Legal

Terms & Policies

Privacy Policy

Last Updated: March 17, 2022

1. OVERVIEW

Starling Minds Inc. having an address at 400 – 610 Main Street, Vancouver, BC V6A 2V3 (“Starling”, “we” or “us”) is committed to protecting and respecting the privacy rights of its visitors and users (“you” or “Member”). The Starling Minds Privacy Policy (“Privacy Policy”), as amended from time to time, applies to your access and use of our website (“Website”) and any other online product, application or service (including any online cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) programs) (collectively “Programs”) offered to you by us. This Privacy Policy also applies to any Account (defined below) you use to access the Website or other Programs offered by Starling Minds.

Our Privacy Policy explains how we collect, store and use information collected from you in connection with your access and use of the Programs.

By accepting this Privacy Policy you expressly consent to our use and disclosure of information you provide to us in the manner described in this Privacy Policy.

This Privacy Policy is incorporated into and subject to the terms of any other agreement between you and Starling Minds with respect to Programs offered to you by Starling Minds.

This Privacy Policy will take effect on December 15, 2023.

2. INFORMATION SECURITY MEASURES

2.1 Our promise to you

Information and data security is of paramount importance at Starling Minds. Starling Minds is committed to handling all of your information with applicable industry-standard information security practices. Starling Minds follows these basic principles with respect to data security and data ownership:

  • You own your private data, not us.
  • You can delete your Personal Information from Starling Minds when you want.
  • You can request access to the Personal Information Starling Minds holds about you.
  • You can ask us to rectify or erase Personal Information we hold about you to the extent allowed by law.
  • We restrict access to your Personal Information to persons who need to know that information in order to provide products or services to you.
  • We maintain other physical, electronic and procedural safeguards that comply with applicable laws to guard your Personal Information.
  • We use what we believe to be “best-of-class” hosting services and security technologies and services that we believe provide you with a secure and safe environment.
  • We encrypt data transmitted to and from the Website and/or Programs.

2.2 Your responsibilities

The security of your Starling Minds Account also relies on your protection of your password. You may not share your password with anyone. Starling Minds will never ask you to send your password or other sensitive information to us in an email, though we may ask you to enter this type of information on the Starling Minds websites or any of our other sites.

Any email or other communication requesting your password, asking you to provide sensitive account information via email, or linking to a website with a URL other than those specified within this document should be treated as unauthorized and suspicious and should be reported to Starling Minds immediately. If you do share your Starling Minds password with a third party for any reason, you may be responsible for actions taken using your password. If you believe someone else has obtained access to your password, please contact us right away.

Below are more details on how we collect, process and use data. If you received a referral from a case manager or a health-care worker for a Starling Program, please pay particular attention to section 4.1

3. INFORMATION WE COLLECT & HOW WE USE IT

In this section of the Privacy Policy, we will describe the type of personal and non-personal information that may be collected and how that information may be used or disclosed.

3.1 Personal Information

For the purposes of this Policy, “Personal Information” (as used in this Privacy Policy) means personally identifiable information as set out in a particular jurisdiction’s definition of information relating to a particular person and includes PHI (as defined below). This Personal Information may include, for example contact information, name, address, phone number, email address, gender, date of birth, Member/Employee ID and other data provided by you to us so you can use the Programs. The term “Personal Health Information” or “Protected Health Information” reflects a particular jurisdiction’s definition of “personal health information”, “protected health information” or “health information” (collectively “PHI”) as set out in their respective privacy laws and regulations. PHI includes information relating to you, your physical or mental health, as well as your health history, to the degree that it can be directly related to you.

Any data that has been collected in which all personal identifiers have been removed, such that the information could not reasonably be used to identify the individual, is not considered Personal Information or PHI.

3.1.1 Registering for an Account

When you register for an account on the Programs (an “Account”), we may collect and store the Personal Information that you provide us. We may also collect an employment identification number and other unique organization or insurance plan number, if applicable. This information will be stored and encrypted and a new, unique number will be generated within the program. This new number becomes your unique, anonymized ID.

