Confidentiality and security

The city's Web site manages the use of personal information in compliance with the standards enacted in the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (S.C. 2000, c. 5) and An Act respecting access to documents held by public bodies and the protection of personal information (R.S.Q., c. A-2.1).

As a general rule, the city's Web site does not collect personal information on Internet users. Access to the site is anonymous.

However, when necessary in certain cases, the city may ask a user who wishes to receive a particular service to provide personal information such as his or her name, civic address and e-mail address, as described below. Users may refuse to provide such information, but they will not be able to perform the desired transaction or obtain the requested access. Your e-mail address will not in any case be recorded without your consent.

Instances in which personal information is collected by the city

The city is aware of its obligation to protect all personal information that could be sent to it by users of its site and notifies users of which information is being collected and the use that will be made of it. If the user agrees to provide the requested information, he or she will be deemed to have consented to its collection and use by the city. If personal information provided by users could be used for purposes other than those listed below or that could reasonably result from such use, the city will so advise the user and obtain the latter’s consent, except where exempted from doing so by law.

1) Correspondence with the Accès Montréal network

Users can send an e-mail to the Accès Montréal network concerning any request for information on the city's services. To enable us to respond, we ask you to provide, at least, your e-mail address. Nevertheless, you are under no obligation to provide us with your name, address or telephone number.

2) Competitions

When competitions are organized by the city, we ask for some personal information, such as your e-mail address, name, address and telephone number to enable us to reach you.

3) Surveys

We sometimes conduct online surveys. You are free to respond or not to these surveys that are essentially intended to upgrade the way services are provided by the city. The surveys conducted on the city's Web site do not gather information that would allow Internet users to be identified, but only data that enable you to retain anonymity (for example, age and postal code).

4) Transactional sites

The city's transactional sites may require you to provide personal information, such as your name, address, telephone number, fax number and e-mail address. Your credit card number is not entered on the city's site but on that of the National Bank. This applies, in particular, to CITÉ+, the computer consulting service on taxation and assessment, an e-commerce application reserved exclusively for real estate professionals that involves opening a user file and the registration of transactions in their name. In order to transmit the data required to open a file, we strongly recommend that clients use a browser with a 128-bit cryptographic protocol (encryption), the safest and most effective version for protecting information transmitted virtually.

5) E-forums for discussion and exchange of views

When the city opens online forums parallel to the traditional forms of public consultation, users who wish to participate in these e-forums must provide their e-mail address so that the city can identify them. If a user refuses to give this information, he or she cannot participate. Users must also show courtesy and decency when communicating. Accusations, slanders, libels or hateful, sexist, racist, discriminatory, defamatory, vulgar or other similar matter are strictly prohibited in e-discussion forums, just as they are on the city's entire Web site.

Limited liability

Except for e-commerce applications in which all the data transmitted are encrypted through a sophisticated encryption system, the city's Web site is not a secure site.

In cases of e-commerce, the level of protection depends on the cryptographic protocol (encryption) of the browser used by the Internet user (the higher the protocol, the higher the protection level).

In other cases, the city cannot guarantee the protection of the information sent to it via non-secure pages.

Although the city has adopted a policy on the protection of personal information for its administrators and employees, such information may be divulged or intercepted illegally, in which case the Internet user holds the city harmless of any liability, except in the case of gross negligence committed by the city.

Non-disclosure to third parties

If you communicate personal information to the city over its Web site in the form of a message, to subscribe to a service or to make a payment, please note that the city does not sell, market or lease third-party information provided by users.

The city agrees not to disclose personal information provided by users to third parties, except when such information is bundled with other information in such manner that no particular user can be identified from it. This means user names and addresses will not be disclosed, but we may publish information of strategic value in our surveys. For example, we may report that “50 per cent of those who have used the city’s site are Montréal residents between 25 and 45 years of age and 25 per cent reside in Europe.”

The city does, however, reserve the right to transmit personal information about you to protect the property rights of its site or those of its users, sponsors, advertisers or suppliers when so required by law.

Transactional sites and credit cards

On the city's transactional sites, payment can be made online through the National Bank of Canada. Data for credit cards are not entered on the city's Web site, but on the National Bank's site, and they are in no way intercepted by the city. These data are encrypted through the National Bank using a sophisticated encryption system called the SSL protocol (Secure Socket Layers protocol) with a 128-bit key.

Right of access and modification

Subject to the restrictions provided for by law, at any time you are entitled to access, change, rectify, and when allowed, remove personal information that you have supplied to the city's Web site. It is the city clerk's office that is responsible for requests to access a document or personal information or requests to rectify information.

Tracing connections and statistical reports

The city may trace connections to its Web site for purely statistical reasons. The data collected in this way reveals which browser was used to surf the site (Microsoft Explorer or Netscape), at what time the visit was made, how long it lasted, and which pages were visited. In no case do these details enable identification of the user who surfed the site. These statistics are anonymous.

E-mail lists

At any time, you can choose to no longer receive information sent by the city through the e-mail lists to which you subscribe.

Cookies

A cookie is an element of information, a simple numeric sequence, that a Web site sends to your net browser and which is temporarily accommodated in your browser or on the hard disk of your computer.

Generally speaking, the city's Web site does not send cookies to the browsers of users. However, the site occasionally requests the use of cookies to improve the user's experience, so as not to display the same message several times, for example.

However, certain interactive applications, such as the city's transactional sites, must send cookies to enable us to verify that we are dealing with the correct client. In particular, the cookie upgrades communication between our server and your browser.

Cookies placed in this way through the city's transactional sites are incapable of retrieving any other type of information on your hard disk. As soon as the connection between your machine and the city's interactive applications is deactivated, the cookies are no longer operational.