Terms of Use/Privacy

General

Please review these Terms of Use carefully. By accessing or using the City of Windsor’s (“City”) website (www.citywindsor.ca), you accept and agree to comply with the following Terms of Use. If you do not agree with these Terms of Use, you should immediately discontinue any use of this website.

The City reserves the right to modify the website and/or the Terms of Use any time without notice. The modifications are effective immediately upon their posting on the website.

In the event any of these Terms of Use should be determined to be invalid, void, or for any reason unenforceable, that term will be deemed to be severable and will not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining terms.

The use of the website and any purchase made on this website are governed by the laws in force in the Province of Ontario and Canada. You agree that any litigation that may arise from said use or purchase will be litigated in Windsor, Ontario.

Disclaimer

The text, images, and data on the City’s website (the “Materials”) are the property of the City, or affiliated groups and may be subject to the rights of third parties. The City and affiliated groups make no representations or warranties with respect to the ownership, copyright, or other moral rights to any of the images or contents.

The Materials are provided "as is." The City does not make any representations concerning the accuracy, likely results or reliability of the use of the Materials or otherwise relating to these Materials or on any external websites linked to this website.

The City assumes no responsibility for any damages arising out of the use of this website. The City is not responsible for any liability for any direct, indirect, incidental, consequential or other damages resulting from the use, misuse or misinterpretation of any content, products or services provided by this website.

The City disclaims all warranties or conditions, express or implied, in respect of the Materials, products and services considered by these Terms of Use, including without limitation, implied warranties and conditions of merchantability and fitness for any particular purpose or non-infringement. This disclaimer applies to the fullest possible extent in jurisdictions that limit the exclusion of implied warranties.

Use of Materials and Copyright Considerations

Access to and use of the Materials is permitted subject to strict compliance with the Copyright Act, and the following conditions:

  1. Users may download one copy of the Materials for the sole purpose of non-commercial private use or study if and only if all copyright and ownership notices contained on the Materials are retained and displayed together with the URL www.citywindsor.ca or the URL displayed in connection with the Material.
  2. In the event that the Materials are cited as having third party rights, the Users shall ensure that they obtain the express written permission of the owner of that copyright before making use of the Materials and shall ensure that ownership is cited.
  3. The User shall not in any way alter, manipulate or modify the Materials or otherwise distort the Materials.
  4. The User hereby agrees to defend, indemnify, and save harmless the City, its councillors, officers, employees, volunteers, agents and assigns from any actions, damages, costs, losses, expenses or claims of whatever nature that may be brought against the City as a result of the User’s inappropriate use of the Materials.

In the event that the User wishes to make use of the Materials in any other way than is permitted herein, express written permission must be obtained from the owner of the Material, which may be withheld at the owner’s sole discretion. In the event that the User is unsure whether a use of the Material is permitted, the User should seek appropriate clarification from the City before making use of the Material.

It is not the City’s responsibility to interpret the Copyright Act or to provide legal advice in respect of same. Users, when using this site and the Materials thereon, accept responsibility for determining and complying with all copyright laws.

Open Data Catalogue

Citizens are encouraged to use or repurpose the City's Open Data for research purposes or to improve their interaction with municipal services and facilities.

Please be aware that by downloading or accessing this data, you agree to be bound by the Open Government Licence provided by the City.

Links to Other Websites

The inclusion of any link to another website does not imply an endorsement by the City and should not be construed as endorsing that party or its product or services. If you decide to access linked third party websites, you do so entirely at your own risk. When you visit another site, please review their terms of use.

Social Media Terms

The City of Windsor recognizes that social media platforms are important for communicating and engaging with residents. In order to provide a space that is open and friendly, the City reserves the right to block members and delete the following types of comments or messages:

  • Messages that are hateful, offensive, discriminatory, harassing, violent or sexual; comments that contain personal attacks, target an identifiable group of individuals, reasonably compromise public safety, or encourage or incite same
  • Messages that target an identifiable group of individuals: includes content that promotes, fosters or perpetuates discrimination on the basis of race, ancestry, place of origin, colour, ethnic origin, citizenship, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, family status or disability
  • Messages that are illegal or encourage illegal activities, including defamation, fraud, breaching privacy, copyright, or other intellectual property rights
  • Messages containing spam or posts for commercial advertising purposes or endorsements
  • Repetitive posts or frequently duplicated unrelated messages
  • Messages that falsely claim to represent a person or organization or are posted by someone using more than one account under false pretenses
  • Messages that disclose the personal information of a third party
  • Content that is deemed to be inappropriate by the City’s Corporate Communications department

Please be aware of the following:

  • The City's liking, following, retweeting, messaging or sharing of content should not be interpreted as any kind of endorsement.
  • When you engage the City of Windsor on social media, you are always subject to the host website's Terms of Service.
  • The City is not responsible for any personal information or other information posted on public social media channels. All personal information on public social media channels is considered a record available to the general public in accordance with section 27 of The Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
  • All information used for engagement with our social media channels is subject to collection by organizations outside of Canada or storage and access on servers not belonging to the City.