You may choose to register for an account by relying on authorization from a third-party provider with whom you already have an account, such as Google, Facebook or Apple. If you choose to use these third-parties to validate your email address, we will retain the email address attached to your account with that third-party, and will treat that email address in the same way as if you had provided it to us directly. We will store that email address in a secure facility located in the same country as the headquarters of the company which is paying for your access to the Programs.

3.1.2 Use of the Programs

When you complete assessments, questionnaires, evaluations, exercises, therapy modules, or otherwise enter information in, or use, the Programs, we may collect, store and use this Information, some of which may be or contain Personal Information, such as your assessment results, goals, thoughts, common stressors, mood tracking information, self-identified mental and physical well-being including your perceived stress, anxiety and depression levels, and whether you have been diagnosed with a mental disorder, and if so which disorder, whether you suffer chronic pain, and any other information that you provide to the Programs (together, all of this is PHI) to provide you with assessments, scores, educational tools, and other meaningful use of the Programs as well as tailored and relevant mental health information.

3.1.3 Contacting Us

When you choose to contact Starling Minds using the Programs’ functionality, we may collect, store and use the Personal Information that you provide to us, such as your name, email address and other information you choose to provide in the content of your message, so we can respond to your inquiry. If you send us correspondence using the functionality of the Programs we retain the information in that correspondence in the records of your Account. We will also retain all related correspondence from us to you and all related records. We retain these records in order to measure and improve our customer service, or as required to comply with applicable laws and/or regulations.

3.1.4 Other Purposes

We may collect, store, and use Personal Information to solicit your feedback or to help improve the Programs and other Starling Minds products, advise you about new products or functionality, and communicate with you for other commonly accepted purposes. You may opt- out of newsletters and other promotional emails that you receive from us at any time.

3.1.5 Surveys

We may offer optional questionnaires and surveys to you for the purposes of assessing the Programs’ quality. By way of example we will ask if your use of the Programs increased your mental well-being. We then ask you to rate the Programs.

Such survey information and results, once completely stripped of Personal Information, may be shared with other medical practitioners or regulatory bodies in applicable jurisdictions for purposes of quality assurance and additionally the use of the information collected will be explained in detail in the survey itself. No Personal Information will be collected in the course of conducting the survey but if we collect personally identifiable information from you, you will be given notice of how the information will be used prior to your participation in the survey or questionnaire.

If you give us permission, we may contact you for a follow-up in connection with survey results.

3.2 Non-Personal information

We may also collect, use and disclose non-Personal Information that does not directly identify you as follows:

3.2.1 Cookies

When you access or use the Programs, we may use “cookies” to track what you view and interact with on the Programs. Starling Minds treats information collected by cookies and similar technologies as non-personal information. A “cookie” is a small bit of record-keeping information that is sent to your computer. The cookies that Starling Minds uses do not include personal information and may be used to: (1) help you navigate around the Programs, (2) monitor how many people are using the Programs, and (3) track trends. Once you leave the Programs, the cookie is not retained on your computer. Most browsers are initially set up to accept cookies, but you can disable cookies or set your browser to indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, disabling cookies may affect your ability to access the Programs.

3.2.2 User Generated Comments

You should be aware of the open nature of certain features of the Programs that we may make available to you as user-generated content such as comments. quotes and interactions you have with other members via communities or forums (“Submissions”). You may choose to disclose information in the course of a Submission, but this must not include any of your Personal Information. Starling Minds may publicly post your Submission within the Programs. Any Personal Information which you disclose in the body of the Submission, in contravention of this clause, may be posted with the rest of your Submission. At Starling’s sole discretion, any Submissions you make which contain Personal Information or PHI may be deleted, either in whole or in part.

3.2.3 Servers Logs

Starling Minds’ servers may log non-personal information about your use of the Programs, such as: (1) your search activity, pages viewed, the date and time of activity; and (2) any information provided by your computer or mobile device in connection with your use of the Programs, such as your browser type, browser language, IP address, mobile carrier, unique device identifier, location, and requested and referring URLs.

