How we handle your information.

Who we are

Forest City Allies is an independent business referral group that meets in London, Ontario. This policy covers the information we collect through forestcityallies.ca, including the join form, the public member directory and the member portal. We handle personal information in line with Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA).

Information we collect

When you request meeting details

The form on our Join page asks for your name, email address, company name and business category, and optionally your phone number and a message. We use this only to reply about upcoming meetings and whether your category is open. We do not add you to a mailing list.

When you are a member

• Your directory profile. The details you or the group provide for the public member directory, such as your name, business name, category, bio, photo, logo, website, social links and any public contact details you choose to list.
• Your sign-in details. The email address you use to sign in to the member portal, and a password if you set one. Passwords are stored only in hashed form; we cannot see them. Sign-in and reset codes are sent to your email.
• Your profile history. Each saved version of your profile and each photo you upload, so we can review changes before they go live and restore an earlier version if needed.

When you visit the website

We do not use analytics, advertising trackers or tracking cookies. Our hosting provider processes technical data such as your IP address to deliver pages and protect the site from abuse. If you sign in to the member portal, your browser stores a sign-in token so you stay signed in; signing out removes it.

What is public

Member directory profiles are published on this website on purpose, so people can find and contact members. They can be read by anyone, including search engines and AI assistants, which may keep copies for a time even after a profile changes or is removed. Your sign-in email is never shown publicly unless you also choose to list it as a public contact.

How we use information

• To reply to enquiries and arrange visits to meetings.
• To publish and update the member directory.
• To run the member portal, including sending sign-in codes and notices about your profile.
• To keep the website secure and working.

We do not sell or rent personal information, and we do not share it for anyone else’s marketing.

Service providers

We use a few trusted services to run the website. Each receives only what it needs to do its job:

• Cloudflare hosts the website.
• Convex stores member portal accounts, profile versions and uploaded photos.
• Resend sends portal emails such as sign-in codes, and delivers join form messages to the group.
• Our form delivery service keeps a copy of each join form message for up to 18 months, then deletes it.
• GitHub stores the website’s source files, including published directory profiles, in a private repository.
• Google Fonts supplies the website’s typefaces. Loading them sends your IP address and browser details to Google.

Some of these providers store or process information in the United States or other countries, where it may be subject to the laws of that country.

How long we keep it

• Join form messages: up to 18 months.
• Member profiles and portal accounts: while you are a member. When you leave, we remove your profile from the directory and, on request, delete your portal account, profile history and uploaded photos, unless we need to keep something for a legal reason.

How we protect it

The website is served over HTTPS. The member portal requires a sign-in, each member can edit only their own profile, and administrative access is limited. No website is perfectly secure, but we take reasonable steps to protect your information.

Your choices and rights

You can ask to see the personal information we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it. Members can update most profile details themselves in the member portal. You can also withdraw your consent to us publishing your directory profile at any time.

If you have a concern we have not resolved, you can contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada at priv.gc.ca.

Contact us

For privacy questions or requests, send us a message through the form on our Join page and say it is a privacy request. Members can also contact the group’s organizer directly.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The date at the top shows when it last changed.