Privacy Policy

The short version

• We use Google Analytics 4 to count visits, and it only runs if you say yes. Decline and nothing is stored on your device.
• We run no advertising and no cross-site ad tracking, whatever you choose.
• We do not sell, rent, or trade personal information. Ever, and to anyone.
• The only information we receive directly is what you type into a form on this site, or send us by email.
• Donations are processed by Zeffy. We never see or store your card number.
• You can ask us what we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it.

Who we are

THE DOPE CONTENT is a federally incorporated non-profit, founded in 2022 and based in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. We are the organisation responsible for the personal information described in this policy.

Questions, requests, and complaints about privacy go to hello@thedopecontent.com. That address reaches a person, not a ticket queue.

The law we follow

We handle personal information in line with the federal Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and its ten fair information principles: accountability, identifying purposes, consent, limiting collection, limiting use and disclosure, accuracy, safeguards, openness, individual access, and challenging compliance.

Where we send you email, we follow Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL): we ask before adding you to anything, we say who the message is from, and every non-transactional message carries a working unsubscribe.

What we collect, and why

Contact form and email

Your name, email address, the reason you selected, and your message. We use it only to reply to you and, if relevant, to keep a record of the conversation. Nothing you send is added to a mailing list unless you ask.

Programs, workshops, and events

If you register for a session we collect what that session needs — usually a name and an email, and sometimes accessibility requirements so we can accommodate you. We use it to run the session and to follow up about it.

Volunteering and partnerships

What you choose to tell us about your skills, availability, and organisation, so we can place you well and stay in touch about the work.

Donations

Handled entirely by Zeffy on their own systems. They pass us the information needed to acknowledge and account for your gift — typically name, email, and amount. We never receive your full card number.

Newsletter

If you subscribe, your email address goes to Sender, who send the emails on our behalf. We use it for that and nothing else. Every message carries a one-click unsubscribe, and unsubscribing takes effect immediately.

Server logs

Our host records standard technical information for every request, including your IP address, browser type, and the page requested. It exists for security and reliability, not for marketing, and we do not use it to identify you.

Cookies and analytics

This site uses Google Analytics 4 so we can see which pages are actually useful and fix the ones that are not. It is the only thing here that sets cookies.

It is off until you agree. The tag loads in a denied state using Google Consent Mode, which means that unless and until you choose "Yes, count it", it stores nothing on your device and sends no analytics identifiers. Declining costs you nothing: every page works identically either way.

We have configured it to collect as little as it can — IP anonymisation on, Google Signals off, advertising personalisation off, and data retention set to 14 months. We never see your name, your email, or anything you typed.

• Your choice is remembered in your browser using local storage, not a cookie — storing a cookie in order to ask about cookies would be absurd. It never leaves your device.
• You can change your answer at any time from "Analytics settings" in the footer of every page.
• Nothing on this site is gated behind agreeing. There is no reduced experience for declining.
• You can also block analytics entirely with a browser setting, an extension, or Google’s own opt-out add-on, and the site will keep working.

What this website still does not do

These are choices, not accidents:

• No advertising, and no interest-based or behavioural ad targeting. Where our analytics provider offers advertising features, they are switched off in configuration rather than merely left unused.
• No Meta pixel, no TikTok pixel, no LinkedIn tag, no heatmaps, no session recording.
• No third-party font service. Fonts are served from this site, so loading a page does not tell a font vendor you were here.
• No Instagram or Facebook embed scripts. Social posts are ordinary links you choose to follow.
• No attempt to identify you personally, fingerprint your device, or build a profile of you.
• No selling, renting, or trading of personal information, and no donor-list exchanges.

Third parties that can see something

We keep this list short on purpose, and it is complete as of the date above.

Netlify (hosting and contact form)

Serves every page and receives contact form submissions. Netlify is based in the United States, so form contents and server logs are processed outside Canada and are subject to the laws of that country.

