Notice and Consent Guidelines

F) Designing your Privacy Notice Statements

Once you have the content for your Statements, you will need to post them to your Web site. This checklist covers the physical design and structure of your Statements.

F1) Webmasters must follow Common Look and Feel for the Internet

The Common Look and Feel (CLF) for the Internet Standards and Guidelines are designed to ensure everyone has access to information on Government of Canada Web sites including people with disabilities some of whom may use devices that transform Web pages into Braille and audio. Your Privacy Notice Statement and the application form for collecting personal information must therefore be designed to conform to CLF. This typically means using ordinary HTML pages, not using pop-up windows and avoiding the use of any special technologies that can create a barrier to access.

Common Look and Feel for the Internet Accessibility Standards and Guidelines:
http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/clf-nsi/inter/inter-01-tb_e.asp

F2) Put your Privacy Notice Statement and application form link on the same page

Visitors must not be able to access the application form before they have been taken to the Privacy Notice Statement. The Statement and application entry are therefore on the same page and become a single link from inside your site. (In other words, there is not one link to the Statement and a separate link to the application form).

This is how the Statement and application link are identified together on the Unemployment Benefits application section of the Human Resources Development Canada Web site:

F3) Ensure that all of the Privacy Notice Statement is visible

Once visitors have clicked on the Statement/application entry page, they should be able to easily read the entire Privacy Notice Statement on a single Web page. The Statement must therefore be scrollable. If the scroll bars are removed, some web browsers may be unable to display the full contents. No part of the statement can be hidden.

This graphic shows a scroll bar:

F4) Put the link to begin filling out the application at the very bottom of the Privacy Notice Statement

The text link or button that takes visitors to the application form should be at the very bottom of the Privacy Statement. It should not appear at the top, the middle, a side or any place where a visitor can access it before all of the Privacy Notice Statement has been displayed.

The application entry is shown at the very bottom of the Privacy Notice Statement: