unless directed to do so by the client or guardian or in exceptional circumstances by court order. |
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Paper information is either under supervision or secured in a locked or restricted area. |
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Electronic hardware is either under supervision or secured in a locked or restricted area at all times. In addition, passwords are used on computers. |
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Paper information is transmitted through sealed, addressed envelopes or boxes by reputable companies. |
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Staff are trained to collect, use and disclose personal information only as necessary to fulfill their duties and in accordance with our privacy policy. |
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External consultants and agencies with an access to personal information must enter into privacy agreements with us. |
RETENTION AND DESTRUCTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION
We need to retain personal information for some time to ensure that we can answer any questions you might have about the services provided and for our own accountability to external regulatory bodies. However, we do not want to keep personal information too long in order to protect your privacy.
We keep our client files for ten years. Our client and contact directories are much more difficult to systematically destroy, so we remove such information when we can if it does not appear that we will be contacting you again. However, if you ask, we will remove such contact information right away. We keep any personal information relating to our general correspondence (i.e., with people who are not clients) newsletters, seminars and marketing activities for about six months after the newsletter ceases publication or a seminar or marketing activity is over.
We destroy paper files containing personal information by shredding. We destroy electronic information by deleting it.
YOU CAN LOOK AT YOUR INFORMATION
With only a few exceptions, you have the right to see what personal information we hold about you. Often all you have to do is ask. We can help you identify what records we might have about you. We will also try to help you understand any information you do not understand (e.g., short forms, technical language, etc.). We will need to confirm your identity, if we do not know you, before providing you with this access. We reserve the right to charge a nominal fee for such requests.
If there is a problem we may ask you to put your request in writing. If we cannot give you access, we will tell your within 30 days if at all possible and tell you the reason, as best we can, as to why we cannot give you access.
If you believe there is a mistake in the information, you have the right to ask for it to be corrected. This applies to factual information and not to any professional opinions we may have formed. We may ask you to provide documentation that our files are wrong. Where we agree that we make a mistake, we will make the correction and notify anyone to whom we sent this information. If we do not agree that we have made a mistake, we will still agree to include in our file a brief statement from you on the point and we will forward that statement to anyone else who received the earlier information.
DO YOU HAVE A QUESTION?
Our Information Officer Barbara Anderson, can be reached at:
The Neurodevelopmental & Educational Assessment Centre,
6855 Meadowvale Town Centre Circle,
Suite 316,
Mississauga, Ontario, L5N 2Y1
Phone # 905-826-6042
She will answer any questions or concerns you might have.
If you wish to make a formal complaint about out privacy practices, you may make it in writing to our Information Officer. She will acknowledge receipt of your complaint; ensure that it is investigated promptly and that you are provided with a formal written decision with reasons.
This policy is made under the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act. That is a complex Act and provides some additional exceptions to the privacy principles that are too detained to set out here. There are some rare exceptions to the commitments set out above.
For other inquires, the information and Privacy Commissioner of Canada oversees the administration of the privacy legislation in the private sector. The commissioner also acts as a kind of ombudsman for privacy disputes. The Information and Privacy Commissioner can be reached at:
112 Kent Street
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 1H3
Phone (613)995-8210 / Fax (613) 947-6850 / TTY (613) 992-9190
www.privcom.gc.ca
