Privacy Policy

Last Updated: March 2026

The Lifesaving Society, British Columbia & Yukon Branch (the “Society”, “our”, “us” or “we”) values your privacy and cares about the treatment of your personal information. We are committed to protecting your privacy as set out in this Privacy Policy (the “Policy”) and applicable privacy laws.

I. Scope of this Policy
This Policy describes the personal information we may collect, use, disclose, and otherwise process about individuals, as well as our personal information handling practices and the rights individuals have regarding their personal information. This Policy applies to visitors to our website at https://www.lifesaving.bc.ca (the “Site”), as well as to certain individuals who interact or engage with us through our courses, training and certification programs. Collectively, our certification programs and courses are referred to in this Policy as the “Services”.

This Policy does not apply in the following circumstances:
– Marketing Communications. You may opt-out of marketing communications at any time. If you opt-out of marketing communications, we may still send you transactional communications.

– Certain of the Society’s courses, training and certification programs are offered and administered by our affiliate members, who may collect, use and disclose your personal information for the purposes of its administration of that course or program. In that case, the affiliate member’s privacy policies and practices will apply. To the extent that you or our affiliate member(s) share your personal information with us so that we may issue and maintain certification records, our processing of your personal information is governed by this Policy.

– Our Site may contain links to third-party websites or applications. When you click on one of those links you are leaving our Site and your interaction with these third-party services will be subject to their respective privacy policies and practices, not this Policy. We cannot take any responsibility or liability for, or control over, those third-party services or their processing of your personal information.

By using our Site or Services, or otherwise providing your personal information to us, you understand and acknowledge that our processing of personal information is subject to this Policy, and you authorize the Society to process your personal information (to the extent local privacy laws require and/or allow) for the purposes set out in this Policy or otherwise disclosed to you.

II. What Personal Information Do We Collect?
For the purposes of this Policy, “personal information” is information about an identifiable individual that directly or indirectly allows that person to be identified, but does not include information normally used to contact an individual at their place of business (i.e., business contact information) or any other personal
information that is exempt under applicable privacy laws.

The personal information we collect about you will vary depending on your use of our Site or Services and our interactions with you. In general, we may collect the following personal information directly from you:

– Information that is reasonably required to administer and deliver our training programs, courses and certifications, and to otherwise conduct business with the Society. Depending on the nature of your relationship with us, and the Services that you are engaged in, this may include, but is not limited to: name, contact information (e.g., email address, phone number(s), address(es)), date of birth, preferred means of communication, gender, and information about accessibility needs or medical conditions as necessary to ensure your safe participation in one of our programs or courses.

– Transactions and Billing Information. We also collect personal information about you in connection with a purchase or payment you submit to us. This may include collection of your name, address, payment method, and other transaction details. We work with third party payment processors and do not collect, receive, process, or store credit card or debit card numbers. Depending upon the services, we may receive from those vendors your name, email, payment type,
product(s) or service(s) purchased, and other transaction details, and we may maintain records of your purchase history.

– Communications and Interactions. When you email, call, chat, or otherwise communicate or interact with us, including if you sign up for our mailing lists, interact with our social media pages, post a review or testimonial, submit content in any online discussion groups, or otherwise enter information into public-facing comment fields, blogs, or community forums affiliated with the Society, we may collect, process, and maintain records of your contact details, communications and interactions with us and others, including your posts or submissions, information about the nature of your inquiry and our responses and any other information that you choose to provide.

– Preferences and Other Requests. We may also collect information about your preferences, including communication preferences, preferences related to your use of our Site or Services, and any other preferences or requests you provide when interacting with us.

We may also collect and process personal information about how you use our Site, and your interactions with us and others, including information we collect automatically (e.g., using cookies), as well as information we derive about you and your use of the Site. Such information includes:

– Activity and usage information. When you visit our Site, we may collect information about how you interact with us. Such information may include domain name, pages you accessed and when, date and time of your visit, the links clicked, searches, features used, items viewed, and time spent within (i) the Society’s site including content viewed or downloaded, features used, links clicked, etc. and (ii) social media sites you access via links or plugins. We may also use pixels in HTML emails to understand if you read or open the emails we send to you.