Zeffy (donations)

Runs the donation form and the payment. Your card details go to Zeffy and their payment processors, never to us. Their own privacy policy governs what they do with your information.

YouTube (video)

Our media pages load video still images from Google’s servers, which means Google can see your IP address when such a page loads. Video players use youtube-nocookie.com and nothing plays until you click. No YouTube script runs before then.

Google (analytics)

If you agree to analytics, Google Analytics 4 receives page views, an approximate location derived from your IP address, and technical details such as device and browser. Google processes this in the United States and handles it as an independent controller under its own terms. IP anonymisation is on, Google Signals is off, and advertising personalisation is off. If you decline, the tag stays in a denied state: it stores nothing on your device and sends no analytics identifiers.

Sender (newsletter)

Stores subscriber email addresses and sends the emails. They act on our instructions and do not use your address for their own marketing. Unsubscribing is handled by them and takes effect immediately.

Discord (community)

Our community lives on Discord. Joining it creates a relationship between you and Discord under their terms and privacy policy, which we do not control.

What we never do

• We do not sell, rent, trade, or otherwise share personal information for anyone else’s marketing.
• We do not exchange or rent donor lists with other organisations.
• We do not use the details of a workshop participant for anything other than that programming and our own follow-up.

When we may disclose information

Only in these situations: when you have asked or agreed; when a service provider named above needs it to do the job we hired them for; when the law requires it, such as a court order or a valid demand from a public authority; or when it is necessary to protect someone’s safety.

Consent, and taking it back

We ask before we collect, and we tell you why. You can withdraw consent at any time, subject to anything we are legally required to keep — email us and we will confirm what changed and what we could not remove.

For analytics specifically, you can change your answer whenever you like using the "Analytics settings" control in the footer of every page. Choosing no takes effect immediately.

Every bulk email we send has an unsubscribe link. You can also just reply and tell us to stop, or write to hello@thedopecontent.com.

How long we keep things

We keep personal information only as long as it serves the purpose it was collected for, and then we delete it.

• General enquiries: up to two years, so we have context if you write again.
• Program and event records: up to three years, for reporting and continuity.
• Donation records: as long as Canadian financial and tax record-keeping obligations require, which is generally seven years.
• Server logs: as retained by our host in the ordinary course, typically weeks rather than years.
• Analytics: retained by Google for 14 months, the shortest window their product allows, then deleted.
• Newsletter subscriptions: until you unsubscribe, plus a short suppression record so we do not accidentally email you again.

How we protect it

We use administrative, technical, and physical safeguards appropriate to how sensitive the information is: accounts protected by strong, unique credentials and multi-factor authentication; access limited to the few people who need it; encryption in transit across the whole site; and reputable providers for hosting and payments.

No system is perfect, and we will not pretend otherwise. If a breach occurs that creates a real risk of significant harm, we will notify affected people and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada as PIPEDA requires, and we will tell you what happened and what to do about it.

Your rights

Write to hello@thedopecontent.com and you can ask us to: confirm whether we hold information about you; show you what we hold; correct anything inaccurate; delete what we are not required to keep; or explain how we used it.

We will respond within 30 days. There is no charge. We may need to verify who you are first, so that we are not handing your information to someone else.

Young people

Some of our programming is for youth. We do not knowingly collect personal information from a child through this website. Where a program involves participants under the age of majority, we collect what that program needs through the parent, guardian, or the partner organisation running it — not through this site. If you believe a child has sent us information, email us and we will delete it.

Accessibility

This site is built to meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA and is tested against it automatically before every release, which is also how we meet our obligations under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act. If any part of it blocks you, email us and tell us what happened — we treat that as a defect, not a feature request.

If you are not satisfied

Tell us first: hello@thedopecontent.com. We would rather fix it directly. If we cannot resolve it, you have the right to complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada at priv.gc.ca.

Changes to this policy

If we change how we handle personal information, we will update this page and change the date at the top. Material changes will be flagged here rather than made quietly. The date above is the authoritative version marker.