Want to use the Vineyard Canada website? Cool. Here's what you need to know:

1. You promise not to act like a jerk.

You agree, through your use of this website, that you will not post any material which is false, defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, adult material, or otherwise in violation of any Canadian or international law. You also agree not to post any copyrighted material except as permitted under Canadian law. Spam, flooding, advertisements, chain letters, pyramid schemes, and solicitations are also forbidden on this website.

You remain solely responsible for the content of your posted messages and any other information you place on this site.

Some portions of this website are accessible to the public, while others are only accessible to certain people. You agree, through your use of this website, that you will not to copy, save, reproduce, or redistribute any material posted in the private portions of this website, whether that material be the content of messages, file attachments, or in any other form, without the express written permission of its author(s).

2. If you act like a jerk, we can delete your posts, kick you off our website, etc.

The staff and the owner of this website reserve the right to remove objectionable content if they determine that removal is necessary. This policy applies to all user generated content on this website, including posted messages, member profile information, and any other sort of information.

Moreover, we reserve the right to restrict your use of this website, temporarily or permanently, at our sole discretion.

The owners of this website also reserve the right to reveal your identity (or any other related information collected on this service) in the event of a formal complaint or legal action arising from any situation caused by your use of this website.

3. If anyone acts like a jerk on our website, the blame lies with the person acting like a jerk, not with us.

All posted messages on this website express the views of the author, and not necessarily the views of this website, its staff, its subsidiaries, or this website's owner. Note that it is impossible for the staff or the owners of this website to confirm the validity of posts created by users of this website. We do not warrant the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information presented.

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless the owners of this website, any related websites to this website, its staff, and its subsidiaries.

Anyone who feels that a posted message is objectionable is encouraged to notify an administrator or moderator of this website immediately. We will deal with the material as soon as reasonably possible. This is a manual process, however, so please realize that we may not be able to remove or edit particular messages immediately.

Vineyard Canada is committed to ensuring the protection of personal information of everyone to whom or with whom we minister. It is fundamental to the way we do things at Vineyard Canada in all our relationships, either on or off the Internet: we are committed to keeping personal information accurate, confidential, secure and private.

Vineyard Canada's privacy policy is simple:

• we collect personal information about you only when you knowingly and willingly provide it, and
• we will not share or otherwise use your personal data for any purpose beyond the use it was provided to fulfill.

Stated more fully, Vineyard Canada handles all personal information entrusted to us in conformance with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act and according to the principles set out in the Model Code for the Protection of Personal Information (CAN/CSA-Q830-96). The code consists of ten interrelated principles that are summarized below:

• Accountability
  An organization is responsible for personal information under its control and shall designate an individual or individuals who are accountable for the organization's compliance with the following principles.
• Identifying Purposes
  The purposes for which personal information is collected shall be identified by the organization at or before the time the information is collected.
• Consent
  The knowledge and consent of the individual are required for the collection, use, or disclosure of personal information, except when inappropriate.
• Limiting Collection
  The collection of personal information shall be limited to that which is necessary for the purposes identified by the organization. Information shall be collected by fair and lawful means.
• Limiting Use, Disclosure, and Retention
  Personal information shall not be used or disclosed for purposes other than those for which it was collected, except with the consent of the individual or as required by law. Personal information shall be retained only as long as necessary for the fulfilment of those purposes.
• Accuracy
  Personal information shall be as accurate, complete, and up-to-date as is necessary for the purposes for which it is to be used.
• Safeguards
  Personal information shall be protected by security safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of the information.
• Openness
  An organization shall make readily available to individuals specific information about its policies and practices relating to the management of personal information.
• Individual Access
  Upon request, an individual shall be informed of the existence, use, and disclosure of his or her personal information and shall be given access to that information. An individual shall be able to challenge the accuracy and completeness of the information and have it amended as appropriate.
• Challenging Compliance
  An individual shall be able to address a challenge concerning compliance with the above principles to the designated individual or individuals accountable for the organization's compliance.

A full explanation of these principles is available here.

Where and Why We Collect Personal Information Online

Vineyard Canada collects personal information through several means.

• User registrations and interactions on this website
  
  We collect your name, e-mail address, a password, and optional information in order to create and maintain your user account on this website. Expand...

  When you register for a user account on our website, we collect some basic information about you. Minimally, this will include a name, an e-mail address, and a password. This information is used to create and maintain an account for you on this website, so that you can log in and make use of its services in a secure manner. Your e-mail address may also be used to send you notification messages about new activity or content on our website that you have previously expressed interest in, if your account settings are configured to do so.
  
  You may also, at your discretion, supply further optional details about yourself in your user profile. This optional information is collected for several reasons. First, it help us and other users of this website to understand more about you and your context so that we can provide you with richer ministry, more relevant resources, better answers to questions, etc., than we could without that knowledge. Second, it makes it easier to connect you (at your discretion) with other people involved in the Vineyard who live in your area or who share your interests, and to communicate with you about events, opportunities, and resources that may be relevant to you. Third, if you have certain roles within a local Vineyard church or within Vineyard Canada at the regional or national level, this additional information enables us to give you access to specific services and abilities on our website.
  
  We treat your e-mail address as strictly confidential. No one apart from you and our administrative staff can view the e-mail address recorded in your profile. Other profile information that you supply, including your name and optional details, may be visible to other registered users of this website and/or the public.
  
  If you delete your account on our website, your profile information will be deleted from our website's database. Any posts you elected to make, however, will still display your name as the author. This is to ensure accountability for all content on our website. If you wish to delete your posts, you may do so before deleting your account.
  
  Some parts of our website may allow you to post content without registering a user account. In these situations, you must still provide a name and an e-mail address. Your name will be used to identify the author of the post. Your e-mail address will be stored alongside your post in case the need arises to contact you directly. If you decide later to register for a user account, your e-mail address may also be used to find your previous guest posts and associate them with your new account.
  
• Donations and purchases
  
  We collect your name, e-mail address, and shipping address (if applicable) in order to provide goods and services and for accounting and tax records. Expand...

  When you make an online purchase or give an online donation to Vineyard Canada, the transaction is processed via our third-party payment gateway service provider, which collects personal information in order to validate billing and complete the transaction. Of this information, your name, e-mail address, and shipping address (if applicable) are made available to Vineyard Canada for each transaction.
  
  In the case of purchases of goods and services, Vineyard Canada uses this information to verify your identity and grant you access to the purchased goods and services. In the cases of both purchases and donations, Vineyard Canada also uses this information to maintain records and prepare documents as required by law for financial accounting and taxation purposes.
  
• E-mail messages sent to us
  
  We collect your name and e-mail address in order to respond to you. Expand...

  When you send us an e-mail you provide us with your name and e-mail address, along with any other information you provide in the body of your e-mail. We may share this information with people outside of Vineyard Canada only when they are required to receive it in order to respond effectively to your query. We retain all e-mail correspondence indefinitely so that we can refer back to it as required for the purposes of ministry, providing goods and services, and/or conducting the internal operations of Vineyard Canada.
  
• Subscriptions to mailing lists operated via external services (e.g. MailChimp)
  
  We collect your name, e-mail address, and optional information in order to send e-mail messages to you and to maintain records and statistics. Expand...

  When you subscribe to one of Vineyard Canada's mailing lists, we collect personal information including your name and e-mail address, and possibly other pieces of information that are relevant to the subject matter and purposes of the mailing list in question. This information is used to provide you with e-mail messages sent from the mailing list, and to maintain records and statistics that help us to better serve the people and churches we care for.
  

We may cross-reference personal information collected via these various means, in order to ensure that our records are accurate.

We will never sell your name, e-mail address, or any other profile information to third party businesses, advertisers, etc.

You have the ability to export a complete copy of your profile information from this website, including any posts you have made and any personal messages you have sent or received though our website.


IP addresses and Browser Cookies

Our website's software logs the IP addresses of computers and devices that contact it. This information is used to facilitate moderation and to make it easier to track people up to no good. The record of your IP address is visible to no one except you and our administrative staff.

We do not track your activity on the Internet anywhere outside of our own website. When you log into your account on our website, our website's software places a "cookie" (a text file containing bits of information) in your browser's cache. This cookie is only used to keep you logged in while you are using our website, and it is removed from your browser's cache when you log out. Our website's software does not store or collect any other form of information on your computer.