– Device and browser information. Like most websites and other Internet services, we may use cookies, log files, pixel tags and other technologies to automatically collect certain technical and device information, including personal information, about you when you interact with our Site, including but not limited to, device ID, internet browser, language, computer operating system used, IP address, general location, domain name of your internet service provider, access times, referring and exiting URLs, and other and similar device and usage information.

Where permitted by applicable law, we may also collect personal information about you from third party sources such as our affiliate members, other Lifesaving Society branches, social media platforms or other third parties.

– We receive information from our affiliate members, as necessary, to perform our Services including issuing certifications for Society programs delivered by affiliate members. This may include, but is not limited to, name, contact information (e.g., email address, phone number(s), address(es)), preferred means of communication, gender, training and certification records, and information about accessibility needs or medical conditions as necessary to ensure your safe participation in a program or course.

– If you post information about us or engage with us on third-party social media platforms, we may collect personal information about you from that third-party platform or account. These third-party platforms and services control the information they collect, share and otherwise process about you. For information about how they may use and disclose your personal information, including any information you make public, please consult their respective privacy policies.

III. Purposes for Collection, Use, and Disclosure of your Personal Information
The Society may collect, use and disclose your personal information for the following non-limited purposes:
– to issue and manage certifications and other awards issued by us, and to administer our programs and courses;
– to administer the Society’s provision of, and your payment for, products or services that you request from the Society;
– to communicate with you about your use of our Services, provide troubleshooting and technical support, respond to your inquiries and requests, and customer support purposes;
– to authenticate your identity;
– to operate, customize and improve the quality of the Services, including our Site, social media sites, advertisements, products and similar on and offline services;
– to tailor content and ads we may send or display to you, including to offer location customization and to otherwise personalize your experiences and offerings;
– to provide you with newsletters promotions, and other similar (electronic) commercial messages as well as information you may be interested in or request from the Society;
– to improve our services, for our internal purposes, and for other research and analytical purposes;
– to provide information to you regarding the Society’s products, services or third-party products and services, unless you opt-out of receiving that information;
– to assess and implement (including to negotiate) mergers, acquisitions, reorganizations, bankruptcies, and other business transactions such as financings, and to operate our business and administer our business, accounting, auditing, compliance, recordkeeping, and legal functions;
– to conduct financial, tax and accounting audits, audits, and assessments of our operations, including our privacy, security, and financial controls, as well as for risk and compliance purposes.

We may also use personal information to maintain appropriate business records and enforce our policies and procedures;
– to prevent and protect the Society, yourself and others from fraud and error, and to safeguard the Society’s interests;
– to collect debts owed to the Society;
– to obtain legal, accounting or other professional advisory advice; and
– otherwise with your consent or as required or authorized by applicable law.

IV. How We Share your Personal Information
In order to fulfill the above purposes, the Society may disclose or transfer your personal information to third parties as required or permitted by law or as consented to from time to time by you. The categories of organizations to which the Society may disclose or transfer your personal information include, but are not limited to:
– our affiliate members who offer and administer the Society’s courses, training and programs, as reasonably required in order to provide our Services;
– other Lifesaving Society branches, including the Royal Lifesaving Society Canada, as reasonably required in order to enable us to collect and manage information about the individuals that access our Services, including to maintain a database that allows the Society and you to have access to information about your completed and pending courses, training programs, and certifications;
– contractors, service providers and other third parties that we use to support our Site and Services such as IT support and website hosting, marketing and marketing research providers, customer support, database management, data storage and data analytics providers;
– professionals advising or working on behalf of the Society such as lawyers, auditors, and consultants; and
– government agencies or other lawful authorities, in accordance with applicable law. For example, we may disclose information in response to subpoenas, court orders, and other lawful requests by government entities and law enforcement.

We may also disclose your personal information in the following circumstances:
– If the Society is acquired by, merged with, or invested in by another organization, or if any of our assets are or may be transferred to another organization, whether as part of a bankruptcy or insolvency proceeding or otherwise, we may disclose or transfer the personal information we have collected from you with or to the other company in accordance with applicable laws; and
– Where we believe doing so is necessary to protect the Site, our rights and property, or the rights, property, and safety of others. For example, we may disclose personal information to (i) prevent, detect, investigate, and respond to fraud, unauthorized activities and access, illegal activities, and misuse of the Site, or (ii) situations involving potential threats to the health, safety, or legal rights of any person or third party. We may also disclose personal information related to litigation and other legal claims or proceedings in which we are involved, as well as for our internal accounting, auditing, compliance, recordkeeping, and legal functions.

We may disclose personal information in other ways not described above if you direct us to do so or otherwise consented to by you, or as otherwise authorized or required by law.

V. Cookies, Tracking and Analytics
We or our service providers that help us operate our Site may also automatically collect browsing, activity, and similar device and usage information relating to your access to and use of our Site through cookies, pixels, third-party analytics and other such technologies.

– “Cookies” are small pieces of information that are stored by your browser on your computer or mobile device. We use cookies to enhance your experience on our Site. Cookies themselves do not identify the individual user, just the computer or device used. Users may have the opportunity to set their computers or devices to accept all cookies, to notify them when a cookie is issued, or not to receive cookies at any time. If you set your browser not to accept cookies, you may not be able to take advantage of all features of our Site.

– “Pixels” (sometimes referred to as tags, pixel tags or clear GIFs) and other technologies are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies. In contrast to cookies, which are stored on your computer’s hard drive, pixels are embedded invisibly on web pages. We may use pixels (also referred to as web beacons, web bugs or pixel tags) on our Site to, among other things, track the activities of Site users, help us manage content, and compile usage statistics.

– Third-Party Analytics: We may work with analytics service providers (such as Google Analytics) who use cookies, pixels, and other tracking technologies to collect usage data about our Site and provide us with reports and metrics that help us evaluate usage and enhance performance and user experiences. To learn more about Google’s privacy practices, please review the Google Privacy Policy at https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners. You can also download the
Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on to prevent your data from being used by Google Analytics at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

We also use the information collected via cookies for the purposes of helping to improve our Site. To the extent permitted by applicable law, by accessing or using our website and online services, you consent to the use of these technologies as described in this Policy.

VI. Transfer Across Borders
The Society may transfer your personal information outside of British Columbia to fulfill any of the above purposes, including to our affiliate members, other Royal Lifesaving Society Canada and service providers located in other Canadian provinces, in the United States and other jurisdictions outside of Canada who may be subject to applicable disclosure laws in those jurisdictions in accordance with applicable law.

VII. Retention and Security of Personal Information
The Society generally retains your personal information only for the period of time required to meet the purposes for which it was collected, as identified in this Policy, except as otherwise required or authorized by applicable law.

We have implemented reasonable precautions designed to protect your personal information from loss, misuse, and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction. Please be aware that despite our best efforts, no data security measure can provide total protection. The safety and security of the personal information that we collect may also depend on you. For example, if you have a unique identifier or password for access to our Site or Services, you are responsible for keeping this information confidential. We ask you not to share your password or unique identifier(s) with anyone.

VIII. Your Personal Information Rights

– Consent. You have the right to withdraw consent to collect your personal information at any time, subject to limits in applicable law. Withdrawal of consent will not affect the validity or legality of the collection, use or disclosure of your personal information up to the date that you withdraw your consent.

– Requests for Access or Correction. You may have a right to access to or request correction of your personal information held by us. These rights are not absolute but subject to limits in applicable law. If you request a correction to your personal information and the Society is satisfied on reasonable grounds that there is an error or omission in your personal information, the Society will correct the personal information as soon as reasonably possible, and send the corrected personal information to each third party to whom the personal information was disclosed, all in accordance with applicable law. If we do not correct the information, we will annotate it to show that a correction request was made. Where a request to access your personal information is refused, we will notify you in writing, document the reasons for refusal and outline further steps which are available to you.

IX. Changes to This Policy
This Policy is subject to updates from time to time. We will post any changes to this Policy on our Site. If we make changes to this Policy that materially affect how we process the personal information we have previously collected from you, we will endeavour to provide you with advance notice by, for example, highlighting the changes on our Sites or notifying you electronically.

X. Contact our Privacy Officer
If you have questions or concerns regarding the application of this Policy, you may contact our Privacy Officer via email at privacyofficer@lifesaving.bc.ca.