Atomic Energy of Canada Limited

Terms of Use and Privacy

Privacy Notice

We are committed to offering a website that respects your privacy.  All personal information we collect is governed by the Privacy Act.  This means that you will be informed of the purpose for which your personal information is being collected and how to exercise your right of access to that information.

Your Privacy and our Website

Web servers automatically collect certain information about a visit to a website, including the visitor’s Internet Protocol (IP) address. IP addresses are unique numbers assigned by Internet Service Providers (ISP) to all devices used to access the Internet. Web servers automatically log the IP addresses of visitors to their sites. The IP address, on its own, may not identify an individual. However, in certain circumstances, it could be used to identify an individual using the site. For this reason, we consider the IP address to be personal information, particularly when combined with other data automatically collected when a visitor requests a web page. This information can include the name of the page you visited and the date and time of your visit.

Unless otherwise noted, we do not automatically gather any specific information from you, such as your name, telephone number or email address. We would obtain this type of information only if you supply it to us, for example, by email or by filling in a contact form. In such cases, how your personal information is handled will be provided in a Privacy Statement.

In cases where services are provided by organizations outside of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL), such as our online job postings, social media platforms or mobile applications, IP addresses may be recorded by the Web server of the third-party service provider.

Communicating with AECL

If you send us an email, we may use your personal information for the purpose of responding to you. We do not use personal information submitted via our web to create individual profiles. In most cases, we will delete any personal information that we did not ask for.

We do not disclose your information to anyone other than to those who are working on your request. Any further disclosure of your information is done with your consent or in accordance with Section 8(2) of the Privacy Act.
Emails and other electronic methods used to communicate with us are not secure unless it specifically says so. It is not recommended that you send sensitive personal information, such as your Social Insurance Number or your date of birth, through non-secure electronic means.

Personal information from emails or completed feedback forms is collected pursuant to the Privacy Act. Such information may be used for statistical, evaluation and reporting purposes and is included in Personal Information Bank Public Communications (PSU 914).

Social Media

Our use of social media serves as an extension of our web presence. Social media accounts are public and are not hosted on our servers. Users who choose to interact with us via social media should read the terms of service and privacy policies of these third-party service providers and those of any applications you use to access them.

Comments left by individuals on social media can be read by anyone. Therefore, we strongly advise you not to post any personal information – whether it is yours or not. We reserve the right to remove any comments that contains personal information, violate Canadian law, are beyond the bounds of decency or are offensive.

Personal information that you provide us via social media is collected to capture conversations (e.g. questions and answers, comments) between us. It may be used to respond to inquiries, or for statistical, evaluation and reporting purposes. The personal information that you provide directly to us falls under Personal Information Bank Outreach Activities (PSU 938).

For more information visit our section on Interacting with us on Social Media.

Improving your Website Experience

Digital Markers (including cookies)

A digital marker is a small file placed on your computer by a web site that you visit. They are stored there so that the web server can remember certain pieces of information about you. This information is used by the web server during the same or another visit to the website. Examples of digital markers are “cookies” or HTML5 web storage. They are often used in the collection of web analytics, to store your preferences (for example: language or location), and to manage your session if you are logged in.

Digital markers can:

  • allow a website to recognize a previous visitor to a web site;
  • track what information is viewed on a site which helps website administrators ensure visitors find what they are looking for.

AECL uses persistent digital markers on some portions of its website. During your on-line visit, your browser exchanges data with our Web server. The digital markers used do not allow us to identify individuals.

You may adjust your browser settings to reject digital markers, including cookies. Visiting our website with cookies disabled will have no real impact on your browsing experiences. Please consult your browser’s Help Menu for instructions.

Web Analytics

Web analytics is the collection, analysis, measurement, and reporting of data about Web traffic and visits for purposes of understanding and optimizing Web usage. Information in digital markers may be used for the purpose of web analytics to remember your online interactions with AECL’s website.

AECL uses Google Analytics to improve its web site. When your computer requests an AECL Web page, the following types of information is collected for Web analytics:

  • the originating IP address
  • the date and time of the request
  • the type of browser used
  • the page(s) visited

AECL uses Google Analytics and the information collected is disclosed to Google, an external third party service provider. Your IP address is anonymized prior to being stored on the service provider’s servers in order to help safeguard your privacy. The information collected is de-personalized by removing the final octet of your IP address before analysis of the data occurs.

Data collected for Web analytics purposes goes outside of Canada to the United States of America and may be subject to the governing legislation of that country, such as the USA Patriot Act.

Information used for the purpose of Web analytics may be used for communications and information technology statistical purposes, audit, evaluation, research, planning and reporting. For more information on how your privacy is safeguarded in relation to web analytics, see the Standard on Privacy and Web Analytics.

Protecting the Security of our Website

AECL employs software programs to monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage. This software receives and records the IP address of the computer that has contacted our website, the date and time of the visit and the pages visited. We make no attempt to link these addresses with the identity of individuals visiting our site unless an attempt to damage the site has been detected.

This information is collected and may be shared with appropriate law enforcement authorities if suspected criminal activities are detected. Such information may be used for network security related statistical purposes, audit, evaluation, research, planning and reporting and is included in Personal Information Bank Security Incidents and Privacy Breaches (PSU 939).

