Privacy and Confidentiality Policy
Questions about this document should be directed to [email protected]
Our commitment to privacy and confidentiality
Kids Help Phone (KHP) is committed to protecting the confidentiality and privacy of the personal information and/or personal health information in its care. This includes the personal information and/or personal health information of its donors, employees, service users, service delivery partners, volunteers, and board members, collectively referred to as stakeholders. As part of that commitment, we have implemented this Privacy and Confidentiality Policy. This policy applies to full/part time permanent or contracted employees, volunteers, contractors, consultants, temporary employees from agencies, and all personnel affiliated with third-party service providers; hereinafter referred to as workers.
This Privacy and Confidentiality Policy covers all KHP protected data. The term “protected data” includes personal information, personal health information, and other privileged or sensitive data (including, but not limited to, commercial, financial, technical, operational, or other information which concerns the business and affairs of KHP, its employees, contractual workers, volunteers, or students).
In this Privacy and Confidentiality Policy, the term “service user data” refers to the personal information and personal health information of service users.
Scope
This policy sets out KHP’s commitment to privacy. It governs all of its services and interactions with stakeholders: in-person, digital, online, or off-line. KHP offers professional counselling; an interactive, personalised web experience; information; referrals; and volunteer-led, text-based support to young people. Services are offered in English and French, and phone counselling is also offered in over 100 languages with the help of trained interpreters.
Services are provided for youth of any age living in Canada. Our volunteer-led, text-based service is also available to adults living in Canada, and we comply with all applicable Canadian laws. KHP services are also available to youth who are resident in Canada while they are outside Canada.
KHP services are not offered as mental health services.
KHP does not require users to identify themselves; however, information collected from users may include information that could identify them. KHP will deal with all information as private, privileged, and confidential.
KHP has a Security Policy, stipulating various protection mechanisms, which governs all information under its custody and control. KHP hosts its own services directly, via third-party service providers, or on the cloud. Information may also be stored on mobile devices managed by KHP, or on devices owned by workers. All workers agree to this Privacy and Confidentiality Policy. Our publicly-available Terms of Service includes application-specific privacy notices and Terms of Use.
KHP leverages third-party tools such as Microsoft Power BI and Twilio to support service users. Each of these third-party tools has its own Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.
KHP is transparent about its data uses. When we receive a request about the data practices of a third party, we will redirect the question to the respective privacy contact information of that service provider. KHP cannot take responsibility for defending or representing such third-party providers. As well, KHP cannot make any claims regarding the accuracy and openness of third-party tools or their commitments regarding individual access.
KHP provides this Privacy and Confidentiality Policy in English and in French. Translations into other languages are available on demand.