Privacy in union work
Union work can involve information about a person’s employment, union membership, finances, health, and workplace concerns. This policy explains how information is handled when you use the UnionOps website, public communications tools, Officer Hub, and Local Portal, and how to raise a privacy question.
The distinction that matters is where you choose to work. Public communications tools process designs in your browser. Information submitted to a hosted feature is handled by the organization operating that service and, where applicable, your union or local.
Who is responsible
The operator’s identity and the Privacy Officer’s contact details are provided in the contact section accompanying this policy. You can send privacy questions or requests to ryan@ryanmorris.ca.
The operator manages the website and the hosting arrangements for this service. Your union or local determines how it uses UnionOps for its own work and which records its authorized representatives submit. Responsibility for particular information depends on the activity, applicable law, and the agreement governing the service. Operating the server does not, by itself, settle every legal responsibility for union records.
If another organization operates your installation, consult its privacy notice and contact details. If you are unsure who should handle a request, use the privacy contact above and describe the service involved without including confidential case details.
Information handled by the service
The information involved depends on the features you use and those enabled by your organization.
Public communications tools
- Information: Design text, images you select, brand settings, and saved drafts.
- Purpose: Create and save communications on your device.
The website
- Information: Network and browser information, requested pages, timestamps, and technical errors, depending on the host’s logging configuration.
- Purpose: Deliver pages, maintain the service, investigate failures, and protect against misuse.
An account
- Information: Name, email address, union/local membership, roles, sign-in and authentication records.
- Purpose: Provide access and enforce permissions.
Officer Hub or Local Portal
- Information: Information submitted by you or authorized representatives, including casework, documents, messages, meeting responses, and enabled operational records.
- Purpose: Support the union activities for which the information is provided.
Support or feedback
- Information: Your message and any contact details you choose to provide.
- Purpose: Respond to you and improve the service.
Optional email features
- Information: Email address, language preference, subscription choices, and consent or delivery records where applicable.
- Purpose: Send requested communications and respect delivery preferences.
Enabled operational features may include employment histories, time records, expenses, or travel claims. Some features may involve photos or location information when expressly requested through the relevant workflow. Your organization should explain the purpose and applicable choices before using those features to collect information about you.
Records may come from you, your union’s authorized representatives, or an import or integration your organization has arranged. Do not put real member information into a demonstration environment. Submit only the information needed for the task and use the appropriate restricted feature for confidential material.
What stays on your device
Public communications tools process designs and member photos in the browser. Adding a photo to those tools does not upload it to UnionOps servers. Brand settings, accessibility preferences, and some drafts may be saved in your browser so they remain available on that device.
That protection has limits. Someone with access to your device or browser profile may be able to see locally saved work. Clearing site data or using private browsing may remove saved settings and drafts. Downloaded files remain wherever you save them and are not deleted when you clear the website’s data.
If you explicitly save content to a hosted feature, send it by email, or publish it elsewhere, the content is handled through that destination. Before using a member’s photo, obtain the required consent and consider where the finished material will be shared.
Cookies, technical records, and error reporting
UnionOps Comms does not use advertising scripts or product analytics. That does not mean the website receives no information when you visit it. Serving pages and protecting the service can involve technical records held by the host and its providers.
Signed-in features use session cookies to maintain your sign-in and support security. The browser also stores preferences and local work as described above. Blocking cookies or browser storage may prevent sign-in or stop settings and drafts from being saved.
Operators may enable technical error reporting, including an external error-reporting service, to diagnose failures. These reports are operational records, not advertising profiles. Their contents and recipients depend on the deployed configuration. Consult the provider information linked below for details about the services used for this installation.
Use, sharing, and service providers
Information is used to provide the feature requested, manage authorized access, support users, maintain reliability, and address security or legal obligations. We do not sell personal information or use confidential union records for advertising.
Hosted information may be available to:
- People authorized for the relevant union, local, group, or case, according to their permissions.
- Personnel with an authorized operational or support need, subject to appropriate access restrictions.
- Providers involved in hosting, storage, email delivery, or error reporting, to the extent required for their service.
- Other recipients where you direct a disclosure or where disclosure is legally required or permitted in the circumstances.
A union affiliation does not give a person access to another union’s confidential records. A file or message that you share more broadly may nevertheless become available to its intended recipients. Check the audience before posting or exporting.
Consult the for information about providers, their purposes, and processing locations. Contact the Privacy Officer if you need further information about a provider or a transfer arrangement. Canadian-only storage or processing should not be assumed. Information processed in another jurisdiction may be subject to that jurisdiction’s laws.
Your choices and privacy requests
You may contact the Privacy Officer to ask what information is held about you, request access or correction, raise a concern, or ask whether deletion or withdrawal of consent is available. Rights and exceptions depend on applicable law and the circumstances. Closing an account does not necessarily require deletion of union records that must be retained for a lawful purpose.
Describe your request and the account or service involved. Do not send identity documents or sensitive case files unless we explain why they are necessary and arrange a suitable way to provide them. We may need to verify your identity, clarify the request, or coordinate with the union or local responsible for the records. Access may need to protect information about other people or other legally protected material.
We will explain the next step, any applicable response period, and any lawful limitation on the request. If you are dissatisfied, you can ask the Privacy Officer to review the response and contact the privacy regulator with jurisdiction over the matter. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada provides information about federal privacy rights and where to seek help.
Where optional product-news email is offered, the subscription process provides a separate choice. You can use its unsubscribe or preference link to change that choice. Necessary account or security messages are separate from optional product news. Your union’s own communications may have a different sender and preference process.
Retention and deletion
Locally saved work remains on your device until it is removed through the tool, your browser settings, or your own file management. UnionOps cannot recover a local draft simply because you previously used the website.
For hosted information, retention is determined by the purpose of the record, the organization’s obligations, applicable law, and any legal hold. There is no single retention period for every category of union information.
The criteria depend on the information involved:
- Account and session information: the need to provide access, protect the account, and maintain necessary security or accountability records.
- Union records and attachments: the purpose of the matter, the responsible organization’s records requirements, and any applicable legal or preservation obligation.
- Support and feedback: the time needed to address the request and retain a necessary record of its resolution.
- Security and error records: the need to investigate incidents, maintain the service, and meet applicable accountability requirements.
- Email consent and preference records: the need to demonstrate consent, respect withdrawal, and prevent unwanted messages.
- Backups: the applicable backup cycle, recovery requirements, and any preservation obligation.
Contact the Privacy Officer for the retention arrangements applicable to your information. A deletion request may require manual review and coordination with the responsible organization; it is not necessarily completed by closing an account.
Deletion from an active service does not necessarily remove copies already exported or sent to others. Backup removal depends on the approved backup cycle and any preservation requirement. This policy does not promise immediate or automatic erasure from every system.
Safeguards and privacy incidents
The explains access controls, multi-factor authentication, encryption boundaries, and hosting responsibilities. No system can eliminate every risk of unauthorized access, loss, or disclosure.
If an incident involves personal information, the responsible organizations must assess the applicable reporting and notification duties. Where Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) applies and the real-risk-of-significant-harm threshold is met, reporting and notification must occur as soon as feasible. Other laws and agreements may impose different obligations. See the federal Privacy Commissioner’s breach guidance.
Changes and contact
We publish material changes to this policy with a new version and effective date and provide any additional notice or obtain any additional consent required by law. A revised notice does not automatically authorize a new use of information already collected.
For a privacy question or request, contact ryan@ryanmorris.ca, using “Privacy” in the subject line. You may write in English or French. For help accessing this policy in another format, see the .