Protecting your privacy

Passport Canada is committed to respecting the privacy of individuals who visit our Web site. This page summarizes our Web site privacy policy and practices.

Passport Canada Web site does not automatically gather any personal information from you, such as your name, phone number, e-mail or street address during your visit to our Web site. This information is only obtained if you supply it voluntarily, usually through contacting us via e-mail or registering in a secure portion of the site.

All personal information you do provide is protected under the federal Privacy Act. This means that at any point of collection you will be informed that your information is being collected, the purpose for which it is being collected and that you have a right of access to the information.

Passport Canada uses software that receives and records the Internet Protocol (IP) addresses of computers that have connected with our Web site. In such instances, we make no attempt to link these addresses with the identity of individuals visiting our site.

Passport Canada does not regularly use "cookies" to track how visitors use the Web sites of individual institutions ( Cookies are files that a Web site can place on your hard drive, without your knowledge, to monitor your use of that site). Whenever we enable "cookies" to facilitate your transactions, we will first inform you.

Visitor information is not disclosed to anyone except Passport Canada employees who need the information in order to respond to your request. 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 individual profiles, nor do we disclose this information to anyone outside the federal government.

Questions or comments regarding this policy, or the administration of the Privacy Act in Passport Canada may be directed to the Access to Information and Privacy Coordinator by accessing the Access to Information and Privacy Protection Home Page of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade or by calling (613) 992-1425. If you are not satisfied with our response to your privacy concern, you may wish to contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada at 1 800 267-0441 or via the Internet at www.privcom.gc.ca.

Copyright

All rights reserved. Permission is granted to electronically copy and to print in hard copy for internal use only. No part of this information may be reproduced, modified, or redistributed in any form or by any means, for any purposes other than those noted above (including sales), without the prior written permission of Passport Canada.

Disclaimers - external hyperlinks

Passport Canada is not responsible for the quality, merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose of products or services available on external sites and listed or described on our menu; nor is Passport Canada site responsible for the accuracy, reliability or currency of the information contained on the Web site and supplied by external sources.

Official languages

Passport Canada is bound by the Official Languages Act and relevant Treasury Board policies and all Passport Canada Site information is available in both French and English. However, users should be aware that some information on external sites to which we link is available only in the language in which it was provided.

Web security

Passport Canada is taking the necessary measures to protect the confidentiality of the personal information you provide and to ensure that your electronic transactions with us are secure.

How we protect your information (EPass)

There are two methods that ensure the security of your transactions: encryption and firewalls.

The first security layer begins with your web browser. When you access the passport on-line form via ePass Canada, the server checks your browser to ensure it meets strict security requirements. You may only use browsers that employ 128-bit encryption (one of the highest levels of browser security available today). A secure connection is then established between your computer and our service.

Encryption electronically scrambles the data stream between your computer and our server. This minimizes the risk that Internet hackers and other users will alter or view information being transmitted. You must be using a browser with 128-bit encryption in order to access this site. A padlock or key icon at the bottom of your browser indicates that a secure connection has been established. For interactive transactions, we may supplement this industry standard with additional security measures.

Firewalls are a combination of hardware and software designed to securely separate the outside world from our internal computer systems and database.

How you can protect your information from unauthorized access

To protect against unauthorized access to your secure session, the system is designed to automatically time-out the session, which occurs after 18 minutes of inactivity.

Passport Canada recommends that all users exit the passport on-line form and ePass Canada applications using the "Logoff" link.

Users can also shut down their browser to log out of these applications. If the user leaves these applications any other way, the ePass Canada session will still be active. Anyone accessing the same computer could then access the previous user's name, address and telephone information until the timed logout occurs (after 18 minutes).

Passport Canada suggests that all users clear their browser cache once a transaction has been completed. Information stored in the browser cache is not encrypted, and therefore could be compromised by others if the browser cache is not cleared.

Updated: 2005-05-05