Policies, Code of Conduct & Terms of Use

CDHA Online Community Code of Conduct and User Policies

Advertising Disclaimer

Publication of advertisements in CDHA print or online properties in no way constitutes endorsement of the product/service or company. CDHA does not accept responsibility for the accuracy of statements by advertisers, nor their compliance with any federal or provincial/territorial legislation. CDHA reserves the right to reject any submission if the advertisement, organization, product or service is not compatible with CDHA’s mission, vision or values.

Copyright

Copyright is held by the Canadian Dental Hygienists Association. Permission to reproduce or reprint this document for educational purposes is not required; however, appropriate credit must be included. If the material is used exactly as is, please include the text "Source: Canadian Dental Hygienists Association www.cdha.ca." If this material is used in part or modified from its original format, please include the text: "Adapted from the Canadian Dental Hygienists Association, year, publication name, article title, www.cdha.ca"

C'est l'Association canadienne des hygiénistes dentaires qui détient le droit d'auteur. Il n'est pas nécessaire d'obtenir d'autorisation pour reproduire ou réimprimer ce document à des fins éducatives, mais il faut mentionner la source comme il se doit. Si le matériel est utilisé exactement tel quel, prière d'ajouter le texte suivant : « Source : l'Association canadienne des hygiénistes dentaires, www.cdha.ca. » Si le matériel est utilisé en partie ou que sa présentation originale est modifiée, prière d'ajouter le texte suivant : « Adapté de l'Association canadienne des hygiénistes dentaires, année, nom de la publication, titre de l'article, www.cdha.ca. »

CDHA Online Community Code of Conduct and User Policies

The Canadian Dental Hygienists Association (CDHA) recognizes that facilitating online communities, including Facebook, Twitter, our CDHA forums, blogs and listservs, is an important part of our overall communications strategy and an integral means of interaction between CDHA and its members as well the public and an invaluable place for CDHA members to connect, share with and learn from each other.

We want our online communities to be welcoming and constructive environments. To ensure the integrity of our communities, we ask participants to agree to the following code of conduct and adhere to established policies when participating in any of our CDHA online channels.

Read the CDHA Online Community Code of Conduct and User Policies

Privacy Policy

Policy Type: Membership Control Policies

Policy Title: Privacy and Security

Date Approved: January 2004

Revised: December 2023

The Canadian Dental Hygienists Association (CDHA) values and respects the privacy of our members and works to ensure their personal information is protected, in accordance with relevant privacy laws in Canada, and internationally where applicable. We will limit the data we collect to strictly what is required for the purposes of fulfilling our mission and delivering programs and services, and we commit to using such information only for their intended purposes. This policy applies to written, verbal and electronic personal information that is collected and used in the course of our activities.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the CDHA will act as CDHA Privacy Officer.

In accordance with Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), “personal information includes any factual or subjective information, recorded or not, about an identifiable individual. This includes information in any form, such as:

age, name, ID numbers, income, ethnic origin, or blood type;
opinions, evaluations, comments, social status, or disciplinary actions; and
employee files, credit records, loan records, medical records, existence of a dispute between a consumer and a merchant, intentions (for example, to acquire goods or services, or change jobs).”

Collection of Data

Data is collected during the account creation and membership renewal process.

Members can choose at any anytime whether they wish to receive email communications or third-party mailings. Individuals can do so by calling, emailing, mailing or faxing CDHA to update their information and communication preferences. In addition, individuals can update their own record online via the My Profile section of the CDHA website. Reminders to keep information up-to-date are included in member communications, including printed and electronic publications.

All credit card payment information is forwarded to third-party payment processors, who specialize in the secure online capture and processing of credit/debit card transactions. Any payment information retained by CDHA for membership autorenewal purposes is encrypted and stored securely.

Member and non-member and guest data is stored in the CDHA membership database. This database is used for mailings, broadcast email to whole or subsets of the database, research surveys, employment surveys, national statistics about the profession, third party mailing list rental for survey or product promotion, management of professional standards and, as deemed appropriate by management staff, for other organizational business.

Additional data is collected as members and non-members interact with CDHA through the website, online communities/listservs and as volunteers or in contract positions. The collection of personal information is limited to that necessary for the purposes identified. Consent for the collection of data is obtained as follows:

Consent is acquired upon account registration.

Opt-in consent is provided for third party mailing list rental.

Security

Security safeguards, such as limited access, password protection, encoding and CDHA policies and procedures protect personal information.

A Confidentiality Agreement must be signed by all parties with whom the CDHA exchanges information. This extends to the exchange of information between the provincial associations, regulatory authorities and third parties.