Web Privacy Statement

Overview

The City of Windsor is committed to protecting your privacy. Most of the information accessible on the City's website does not require you to identify yourself at all. You may access it anonymously. However, the City of Windsor does collect personal information about you when you choose to provide it. We endeavour to collect only as much personal information as is absolutely necessary to assist you in conducting business with the City via the website.

The City of Windsor is governed by the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (“MFIPPA”) and its regulations for the collection, retention, use and disclosure of personal information. MFIPPA has the stated purpose “to protect the privacy of individuals with respect to personal information about themselves held by institutions and to provide individuals with a right of access to that information.”

The City of Windsor endeavours to provide you with multiple service "channels" for conducting City business (e.g. walk-in, mail-in, fax-in, phone-in, etc.) in addition to its website. If at any time you have concerns about using the website to conduct your City business, you can rest assured that we will always provide you with an alternative (traditional) service channel as an option.

Purposes for Which We Collect Personal Information

We collect and retain personal information for the following purposes:

  • To process your requests for services, products or further information
  • To communicate with you regarding services or products that you have requested - for example, to send you a statement or a receipt
  • To identify you if you have a query or concern about the service or product that you have requested
  • To advise you about changes to our web service offerings and of service interruptions
  • To meet legal and regulatory requirements

Correcting/Updating Personal Information

If your personal information changes (e.g. name, address, postal code, telephone number, etc.), or you no longer desire our services, we will endeavour to provide a way to correct, update or remove this information. Details of how to do this are usually provided on the web page where the information is collected or displayed. For further details, you can contact 311. The contact information for 311 is provided below.

Use and Disclosure of Personal Information

The City of Windsor is the sole owner of all personal information collected on its site. We do not use or retain personal information that you provide to us for any secondary purposes unless we clearly notify you and gain your permission first. We will not sell, share, rent or otherwise disclose your personal information to any organization or individual outside the City of Windsor unless we first notify you and ask your permission.

The exceptions to this policy of non-disclosure are stated below. The City may disclose your personal information:

  • To companies contracted to process your requests
  • For the purpose for which the personal information was obtained or compiled or for a consistent purpose
  • For law enforcement purposes
  • For the purpose of acting in an emergency or in compassionate circumstances to facilitate contact with your next of kin or friend if you become injured or take ill
  • For any other purpose allowed under MFIPPA

Our website logs information about you that is automatically recognized by the web server, such as your IP address. We use IP addresses to analyze trends, administer the site, track user movement and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. IP addresses are not linked to personally identifiable information. We may occasionally report aggregated demographic information in the form of reports and statistics, but this is not linked to any personal information that can be used to identify any individual person.

Some of the City's sub-systems require the use of "cookies." A "cookie" is a small text file that is stored on a user's computer, placed there by a web server for future access and retrieval of stored information. For example, we use cookies when you purchase goods or services over the Internet to save the contents of your "shopping basket" as you proceed from one screen to another.

Web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. Be aware that by declining cookies, some interactive features or online services that depend on cookies may not function as intended.

From time-to-time our site may request information from you via surveys. Participation in these surveys is completely voluntary, and you have a choice of whether or not to disclose the information requested. Survey information will be used solely for the purposes of monitoring and/or improving the use and satisfaction of this site. If you choose not to participate in surveys, you will still be able to use our site or request services or products from us.

Protection of Personal Information

The City takes every precaution to protect your personal information on the Internet. We protect your account information by requiring you to enter a unique Login ID and Password each time you want to access your account information. Your Password should never be shared with anyone.

Questions about the collection of personal information should be directed to the Freedom of Information and Privacy Coordinator, City of Windsor. Email, phone and mail addresses can be found under Exceptions below.

The City of Windsor uses industry standard encryption technology to keep your personal information safe. The City uses SSL encryption technology to protect personal information (e.g. credit card numbers, etc.) during transmission. A security icon will appear in your browser window to indicate that you are using a secure site.

If you have any questions or concerns about the security at our website, you can send an email to 311.

Exceptions

There may be certain exceptions to the City's Privacy Statement that are not mentioned on this page. Any and all exceptions will be clearly identified at the moment that information is being gathered.

For more information or if you have questions or concerns, please contact the 311 Customer Contact Centre.

Telephone: Dial 311 or 519-255-CITY(2489)

TTY/Teletypewriter (Bell Relay Service): Type 711 for the operator or dial 1-800-855-0511.

Cogeco IP Relay Service (allows hearing and/or speech-impaired individuals to place text-based relay calls from their personal computer). Visit How do I make calls with IP Relay? - Cogeco Support to learn more. (You will need to have a valid Cogeco home phone number.)

For further contact information, visit the 311 home page.

Notification of Changes to the Privacy Statement

We reserve the right to change the privacy statement when necessary. We encourage you to check back routinely to see if any changes have been made.

Links to Other Websites

The City's website contains links to other sites (e.g. community links, business links, etc.). Please be aware that the City of Windsor is not responsible for the privacy practices of other websites. When you leave our site, we encourage you to read the privacy statement of each and every website that you visit before you provide any personal information. The City's privacy statement applies solely to information collected on the City's website.