Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

Find A Doctor Canada (“Find A Doctor Canada,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) operates the website findadoctorcanada.ca and related tools that help users locate public clinic information, family doctor resources, waitlist links, clinic status updates, call scripts, alerts, and navigation support.

We are not a clinic, medical provider, telemedicine service, insurance provider, public health authority, or government agency. We do not provide medical advice, diagnosis, treatment, triage, referrals, emergency services, or guaranteed doctor placement.

2. Scope of this Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy applies to personal information collected through our website, clinic update/report forms, “I Called This Clinic” forms, doctor availability alerts, newsletter or email signups, booking forms, free tools/toolkit downloads, Get Help chats, offline messages, support follow-up emails, any separately disclosed AI interactions, analytics, advertising tools, and related communications.

This policy does not apply to third-party websites, clinics, government directories, booking platforms, payment processors, or external resources that we link to. Those organizations have their own privacy practices.

3. Personal information we may collect

We try to collect only the information reasonably needed to provide the requested feature, maintain clinic information, improve the website, and communicate with users.

4. Types of information collected

5. Sensitive information and medical information

Our forms are not intended to collect medical records, symptoms, diagnoses, treatment history, health card numbers, prescription details, insurance details, or emergency information.

If you voluntarily submit sensitive medical information, we may delete it, ignore it, or use it only as necessary to respond to your request, protect safety, comply with law, or manage our records. Please contact a licensed healthcare professional or emergency service for medical needs.

6. How we use personal information

We may use personal information to provide and improve the website, operate clinic search tools, process clinic update reports, send doctor availability alerts, provide free tools, schedule support calls, respond to inquiries, moderate and verify user-submitted updates, detect fraud or misuse, maintain security, measure website performance, run advertising/analytics, comply with legal obligations, and enforce our Terms & Conditions.

We may aggregate or de-identify information so it no longer identifies an individual. We may use aggregated or de-identified information for analytics, public statistics, product improvement, and business planning.

7. Consent and your choices

We explain the information needed for a feature and its purposes when you provide it. Before sending a Get Help message, you confirm that you want to share your conversation with the FADC team for navigation support. Your email is required for both live chat and offline messages so we can respond if you disconnect or need further information.

Requesting help does not subscribe you to newsletters or doctor-availability alerts. Those require a separate signup or choice. Optional analytics follow your statistics-consent choice.

You may withdraw consent or ask about access, correction or deletion by emailing hello@findadoctorcanada.ca. Withdrawing consent may prevent us from continuing your support request. We may need to verify your identity and address applicable legal or security requirements.

8. Doctor availability alerts, newsletters, and email communications

If you sign up for doctor availability alerts, newsletters, free tools, or related updates, we may send emails about clinic availability updates, waitlist resources, site updates, toolkits, and related services.

Where required by Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL), we will seek consent, identify ourselves, and include an unsubscribe mechanism in commercial electronic messages. You can unsubscribe using the link in our emails or by contacting us.

Get Help emails are service messages: an acknowledgement, replies and follow-up about your request. Our notification system also alerts authorized staff that a request needs attention. We do not automatically email a complete chat transcript. You can request a copy of your information through the contact address in this policy; we may verify your identity before providing it. Private staff notes are not part of the visitor-visible conversation.

Use an email address you control. Email can be forwarded, accessed on shared devices or delivered to an incorrect address if you mistype it. Do not include sensitive medical details in chat or email.

9. Cookies, analytics, and advertising

We may use cookies, pixels, tags, log files, analytics tools, advertising tools, and similar technologies to operate the website, remember preferences, understand traffic, improve content, measure ad performance, prevent abuse, and support advertising or remarketing.

Third-party tools may collect information such as device identifiers, browser data, approximate location, pages visited, and interactions. You can adjust your browser settings to block or delete cookies, but some website features may not work properly.

Get Help uses a first-party secure session cookie to reconnect you to your conversation without requiring a WordPress account. Its current expiry is seven days. First-party browser session storage remembers whether you opened or closed the chat panel. The cookie and browser storage do not contain your email or message text. A cookie expiring, closing the panel, or selecting End conversation does not delete the server-side record.

