Privacy policy

ReportONCare (“we,” “us,” “our”) operates reportoncare.ca, an independent, plain-language guide to Ontario’s public long-term care records. This policy explains what personal information we collect, how we use it, and your rights under Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act(PIPEDA). We use analytics and advertising that rely on cookies. Outside Quebec, the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland, these run on an opt-out basis: they are enabled by default, and you can turn them off at any time through our cookie banner or the “Manage cookies” link. In Quebec, the EEA, the UK, and Switzerland, we do not enable them unless you opt in. We honour the Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal everywhere, which switches analytics and advertising off regardless of region.

Automatically, subject to your cookie choices (see Section 4):

• Analytics (Google Analytics 4). We use GA4 to understand how the site is used (pages visited, approximate region, device and browser type, and session activity). GA4 uses cookies. As explained in Section 1, it is enabled by default outside Quebec, the EEA, the UK, and Switzerland and loads unless you opt out; in those regions it loads only if you opt in. It does not load when your browser sends a GPC signal.
• Advertising (Google AdSense). Google and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to deliver, measure, and personalise advertising, including based on your prior visits to this and other sites. Advertising follows the same region-aware consent rules as analytics (Section 1) and is not loaded under a GPC signal.

Automatically, without cookies:

• Vercel Web Analytics.We use Vercel’s privacy-friendly, cookieless analytics to measure aggregate traffic. It does not use cookies, does not track you across sites, and does not build a profile of you.
• Hosting logs. Our hosting provider may log standard technical request data (such as IP address, browser user-agent, and timestamp) for security, abuse prevention, and performance. These logs are not used for marketing.

Only if you choose to provide it:

• Correspondence. If you email us, we keep your message, your email address, and anything you include (which may contain your name or other details) so we can respond and keep a record of the request.

We do not collect payment information, government identifiers, account passwords, health information, or other sensitive categories of personal information, and you do not need an account to use the site.

• to operate, secure, and maintain the site;
• to understand aggregate usage so we can improve the site;
• to show advertising that helps cover the cost of running the site;
• to respond to questions, feedback, and data-correction requests you send us; and
• to comply with applicable law and respond to lawful requests.

We do not sell or rent personal information, and ReportONCare does not itself build advertising profiles about you. Advertising profiling, where it occurs, is carried out by Google as described in Section 7.

We use a limited set of cookies and similar technologies, grouped into categories:

• Necessary:required for the site to function, including remembering your cookie-consent choice. Always on.
• Analytics:Google Analytics 4 cookies (such as _ga) that help us measure usage. Set unless you opt out (or, in regions where opt-in consent is required, only after you opt in); see Section 1.
• Advertising:Google AdSense cookies used to deliver and personalise ads. Set on the same basis as analytics cookies (see Section 1).

Your choices:

• Use the cookie banner on your first visit to accept or customize non-essential cookies. You can reopen it any time from the “Manage cookies” link in the footer.
• We honour the Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal. If your browser or extension sends GPC, we do not load analytics or advertising on your session, regardless of the banner.
• You can opt out of GA4 with the Google Analytics opt-out add-on, manage ad personalisation at myadcenter.google.com, and block or delete cookies in your browser at any time.

The inspection records, compliance findings, and care quality indicators shown on the site come from the Ontario Ministry of Long-Term Care public reporting and from Health Quality Ontario, part of Ontario Health. That information is published by government bodies about long-term care homes and their operators. It is not personal information about you as a visitor, and residents are not named. We reproduce it as published; see our terms of use and methodology for accuracy limitations and how the data is handled.

The following providers process information in connection with the site:

• Vercel Inc. provides website hosting, content delivery, and cookieless web analytics (servers may be located in the United States).
• Supabase Inc. provides database hosting for the public records we publish (servers may be located in the United States).
• Google LLC provides Google Analytics 4 and Google AdSense, loaded subject to the region-aware consent rules in Section 1 and never under a GPC signal. For some of this processing Google acts as a separate controller under its own privacy policy. Data may be processed in the United States and other jurisdictions.

Because these providers may store or process data outside Canada (and outside Quebec, for Quebec residents), information they handle may be subject to the laws of those jurisdictions, including lawful access by foreign authorities.

We display advertising served by Google AdSense and its partners, subject to the region-aware consent rules in Section 1 (and never under a GPC signal). Where advertising is enabled, Google and its partners may use cookies and device identifiers to serve and measure ads, including personalised ads based on your prior activity. This processing is carried out by Google as a separate controller; ReportONCare does not direct it and does not receive the resulting advertising profile. You can opt out of personalised advertising at google.com/settings/ads or via aboutads.info. The appearance of an ad next to any home is not an endorsement, and advertisers cannot influence the records we show.

• Access: request a copy of any personal information we hold about you.
• Correction: ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information.
• Withdraw consent: change your cookie choices at any time, or ask us to stop using or to delete correspondence you have sent, subject to legal retention obligations.
• Complain: raise a concern with us, or lodge a complaint with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada at priv.gc.ca.

To exercise any of these rights, email contact@reportoncare.ca. We may ask you for information reasonably needed to confirm your identity before we act on a request, and we respond within 30 days of a verified request. There is no fee to make a request, though we may charge a reasonable, pre-disclosed fee for access in the limited circumstances permitted by law.

Some visitors may be residents of Quebec (a French version of this policy is in preparation). If Quebec’s Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector (as amended by the law commonly called Law 25) applies to personal information you send us, you have rights similar to those above, including access, correction, and, in certain cases, the right to request that information stop being disseminated. You may complain to the Commission d’accès à l’information du Québec. As explained in Section 6, some of our service providers may process information outside Quebec and outside Canada.

• Correspondence: retained for up to two years, then deleted, unless we need it longer to resolve a matter or meet a legal obligation.
• Analytics data: retained according to our configured Google Analytics 4 and Vercel Analytics retention settings.
• Advertising cookies:retained according to Google’s policies.
• Hosting logs:retained according to our hosting provider’s standard retention period.

We use reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards to protect personal information, including encryption in transit (HTTPS) and access controls. If a breach of security safeguards creates a real risk of significant harm, we will notify affected individuals and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada as required by PIPEDA.

The site is not directed at children and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has sent us personal information, contact contact@reportoncare.ca and we will delete it.

We may update this policy as the site changes or as the law changes. Material changes will be reflected in the “Last updated” date at the top of this page.

ReportONCarehas designated a Privacy Officer responsible for our compliance with this policy and with applicable privacy law, including PIPEDA and Quebec’s Law 25. For questions, requests, or complaints about this policy, or to exercise any of the rights described above, contact the Privacy Officer at contact@reportoncare.ca.