Terms of use

Last modified: April 2019

Electronic information platforms (websites and portals)

Introduction

The Canadian Partnership Against Cancer (“the Partnership”) makes every effort to ensure the quality of the information provided on its interactive electronic information platforms, such as its corporate website at www.partnershipagainstcancer.ca (referred to as the “Website”), including information provided by other organizations and individuals with an interest in or mandate related to cancer control. In these terms of use, references to the Partnership include its directors, officers, employees, agents, and other representatives.

The Partnership endeavors to provide, through the Website, information from diverse sources, some of which have a pan-Canadian, some a provincial, and others a territorial focus. The Website has a diverse group of users and these terms of use apply to all of them, except to the extent that they indicate that they are only applicable to a group of users and/or a specific use of the Website. For example, there are parts of these terms of use that only apply to “Members”. Members are users of the Website registered to participate in a Partnership collaborative community (each a “Community” and collectively, “Communities”). Other parts of these terms of use only apply to the use of the Website, including a Community, by “Professional Users”. Professional Users are health professionals and other providers of health or related services. Users, Members and Professional Users are collectively referred to in these terms of use as “You”, “Yours” and “Yourself”.

Limited license

You are only granted limited rights to use the Website and the Partnership reserves all other rights in the Website not granted to You in writing in these terms of use. By accessing and using the Website (including registering to become a Member and participating in a Community), including the content on the Website, You are confirming Your agreement to comply with all applicable laws, these terms of use as amended from time to time, and any other terms, directions, and/or rules posted by the Partnership in relation to a specific electronic information platform or on-line service, each of which will be considered to have been incorporated into and to be part of these terms of use. If You do not agree to any of these terms of use, You are not permitted to use and must exit the Website without accessing any other pages. As long as You comply with these terms of use, the Partnership grants You a personal, limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to use the Website.

Modification of terms of use

The Partnership may, in its sole discretion and without notice, modify these terms of use at any time. The date on which these terms of use were last modified appears at the top for Your reference. Your continued use of the Website after modification of these terms of use will constitute Your agreement to the modification.

Disclaimer

You use the Website at Your sole risk. The Website is provided “as is” and “as available”. The Partnership will not be responsible or liable for any consequences of Your reliance on information, documentation, materials, or software made available from or through the Website (collectively referred to as “Content”), or if the Website is unavailable at any time for any period of time. The Website is not guaranteed to be error-free, uninterrupted or free of viruses, worms, and other malicious software. The Partnership assumes no responsibility and provides no warranties, representations, guarantees, covenants or conditions, express, implied or statutory, including without limitation, with respect to quality, accuracy, reliability, currency, completeness, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement or continued availability. Specifically, the Partnership does not assume any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any Content, or in connection with any products (including drugs), therapies, treatments, processes, or services to which You are introduced or about which You obtain information on, through or by means of websites linked to the Website (collectively referred to as “Products”). You must verify Content and the suitability and effectiveness of any Products for Yourself and consult with Your health care provider(s) before You rely on Content or a Product. Content may be changed at any time and without notice. Although the Partnership may make available archived Content, it has no obligation to do so. It is Your responsibility to take the precautions You deem necessary to protect Yourself against damage from malicious, disruptive or otherwise harmful software or data, including using anti-virus software.

No endorsement

The Partnership does not endorse or recommend any Content or Product. The views and opinions expressed on or through the Website do not necessarily state or reflect those of the Partnership, and they may not be used for advertising or product endorsement purposes.

External links

The Website may contain links to other third party websites. The Partnership provides such links for Your convenience only. The Partnership does not control and is not responsible for the availability, content, terms of use or policies applicable to such external sites, nor does the Partnership endorse or guarantee any content, products or services that are referred to or made available through third party websites. You cannot assume that external websites are operated in accordance with the same policies (including privacy related policies) as the Website. You are solely responsible for reviewing the terms and conditions of linked websites and ensuring that they are agreeable to You before using the website and for otherwise taking appropriate measures to protect Yourself against harm, including but not limited to harm resulting from computer viruses.

