Privacy Policy
1. Introduction
CityOfCalgary.com (“the Site,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) is owned and operated by McLeod Capital Corp., an Alberta corporation. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and protect your personal information when you visit or use our website at cityofcalgary.com.
We are committed to complying with Alberta’s Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA), S.A. 2003, c. P-6.5, and Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL), S.C. 2010, c. 23. This policy applies to all visitors, registered users, and business owners who interact with the Site.
Important: CityOfCalgary.com is an independent, privately-operated community information platform. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by the City of Calgary municipal government.
2. Designated Privacy Contact
Our designated individual responsible for privacy compliance is:
Spencer McLeod
McLeod Capital Corp.
56 Sienna Hills Court SW
Calgary, AB T3H 2W3
Email: privacy@cityofcalgary.com
You may direct any questions, concerns, access requests, or complaints regarding the collection, use, or disclosure of your personal information to the contact above.
3. Information We Collect
We collect the following categories of personal information, depending on how you interact with the Site:
3.1 Information You Provide Directly
| Purpose | Information Collected |
|---|---|
| Contact Form | Name, email address, message content |
| Blog/Newsletter Subscription | Email address, content preferences |
| Claim Your Listing (Business Owners) | Business name, your name, email address, phone number, verification information |
| Business Listing Management | Hours of operation, services offered, business description, photos, certifications, contact details, social media handles, website URL |
| Featured Listing Subscription | Payment information (processed by Stripe — we do not store card numbers) |
| Account Creation | Name, email address, password |
3.2 Information Collected Automatically
When you visit the Site, we automatically collect certain technical information:
- Device and Browser Data: IP address, browser type and version, operating system, device type, screen resolution
- Usage Data: Pages visited, time spent on pages, referring URL, click interactions
- Cookies and Similar Technologies: As described in Section 7 below
- Engagement Analytics (Business Listings): We track anonymized interactions with business listing pages, including page views, “Call” button clicks, “Get Directions” clicks, and “Visit Website” clicks. IP addresses associated with these events are cryptographically hashed (one-way, non-reversible) and retained for a maximum of 90 days.
3.3 Information from Public Sources
The Site aggregates publicly available data licensed under the Open Government Licence — City of Calgary. This includes business licence registrations, property assessment data, building permits, community demographics, and traffic information. This is public institutional data and does not include personal information about individuals.
4. Purposes for Collection, Use, and Disclosure
We collect, use, and disclose personal information only for the following identified purposes:
- Operating the Site — To display content, process account registrations, and maintain site functionality.
- Business Directory Services — To process listing claims, verify business ownership, manage business profiles, process Featured subscription payments, and display engagement statistics to listing owners.
- Communications — To respond to your inquiries submitted via our contact form, and to send blog/newsletter emails you have subscribed to (with your express consent).
- Analytics and Improvement — To understand how visitors use the Site and to improve our services, content, and user experience.
- Security — To detect and prevent fraud, unauthorized access, or other malicious activity.
- Legal Compliance — To comply with applicable laws, regulations, or lawful requests.
We will not use your personal information for any purpose other than those identified above without first obtaining your consent, unless otherwise permitted or required by law.
5. Consent
5.1 Express Consent
We obtain your express consent before:
- Sending you commercial electronic messages (newsletters, blog updates)
- Collecting personal information through forms you submit
- Processing payment information for Featured subscriptions
5.2 Implied Consent
By using the Site, you imply consent to:
- The collection of technical/analytical data through cookies and similar technologies as described in this policy
- The use of anonymized engagement data on business listings
5.3 Withdrawing Consent
You may withdraw your consent at any time by:
- Unsubscribing from emails using the “unsubscribe” link in every message
- Contacting us at privacy@cityofcalgary.com
- Deleting your account through your account settings
Withdrawal of consent may limit our ability to provide certain services to you (e.g., if you withdraw consent for data processing related to your business listing, we may be unable to maintain your claimed listing).
6. Email Communications and CASL Compliance
All commercial electronic messages sent by CityOfCalgary.com comply with Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL):
- Double Opt-In: When you subscribe to our blog or newsletter, you will receive a confirmation email. Your subscription is not active until you click the confirmation link. This ensures we have a verifiable record of your express consent.
- Unsubscribe Mechanism: Every commercial email includes a functional unsubscribe link that is processed within 10 business days.
- Sender Identification: All emails identify McLeod Capital Corp. as the sender with our physical mailing address and contact information.
- Record of Consent: We maintain records of when and how consent was obtained for each subscriber.
7. Cookies and Tracking Technologies
7.1 What We Use
| Cookie/Technology | Provider | Purpose | Retention |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Analytics 4 | Google LLC | Website traffic analysis, user behaviour | Up to 14 months |
| WordPress Session | CityOfCalgary.com | Authentication, site functionality | Session / 14 days |
| Stripe | Stripe, Inc. | Payment fraud prevention | Per Stripe’s policy |
| QFlo | McLeod Capital Corp. | Email subscription tracking, form submissions | Per our retention policy |
7.2 Google Analytics
We use Google Analytics 4 (GA4) to understand how visitors interact with the Site. GA4 collects data using cookies and similar technologies. This data is anonymized and aggregated. We do not enable Google’s advertising features or user-ID tracking.
You may opt out of Google Analytics by installing the Google Analytics Opt-Out Browser Add-on.
