Privacy and Refund Policy

Personal information means information about an identifiable individual. This includes (but is not limited to) an individual’s name, home address, phone number, email address, health information, contact information for emergency contacts, etc.

We collect only the personal information that we need for the purposes of providing programs and services to our members, donors, and program participants, including personal information needed to:

• Deliver requested programs and services.
• Enroll a participant in a program.
• Send out Writers’ Guild of Alberta membership, donor, and program participant correspondence, including newsletters, receipts, marketing or promotional materials, and information about applicable programs and services.

We normally collect personal information directly from members, donors, and program participants. Other individuals may provide personal information about another individual if they are purchasing a membership or program registration or making a donation on an individual’s behalf.

The Writers’ Guild of Alberta does not disclose personal information to any third parties with the following exceptions:

• For payment transactions, information necessary to process the payment is disclosed to relevant financial and credit institutions.
• Contact information is disclosed to third-party mailing services to facilitate large email and postal mailings of WGA materials.
• Technical support workers may have access to our database when helping to solve a technical problem.

The Writers’ Guild of Alberta does not sell, barter, or rent personal information of members, donors, program participants, or any other individuals who provide personal information. No personal information is publicly viewable without the individual’s consent, as in the Member Directory and donor acknowledgement lists.

All contact information for members, donors, and program participants is stored in an intranet database on a web server accessed through a secure HTTPS connection, accessed and maintained by Writers’ Guild of Alberta staff and, when necessary, authorized technical support. The database does not store credit card numbers.

Credit card information provided through our online payment system is transmitted through our credit card processor via a secure encrypted connection. Writers’ Guild of Alberta staff and technical support do not have access to full credit card numbers processed online. Credit card information may be collected offline with paper forms or by phone by the Writers’ Guild of Alberta’s head office. Credit card numbers collected offline are blacked out after processing and hard copies of forms used to collect credit card payments are shredded within two years after the conclusion of the respective program or service.

Contact information for members, donors, and program participants is retained in our electronic database for historical and statistical purposes. Information not required for historical and statistical purposes, such as Alberta Health Care numbers, Social Insurance Numbers, and emergency contact information is destroyed within two years after the conclusion of the respective program or service.

The Writers’ Guild of Alberta is subject to the Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation for sending commercial electronic messages, and is subject to the exemption for registered charities in which an email is sent for the primary purposes of raising funds for the charity. In compliance with the Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation, the WGA will not contact former members, donors, or past program participants two years after their last participation in the WGA, with the exception of contact for charitable fundraising purposes. A former member, donor, or past program participant who does not wish to be contacted for charitable fundraising purposes will be removed from all mailing lists immediately upon request.

If you think that any personal information we hold about you is incorrect, please contact us and we will ensure that your contact information is corrected and/or updated.