Local Admin

The final phase of the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, (the Act), commonly referred to as PIPEDA, came into effect January 2004. The Act applies to The United Church of Canada and as a result we are obliged to implement its provisions. Essentially, the Act, and other existing provincial privacy legislation, gives individuals a right to privacy in the collection, use, and disclosure of their personal information.

A summary of The United Church of Canada's Privacy Policy is available for download [PDF: 2 pp/103 KB].

Privacy Bulletins

• Additional information about the legislation is available in Privacy Bulletin #1 [PDF: 2 pp 33 KB], which was included in the April 2004 Infopac.
• As a responsible partner in an online world we need to work towards best practices for protecting personal information. Privacy Bulletin #2 [PDF: 3 pp/32 KB] explores why this is important in The United Church of Canada.
• A privacy issue that continues to cause confusion and uncertainty is access to registers. Privacy Bulletin #3 [PDF: 1 p/64 KB] provides guidelines when handling these requests and some precautionary steps that should always be followed when access to the registers is requested.
• View sample letters and forms [RTF: 4 pp 40 KB] for pastoral charge requests for information in registers.

Frequently Asked Questions

• What is PIPEDA and how does it affect me?
• What is personal information?
• Can I refuse to disclose my personal information?

These questions, and many more are answered in the Privacy Bulleting: Frequently Asked Questions [PDF: 2 pp/38 KB] document that was included in the April 2004 Infopac.

Several more questions have arisen since April 2004. Some are answered in our Privacy Legislation FAQs.

For answers to other questions, or for more information, please e-mail the Privacy Officer.