Newtopia Privacy Policy (CANADA)

Last Updated: 4/13/2021

Newtopia Inc. (“Newtopia,” ”Company,” “we,” or “us”) knows that you care about how your Personal Information is used and shared and we take your privacy seriously. This Privacy Policy describes how we may collect, use, disclose and otherwise handle (collectively, “process” or “processing”) the Personal Information of our users in Canada and the services provided by Newtopia to users in Canada in connection with Newtopia.com, other digital services that we own or operate (including any other websites, linked pages, features, content, or mobile applications offered by Newtopia) (collectively, our “digital Services”), and the services we offer (collectively, the “Services”). This Privacy Policy is incorporated into and made part of our Terms of Use (“Terms”). By accepting our Privacy Policy, agreeing to the Terms, and subsequently by accessing or using our Services, you expressly consent to our processing of your Personal Information (as defined below) in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

We may provide additional “just-in-time” disclosures or additional information about our data processing practices. These notices may supplement or clarify our Privacy Policy or may provide you with additional choices about how we will process your Personal Information. This Policy does not apply to the practices of companies and / or sites that we do not own or control, or to individuals that we do not employ or manage. Where you are accessing or using our Services as part of a personalized lifestyle plan or in connection with other Newtopia programs and offerings (collectively, “Newtopia Programs”), our processing of your Personal Information is subject to and restricted by any authorization or consent you provide to us.

We encourage you to read this Privacy Policy carefully, and to watch for and read any updates that might be made from time to time, as explained below under “Changes to this Privacy Policy”.  Your continued use of the Services or your provision of Personal Information to us, after we post or communicate a change to the Privacy Policy signifies your consent to the revised Privacy Policy.

This Privacy Policy covers the following topics:

  • WHAT DOES THIS PRIVACY POLICY COVER?
  • WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT AND HOW?
  • HOW DO WE USE YOUR INFORMATION?
  • WHAT PERSONAL INFORMATION DO WE SHARE?
  • IS MY PERSONAL INFORMATION SECURE?
  • THIRD PARTY LINKS AND SERVICES
  • WHAT CHOICES DO I HAVE REGARDING MY PERSONAL INFORMATION?
  • Processing, Retention and Storage of Personal Information
  • HOW DO WE PROTECT CHILDREN’S PERSONAL INFORMATION?
  • CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY
  • CONTACT US

If you do not understand our Privacy Policy, please contact us using the information in the ”Contact Us” section below.

The capitalized terms not defined in this Privacy Policy have the meanings set forth in our Terms.

  1. WHAT DOES THIS PRIVACY POLICY COVER?

Personal Information.  This Privacy Policy covers how we process information that could reasonably be used, directly or indirectly, to identify you, as well as information about your use or potential use of our Services that could reasonably be linked to you (collectively, “Personal Information”) in accordance with applicable privacy laws.

Personal Health Information.  We are dedicated to maintaining the privacy and integrity of your Personal Information that is personal health information (“PHI”). PHI includes any identifying information about an individual in oral or recorded form that relates to the individual’s physical or mental health, health history of the individual’s family, and an individual’s health card number or other medical identifier.

De-identified Information. Aggregated, de-identified or anonymous information that does not identify an individual (collectively, “De-identified Information”) is not Personal Information.  Any De-identified Information within Newtopia’s control will not be used by Newtopia, either alone or with other information, to identify a specific individual to whom the information relates.