3.2.4 Trusted Partners and Sponsored Companies and Organizations

We may use and disclose to our affiliated companies, contractors, trusted partners or persons and Sponsoring Organizations collected non-Personal Information for the purpose of reporting aggregate and de-personalized Progress Reports, auditing, researching and analyzing usage of the Programs, ensuring the technical functionality of the Programs and further developing the Programs and other Starling Minds products.

3.2.5 Site Traffic Information

Due to the technical nature of web-browsing, when you visit our Website or use Programs from us, we obtain the following information:

  • the web address of the website that you came from or are going to;
  • which pages of our Website and features of our Programs you visit or use;
  • the type of browser you use;
  • the times you access our Website or use our Programs;
  • the type of device you use to access our Website or use our Programs;
  • the content of any undeleted cookies that your browser previously accepted from us or delivered to your device via use of our Programs;
  • technical information, including the address used to connect your device to the Internet, your login information, system and operating system type and version, browser or app version, time zone setting, operating system and platform, and your location (based on IP address);
  • information about your visit, including products and services you viewed or used, Program response times, interaction information (such as button presses) and any phone number used to call our customer service number if one is made available.

We may use standard Internet technology, such as web beacons and other similar technologies, to track your use of our Website or use of our Programs. We may allow third-parties, including our authorized service providers, to access usage information regarding how you use our Programs or our Website. We use all this collected information only to try to understand your preferences better and to manage the load on our servers, so as to improve our service, analyze trends, optimize Program performance, administer the Website, improve Website performance, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. Finally, usage activity information is required to meet legal and regulatory requirements in order to ensure compliance with certain laws requiring medical-related applications to achieve certain performance standards. We do not track the websites that you visit before or after you leave our Website.

4. DISCLOSURE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

4.1 Limited Disclosure to Sponsoring Organization and their nominees

If your employer or other sponsoring organization (your “Sponsoring Organization”) is paying the cost associated with your use of the Programs then, when you register for an Account on the Programs, Starling Minds may collect your Member ID and disclose such to your Sponsoring Organization for authentication and authorization purposes only. No PHI or other Personal Information generated by your use of the Programs will be disclosed to your Sponsoring Organization for Programs which you were not directly referred to.

If you were referred to Starling Minds* by your health care practitioner to participate in a program, your health care practitioner (ex. Psychologist, Occupational Therapist, Case Manager, other) may have access to your PHI (such as outcome measure results).  The information gathered may be reported back to your health care practitioner in order to assist you in your recovery.   If you have any questions on how the information you provide by participating in this program may be used or who it may be disclosed to, please speak to your health care provider.

4.2 Need-to-know disclosure

Only those who “need to know” have access to Personal Information and/or your PHI. This includes relevant quality control personnel, some Starling Minds developers, and technical support. All Personal Information is stored indefinitely on an encrypted server. All data is backed up daily and a copy is stored securely off-site.

We limit access to all personal information about you to those employees and agents who need to know the information to provide products and services to you.

Starling Minds will not disclose your Personal Information to anyone other than to our employees and those third parties that require such information in order to provide us those services that help administer our business. We will require that these parties agree to process such Personal Information based on our instructions and in compliance with this Privacy Policy, any applicable law, and any other appropriate confidentiality and security measures.

4.3 Other disclosure

We will not disclose any of your Personal Information (and in particular PHI) to third parties except in
the limited circumstances described below, or with your express permission. These third parties are
limited by law or by contract from using the information for secondary purposes beyond the purposes
for which the information is disclosed. We disclose information appropriate to the circumstances as
determined in our sole unfettered discretion.

