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Policy on Privacy of the Site of the Chief Electoral Officer of Québec

Thank you for visiting the Web site of the Chief Electoral Officer of Québec and for reviewing our confidentiality policy. Please read attentively.
Links to other sites

Our site provides links to other sites. As soon as you click a link and leave our Website, the information exchanged is no longer subject to our privacy policy, but rather to that of the site visited. As a precaution, we suggest that you read the privacy policy of the site in question.

Using cookies

The Chief Electoral Officer’s Website never places any persistent cookies on the users’ hard drives. However, to facilitate navigation of Active Server Pages (ASP) of the site, a session cookie must be placed on random access memory. This cookie is automatically deleted when a user leave our site.

You can deactivate the acceptance of cookies at any time using the options available on your browser. This could, however, deprive you of certain on-line services or advanced functionalities.

Automatic exchange of information

You should be aware that as soon as you access the site www.electionsquebec.qc.ca, information is automatically exchanged between your computer and our site’s server without your intervention. Only the following information is transmitted:
- the Internet domain name (e.g., "xcompany.com" if you are using a private Internet access account, or "university.edu".);
- the IP address with which you access our site (e.g., 123.45.67.890). An IP address is a number automatically assigned to your computer by your Internet provider every time you use the Internet). The IP address can be used by an Internet services provider to reveal the identity of the person to whom it is assigned;
- the type of browser (Netscape, Explorer) and operating system (Windows, Mac OS) that you are using;
- the pages visited;
- the date and time when you visited the pages on our site;
- the address of the referring site from which you accessed our site.
The Chief Electoral Officer collects this information as a result of technological requirements that are inherent in browsing the Web. The server requires this information in order to transmit you files that are compatible with the computer equipment that you are using.

The Chief Electoral Officer of Québec keeps some information required for statistical purposes in order to keep track of the number of visitors, the pages visited most often, the technology used by these visitors, the referring sites and the country of origin of web surfers visited. However, we reserve the right to link these addresses to the identity of persons who visit our site if we detect any attempt to damage or hack our Website.

Transmission of personal information

In accordance with the Act respecting Access to documents held by public bodies and the Protection of personal information, the Chief Electoral Officer does not collect any personal information without the visitor’s consent.

The Act requires any government department or agency that requires personal information from an individual to make sure about the need to collect such information and it must identify itself to this person.

Pursuant to the Act, you can have access to any personal information that the Chief Electoral Officer has about you. For more information, consult our special section on Access to personal information.

Securing Electronic Services

The site of the Chief Electoral Officer offers secure electronic services to targeted client groups using an encryption method that guarantees the confidentiality of personal information that is exchanged. These clients have access to these services only through a user code and password.

When these clients use our transactional or other on-line services, we have to make sure about their identity by requesting certain personal information (e.g.: name, contact information, file number or other identification). This information is necessary for the following reasons:
- to check your identity when you communicate with the Chief Electoral Officer;
- to access your file so as to process your request using the correct information;
- to verify your identity when we communicate with you in response to your request;
- to guarantee the confidentiality of your information.
Our security protocol

The site of the Chief Electoral Officer uses advanced technology and equipment that ensure the security of its transactional pages and keep confidential any information that is exchanged.

SSL (Secure Socket Layers), the security protocol used, helps to encrypt any information entered (128-bit encryption) and to verify the identity of the parties (the user and the site) who communicate together by Internet.

In general, secure pages are identified using the symbol [padlock] that appears at the bottom of the screen and by “https” in the URL. These two features assure the user that the information transmitted is encrypted.

Your responsibilities as a user

To enjoy maximum security, it is advisable to:
- use the most recent version of a browser that meets the security requirements (SSL protocol with 128-bit encryption);
- delete your computer’s cache memory after sending your information;
- keep your identification information, access code and password confidential. (The Chief Electoral Officer can in no way be held responsible for the unauthorized use of your access code and password. If the confidentiality of this information is compromised, please inform us immediately to avoid the fraudulent use of your identity.)
Definition of Terms Used

The following definitions are mainly taken from Termium, published by the Translation Bureau of the Government of Canada.

Active Server Page (ASP)

A programming environment that combines elements of HTML and scripting. Web pages built with ASP can change dynamically based on user input.

Cookie

A small piece of information sent by a Web server to a Web browser to be read back from that browser.

Domain Name

A single word or abbreviation that makes up part of a computer's unique name in a system of domain names used to identify individual Internet computers.

Encryption

Cryptographic transformation intended to ensure that the data can be used only by a person who has the key to restore it to its original form.

IP Address

The numerical address that uniquely identifies each computer on the Internet, made up of four numbers separated by three dots.

Persistent Cookie

A cookie that is stored on a user’s hard drive until it expires (persistent cookies are set with expiration dates) or until the user deletes the cookie (definition from www.webopedia.com).

Session Cookie

A cookie that expires as soon as you log out or a short time thereafter as set by the Website.

For more information

For more information, please consult the section Access to information.