Privacy Policy
Effective Date: July 21, 2026
The Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy ("CMTD", also referred to as "the Centre", "we", "us" or "our") prioritizes appropriate handling of the Personal Information (as defined below) entrusted to us. This Notice is adopted pursuant to McGill’s Policy on the Governance of Personal Information ("Governance of PI Policy"). It may be supplemented by additional information made available through publicly available guidelines, or through the use of separate consents where required.CMTD is subject to the Act respecting Access to documents held by public bodies and the Protection of Personal Information, chapter A-2.1 (the "Access Act"), as well as our Governance of PI Policy and associated guidelines and procedures adopted pursuant to the Access Act. CMTD seeks to limit the amount of Personal Information we collect to what is necessary, and limits access to such Personal Information, as required by law.This Notice sets out how CMTD collects, uses, processes, communicates, transfers, retains, and disposes of (collectively referred to as "processing" or "process") your Personal Information. In this Notice, the word "you" refers to any individual whose personal information is processed by CMTD. "Personal Information" means information concerning a natural person which directly or indirectly allows the person to be identified.CMTD collects Personal Information in a variety of contexts and from various stakeholder groups. Please see Section 2 below for general information on how we process Personal Information.This Notice also informs you of your rights regarding your Personal Information processed by CMTD. Please refer to Section 11 of this Notice to learn more about your rights.While this Notice covers the most common circumstances where the Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy processes your Personal Information, there will be instances that require additional privacy notices, disclosures, or consents.
1. Scope of This Notice
This Notice applies to Personal Information that CMTD collects, uses, and discloses through mediatechdemocracy.com (the "Website"), including through our newsletter subscription service and our website analytics tools.
It does not apply to information collected by third-party websites that we may link to, or to information collected by McGill University in contexts unrelated to the Website, which remains governed by McGill’s own privacy notices and the Governance of PI Policy.
2. Personal Information We Collect
We limit the Personal Information we collect through the Website to what is necessary for the purposes described in this Notice. We collect Personal Information from the following sources:
2.1 Information You Provide Directly — Newsletter Subscription
When you subscribe to our newsletter through the subscription form on the Website, we collect, through our email service provider Mailchimp (operated by Intuit Inc.):
- —Your email address;
- —Your first and last name; and
- —Your newsletter topic preferences (for example, general Centre updates, or Media Ecosystem Observatory / CDMRN election-monitoring updates).
2.2 Information Collected Automatically — Website Analytics
We use, or intend to use, Google Analytics 4 ("GA4"), a web analytics service provided by Google LLC, to understand how visitors use the Website. GA4 is only active where you have consented to analytics cookies (see Section 5, Cookies and Similar Technologies); if and once it is enabled, GA4 may collect:
- —Your IP address, which Google may use to derive an approximate geographic location before it is truncated or discarded;
- —Device, browser, and operating system information;
- —Pages viewed, time spent on the Website, and navigation paths;
- —The website or search engine that referred you to the Website; and
- —Aggregated and pseudonymized identifiers used to distinguish sessions and repeat visits.
2.3 Information Collected by Our Hosting Provider
The Website is hosted on Cloudflare Pages, a service of Cloudflare, Inc. As with any website, Cloudflare automatically collects standard technical information necessary to deliver the Website to your device and to protect it from security threats, including your IP address, request timestamps, browser user-agent string, and similar network-level data. This information is processed by Cloudflare as our service provider for hosting, performance, and security purposes, including protection against denial-of-service attacks and malicious traffic.
3. How We Use Your Personal Information
- —To operate, maintain, and improve the Website;
- —To send you the newsletter(s) and topic updates you have subscribed to;
- —To understand aggregate visitor trends and improve the Website’s content and usability;
- —To protect the security and integrity of the Website and our systems; and
- —To comply with our legal obligations, including under the Access Act and McGill’s Governance of PI Policy.