  1. WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT AND HOW?

We may collect information relating to you in the following manners:

  • When you provide your information directly to us.  We collect Personal Information that you voluntarily provide when you access or use the Services. For example, when you register for an account, take a survey, contact customer service, or download an application, we may collect information including your full name, mobile phone number, your email address and the email address of your contacts, home and business postal addresses, username, password, certain health information (such as weight) and any other information you voluntarily provide when using the Services.  To use our genetic testing services, you must provide material containing a DNA sample.   You may choose to configure third-party devices that you obtain from us or other sources so that the devices share information with us.
  • When you use our Services to share information with others. We may collect Personal Information when you share your information or communicate with others using our Services. For example, we may collect your name, picture, information regarding your health status, and reason for program participation when you share those details with administrators, Health Coaches and your fellow support group members. Whether you choose to disclose your name, genetic results or photo to any other support group members is at your discretion. Any information you choose to provide or upload to the Services may be visible to your group, as well as Health Coaches, our administrators, and other users of the Services. As your information will be viewable to the other users of the Services, you should provide only the information you feel comfortable disclosing.  There may be an opportunity to speak on the phone or via video or text chat in a group conference call. Participation in such opportunities is not mandatory, but should you choose to participate, you should share only as much information as you feel comfortable sharing in these additional forums.
  • From third parties. We may collect your information from sources other than you, such as from a health care professional or organization, but only with your prior express consent.
  • Through social media.  We may collect your Personal Information and/or Usage Information if you connect to us through social media. The Personal Information and Usage Information we collect will depend on your privacy settings with the social media provider. We will honour such settings.

In addition to the Personal Information described above, we may also collect the following information that is automatically generated by your use of the Site (“Technical Information”).  Technical Information is generally De-identified Information, but if we are able to associate it with you as an identifiable person, we will treat it as Personal Information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

  • Log Files. Log files make a record of each visit to our Site and log a number of details, including:  your operating system; the date, time and duration of the visit; the pages and documents accessed; and the previous site accessed by you (such as, the search engine that referred you to our Site). Such information is collected for aggregated statistical purposes only, such as to track the number of visits to our digital Services, the number of views to particular pages, time-based traffic patterns, and the proportion of visitors using certain devices. Newtopia will not make any attempt to identify users according to their browsing activity through such records.
  • Device Identifiers. A device identifier, such as an IP address, is a distinctive number associated with a device. We may use your device identifier to identify you when you visit our digital Services to determine repeat visitors and detect and prevent fraudulent activity. By using device identifiers to approximate geographic location (to a city level), we can determine your approximate time zone, and better understand the locations of the people to whom we provide Services.
  • Cookies are small text files stored on your computer that identify your IP address to our computers each time you visit our digital Services. We may use both session cookies (which expire once you close your web browser) and persistent cookies (which stay on your computer until you delete them).  We may use cookies to collect and store certain information that details your preferences, in order to facilitate a more personalized browsing experience.  We may also use cookies to collect aggregated statistical information, similar to that collected through log files.  You can choose to disable or block cookies on your browser, as described below.
  • Web Beacons. We may use web beacons, also known as pixel tags, clear GIFs or other similar technologies in connection with some of our Site pages, social media pages and HTML-formatted email messages to, among other things, track the actions of users and email recipients, measure the success of our marketing campaigns, and compile statistics about our Site and social media usage and email response rates.  These technologies usually work in conjunction with cookies.  If you do not want your cookie information to be associated with your visits to these pages, you can disable or block cookies as noted below.  If you turn off cookies, web beacons (or similar technologies) will still detect visits to these pages, but the notices they generate cannot be associated with other cookie information and are disregarded.
  • Newtopia uses Google Analytics to provide statistics about the visitors to our digital Services. Google Analytics tracks and analyzes non-personally identifiable statistical information, including, without limitation, search engines, display advertising, pay-per-click networks, email marketing and digital collateral such as links within PDF documents. More information about Google Analytics is available at

https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.

  • Geo-location. If you have activated the GPS location feature on your mobile device when using one of our apps or permit us to identify your location when using our website, we will have access to your location in order to optimize our Services.

If you choose not to provide us with your Personal Information, you may still be able to access and use some of our Services. Note, however, that certain features of our Services that require your information may not be accessible to you.  If you choose not to provide us with certain information, but the availability or usefulness of our Services may be limited, in whole or part.

  1. HOW DO WE USE YOUR INFORMATION?

We will use the Personal Information we collect from you only for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy or for purposes we obtain your consent for at the time we collect your Personal Information.

