CLF for the Internet - Important Notices

Rationale

Standard wording and placement for information about rights, responsibilities and legal obligations associated with using materials found on GoC Web sites lends credibility to the information source and further demonstrates that all GoC information is subject to the same rules and regulations. Adopting a plain language approach to such notices helps users understand their purpose and better identify how the conditions apply in specific circumstances.

The link to the Important Notices is included on each page so that users can access the information when and where they choose.

Interpretation

• The placement of the Important Notices link must be located in the lower right hand corner of each content page.
• The placement of the Important Notices link on the Welcome Page depends on the location of the office providing the service.  See Standard 7.3(b).

5.1 Best Practices

Official Languages Notice (January 2003)
Hyperlinking Notice (January 2003)
HTML "mouse-over" Coding for Important Notices link (January 2003)
Forms (July 2000)
Mailto Tools (July 2000)

Wording for Official Languages Notice (January 2003)

In her report "Official Language Requirements and Government On-Line", the Commissioner of Official Languages recommended that the Treasury Board Secretariat "find innovative and appropriate ways (slogan, icon, etc.) for federal institutions to inform members of the public, on the home page of their Web site, of their right to receive information and to interact with the federal government in the official language of their choice". In response, it is recommended that departments and agencies use the following wording that has been provided by TBS Official Languages Branch for inclusion in their Important Notices statement:

Official Languages Notice

• (Insert department / agency name) respects the Official Languages Act and the relevant Treasury Board policies, and is committed to ensuring all information and services on this site is available in both English and French (or in one language only if a unilingual office). However, users should be aware that some information from external sources that are not subject to the Official Languages Act is only provided as a convenience and is available only in the language in which it was provided.

(Option for inclusion by those departments / agencies that provide information / services in more than one language) Information and services that are provided on this site in language(s) other than English or French are only provided as a convenience to the user when available.

Hyperlinking Notice (January 2003)

For further information about Hyperlinking, see the Best Practices for Standard 2.2 - Hyperlinking to and from GoC Web sites (January 2003).

It is recommended that departments and agencies use the following wording for their Hyperlinking Notice that has been vetted by TBS legal counsel for inclusion in their Important Notices statement.

Hyperlinking Notice:

• Links to Web sites not under the control of the Government of Canada (GoC) are provided solely for the convenience of users. The GoC is not responsible for the accuracy, currency or the reliability of the content. The GoC does not offer any guarantee in that regard and is not responsible for the information found through these links, nor does it endorse the sites and their content.
  Users should be aware that information offered by non-GoC sites that are not subject to the Official Languages Act and to which the [name of institution] links, may be available only in the language(s) used by the sites in question.

HTML "mouse-over" Coding for Important Notices link (January 2003)

Because of the additional notices that are being recommended for inclusion in the Important Notices document, we encourage departments / agencies to include the HTML coding to enable a "mouse-over" feature. This will display informative text when an Internet user's mouse hovers over a link (e.g. a list of the notices that are included in the "Important Notices" link):

<a href="http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/cioscripts/in-ai_e.asp?Who=/clf-nsi/" title="Privacy Notice, Official Languages Notice, Hyperlinking Notice, Copyright Notice">Important Notices</a>
Example: Important Notices

Note: The above solution does not work in Netscape. An alternative is currently being explored.

Forms (July 2000)

Forms are another means of providing users with a means of contact.

To best serve the public, forms should include fields for the user's name, E-mail address and mailing address, as well as a field where they can input comments, questions, or requests for information. As well, users should be given the opportunity to indicate their preferred method of receiving a response.

When personal information is being collected, users should be informed of their rights and responsibilities and the obligations of the institution regarding its protection. Although e-forms generally represent a separate page on Web sites, they are subject to the same CLF standards regarding the FIP identification of the institution, official languages and accessibility requirements.

Mailto Tools (July 2000)

The use of mailto tools has become a widely used convention on the Web and is an excellent means of enabling end-users to make quick comments about specific Web pages or topics. These tools offer a number of benefits in that users do not have to input their personal information because the message header automatically includes their addressing information, a date stamp and various other pertinent information. They can also easily be tailored to include the URL of the originating Web page in the subject line.

Mailto tools also have several disadvantages. Firstly, the client's browser must be configured to send E-mail (most systems are configured in this manner), and because all text is free-text input, it cannot be validated. The tool lacks an automatic confirmation or acknowledgement function, meaning there is no way to inform users that their correspondence has been received. To facilitate universal accessibility, the Internet address that MAILTO responses will be delivered to should be made visible for users who can not utilize this function. Although this will open up that address to SPAM, the risk is unavoidable.