4. Legal Authority for Collection, Use and Disclosure
CMTD collects, uses, and discloses Personal Information only where necessary for the purposes described in this Notice, in accordance with the Access Act and McGill’s Governance of PI Policy. We do not sell your Personal Information or use it for any purpose incompatible with the purposes described above.
Where our processing relies on your consent — for example, analytics cookies or your newsletter subscription — you may withdraw that consent at any time, as described in Section 5 and Section 12 below, without affecting the lawfulness of processing carried out before your withdrawal.
6. Disclosure of Personal Information to Third Parties
We disclose Personal Information only to the following categories of recipients, and only to the extent necessary for them to provide services to us:
- —Google LLC, for website analytics (GA4), once enabled, as described in Section 2.2;
- —Intuit Inc. (Mailchimp), for newsletter delivery and subscriber list management, as described in Section 2.1; and
- —Cloudflare, Inc., for website hosting, content delivery, and security, as described in Section 2.3.
7. Cross-Border Transfer and Storage of Personal Information
Intuit Inc. (Mailchimp) and Cloudflare, Inc. — and Google LLC, once GA4 is enabled — are based in, and may process and store Personal Information outside Quebec, including in the United States and other jurisdictions where these providers or their sub-processors operate data centres.
Before relying on a service provider located outside Quebec, CMTD undertakes an assessment of the privacy protection afforded to Personal Information transferred outside Quebec, taking into account, among other things, the sensitivity of the information, the purposes for which it is used, the protective measures that would apply to it in the destination jurisdiction, and the contractual and technical safeguards in place with the service provider. We only proceed with such transfers where we are satisfied that the Personal Information will receive protection substantially equivalent to that required under Quebec law.
8. Retention of Personal Information
We retain Personal Information only for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes described in this Notice, or as required by law:
- —Newsletter subscription information is retained for as long as you remain subscribed, and is deleted or anonymized from Mailchimp’s active lists within a reasonable period after you unsubscribe;
- —Once GA4 is enabled, website analytics data will be retained by Google Analytics in accordance with our configured GA4 data retention settings; and
- —Hosting and security logs maintained by Cloudflare are retained in accordance with Cloudflare’s standard log-retention practices.
9. Security Safeguards
We take reasonable administrative, technical, and physical measures, consistent with McGill’s Governance of PI Policy, to protect Personal Information against unauthorized access, use, disclosure, alteration, or destruction, including limiting access to Personal Information to those who need it and relying on reputable service providers who maintain their own security safeguards.
No method of transmission or storage is completely secure. If we become aware of a confidentiality incident involving Personal Information that presents a risk of serious injury, we will act in accordance with our obligations under the Access Act, including notifying the Commission d’accès à l’information du Québec and affected individuals where required.
10. Automated Decision-Making
We do not use your Personal Information to render decisions based exclusively on automated processing that would produce legal effects concerning you or that would significantly affect you.
11. Your Privacy Rights
Subject to the exceptions provided by law, you have the right to:
- —Be informed of the existence, use, and disclosure of your Personal Information;
- —Access your Personal Information held by CMTD;
- —Request rectification of your Personal Information if it is inaccurate, incomplete, or ambiguous, or if its collection, disclosure, or retention is not authorized by law;
- —Withdraw your consent to processing that is based on consent (for example, your newsletter subscription or analytics cookies), at any time and without charge; and
- —File a complaint with the Commission d’accès à l’information du Québec if you believe your rights have not been respected.
13. Children’s Privacy
The Website is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect Personal Information from children through the newsletter subscription form. If you believe a child has provided us with Personal Information, please contact us and we will take steps to delete it.
14. Changes to This Notice
We may update this Notice from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or legal obligations. The Effective Date at the top of this page indicates when this Notice was last revised. We encourage you to review this Notice periodically.
15. How to Contact Us
Questions about this Notice, or requests to exercise your privacy rights — including requests for access to or rectification of your Personal Information — may be directed to CMTD directly at the email address below.