Newtopia generally collects and uses your Personal Information for the following purposes:

  • Providing to you the Services and fulfilling your requests. We may use your information to register you, administer your account and profile, enable financial transactions, or provide you the information and services that you request.
  • Enhancing your experience. We use your information to personalize and enhance your experience when you use the Services, such as tailoring content and remembering your preferences.
  • Monitoring, improving, and developing Services. Your information helps us improve the content and functionality of our Services. For example, we may use your demographics, interests, and behaviors to create new features and content. We may also use your information to monitor and analyze trends, usage, and activities in connection with the Services. For example, we may use aggregate data to figure out how often participants use the Services in order to make Services appealing to as many participants as possible.
  • Communicating with you.  We may contact you to answer questions and communicate with you about the Services or other Newtopia products and services, including updates and new features. We may obtain your express authorization for certain marketing activities.  You may unsubscribe from receiving marketing emails from us by emailing us at unsubscribe@newtopia.com or using the “Unsubscribe” link included in the marketing email. However, if you have registered for the Services, you may receive administrative messages such as support updates, technical notices, security alerts, and administrative messages about changes to this Privacy Policy, our Terms of Use, to which you cannot opt out.
  • Preventing illegal activities. We use your information to detect, investigate, and prevent fraudulent transactions, illegal activities, and violations of our terms. We also may use your information to protect the rights and property of Newtopia and others.
  • As disclosed.  In addition to those purposes listed above, we may use your information for any other purpose disclosed to you at the time of collection or when you provide your authorization.

Also, we may use both manual and automated systems, such as machine learning and artificial intelligence, to monitor and analyze your Personal Information and Technical Information to improve our Services, to identify trends in order to improve and personalize your experience, automate certain aspects of the Services, aggregate, de-identify or anonymize your information, provide you certain features, and protect the safety and security of Newtopia and our Services.

  1. WHAT PERSONAL INFORMATION DO WE SHARE?

We will not rent, sell, or share your Personal Information with third parties, including non-affiliated companies, except under the following circumstances:

  • Forum.  We may make available the Personal Information you choose to share through the interactive features available on the Services, including discussion boards, chat rooms, profile pages, bulletin boards, blogs, instant messaging, activities, polls, games and other communication forums (collectively, “Forums”). Some of these Forums are described more specifically below. Please note that any information, text, and images posted or disclosed by you as the user on or through such Forums may be visible to the user’s group(s), as well as Health Coaches, website administrators, visitors to the Services, and other users of the Services. Specifically, Personal Information such as the picture you’ve uploaded and your screen name, may be available for other users to view when you make a posting to such Forums. Information regarding your activities in such Services may also be available for view by other users (for example, other users may be able to view a list of all postings you have made in all available Forums). Any postings you have made to a Forum may also be available for view later by users of the Services by scrolling to older posts on the Forum. We urge you to exercise discretion and caution when deciding to disclose your Personal Information, such as your condition, or any other information, through a Forum or otherwise through the Services. WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE USE OR DISCLOSURE OF ANY PERSONAL INFORMATION DISCLOSED BY YOU OR ON YOUR BEHALF BY YOUR SYSTEM THROUGH A FORUM OR OTHERWISE THROUGH THE SERVICES.
  • Discussion Boards and Chat Rooms. We may provide functionality for you to choose to post on our discussion boards, and permit you to enter into chat rooms and choose to communicate with other users in the chat rooms. Please note that if you use such functionalities to communicate, your name or screen name will be disclosed to all visitors to the discussion boards, present and future, as well as all users in the chat room at that time. Please remember that information posted to discussion boards becomes public information. Use caution when posting. Further, if a comment you make on the discussion board or in the chat room contains Personal Information, we cannot control how the Personal Information will be used or disclosed by the other users of the discussion board or chat room. We urge you to exercise discretion and caution when deciding to disclose your Personal Information, or any other information, in any comment and/or message, and to be careful about the people to whom you send such comments and/or messages. WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE USE OR DISCLOSURE BY OTHERS OF THE INFORMATION THAT IS DISCLOSED BY YOU OR ON YOUR BEHALF BY YOUR SYSTEM ON DISCUSSION BOARDS, IN CHAT ROOMS OR OTHERWISE THROUGH THE SERVICES.
  • Messaging Services.  We may provide functionality to permit you to choose to send messages, including instant messages, to other users through the Services. Please note that if you use such functionality to send such a message to another user, your screen name will be disclosed to that user, as well as website administrators. Further, if a message you send using such functionality contains Personal Information, we cannot control how the Personal Information will be used or disclosed by the recipient of your message. We urge you to exercise discretion and caution when deciding to disclose your Personal Information, or any other information, in any message, and to be careful about the people to whom you send such messages. WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE USE OR DISCLOSURE BY OTHERS OF THE INFORMATION THAT IS DISCLOSED BY YOU OR ON YOUR BEHALF BY YOUR SYSTEM IN SUCH MESSAGES.
  • User Profiles. We may provide functionality to permit you to create a user profile page in which you may choose to provide information about yourself, including, without limitation, your condition, as well as your feelings about your condition and/or yourself (“User Submissions,” as further defined in our Terms). You may also be able to upload pictures, videos and stories to your profile page as part of the User Submissions. User Submissions may be displayed to other users (including members of your group(s)) to facilitate user interaction within the Services. Email addresses are used to add new User Submissions to user profiles and to communicate through User Submissions. Users’ email addresses will not be directly revealed to other users by us, except when the user is “connected” to another user via a shared group membership, or an invitation, or if the user has chosen to include their email address in their User Profile. Please note that any User Submissions you choose to make, including Personal Information, on or through your profile page may be available for other users, the Company, administration, moderators, and other staff. Additionally, other users may be able to post comments and view posted comments on your profile page.
  • Subcontractors and Agents.  Newtopia may from time to time disclose Personal Information about users to third parties that provide services to Newtopia (“Third Party Service Providers”), including, but not limited to, our web host/designer, marketing provider and email/SMS/chatbot providers. We will limit this disclosure to only the Personal Information that is reasonably necessary for the purpose or service for which the Third Party Service Provider is engaged. We will use contractual and other means to provide a comparable level of protection while the information is being processed by these Third Party Service Providers, including limiting such providers to using your Personal Information solely to provide Newtopia with the specific service for which they were engaged, and for no other purpose.
  • De-identified Information. Newtopia may share with third parties De-identified Information, which cannot reasonably be used or linked to any Personal Information to identify any individual person.
  • Business Transfers.  Subject to applicable law, we may share or transfer your Personal Information where reasonably required in the context of a prospective or completed sale, merger, amalgamation or other business transaction involving all or part of our business. In any such case, the recipient parties will be contractually required to keep the information confidential and use it only for the purposes of the transaction, or proposed transaction, in question. In the event a business transaction is concluded, assignees or successors of Newtopia or our business or assets may use and disclose Personal Information only for the purposes as set out this Privacy Policy, unless further consent is obtained from you.
  • Protection of Newtopia and Others. We may release Personal Information when we believe in good faith that release is necessary to comply with applicable law; enforce or apply our conditions of use and other agreements; or protect the rights, property, or safety of the Company, our employees, our users, or others. This may include exchanging information with other companies and organizations for fraud protection and credit risk reduction.
  • Social Media FeaturesOur Services include Social Media Features, such as the Facebook “Like” or “Share” button and widgets. These tools may collect your IP address, which page you are visiting on our site, and may set a cookie to enable the Feature to function properly. Your use of these tools is governed by the privacy statements of the third party companies providing them. You should always review and, if necessary, adjust your privacy settings on third party websites and services before using them in association with our Services.
  • Law Enforcement. We may share your Personal Information with law enforcement, national security agencies or other governmental officials, as required or permitted by law, such as in response to a court order or a verified request relating to a criminal investigation or alleged illegal activity.
  • With Your Consent.  Except as set forth above, you will be notified when your Personal Information may be used for other purposes or shared with third parties, and will be able to control the use and sharing of this information.