7.3 Future Technologies
We may implement additional analytics, advertising (such as Google AdSense), or tracking technologies in the future. This Privacy Policy will be updated before any such implementation, and where required, your consent will be obtained.
8. Disclosure to Third Parties
We do not sell, rent, trade, or otherwise disclose your personal information to third parties for their own marketing purposes.
We share personal information only with the following categories of service providers, solely to operate the Site:
| Service Provider | Purpose | Data Shared |
|---|---|---|
| Google LLC | Analytics (GA4), Search Console | Anonymized usage data |
| Stripe, Inc. | Payment processing | Billing name, email, payment card (direct to Stripe) |
| QFlo (McLeod Capital Corp.) | Email marketing and contact management | Email address, subscription preferences, engagement data |
| Amazon Web Services | Hosting infrastructure | All site data (encrypted at rest) |
All service providers are contractually bound to use personal information only for the purposes for which it was disclosed and to maintain appropriate security safeguards.
We may also disclose personal information:
- When required by law, regulation, court order, or lawful governmental request
- To protect the rights, property, or safety of McLeod Capital Corp., our users, or the public
9. Data Retention
We retain personal information only as long as reasonably necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected, and as required for legitimate legal and business purposes:
| Data Type | Retention Period |
|---|---|
| Account and business listing data | Duration of active account, plus 2 years after account closure or cancellation |
| Blog/newsletter subscriber data | Until you unsubscribe, plus 30 days |
| Contact form submissions | 2 years from submission |
| Anonymized engagement analytics (listing events) | 90 days |
| Google Analytics data | 14 months (configured in GA4) |
| Payment and transaction records | 7 years (as required by Canada Revenue Agency) |
Justification for 2-year post-cancellation retention: We retain account data for 2 years following account closure to comply with the general limitation period under Alberta’s Limitations Act, R.S.A. 2000, c. L-12, which permits civil claims to be brought within 2 years of discovery. This retention ensures we can respond to legal claims, process chargebacks, resolve disputes, and facilitate account restoration if you choose to return.
Formal deletion requests: Upon receiving a deletion request under PIPA, we will remove your personal information within 30 days, except where retention is required by law (e.g., financial transaction records) or is reasonably necessary to establish, exercise, or defend a legal claim within the applicable limitation period. We will inform you of any such exceptions when responding to your request.
10. Security Safeguards
We protect your personal information with security measures appropriate to the sensitivity of the information, including:
- Encryption in transit (TLS/SSL) for all data transmitted to and from the Site
- Encryption at rest for data stored on our servers
- Hashed and salted passwords — we cannot view your password
- IP address hashing for engagement analytics (one-way, non-reversible)
- Role-based access controls limiting staff access to personal information
- Regular security monitoring and software updates
- Secure payment processing through PCI-DSS compliant Stripe infrastructure (we never store credit card numbers)
No method of electronic storage or transmission is 100% secure. While we strive to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee absolute security.
11. Your Rights Under PIPA
Under Alberta’s Personal Information Protection Act, you have the following rights:
- Right of Access — You may request access to your personal information held by us. We will respond within 45 days of receiving your request.
- Right to Correction — You may request correction of any inaccurate or incomplete personal information. If we disagree with the correction, we will note your request on file.
- Right to Withdraw Consent — You may withdraw consent for the collection, use, or disclosure of your personal information (subject to legal or contractual restrictions).
- Right to Complain — If you are not satisfied with our response to your privacy concern, you may file a complaint with the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta (OIPC):
Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta
#410, 9925 – 109 Street NW
Edmonton, AB T5K 2J8
Phone: 780-422-6860
Website: https://www.oipc.ab.ca
To exercise any of these rights, contact us at privacy@cityofcalgary.com. We may require you to verify your identity before processing your request.
12. Age Requirement
The Site is intended for users who are at least 18 years of age. Account creation, business listing claims, and form submissions are restricted to individuals 18 years or older. We do not knowingly collect personal information from individuals under 18. If we become aware that we have collected personal information from a person under 18, we will delete it promptly.
General browsing of the Site’s public content is available to individuals of all ages.
13. Open Government Data
The Site uses public datasets provided under the Open Government Licence — City of Calgary (Version 2.1). This data is publicly available institutional information and does not contain personal information about private individuals. Our use of this data is governed by the terms of that licence and the laws of Alberta.
14. Links to Third-Party Websites
The Site may contain links to external websites (including business websites listed in our directory). We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of those third-party sites. We encourage you to review their privacy policies before providing any personal information.
15. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we make material changes, we will:
- Update the “Last Updated” date at the top of this policy
- Post a notice on the Site for a reasonable period
- Where required by PIPA, obtain fresh consent for any new collection, use, or disclosure purpose
Your continued use of the Site after changes are posted constitutes acceptance of the updated policy, except where fresh consent is required by law.
16. Governing Law
This Privacy Policy is governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Province of Alberta and the federal laws of Canada applicable therein. Any disputes arising from this policy or your use of the Site shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Alberta.
17. Contact Us
If you have questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or our privacy practices, please contact:
Spencer McLeod, Privacy Officer
McLeod Capital Corp.
56 Sienna Hills Court SW
Calgary, AB T3H 2W3
Email: privacy@cityofcalgary.com
Effective Date: May 16, 2026 | Last Updated: May 16, 2026