The Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival Society (VCBF) has strengthened our commitment to protecting the privacy of our artists, festival goers and website users. The VCBF also strives to take full measures to protect the personal information you provide when you purchase tickets to any VCBF event or class, subscribe to the VCBF e-newsletter, raffles or contests or make a donation.

Collection, Use and Disclosure

Collection
The personal information that you provide to the VCBF is protected under the provisions of Canada’s federal privacy legislations. Depending on the nature of the transaction, VCBF collects your name, street address and/or email address and telephone number. Payment information is taken online through PayPal; or is taken in person via personal cheques or using the Square Reader.

Use
We use your information to:

  • Respond to your inquiries;
  • Inform you of important changes to VCBF performances and events;
  • Provide you with our newsletters and brochures;
  • Administer contests and promotions;
  • Notify you of special events and performances; and
  • Ask for your financial support.

Disclosure
Your personal information is not shared, rented, exchanged or otherwise disclosed to any outside third party except where authorized and/or required by law.

VCBF uses external services and suppliers including PayPal, Eventbrite and Ticketbud to assist in various functions such as processing ticket transactions. These companies also have privacy agreements and commitments to protect your privacy. For more information, please visit their websites.

A confidentiality clause that describes what type of information is being shared and for what purpose is also contained in contracts with our organizing event partners.

Standard Internet Usage Information Automatically Collected
Software programs are used to monitor network traffic and to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or to otherwise cause damage. When you visit the VCBF website, these software programs automatically receive and temporarily store information supplied by your browser (for example, browser type and operating system) in our webserver logs. Some of the information automatically collected by our servers when you browse our website includes:

  • network location and the Internet Protocol (IP) address of the computer used;
  • domain name used to access the Internet (.com, .org, .net, .ca, etc.);
  • type of browser and operating system used (Windows, Mac OS, etc.); and
  • date and average amount of time spent accessing the various website pages.

In most circumstances, this is anonymous statistical data and VCBF makes no attempt to link this data, the IP address of any computer that has contacted our website, with the identity of individuals visiting our site unless an attempt to damage the site has been detected. The programs are never used to gather specific personal information such as your name, your phone number or your e-mail address.

VCBF uses information obtained through technology in the following ways:

  • To measure the effectiveness of VCBF marketing campaigns by tracking the regional location of web visitors (down to the level of city boundaries only) and information such as “click-through” and movement within the VCBF website;
  • To conduct year-over-year market research analysis of VCBF web visitor engagement and online buying patterns and trends from one programming season to the next in order to attract more audience members to the VCBF; and
  • To determine the types of devices used by VCBF web visitors and tailor content to their platforms.

Cookies
Cookies are used to track how our visitors use our site, to determine sites previously visited or to facilitate the use of secure portions of our site. A cookie is a file that may be placed on your hard drive without your knowledge by a website to monitor your use of a site. The cookies we use do not allow us to identify individuals. They are compiled into statistical information on traffic patterns and are used to assess and improve the efficiency of the site.

We use two types of cookies:
Session cookies – These are used as an integral part of the identification process for some of our online applications. This is for security purposes to determine that you are who you say you are and to provide you with your confidential account information during an online session. No personal information is kept in session cookies and the cookies are stored only in your browser’s temporary (cache) memory. When you log out of your session, the cookie is no longer valid and is discarded when you close your browser.

Persistent cookies – These are more permanent and can be re-read when you return to the site that placed them on your computer. The information in them is written onto your hard drive and remains there until the expiry date of the cookie. They are used to identify and provide personalized features (for example, to help us remember which official language you prefer) and for tracking traffic patterns to and from our site. For more information on the tracking we use, refer to the Google Analytics section below.

Google Analytics
Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google Inc., helps to measure traffic patterns to, from, and within our public websites. This analytics measurement tool uses “session” and “persistent” cookies to collect standard internet log information and to track visitor behaviour information in an anonymous form. Persistent cookies are stored on your computer and expire two years after your last visit to our websites. The information generated by the cookies about your use of the website (including your IP address, truncated to ensure your anonymity) is transmitted to Google. No personal, identifying information is recorded or provided to Google. This anonymous information is then used to evaluate visitors’ use of the website and to compile statistical reports on Canada Site activity. The aggregate data and statistical reports are used only to help us make our site more useful to visitors and are made available only to Web managers and other designated staff who require this information to perform their duties.

For further information about Google Analytics, please refer to Google Analytics Privacy Policy.

If you wish, you may opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics by (1) disabling or refusing the cookies; (2) by disabling JavaScript within your browser; or (3) by using the Google Analytics Opt-Out Browser Add-On. Disabling Google Analytics or JavaScript will still permit you to access comparable information or services from our websites. If you disable your session cookie option, you will still be able to access our public website; However, you might have difficulties accessing secure services.

If you have never disabled the session cookie option, it should be enabled by default. To disable cookies or JavaScript, please refer to your vendor’s browser instruction guide.

For more information concerning your rights under the Privacy Act, or if you are dissatisfied with a response you receive from our Privacy Coordinator regarding a privacy concern with this website, you may contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.

Please note that this website provides links to other sites that are not covered by this privacy policy.

Your Choice – Your Rights
We are compliant with Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL). Commercial Electronic Messages which are sent by the VCBF will be sent in accordance with the provisions of that legislation.

E-Commerce
All transactions are conducted using PayPal. No information is stored on our site’s databases.

If at any time you would like to access, correct or add to your personal information that we maintain, make a complaint regarding the management of your personal information or regarding our compliance with CASL, or be removed from any of our mailing lists for any VCBF services, please contact [email protected].

Mailing address: 
5251 Oak Street, Vancouver, BC V6M 4H1

Telephone:
604-257-8120