Inquiring about our Privacy Practices

Any questions, comments, concerns or complaints you may have about the administration of the Privacy Act or our practices concerning our web presence may be directed to:

Isabelle Gaudreault, ATIP Director
Atomic Energy of Canada Limited
1500 – 270 Albert St
Ottawa, Ontario K1P 5G8

1-888-220-2465 or 343-303-0967

[email protected]

If you are not satisfied with our response to your privacy concerns, you may contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.

Using Files Located on Non-AECL Servers

To improve the functionality of our website, certain files (such as open source libraries, images and scripts) may be delivered automatically to your browser via a trusted third-party server or content delivery network. The delivery of these files is intended to provide a seamless user experience by speeding response times and avoiding the need for each visitor to download these files. Where applicable, specific privacy statements covering these files are included in our Privacy Notice.

Official Languages

AECL respects the Official Languages Act.  Our Website information is available in both French and English.  Users should be aware that some information on external sites to which we link is available only in the language in which it was provided.

Hypertext links to other Web sites are provided for convenience only and do not constitute an endorsement by AECL of such Web sites or the information or services contained within those sites. Before using such Web sites, which are independent from and not under the control of AECL, you should review their terms of use and privacy policies.

Use of our Website

At AECL’s sole discretion, AECL may terminate the use, or refuse to permit the use, of this site by any person or entity, for any reason and without notice.

In using this site you will not:

  1. interfere with or disrupt this site or computer networks connected thereto;
  2. impersonate any other person or entity, or make any misrepresentation as to your employment, title or authority;
  3. forge headers or in any manner manipulate identifiers in order to disguise your origin;
  4. upload, post, transmit, publish, or distribute any material or information for which you do not have all necessary rights and licenses;
  5. upload, post, transmit, publish, or distribute any material or information which contains a computer virus, or other code, files or programs intending in any manner to disrupt or interfere with the functioning of this site;
  6. use this site in such a manner as to gain unauthorized entry or access to the computer systems or networks of others or attempt to gain unauthorized entry or access to any password protected or restricted areas of this site, or AECL’s computer or network systems;
  7. reproduce, copy, modify, sell, distribute or otherwise exploit for any commercial purposes any material, information, product or service offered within this site;
  8. violate any law or regulation or any generally accepted Internet practice or interfere with any other user’s ability to use this site and any of the services or products provided on this site; or
  9. forge, alter or modify in any way any of the agreements, polices, information, reports or any other material posted or accessible within this site.

The contents of the site (including but not limited to the materials accessible through the site) are protected by copyright, and are confidential and proprietary to AECL. You are entitled to copy, download and print any content for your own personal use but you may not otherwise, copy, modify, rent, lease, loan, sell, redistribute, republish or reproduce, in whole or in part, any such content in any manner including electronic reproduction by “uploading” or “downloading”, or create any derivative works based on such content, without AECL’s prior written consent.

Interacting with us on Social Media

This notice has been written to explain how AECL interacts with the public on social media platforms.

Content and Frequency

We use our social media accounts as an alternative method of sharing the content posted on our website and interacting with our stakeholders. By following our social media accounts (by “following,” “liking” or “subscribing”), you can expect to see information about the programs and services we provide.

Because the servers of social media platforms are managed by a third party, our social media accounts are subject to downtime that may be out of our control. As such, we accept no responsibility for platforms becoming unresponsive or unavailable.

Links to Other Websites and Ads

Our social media accounts may post or display links or ads for websites that are not under our control. These links are provided solely for the convenience of users. AECL is not responsible for the information found through these links or ads, nor does it endorse the sites or their content.

Following, Favouriting and Subscribing

Our decision to “follow”, “like”, “favourite, “share” or “subscribe” to another social media account does not imply an endorsement of that account, channel, page or site, and neither does sharing (re-posting or linking to) content from another user.

Comments and Interaction

We will read comments and participate in discussions when appropriate. We ask that your comments be relevant and respectful. We reserve the right to delete comments that violate this notice, and the user may be blocked and reported to prevent further inappropriate comments.

We cannot engage in issues of party politics or answer questions that break the rules of this notice.

We reserve the right to edit or remove comments that:

  • Contain personal information;
  • Are contrary to the principles of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms;
  • Express racist, hateful, sexist, homophobic, slanderous, insulting or life-threatening messages;
  • Put forward serious, unproven or inaccurate accusations against individuals or organizations;
  • Are aggressive, coarse, violent, obscene or pornographic;
  • Are offensive, rude or abusive to an individual or an organization;
  • Are not sent by the author or are put forward for advertising purposes;
  • Encourage illegal activity;
  • Contain announcements from labour or political organizations;
  • Are written in a language other than English or French;
  • Are unintelligible or irrelevant;
  • Are repetitive or spam; and
  • Do not, in our opinion, add to the normal flow of the discussion.

In short, please be respectful and make sure that your comments are relevant to where they are posted. The views of users commenting on our social media accounts do not necessarily represent the views of AECL.

Reviewed: October 2018