  • We disclose information in response to a subpoena, warrant, court order, levy, attachment, order of a court-appointed receiver or other comparable legal process whether criminal or civil, including subpoenas from private parties in a civil action.
  • If we merge with or are acquired by another company then the successor company would have access to your information but would continue to be bound by this Privacy Policy.
  • We may use a third party communication company to communicate with you. We will require such third party to only use your contact information for the purpose of our communications with you and will also require such third party to delete such contact information from their records following the termination of their retainer by Starling Minds.
  • We may share your Personal Information with our authorized service providers that perform certain services on our behalf. These services may include hosting, performing business and sales analysis, supporting our Website and/or Programs’ functionality, and supporting features offered through our Website and/or Programs. These service providers may have access to personal information needed to perform their functions but are not permitted to share or use such information for any other purposes.
  • We disclose information that we are required by applicable law to disclose to applicable parties including, without limitation, law enforcement authorities, regulators or auditors.
  • We may disclose information to health care workers who are either working with you directly or health care workers working with your Sponsoring Organization (or their nominees);

5. CHOICES FOR PERSONAL INFORMATION

If Starling Minds proposes to collect, use or disclose Personal Information for any purpose other than those described in this Privacy Policy, we will obtain your consent or offer you an effective way to opt out of the use of personal information for those other purposes. You may choose to withdraw your consent to the collection, use or disclosure of your personal information as outlined in this Privacy Policy at any time. If you withdraw consent, then Starling Minds may no longer be able to provide you with full or any access to the Programs. Users are also given the opportunity to “opt-out” of having their Personal Information used for specific purposes such as receiving newsletters or other information from Starling Minds. Withdrawals of consent will not have an effect on personal or other data that Starling Minds has used or disclosed in accordance with this Privacy Policy prior to such withdrawals.

6. THIRD PARTY PRIVACY POLICIES

Starling Minds may make available third party hyperlinks or otherwise enable you to access third party products or services from the Programs that are not affiliated with or controlled by us. We are not responsible for those parties, the content of their products or services, or the use of information you provide to them. Providing links or otherwise enabling access to third party products or services does not constitute sponsorship of, endorsement of, or affiliation with those people or companies. You recognize and agree that we are not liable for any third parties’ collection or use of your Personal Information and you should review the respective privacy policies of these third parties.

7. DATA STORAGE

Unless otherwise permitted by applicable law, your personal information will be stored and maintained on servers and databases located in Canada or the United States and is subject to regulation under the laws of Canada and the United States.

We retain all records related to messages sent or received via Starling Minds, your personal identification or any other information about you or pertaining to you for as long as you have an Account. When you become a Starling Minds Member, we also retain records and information about you throughout the application process.

Once we terminate your Account, subject to applicable laws requiring us to retain records, Starling Minds will delete any information you have provided to Starling Minds, including, without limitation, any confidential information or personal information of yours. Depending on legal or regulatory requirements (which may require us to retain records for an indefinite period) we may retain Personal Information you provided to us.

You can see what information is deleted and what we continue to store after the Account is disabled by request to members@starlingminds.com.

8. ACCESSING YOUR INFORMATION AND EXPORTING IT

You have the ability to review and update your personal information online by logging into your Account. You can also review and update your personal information by contacting us. More information about how to contact us is provided below.

If Starling Minds is satisfied on reasonable grounds that your request to update or correct your information should be implemented, we will correct your Personal Information on our primary system as soon as reasonably possible and send the corrected Personal Information to each organization that we have disclosed your personal information to in the past twelve (12) months. We may retain an archived copy of your records as required or authorized by applicable law.

You can disable your Account by request. We can disable it at our discretion. You can permanently disable and/or delete your Account at any time by sending an email to members@starlingminds.com. We can terminate or suspend your Account at any time at our discretion.

These terms remain in effect after your Account is disabled.

You can export a copy of content in your Starling Minds Account if you want to back it up or use it with a service outside of Starling Minds. Contact customer support at: members@starlingminds.com for assistance in this.

9. CHANGES TO THIS POLICY

Starling Minds reserves the right to modify this Privacy Policy at any time. We may provide you with notice of such modifications, by sending you an e-mail message or otherwise bringing it to your attention in the Programs. Your continued use of the Programs will signify your acceptance of the modifications to this Policy.

Any changes to the Privacy Policy will be effective immediately. If you do not agree to such changes then please contact us and we will not use your information in the new manner. We will only use information in accordance with the privacy policy under which your information was collected and to which you agreed.

10. CONTACT INFORMATION

Should you have any questions relating to this Privacy Policy, please send correspondence to members@starlingminds.com.