Western Producer Privacy Policy

Western Producer Publications views customer information, including name and address information, as a proprietary trade secret. We have very strict policies designed to protect such personal information.

We do occasionally share names and addresses with reputable third parties, but do so under strict guidelines. We honour "do not share" share requests. Any form with which we collect personal information contains a "do not share" option. If personal information is collected without such an option being present, then the information collected is considered not for sharing. Where a person has completed more than one form, and where one has a do not share request and others do not, we rely on the most recently completed form. In other words, we try to do whatever you most recently have told us to do.

While we occasionally share name and address information, we are committed to the following policies:

1. We will not share phone numbers with anyone.
2. We will not share email addresses with anyone.
3. We will not honour "confidentiality agreements" that require us to keep secret from our customers how their name and address have been shared. If you ask us if we have shared your name with a business or organization, we will tell the truth.
4. We will not share even the name and address of anyone who has asked us not to do so.
5. We will not share information with anyone whose legitimacy is not clear in our own minds.
6. Because they are not subject to Canadian privacy laws or practices, Western Producer Publications will not share any personal customer information with non-Canadian persons or businesses.
7. Membership information may be collected but will never be disclosed.

NOTE: By their nature some promotions require that we share your information. For example, if we have a sponsored contest, we must share your information with the sponsors so that you are able to receive your prize. If such sharing involves more than name, address and phone number, we will explicitly say so in the contest rules.

What information do we collect?

We collect four kinds of personal information:

1. Information necessary for the normal conduct of business. We must have customers' names, addresses and phone numbers to provide service. We must have credit information for those who require credit, including credit numbers for those using them to purchase our services. We must know if a customer is an agricultural producer, a business or other in order to provide the specific services we offer. We use customer phone numbers as a unique identifier to avoid duplicating accounts. The phone number is so important to our business operation that we make a complete commitment to never share phone numbers from the customer file with any third party for any reason.
2. Information helpful in the conduct of business. We ask a great many questions of customers in the course our relationship. These questions include, for The Western Producer, what kinds of crops they grow or livestock they raise. For Acreage Life, we ask about interests and hobbies related to the acreage. We also on occasion ask about details of producers' operations such as input costs. As set out below, the primary use of this information is in the development and management of our own publications and services. WE NEVER SHARE ANY PERSONAL FINANCIAL INFORMATION provided to us by subscribers in response to such questions.
3. "Byproduct information." We obtain some personal information as a byproduct of other activities. An example would be when an advertiser provides us a list of their customers so that we may mail a special offer or do a match ("merge-purge") against our own list to eliminate duplication. Our purpose is to deliver something on behalf of a customer, and as a byproduct of doing that we end up with names and addresses. Byproduct information is NOT maintained. Personal information received from third parties is destroyed as soon as the purpose for which we received it has been served. So, in the example where an advertiser wants an insert to be placed in the newspapers only of its own customers, once we have completed the necessary merge-purge and successfully delivered the insert, that customer file is destroyed.
4. Internet operation information. This is information that we may obtain for the purpose of operating our internet web site. We may use cookies to store your preferences or ease your access. For example, if we design a web page for the exclusive use of subscribers, we would have to implement password protection. To make it easier for you to log on, we could store your name and password in a cookie on your computer. Note that cookies are NOT required to use our web site but are available for your convenience only. We do not maintain any file of information on your particular use of our web site and we do not provide such information to any one else. We do aggregate usage information to ensure we know what parts of the site are being used. We require legitimate email addresses as a condition of participation in or access to a number of internet features. We commit never to share email addresses obtained in this way.

How do we use the information we collect?

1. Our primary use of the information we collect is for internal business purposes. For example, it is very important that we have current, complete and accurate addresses and phone numbers so that we may properly deliver the services for which our customers pay. As well, it is important for us to know the kinds of agricultural activities our subscribers engage in so that we can ensure we are fully meeting their information needs.
   An example is the addition of the Livestock special section to the weekly newspaper. Our information gathering demonstrated that we had a large and active livestock readership.
2. We may use the information we collect to contact you ourselves. We frequently contact subscribers and advertisers for a variety of reasons, including conducting surveys, testing the quality of our service and to encourage customers to renew their accounts.
3. We may employ a third party to contact subscribers or advertisers for the purposes described above. We have a regular market research program that involves employing independent firms to survey agricultural producers, including non-customers. It is important for us to use outside firms so that we can be confident the information we receive is reliable. It also allows subscribers to be confident that their answers are confidential. When we use outside firms for research, subscriber identities are not revealed with their responses so respondents can be fully frank in their answers.
4. We also use outside suppliers to assist in obtaining customer orders and renewals. These suppliers are contractually committed to keeping your personal information protected and are prohibited from sharing this information with anyone. As these firms are acting as our agents, we do not view this as sharing your information. Our agents, including our subscriptions and advertising contractors, are bound to return any paper forms of customer information and to destroy any electronic forms, once the purpose of their possession of the information has been served.
5. We may use the aggregated information we collect in news stories, promotional materials or other activities. "Aggregated" means the information from many individuals is added together, for example as in the statement "There are 27,000 Western Producer subscribers who report raising livestock." No individual is identified in such stories or promotional materials.

Employee Information

Personal information about employees of Western Producer Publications is held in strict confidence. We collect only such employee information as is required for employment purposes. Information for workplace-related social activities may be gathered by the employee social committee, including things like birthdays. Due to their workplace context, such activities are subject to privacy protection under this policy and the information collected may only be used for the purpose intended and agreed to by the affected employees. Employee information is not shared with third parties except as provided by law and in the due intended course of business, including for example, exchanges related to the employee union. Information about an employee may be held as confidential from the employee if the information also includes or serves to divulge third-party information of a private, commercial or confidential nature. Except as required by applicable law, nothing in this policy is intended to prevent the withholding of any information from employees where such is deemed to be in the interest of the company.

Are there exceptions?

We do not have exceptions to the policies detailed above, except as compelled by law. However, there are circumstances that do not fall within this policy of which you should be aware. For example, while we commit not to share phone numbers we cannot prevent the use of the publicly distributed phone books. We ourselves have used public directories of phone numbers to compile lists for the purpose of making subscriptions sales. To the extent that the practice remains acceptable, we must make use of it in our competitive industry. It is important to be clear that our privacy policy applies only to personal information we ourselves collect directly and indirectly from our own customers. If we use third-party sources we rely upon those sources for the permissibility of using the list. Note however, that we will always disclose such sources on request of any person contacted through them.

Notwithstanding this policy, the company reserves the right to withhold any information from anyone where it is both in the interest of the company to withhold and not inconsistent with applicable law. In other words, circumstances could arise where we feel we have to keep certain information secret and if that happens and the law allows us to, we will keep it secret. Such a situation has never arisen and may never arise. We include this statement only to ensure you understand that there are no absolutes and care should be exercised in understanding the coverage of all privacy policies, including ours.

Western Producer Publications privacy policy exceeds the standards set by government and industry. Should you observe a gap in this policy or its practice, please contact us immediately.

Western Producer Publications is committed to promptly dealing with any complaints or concerns in regard to privacy issues. Your may also review and request corrections to personal information Western Producer Publications has in its files. Federal privacy laws require such requests to be in writing. This avoids strangers making requests in your name. You may write to Marketing Manager, PO Box 2500, Saskatoon, SK, S7K 2C4. You should include your Western Producer account number and your complete name, address and phone number for identification purposes.