Content for informational purposes only

Content and Products on the Website are provided for informational and educational purposes only and are not a substitute for health professional advice and assessment. The Partnership’s intent in providing the Website is to facilitate access to information about cancer and cancer control, for purposes that include permitting You to gain a better understanding of information provided to You by Your health-care provider. You will need to consult with Your physician or other health-care provider in connection with any questions You have about a specific condition, symptom or treatment. Even though all or part of the Website may be certified under the Health on the Net Code, or any other similar program, the Partnership will not be required to maintain such certification and will not assume any liability as a result of having or not having such certification. If there is any inconsistency between these terms of use and any certification code or program, these terms of use take precedence.

Website use

It is prohibited to misuse the Website, including by using the Website in a manner that interferes with another person’s use or enjoyment of the Website or for any purpose other than obtaining and sharing information related to cancer and cancer control. It is prohibited to post or otherwise make available through the Website, Content which is:

  • illegal (pornographic, a violation of privacy, fraudulent or intended to defraud)
  • unethical (exclusionary, misleading, discriminatory, racist, harassing)
  • inappropriate (vulgar, derogatory, violent, aggressive, bullying, profane)
  • promotional, junk mail, spam, chain letters or bulk email.
  • designed to compromise the security of the Website or the integrity of Content such as hacking, corrupting or destroying Content, or the intentional introduction of viruses

Accessing the Website from locations where the Content is illegal is prohibited and anyone accessing the Website from outside of Canada is doing so at his or her own initiative and is responsible for compliance with local laws.

Use of Partnership collaborative communities

Partnership collaborative communities (each, a “Community” and collectively “Communities”) are password-protected spaces that enable the sharing of ideas and collaboration by allowing Members of a Community (including Members who are Professional Users) to leverage expertise and reduce duplication of effort, and thereby, to benefit from innovation, reduce variability of access to information and services, and increase the capacity for providing information and services.

Members must conduct themselves in a considerate manner, treating other members of their collaborative community with respect and courtesy and respecting their privacy, as Members contribute information purposefully with the expectation that it will be used solely within their Community. Members must keep their Community password confidential and are responsible for all actions taken under their password, regardless of whether someone else is using the password. Communities are not designed for the posting or other sharing or collection of personal health information or other sensitive information. As such, Members are strongly discouraged from uploading or posting such information about themselves or others (such as members of the public, friends or family). It is the responsibility of Members who create a profile to ensure that the information in their profile is appropriate and complies with these terms of use. With limited exceptions, once uploaded to a Community, posts and other documents constitute the Partnership business records. As a result, posts and other uploads are not automatically deleted if the associated Member account is deleted from a Community. Content, including any personal or personal health information, which has been uploaded or posted by a Member may consequently remain available through a Community after a Member has deleted his or her profile. The Partnership does not monitor and proactively remove personal health information or sensitive information that has been posted. For more information about the collection, use and disclosure of Member personal information, please see the section on “Investigation” below or contact us as indicated below.

Notwithstanding the prohibition on posting or otherwise making available promotional Content, notice of events, conferences, courses or publications is acceptable if relevant to the purposes of a Community.

Use of communities by health professionals

As noted above, Communities are not designed for the posting or sharing of personal health information or other sensitive information (collectively referred to in this section as “PHI”). To the extent that Professional Users establish a Community or otherwise use the Website to store, review and/or discuss third party records that include PHI, they do so at their own risk.

Without limiting the generality of the disclaimer and limitation of liability provisions in these terms of use:

  1. The Partnership does not guarantee that the Website, including the functionality related to Communities, will provide any particular level of security, including any level of security required under privacy or other legislation applicable to a Professional User (“Applicable Law”). Each Professional User agrees that he or she is solely responsible for determining whether using a Community to collect, use, disclose or otherwise share and/or host any particular information, including PHI, is consistent with his or her professional obligations and Applicable Law.
  2. The Partnership does not guarantee that information hosted on the Website, including in a Community, will be maintained for any period. It is the responsibility of each Professional User to determine whether using the Website, including a Community to collect, use, disclose or otherwise share and/or host any particular information, including PHI, is consistent with his or her professional record-keeping obligations. For greater certainty, it is the responsibility of each Professional User to extract from the Website, including a Community, information that he or she wants or is required to retain.
  3. Each Professional User accepts all responsibility and liability arising out of any claims and/or proceedings connected with his or her use of the Website, including a Community, to collect, use, disclose or otherwise share and/or host information, including without limitation PHI.
  4. The Partnership accepts no responsibility or liability for any failure of a Professional User to comply with any legal, regulatory or professional requirement, including a requirement relating to PHI, that is connected with the Professional User’s use of the Website, including a Community.

