Privacy notice
The Government of Canada, Canada Investment & Savings and its fiscal agent, the Bank of Canada, are committed to providing visitors with web sites that respect their privacy. This page summarizes the privacy policy and practices on Canada Investment & Savings web sites and those of the Bank of Canada relating to New Canada Savings Bonds.
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CI&S web sites do not automatically gather any specific personal information from you, such as your name, phone number or e-mail address. We would only obtain this type of information if you supply it by e-mail or registering in a secure portion of the site. We remind you that neither electronic systems nor e-mail are secure information transmission methods, and that it is not recommended that sensitive personal information be transmitted electronically. |
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All personal information held or collected by Canada Investment & Savings and the Bank of Canada is protected under the federal Privacy Act. This means that at any point of collection you will be asked for consent to collect your information, and you will be informed of the purpose for which it is being collected and how to exercise your right of access to that information. |
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Canada Investment & Savings and the Bank of Canada are participants in the Government of Canada Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), which gives you the opportunity to communicate with the Department in a confidential manner. You may find additional information on PKI and how to use it here. |
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Canada Investment & Savings and the Bank of Canada employ 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 Internet Protocol (IP) address of the computer that has contacted our web site, 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. |
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Canada Investment & Savings and the Bank of Canada occasionally use "cookies" to track how our visitors use the CI&S; web site or to determine sites previously visited. The cookies we use do not allow us to identify individuals. They are compiled into statistical information on traffic patterns and are used to assess site efficiency. Should your system be enabled to detect cookies, you will be notified before any cookies are used so that you may refuse them, and the refusal of cookies will not affect the site performance or restrict your ability to access information from this site. (A "cookie" is a file that may be placed on your hard drive without your knowledge by a web site to allow it to monitor your use of the site.) |
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Information on individual visitors is used by Canada Investment & Savings and the Bank of Canada, who need to know the information in order to respond to your request or to ensure the security of this system. We only share the information you give us with another government department if your inquiry relates to that department. We do not use the information to create individually identifiable profiles. |
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Any message that you may send to the Webmaster for this site will go to EDS Canada Inc., a corporation that is not part of the federal government, and should be limited to comments on the functioning of the web site. Information concerning the functioning of the site is provided to the Webmaster so that they can propose adjustments to the site to maximize its effectiveness. EDS Canada Inc. is bound by a contract with the Bank of Canada to treat any personal information they receive in relation to the CI&S web site as though it is covered by the provisions of the Privacy Act. Any questions, concerns or complaints you may have about how we are handling personal information from this site should be directed to the CI&S web site Privacy Co-ordinator as listed below. |
Questions, concerns or comments regarding this policy, or the administration of the Privacy Act in connection with the CI&S web site may be directed to the Privacy Co-ordinator by e-mail at burzynski.dariusz@cis-pec.fin.gc.ca or by writing to Canada Investment & Savings, 10th Floor, West Tower, 300 Laurier Avenue West, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0G5. If you are not satisfied with our response to your privacy concern, you may wish to contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner.
Security
We use several layers of robust security methods including encryption, firewalls and timed log outs, among others, to ensure that personal and financial information you provided is kept private and confidential.
As an extra measure of security, confirmation numbers are issued with every transaction to indicate that the information has been securely captured by the system. To protect your password and on-line purchase(s), state-of-the-art encryption technology is employed. Encryption is presently the most effective way to achieve data security. That is why your browser must be compatible with 128-bit encryption in order to purchase bonds or make changes to existing deductions on-line. Employees should treat their password as confidential.
Encryption is the process of scrambling data into an unreadable format that is more secure for transmission over the Internet. Very similar to secret code, encryption takes your data and uses complex mathematical equations called algorithms to scramble the information into an unreadable format called ciphertext. Ciphertext is impossible to read without a key to unscramble the information.
Information is scrambled or encrypted at the client's end (your browser) and then unscrambled or decrypted at the server's end (Bank of Canada). The two most common levels of encryption are 40-bit and 128-bit. Both have been implemented commercially on popular browsers such as Microsoft Internet ExplorerTM1 and Netscape NavigatorTM2. The 128-bit technology is currently the standard in the banking industry.
Definition of cookies
A "cookie" is a small piece of information sent by a web server to a web browser to be read back from that browser. Cookies are a way to have the browser "remember" specific bits of information.
Note: The information stored within a cookie can be read only by the web server that originally sent the cookie. Web servers cannot read cookies sent by other web servers.
Types of cookies
The two types of cookies are session cookies and persistent cookies. The key difference between session cookies and persistent cookies is the time of expiration.
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Session cookies expire at the end of the session. |
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Persistent cookies do not expire at the end of the session. |
Session cookies
A session cookie may be created when you visit a site or portion of a site. The cookie exists for the duration of your visit. Depending on the settings in your browser, you may have the option to deny the session cookie; however, if you deny the cookie you may have trouble using the site that relies on that cookie.
Session cookies are no longer accessible after one of the following events.
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The user logs out of a site or a portion of a site. |
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The user shuts down the browser. |
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The session is inactive for a specified length of time (often 20 minutes). |
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The user starts a new Internet session on the same computer. |
Persistent cookies
A persistent cookie is used to store your preferences for use by a single site. A persistent cookie is stored on your hard drive and is read by your browser each time you visit the web site that sent the cookie. GoC Web sites must inform users when persistent cookies are being used. Users must be presented with a Privacy Notice Statement to inform them of how the information will be used, how long it will be kept and where the information will be stored. (Source: CLF - Important Notices standards)
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