  1. IS MY PERSONAL INFORMATION SECURE?

The security of your Personal Information is important to us. We employ administrative, physical, and technical measures designed to safeguard and protect information under our control from unauthorized access, use, and disclosure.

In addition, when we collect, maintain, access, use, or disclose your Personal Information, we will do so using systems and processes consistent with information privacy and security requirements under applicable laws. Furthermore, your individual user account is protected by a password for your privacy and security. To ensure that there is no unauthorized access to your account and Personal Information, we suggest that you safeguard your password appropriately and limit access to your computer and browser by signing off after you have finished accessing your account. We endeavor to protect user information to ensure that user account information is kept private.

However, we cannot guarantee the security of your personal and other information or the appropriateness of the measures we use to safeguard such information. Unauthorized entry, access, or use; loss; hardware or software failure; and other factors, may compromise the security of user information at any time. You should keep in mind, however, that no data transmitted over the Internet is 100% secure and any information disclosed online can potentially be collected and used by parties other than the intended recipient.

If necessary, we will make all legally required disclosures of any breach of the security, confidentiality, or integrity of your Personal Information, including, without limitation, breaches of your unencrypted, electronically stored, Personal Information. To the extent permitted by applicable laws, we will make such disclosures to you via email or conspicuous posting on your private profile on the Services in the most expedient time possible and without unreasonable delay, insofar as consistent with (a) the legitimate needs of law enforcement or (b) any measures necessary to determine the scope of the breach and restore the reasonable integrity of the data system. Despite these measures, the confidentiality of any communication or material transmitted to or from us via the Services offered by Internet or email cannot be guaranteed. If you have reason to believe that your data or your interactions with us are no longer secure, you may contact us at the mailing address or telephone number listed at the end of this document.

  1. THIRD PARTY LINKS AND SERVICES

Third party products, services and applications may use or integrate with our Services, or otherwise be offered through our Services (“Third Party Services”). If you choose to use any of these Third Party Services, you are permitting us to provide your information and any information associated with your account, including Personal Information, to the third party. Your interactions with these Third Party Services are governed by the privacy policy of the organization providing the relevant Third Party Service.

The Site may contain links to third party platforms. While we try to link only to platforms that share our high standards and respect for privacy, please understand that we are not responsible for the content of, or the privacy practices employed by other platforms.  We encourage you to review the privacy policies of each platform you visit.

  1. WHAT CHOICES DO I HAVE REGARDING MY PERSONAL INFORMATION?

Your choices about how we use your information are important to us and, when possible, we aim to honor them. To exercise these choices, please contact us as set out below under the “Contact Us” heading.

  • Access or Correction. You may request access to, or correction of, your Personal Information. We will take all reasonable steps to ensure that all Personal Information we collect, use or disclose is accurate, complete and up-to-date. Please contact us if your Personal Information changes or if you believe the information we have about you is not accurate or complete. All such requests must be received in writing. We will make the Personal Information available within 30 days, or provide written notice of extension where additional time is required to fulfill the request.  Your right to access Personal Information may be limited by applicable law. We may request that you provide certain Personal Information in order to verify your identity.
  • Withdraw Consent. If we have processed your Personal Information with your consent, you can withdraw your consent at any time. Withdrawing your consent will not affect the lawfulness of any processing we conducted prior to your withdrawal.  It may, however, restrict our ability to provide you with all or a portion of our Service.
  • File a Complaint. You have the right to file a complaint with the applicable privacy commissioner for your jurisdiction of residence about our collection, use, disclosure and processing of your Personal Information.
  • Removing information.  If you would like us to remove your records from our system, you may request deletion of your account with us. Please note that some information may remain in our records after deletion of your account, including any information or records we are legally or contractually obligated to retain. If you do not wish to receive email or other mail from us, please advise us.
  • Opt-outs and Marketing Communications. You can request to manage marketing and certain other communications and certain other notifications by emailing us using the information below or the “Unsubscribe” link in our emails.
  • Managing Cookies and Other Data Collection Technologies You have a number of options to manage or limit how we and our vendors use Cookies and other Data Collection Technologies:
    • To prevent your data from being used by Google Analytics, you can install Google’s opt-out browser add-on.
    • You may be able to disable cookies or choose the types of cookies you wish to allow. Please refer to your browser settings.

