Privacy Policy

This privacy policy sets out how we collect, use, communicate, disclose and otherwise make use of personal information provided by users of this website.

Information Collection, Use, and Sharing

We are the sole owners of the information collected on this site. We only have access to and collect information that you voluntarily give us via email or other direct contact from you. We will not sell or rent this information to anyone.

We will use your information to respond to you, regarding the reason you contacted us. As necessary, your information may be also shared with our business partners with services that they perform for us. We may also use your information to contact you with marketing or promotional materials regarding our products, programs and services.

Your Consent

By providing us with your personal information, you consent to our collection, use and disclosure of that information as described in this Privacy Policy. If you have submitted personal information to us and wish to withdraw your consent to its retention, use or disclosure, please send us by email at julie_w@abes.com. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide some products or services to you.

Security

We take precautions to protect your information. When you submit your information via this website, your information is protected both online and offline. However, we are not responsible for the practices employed by websites or services linked to or from this website, including the information or content contained therein.

Cookies

A cookie is a small file a website stores in your browser. We group the cookies and similar technologies on this website into three categories. Only the first is used without your permission.

  • Necessary (always on): what the website needs to work, such as the cookie that remembers your cookie choice and the sign-in session our staff use to edit the website.
  • Analytics (only if you allow it): cookies that recognise a return visit, so we can see which pages and programs help people decide. Tools: Matomo and Google Analytics.
  • Marketing (only if you allow it): cookies and similar identifiers that let Google Ads, Meta (Facebook and Instagram) and TikTok measure our advertising and show you relevant ads on other websites.

On your first visit a banner asks for your choice: switch Analytics and Marketing on or off, then select "Save". Nothing is allowed until you save. If your browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal, Marketing starts off; you can still switch it on yourself.

You can change or withdraw your choice at any time with Cookie preferences at the bottom of every page. When you switch a category off, we delete that category's cookies from your browser and reload the page.

Analytics and Advertising

We count visits with Matomo, an analytics tool that ABES hosts on its own servers in Canada; Matomo data stays with ABES. Your IP address is anonymised (the last two parts are removed) before it is stored. Without your permission, Matomo counts visits without cookies: it records the pages viewed, the website you came from, an approximate location based on the anonymised IP address, your browser and device type, and actions such as clicking a phone number or sending a form, but it cannot recognise you on a later visit. If you allow Analytics, Matomo also uses cookies to recognise a return visit.

If you allow Analytics, we also use Google Analytics, a service of Google, to measure how the website is used. If you allow Marketing, Google Ads, Meta and TikTok receive information about your visit and actions such as sending a form, so we can measure which ads lead to enquiries and show relevant ads on other websites. This information passes through a tagging server run for us by Stape at tags.abes.ca before it reaches those companies, which may process it outside Canada under their own privacy policies. If you allow neither category, none of these services is loaded and nothing is sent to Google, Meta or TikTok.

We keep your cookie choice for 12 months, then ask again. Matomo's raw visit logs are deleted after 13 months; after that we keep only totals that do not identify anyone. Google, Meta and TikTok keep data according to their own retention settings.

Applicable Law

This Privacy Policy shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the province of Alberta and the federal laws of Canada applicable therein. The parties hereby agree and attorn to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of such province, unless prohibited by law. If you have concerns regarding this Privacy Policy, please send a brief explanation of your concern by email at julie_w@abes.com.