Chat analytics record generic interactions such as opening a panel, confirmed message receipt and a team member joining, subject to statistics consent. We do not send chat messages, email addresses, phone numbers, health topics or conversation references to Google Analytics.

10. Get Help chat and AI assistance

Get Help currently connects you to the FADC team through one conversation. The chat currently does not generate AI replies or send its messages to an external AI provider. A team-availability indicator is not a guarantee of an immediate response; the interface shows when a human has actually joined.

If an AI assistant is introduced into this conversation, it will be identified as AI, with an explanation of the provider, information shared and relevant choices before that processing begins. A human conversation will not automatically be shared with an AI provider merely because that provider is configured elsewhere on the website. Any such change will be reflected in this policy and the chat notice.

Chat is for general navigation information, not medical advice, diagnosis, triage, treatment, referrals or emergencies. Do not send health-card numbers, diagnoses, medication details, medical records, financial details or sensitive information about someone else.

11. When we share personal information

We do not sell personal information. We may share personal information with service providers and vendors that help operate the website, host data, process payments, send emails, manage bookings, provide analytics, run advertising, detect security threats, and provide technical support.

We may also disclose information if required or permitted by law, to protect users or the public, to investigate misuse, to enforce our Terms & Conditions, to respond to lawful requests, or in connection with a business transaction such as a merger, sale, financing, reorganization, or transfer of assets.

Get Help conversations are stored in our private self-hosted Live Helper Chat system. Authorized FADC staff and service personnel with a support or maintenance need may access records. Our existing hosting infrastructure, Brevo transactional email service and business email provider support delivery and follow-up. Notification and follow-up emails may contain contact details, the conversation reference and relevant message content. These service providers process information for these operational purposes; chat is not a public post.

12. Clinic reports and user-submitted updates

When you submit “I Called This Clinic” or “Report Update” information, we may review the submission, use it to verify public clinic details, contact you for clarification, and update public listings after review.

We will not intentionally publish your name, email address, phone number, or personal notes as part of a public listing. However, factual clinic status information from your report may be used to improve the directory.

13. Third-party links and external resources

The website links to clinics, government resources, provincial registries, booking tools, payment processors, map providers, email tools, and other third-party websites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices, accuracy, security, or content of third-party websites.

14. Storage, retention, and security

We use reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards designed to protect personal information against unauthorized access, loss, misuse, alteration, or disclosure. No website, email system, or internet transmission is completely secure.

We retain personal information only as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this policy, including to provide services, maintain records, verify clinic updates, comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, prevent fraud, and enforce agreements. Retention periods may vary depending on the type of information.

Get Help records include the email address supplied, messages and replies, consent records, timestamps, conversation status and references; staff may also keep private service notes. Records are stored server-side with restricted staff access. Ending a conversation closes it to further messages but does not automatically erase it. Retention of chat records is separate from the seven-day browser cookie and includes support follow-up, security and applicable recordkeeping needs. Contact us to request access, correction or deletion; we will explain any reason we must retain particular records.

15. International storage and service providers

Some service providers may store or process information outside your province or outside Canada. When information is processed outside Canada, it may be subject to the laws and lawful access requests of that jurisdiction. We use reasonable measures to require service providers to protect information appropriately.

16. Children and minors

The website is intended for general audiences and adults seeking healthcare navigation information. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 without appropriate consent. Parents or guardians should supervise children’s use of online tools and should not submit sensitive medical details about minors through the website.

17. Your privacy choices and rights

Depending on where you live and the laws that apply, you may have the right to request access to personal information we hold about you, ask for corrections, withdraw consent, unsubscribe from emails, request deletion where appropriate, or ask questions about our privacy practices.

To make a privacy request, contact us using the contact information below. We may need to verify your identity before responding. Some requests may be limited by legal, security, or recordkeeping requirements.

18. Accuracy of your information

Please keep your contact information and alert preferences accurate. We are not responsible for missed alerts or communications caused by inaccurate email addresses, spam filters, technical issues, or user settings.

19. Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The updated version will be posted on the website with a new effective date. Your continued use of the website after changes are posted means you accept the updated policy.

20. Contact us

For privacy questions, access/correction requests, deletion requests, unsubscribe issues, or concerns about how personal information is handled, contact: