Toronto Five Star Homestay Programs Inc. (“Toronto Five Star Homestay” or “we”), in addition to its commitment to provide a stimulating and safe learning environment for visitors of all nationalities, is also committed to protecting, in accordance with applicable legislation, the accuracy, security and privacy of any personal information Toronto Five Star Homestay holds. For these reasons, we have created the following privacy policy (“Privacy Policy”) which outlines how we manage your personal information and safeguard your privacy.
Consent
BY SUBMITTING PERSONAL INFORMATION TO TORONTO FIVE STAR HOMESTAY OR ITS SERVICE PROVIDERS AND AGENTS, YOU AGREE THAT WE MAY COLLECT, USE AND DISCLOSE SUCH PERSONAL INFORMATION IN ACCORDANCE WITH THIS PRIVACY POLICY AND AS PERMITTED OR REQUIRED BY LAW. In most circumstances, you may refuse or withdraw your consent to certain of the identified purposes at any time by contacting the Toronto Five Star Homestay Privacy Officer, however, if you do so, we may not be able to provide you or continue to provide you with certain programs, services or information which may be of value to you. If you provide Toronto Five Star Homestay or our service providers and agents with personal information of another individual, you represent that you have all necessary authority and/or have obtained all necessary consents from such person to enable us to collect, use and disclose such personal information for the purposes set forth in this Privacy Policy.
What Personal Information do we collect?Canadian privacy legislation defines “personal information” broadly as information about an identifiable individual or as information that allows an individual to be identified, but does not include the name, title or business address or telephone number of an employee of an organization. For the purposes of this policy, “Personal Information” means information about an identifiable individual as defined from time to time in applicable federal and provincial privacy legislation. Some Personal Information that is otherwise publicly available in not protected by applicable privacy laws.
We collect only the information required to provide products and services to you. We receive and store any information you enter on our website or give us n any other way. For example, the Personal Information that we collect includes information that relates to your educational history, academic transcripts, personal profiles, gender, ethnic origin, nationality, languages spoken, information contained in your application for our programs or your study permit or visa, an unlisted address or phone number, an identifying number, among others. You can choose not to provide certain information, but then you might not be able to take advantage of our products or services.
Why do we collect your Personal Information?In general, Toronto Five Star Homestay collects, uses and discloses Personal Information about students, host families, agencies and partners in order to assist in matching students and host families, and to provide students with the various adult and youth educational programs, language learning, tutoring, summer camps and tours we have developed and operate. Toronto Five Star Homestay does not sell Personal Information to any third parties.
More specifically, we collect, use and disclose Personal Information for the following purposes:
- to review students and host family information to determine possible placements;
- to assist students with their application for any of our programs, including assisting students to obtain the necessary legal guardianship, study permits, immigration and Visa approvals;
- to evaluate students for placement in, and assist with registration and enrolment with Toronto Five Star Homestay affiliated public and private high schools in Canada;
- to develop, enhance, market, sell, administer or otherwise provide Toronto Five Star Homestay‘s services;
- to distribute our newsletters, information and other materials to individuals on our mail and e-mail lists;
- as permitted by, and to comply with, any legal or regulatory requirements or provisions; and
- for any other purpose to which you consent.
From time to time, Toronto Five Star Homestay may disclose your Personal Information to:
- students requesting homestay placement, schools and school administrators, consulates and government agencies, agents, residential providers and homestay families, and third party service providers, including organizations or individuals retained by Toronto Five Star Homestay to perform functions on its behalf;
- a person who, in the reasonable judgment of Toronto Five Star Homestay, is providing or seeking the information as your agent; or
- any third party or parties, where you consent to such disclosure or where disclosure is required or permitted by law.
Your Personal Information is stored in secured locations and on servers controlled by Toronto Five Star Homestay, located either at our offices or at the offices of our service providers.
How may you obtain access to your Personal Information?Upon your written request, subject to certain exceptions, Toronto Five Star Homestay will inform you of the existence, use and disclosure of your Personal Information and will give you access to that information. You may inform Toronto Five Star Homestay in writing of any changes requiring to be made with your personal information. Once informed by you, Toronto Five Star Homestay will make all reasonable efforts to update, correct and remove any outdated or incorrect information. Access and correction requests should be sent to our Chief Privacy Officer, using the contact information below.
How do we protect your Personal Information?To help protect the confidentiality of your Personal Information, Toronto Five Star Homestay employs administrative and technological safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of your Personal Information. For instance, we operate secure data networks protected by industry standard firewall and password protection systems.
We ensure our employees, staff and agents that have access to your personal information use it in accordance with the principles set forth in this Privacy Policy and applicable laws. In addition, where personal information is sent to a third party for processing, we use contractual and other means to make sure that a comparable level of protection is met for all personal information being processed by such third party.
Retention of Personal InformationWe retain personal information in our records for as long as necessary to fulfill the intended purposes or a legal or business purpose.
Privacy and our WebsiteIn order to provide our website visitors with information, visitors may voluntarily submit Personal Information to us for purposes such as asking a question or obtaining information. You should be aware that e-mail is not a 100% secure medium, and you should be aware of this when contacting us to send personal or confidential information.
Toronto Five Star Homestay does not use cookies nor does Toronto Five Star Homestay use any electronic means to automatically collect personal information from you or your computer. However, Toronto Five Star Homestay‘s web servers will automatically collect IP addresses and we may view our web server IP log from time to time to prevent fraudulent acts and possible network attacks.
The only personal information Toronto Five Star Homestay collects via the website is the information voluntarily supplied by you if you contact Toronto Five Star Homestay via the Website.
Changes to the Privacy PolicyToronto Five Star Homestay reserves the right to modify or supplement this Privacy Policy at any time. If we make a change to this Privacy Policy, we will post such changes on our website and make such revised policy and changes available upon request to the Toronto Five Star Homestay’s Privacy Officer.
Further Information
For information on Toronto Five Star Homestay‘s privacy practices, please contact its Privacy Officer at:
Toronto Five Star Homestay Chief Privacy Officer
303-20 Eglinton Ave. East,
Toronto, Ontario, Canada,
M4P 1A6,
Email: info@fivestarhomestay.com