Copyright and privacy

Terms of use

The Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario gives you permission to display, print, reproduce, and otherwise use excerpts of the materials/images in this website without charge, subject to the following:

  • The use must be reasonable, fair and non-commercial, and must credit the Assembly.
  • The use is subject to Canadian intellectual property laws and/or the Assembly’s parliamentary privileges.
  • The permission is not acknowledgement that the use is being made under the authority of the Assembly.
  • You are responsible for determining whether a person other than the Assembly has intellectual property rights in the materials/images.
  • You must not use the Assembly’s coat of arms and other Assembly trademarks without the permission of the Speaker.

Privacy statement

The Legislative Assembly of Ontario is committed to respecting your privacy and protecting your personal information. This privacy statement explains our information management practices on our websites.

You can also find our privacy statement for job applicants in our Careers section.

Our commitment

We are committed to protecting your privacy whether you are browsing for information or conducting business with us through electronic channels.

When you visit our websites, we will not collect your personal information unless you choose to use and receive online services that require it. For transactions with us involving credit cards (our gift shop), our systems use up-to-date security protocols to ensure the integrity and confidentiality of information and systems. When we collect information about you, we will inform you of that collection and the purpose for the collection.

You have a choice

If you choose not to use the Internet to provide personal information to us, you can contact us by telephone, fax, mail, or in person. (Not all options may be available in every situation.)

Privacy statement details

Our privacy statement covers the following topics:

What kind of information is collected when you visit our websites?

When you browse or download information from our websites, our servers automatically collect limited amounts of standard information for traffic monitoring and statistical purposes. The information is analyzed for operational trends, performance, and for ways to improve our sites. We cannot identify you from this information.

We collect the following standard types of information:

  • Internet Protocol (IP) addresses of the computers being used to access our sites
  • operating systems and the types and versions of browsers used to access our sites
  • Internet Service Providers used by visitors to our sites
  • dates and times users access our sites
  • pages visited
  • keywords users enter into our search engine
  • names and sizes of files requested

Our websites collect the above noted information to provide citizens with access to information and services available on our websites. The Legislative Assembly’s computer systems use hardware and software to anonymously monitor unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, disrupt service, or otherwise cause damage. As a general practice, we make no attempt to link this information with the identity of individuals visiting our sites. If an attempt to damage our site has been detected, we can take further actions.

Web analytics

In order to serve you better, we use web analytics services including Google Analytics to analyze the use of our websites. These tools use cookies (see additional information below) to collect and generate information about your visits to our sites (including your IP address) that is transmitted to their servers in an anonymous form for processing. We study patterns of website activity so we can improve the experience of visitors to our sites. The use of these tools does not allow us or our analytics service providers to identify individuals.

You can opt-out of analytics activity by setting your browser to notify you when a cookie is sent and block analytics cookies if desired. Please consult your browser's Help Menu for instructions. Visiting our website with analytics cookies disabled will have no significant impact on your browsing experience.

Google currently offers a free Google Analytics opt-out tool for Internet Explorer (versions 7 and 8), Google Chrome (4.x and higher), and Mozilla Firefox (3.5 and higher).

What happens when you send us personal information online?

You may choose to provide us with personal information such as your name, address, phone number, e-mail address, and credit card number, if you wish to:

  • submit an e-mail, comment, question or request or subscribe for information online
  • request a service, product, or fill out a registration or form online
  • provide feedback, participate in consultations or surveys online
  • conduct e-commerce transactions (such as with our gift shop)

When you visit our websites, any personal information you provide will be used to respond to your message and/or provide you with the requested service or product. At the time the information is collected, you will be informed of the specific purpose for which it is being collected, and how long we will retain the information.

How do we use cookies?

Some of our websites use cookies. A cookie is a small text file sent from a Web server and placed on your computer's hard drive. A cookie is generally used to enhance your browsing experience. You can choose to set your browser to detect and reject cookies, to accept cookies from all sites, or to prompt you whenever a site wants to send you a cookie. Check your browser's "Help" files to learn how to do this. If you choose to refuse cookies, you may not be able to access some of the interactive features on our websites.

Cookies used by the Legislative Assembly do not give us access to anything on your hard drive and cannot do anything to your computer. Cookies are encrypted for security purposes to make any information in the cookie unreadable to anyone except the Assembly. We use two types of cookies: session cookies (temporary) or persistent cookies (longer-term continuing use).

  • session cookies may be used to support on-line feedback/discussion, forms and registration and 'e-commerce/shopping cart' transactions - they are used only during your online session and expire when you close your browser. Without session cookies, moving around our Web sites could be much slower
  • persistent cookies are different from session cookies because they are stored on your computer's hard drive for some length of time - they are usually used if you want us to remember information about your Web preferences (e.g. large font) and passwords for automatic log-in purposes

Further information on 'cookies' is at the website of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario: If you wanted to know...What to do about Cookies.

Security

Our security practices are continually evolving to ensure that the integrity and confidentiality of information and systems are maintained. The Assembly uses up-to-date security safeguards to protect our networks and websites from misuse, alteration, copying, disclosure, destruction, monitoring or unauthorized sharing of information and damage. Our safeguards include the use of security software and encryption protocols and involve physical, technical and procedural controls to protect information behind our firewall.

What steps can I take to protect my online activities?

You are encouraged to learn about protecting your computers to ensure that their online activities remain private. One place to start for tips on home network security is a Question and Answer sheet produced by the Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute – CERT Coordination Center.

Who can I contact for further information?

Questions or comments regarding these practices or the administration of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA) by contacting or writing to:

Information Services
Whitney Block
Room 3330
99 Wellesley St. W
Toronto, ON M7A 1A2

privacy@ola.org