Privacy

You agree to the collection, use, disclosure and retention of Your personal information in accordance with the Partnership’s Website Privacy Policy, as amended from time to time. You also agree that any information that is not Personal Information that You choose to provide through the Website, including questions, comments, suggestions, ideas, concepts, know-how or techniques (collectively referred to as “Comments”) will be understood to be non-confidential. The Partnership will be free to reproduce, use, disclose and distribute, in its sole discretion and without limitation, Your Comments without any obligation to You of any kind. For greater clarity, the Partnership will be free to use any Comments You provide through the Website for any purpose whatsoever and You represent and warrant to the Partnership that any such Comments do not infringe the intellectual property rights of any third party.

Intellectual property  

The Partnership owns all intellectual property rights in and to the Website, including images, text, code, logos and designs, and documents except Content identified as belonging to a third party. You are required to comply with the terms and conditions asserted by a third party owner of Content. You may copy any portion of the Website owned by the Partnership for your personal, non-commercial use only provided that You retain all copyright and other proprietary notices on each copy that You make.

Investigation

The Partnership may but is not required to periodically review user (including Member and Professional Member) provided Content for the sole purpose of verifying compliance with these terms of use. The Partnership may but is not required to remove any such Content, in whole or in part, that is alleged to be unacceptable, undesirable, inappropriate, or in violation of these terms of use. The Partnership will investigate any suspected violation of these terms of use and may contact, disclose information (including personal information) to, and otherwise co-operate with law enforcement agencies to investigate and address any violations of these terms of use, and may take action against the perpetrators of such violations which include suspending or terminating access to the Website and/or other Partnership resources, reporting to a professional association or regulator, civil litigation and requests for prosecution. You may contact the Partnership to report any breach of these terms of use.

Limitation of liability

The Partnership will not be liable to You in contract, tort (including negligence or gross negligence) or otherwise, for any loss or damage whatsoever, including without limitation loss of information, programs or data, or for direct, indirect, special, incidental, consequential, punitive or exemplary damages, however caused or arising in connection with the Website and use of the Website, even if the Partnership has been notified of the possibility of such damage or loss or if such damage or loss was foreseeable. Without limiting the generality of the preceding, the Partnership will not be liable to You in connection with any Content, Products or the actions of other users, including Members or Professional Members.

Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold the Partnership harmless from any and all losses, damages, liability and costs (including reasonable legal fees) resulting directly or indirectly from any claim or demand against the Partnership arising out of or connected with Your use of the Website, Your violation of these terms of use, or Your violation of any rights of another person or organization in connection with the Website.

Entire agreement

These terms of use constitute the entire agreement between You and the Partnership regarding the Website and use of the Website and supersede all other communications, representations or agreements, whether oral or written, between You and the Partnership in regard to these matters.

Waiver, severability of terms

The failure of the Partnership to exercise or enforce any right or provision of these terms of use will not constitute a waiver of such right or provision. If any provision of these terms of use is found by a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid or unenforceable, You agree that You and the Partnership will give effect to the intentions reflected in the provision and that the other provisions of these terms of use will remain in full force and effect.

Governing law

These terms of use will be interpreted and construed in accordance with the laws of Canada and any applicable laws of a Province of Canada (other than any conflict of laws rules that would result in the choice of laws of another jurisdiction). You agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Ontario in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in connection with any matter arising out of or relating to the Website or use of the Website.

Contacting us

If You have any questions about these terms of use or the Website, including Communities, please contact us at: info@partnershipagainstcancer.ca.