  1. Processing, Retention and Storage of Personal Information

We will retain your Personal Information for only so long as is necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, and for such periods of time as may be required to comply with applicable law.

We take all reasonable measures designed to safeguard your Personal Information against unauthorized access, use, disclosure, copying or modification. Such measures, which may necessarily evolve over time as the availability and effectiveness of methods vary, include physical, organizational and technological safeguards, such as:

  • restricting access to Personal Information to need-to-know employees and Third Party Service Providers and who are required to abide by this Privacy Policy and Newtopia’s internal privacy and security practices;
  • restricting access to our systems, accounts and electronic databases or other electronic formats that may contain Personal Information through password protection and internal security policies; and
  • implementing technical security measures such as firewall technology, anti-malware screening and data encryption technology.

While Newtopia employs advanced data encryption technology when interfacing with our users, Third Party Service Providers and other partners, you should be aware that there is a residual risk in transmitting any data electronically. Despite our efforts, no security measures are perfect or impenetrable and no method of data transmission can be guaranteed against any interception or other type of misuse.  This risk is inherent in all Internet dealings.

Once you have terminated your account or otherwise cease using our Service, we will no longer retain your Personal Information except to the extent necessary to send you marketing communications in accordance with your marketing preferences (which you can change at any time as set out above) and for our legal or regulatory compliance (such as maintaining records of transactions you have made with us), to exercise, establish or defend legal claims, and to protect against fraudulent or abusive activity on our Site  or in connection with our Service.  When your Personal Information is no longer required, we will make all reasonable efforts to ensure all electronic and hard copies of such information are securely destroyed or de-identified. However, where your information has been provided to third parties for certain purposes, such as payment processing, those third parties, such as payment processors and financial institutions, may retain the information according to their own retention and privacy policies.

Your Personal Information may be stored or processed by Newtopia or Third Party Service Providers outside of your jurisdiction of residence, including in Canada, the U.S. or another foreign jurisdiction outside of Canada. When this occurs, your Personal Information may be accessible without notice to you by the courts, law enforcement and national security authorities of that jurisdiction.

  1. HOW DO WE PROTECT CHILDREN’S PERSONAL INFORMATION?

Our Services are intended for and directed to individuals who are the age of majority or older in their jurisdiction of residence.  We do not knowingly collect Personal Information of minors and have mechanisms in place to prevent minors from accessing our Site.  However, if a minor (as defined by applicable law) is able to bypass such mechanisms and provides us with his/her data without parental or legal guardian consent, we encourage the parent or legal guardian to contact us to have this information removed from our records.

  1. CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY

We may amend this Privacy Policy from time to time as our business evolves, in response to legal developments, as new technologies become available, or as we introduce new features, products or services.

When we make changes to this Privacy Policy we will revise the “Last Updated” date at the top of the policy. You should check back here periodically to find out if any changes have been made to this Privacy Policy. If we make substantial changes we will, as appropriate, prominently post these changes to our Site and notify registered users of the Services.

If you disagree with any change to the Privacy Policy, please refrain from using our Services or otherwise providing us with your Personal Information.  By continuing to use our Services or by providing us with Personal Information after we post or communicate a change to the Privacy Policy, you signify your consent to the revised terms of the Privacy Policy.

  1. CONTACT US

If you have any questions or concerns regarding privacy on our Services, please send us a detailed message at privacy@newtopia.com or at the address below. We will make every effort to resolve your concerns. Since email communications are not always secure, please do not include sensitive information in your emails to us.

Newtopia Inc., 4101 Yonge Street, Suite 706, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M2P 1N6.