Protecting your CDHA membership number is critical in ensuring the protection of your personal information as it provides access to the members-only section of the website and to your personal profile. Your CDHA membership number should never be divulged to any other individual or third-party organization, with the exception of CDHA corporate/affinity partners. If you choose to provide your membership identification number to organizations other than CDHA and your provincial association, you are potentially jeopardizing the privacy of your personal information. If you are required to provide proof of membership to a third-party organization, the third-party organization may contact CDHA at 613-224-5515 as we would be pleased to provide proof of membership on your behalf.

Third Party Access to Data

Member email addresses and telephone numbers will not be sold to any outside parties. Please be aware CDHA does share your contact information with corporate partners offering membership benefit programs who have signed confidentiality agreements. We also share member contact information with regulatory authorities and provincial associations, where agreements are in place.

CDHA rents mailing lists to third parties such as suppliers, educational organizations, industry and grant recipients. These parties wish to promote special events, inform members of new products and resources and/or conduct funded research. The CDHA Privacy Officer or their designate reviews and approves all materials distributed by third parties prior to renting mailing lists to ensure these are of potential interest to members. If members would like to opt-out of third-party mailings, they may submit their request in writing to the CDHA or edit their online member profile.

The CDHA WebSite (www.cdha.ca)

Using "Cookies"

Members-only access to the CDHA website is equipped with an Internet tool called a “session” cookie. Cookies are small bits of data that are sent to a user’s computer to improve the user experience. We use them to track that the member has signed in so that you don’t have to continually enter your username and password as you move around the site. This cookie is removed as soon as you log out or close your browser.

Tracking IP Addresses

An IP Address (Internet Protocol Address) is a number that is automatically assigned to a user’s computer whenever they are using the Internet. Web servers—the computers that “serve up” Web pages—identify the computer by its IP Address. We collect IP addresses for the purposes of system administration, to report aggregate information to our partners, and to audit the use of our website. When pages are requested from the Members Only section of our website, our servers log the IP Address. We do not normally link IP addresses to anything personally identifiable, which means that a user’s session will be logged, but the user remains anonymous. We can and will use IP addresses to identify a user when it is deemed necessary to enforce compliance with our Terms of Use and License Agreement or to protect our service, website, customers, or others.

Summary

Please be assured that we take member privacy seriously and make every reasonable effort to protect it. If you have questions or comments about our member privacy policy, please contact the CEO (olove@cdha.ca).

Language and Translation Policy

Effective date: July 2020

Revised: November 2023

Policy Statement

As the national, professional association serving and representing the interests of dental hygienists in every Canadian province and territory, the Canadian Dental Hygienists Association (CDHA) endeavours to provide key information and services in both of Canada’s Official Languages.

The implementation of this policy is guided by the principles outlined below.

In the event of any uncertainty in applying this policy or the associated guidelines, CDHA’s chief executive officer (CEO) has ultimate authority to decide what information will be translated and may delegate this authority as appropriate.

Guidelines

CDHA will be guided by the following principles with respect to the use of language and translation:

Dentalhygienecanada.ca – consumer website
All material created and distributed by CDHA to the public via this site will be available in English and French.

CDHA.ca – member website
Designated sections (50 most popular pages) of the website will be available in English and French (through a toggle button). Determination of additional sections to be translated will be reviewed on an annual basis using the following criteria:

Importance of information to members
Permanent vs temporary content
Cost
Relevance to francophone members

General association operations
Available in both English and French

Annual Report
Position papers and statements
Biennial Job Market & Employment Survey and the membership survey. Translation of other surveys will be assessed on a case-by-case basis
Membership services (general calls, emails to and from members)
Membership renewal correspondence
Job postings for CDHA staff positions that require a bilingual candidate
Media releases will be distributed in English and available in French upon request. CDHA will participate in French language media interviews when possible.
Significant updates and special email announcements
Executive summaries of official reports
Majority of resources and fact sheets

Available in English only

Internal documents, such as consultation papers, backgrounders, interim reports, strategic plan, meeting minutes, and policy documents
All association eNewsletters (CDHA Connect, Advocacy in Action, Trends, Career Centre bulletins) and most email announcements
Conferences, webinars, and workshops will primarily be conducted in English. Consideration will be given to French-only professional development for francophone markets
Courses will be available primarily in English. Course quizzes will be available in French, upon request
Most oral consultations and all meetings will be conducted in English
Some minor surveys and reports
Some resources and fact sheets

Available in the language of submission

Career centre employment postings, conference paper abstracts
CJDH (Canadian Journal of Dental Hygiene) manuscripts will be published in the language of submission. Abstracts will be published in the opposite language of the submitted article

Oh Canada! articles will be published in the language of submission. The president’s message will be published in English and French