CLEOINTERACTIVEHELP.CA PRIVACY POLICY

(A) General

The Cleointeractivehelp.ca and the tools and functionality available on the website (“the Service”) is provided by Community Legal Education Ontario/Éducation juridique communautaire Ontario (”CLEO”) as a free tool to help people understand the law and legal processes in Ontario and to fill out the forms that must be filed with a court or tribunal. The Service asks you a series of questions about your personal information and then completes the forms that you need to file with a court or tribunal in a legal case in Ontario. CLEO uses the personal information that you enter to fill out these forms.

You can also use the Service to send your information to a legal clinic, community organization or another person.

You must agree to the Terms of Use (available here) before you can use the Service – you do this by ticking the box on the home page of the Service. The Terms of Use incorporate this Privacy Policy, so by accepting the Terms of Use, you also accept this Privacy Policy and consent to sharing and storing your personal information in CLEO’s Service.

Your privacy is important to us. This Privacy Policy explains:

  • What personal information we collect and why we collect it;
  • How we use your personal information;
  • Who we share your personal information with; and
  • The choices you have to access, update, and remove your personal information from the service.

Subject to the Terms of Use and the remainder of this Privacy Policy, CLEO will maintain the privacy of personal information entered into the Service and is committed to protecting your privacy. Any personal information provided to the Service will be considered confidential. CLEO will not share this personal information with any third party, except if required to do so by law or as set out in this Privacy Policy.

(B) What information we collect and why we collect it

Information about you and your legal case

When you start using the Service, you will select the form that you want to create. The Service will ask you questions that will collect personal information which will let you complete that form and set up an account on the Service.

While using the Service, you will be asked a series of questions about your personal situation. Depending on the type of legal issue you have, this could include:

  • personal identification information, such as your name, address, date of birth, and contact details;
  • information about your family members, including details about your children, such as their date of birth, medical history, and schooling;
  • financial information, including your bank accounts, income, and debts;
  • health information, including medical reports about your condition;
  • information about the circumstances related to the specific legal issue;
  • information about previous court and tribunal cases relating to your case;
  • information about the other party to the legal case;
  • information about any legal services (such as a lawyer, paralegal or other representative) you are using to help you with your legal case; and
  • such other information applicable to the Services provided and your particular legal case.

You are not required to include any information, although the completeness of the forms or usefulness of the Service to you may be affected. You will only provide information that you are authorized to include in the Service.

Using the Service, you can also send your personal information to a legal clinic, community organization, or another person if you want to make an application for assistance or to send information to a specific individual. This Privacy Policy covers how CLEO collects, uses and discloses your personal information, but once the information is provided to a particular individual or legal clinic, such third parties privacy policy applies. We encourage to carefully review any such privacy policies

Creating an account

When you create a user account, you have to provide personal information that allows us to identify you as the user. This includes a username and password, as well as things like your full name, address, phone number, and email address. This lets the Service identify you as the appropriate user connected to your personal information. It also lets the Service provide you with a new password if you forget yours. This also lets us contact you in case there is important information about the Service, a breach of security, or a request to access your information that we need to tell you about.

CLEO will collect and store this personal information as long as your account remains active. This means that you can use the Service over a long period of time. CLEO will delete this personal information and your account details if:

  1. you do not use the Service for a period of one year; or
  2. you delete your personal information or your account.

Log data and Feedback

The Service automatically records certain information about how a person uses it, including IP addresses, device and browser types, operating systems, the forms or parts of the form that are accessed, the time spent on the Service, and other statistics.

You are also able to, on a voluntary basis, provide your feedback through the Service, which may include your personal information, if you so choose.

CLEO uses this information to understand how many people are using the Service, what forms are being completed, and how people navigate through the Service. We use this information and these statistics to report to our funders and to understand what improvements we can make to the Service.

(C) How we use your personal information

When you create a user account on the Service, you can store your personal information in the Service. This will let you come back and resume work on your documents at a later time. When you have finished entering the required information, the Service will put your personal information into the relevant form. You can also access your personal information if you decide you want to complete another form. 

CLEO uses the personal information you provide for the purpose of:

  • allowing you to complete the forms, interviews and other functionality available through the Service, including forms required by the court or tribunal for your legal case. We do not collect information that is not required by the relevant forms, and you select the form that you want to complete using the Service;
  • administrating your account in accordance with this Privacy Policy; and
  • for evaluation and service improvement purposes.

(D) Who we share your information with

CLEO is committed to the privacy of your information. We do not share your personal information with anyone else without your consent, unless required by applicable laws or otherwise in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

You can share your personal information using the Service and send it to another person or organization from the Service directly. In that case, we will not ask your consent. It may be, for example, that you have someone helping you with your legal case and you want the Service to disclose your information to them.

We will keep records of all requests to disclose information, including what was disclosed, the person who received the information, the date of the disclosure, and, if applicable, your written consent.

CLEO will disclose personal information only if consent is given by the relevant individual or:

(a)        when permitted or required by applicable laws, such as in response to a subpoena or other legal process;

(c)        to CLEO service providers in accordance with below; or

(d)        to meet legal obligations, including but not limited to regulatory reporting obligations.

CLEO may use third party service providers with respect to its website(s) and services. Users’ personal information may be shared with such providers. CLEO requires that any third party provider that has access to personal information be bound by obligations consistent with this Privacy Policy and that such providers only collect, use or disclose users’ personal information for the purposes of providing the Services.

(E) Accessing, Correcting and Updating your Personal Information

You can access, correct or delete your personal information at any time through the Service, when you have an account with CLEO.  If you have any questions about use of the service, or the status of your personal information within the Service, please contact CLEO’s privacy officer at info@cleo.on.ca (with a request for the privacy officer) or our technical support department at support@cleo.on.ca or in writing to 180 Dundas Street, West, Suite 506, Toronto, Ontario M5G 1Z8. We will respond to your requests within a reasonable time.

(F) Security

CLEO provides the Service in a technical environment that takes measures to protect the security of your personal and account information. CLEO has taken reasonable efforts to ensure your security and privacy but for security reasons we cannot share these with you.

You should be aware that the Internet is not a fully secure medium and neither the privacy of your communications nor the privacy of other site activities can be guaranteed. The nature of Internet communications means that your communications may be susceptible to data corruption, unauthorized access, interception, and delays.  

In the event of a material privacy breach impacting you, we will notify you promptly in accordance with our obligations under applicable law.

(G) Data Retention

We will keep your personal information on the Service for as long as your account is active or as long as is required by applicable law or required for the purpose it was collected.

You can delete the personal information in your account at any time. If you close your account, your personal information will be deleted from the Service. If you do not use the Service for a period of one year, your personal information will be deleted. If we discover that your account is breached, we may delete your personal information.

Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in this Privacy Policy, CLEO may retain personal information as needed to satisfy its professional obligations, provided that any retained information will remain subject to this Privacy Policy.

(H) Complaints policy

CLEO aims to provide high quality legal information and service. We also believe that it is in the interests of all parties to have complaints resolved as fairly and as quickly as possible. If you have a complaint about CLEO's work, we will be pleased to address your complaint.

Please direct your complaints to the attention of the executive director by email to info@cleo.on.ca or in writing to 180 Dundas Street, West, Suite 506, Toronto, Ontario M5G 1Z8.

You can read CLEO’s Complaints Policy here.