Canadian Postcode Lottery Foundation

Privacy policy

Effective date: 24 September 2026

1. Introduction

Canadian Postcode Lottery Foundation, in conjunction with its affiliates (and hereinafter also defined as “we” or “us”), is committed to protecting the privacy and security of any of your personal information obtained by reason of your interaction with Canadian Postcode Lottery Foundation, including through or in connection with our programs and our websites (including but not limited to Postcodelotteryfoundation.ca , and any other site or portal referring the user to this Privacy Policy, collectively, the “Sites”). This privacy policy (the “Privacy Policy”) only applies to applications to receive charitable funding from us. Any other activities fall under our joint privacy policy with Novamedia Lotteries Canada Inc. which can be found at https://postcodelottery.ca/ .

This Privacy Policy explains:

  • the types of personal information we collect;

  • when such collection occurs;

  • how we use and share the personal information we collect;

  • the steps we take to ensure your personal information is safeguarded appropriately; and

  • how you can contact us regarding your personal information and this Privacy Policy.

This Privacy Policy has been put in place to comply with the federal Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (“PIPEDA”) and substantially similar provincial privacy statutes.

The terms and conditions of use of our Sites refer to and incorporate this Privacy Policy and by using said Sites, you consent to this Privacy Policy. From time to time, we may make changes to this Privacy Policy. The Privacy Policy is current as of the date which appears at the top of this page. We encourage you to look for updates and changes to this Privacy Policy by checking its effective date from time to time. If the changes we make are significant, we will provide a more prominent notice and obtain consent when required by applicable laws. Continued use of the Sites after an update is posted will constitute consent to the new version of the Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to the changes in our Privacy Policy, it is your responsibility to stop using our services and our Sites. It is your obligation to ensure that you read, understand and agree to the latest version of the Privacy Policy.

Our Sites may contain links to websites which are owned and operated by third parties. Please note that this Privacy Policy does not apply to such other websites and services and we have no responsibility over their content or privacy policy.

2. Definition of Personal Information

This Privacy Policy applies to any personal information we collect or receive about you, from you or any other source. “Personal information” as used in this Privacy Policy refers to any information that identifies, relates to, describes, or is reasonably capable of being associated with a particular individual and that is recorded in any form (such as your name and mailing address, your phone number, your email address and your payment information), as further defined in PIPEDA and similar provincial legislation. Please note that personal information excludes information that is anonymized and cannot be associated with an identifiable individual and aggregate information which represents compiled data from a group of individuals who can no longer be individually identified.

Please note that we do not intend to collect information from a minor. If you believe we may have collected information from your child, please contact us as indicated in the “Contact Us” section so that we can endeavour to delete it.

3. Categories of Personal Information Collected

We limit the collection of personal information to what is reasonably required to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected. Depending on your interaction with us, we may collect information such as:

  • Personal identifiers, such as name and mailing address, date of birth, phone number, email address, account number, username or Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, signatures.

  • Application information, in connection with applications for funding, which may include some of the information described above, as well as financial account numbers, details about the organization you represent, any proposed projects, and the names and contact details of referees.

  • Internet or other electronic network activity information (i.e. technical information when you visit our Sites), including when you visit the Sites or use our services. This information is collected via automated means, such as cookies, authorized tokens, web beacons and similar technologies, and may include your IP address, device ID, browser type, data about the web pages you visited on our Sites, time and duration of a visit, information about your location, your language preferences..

4. Collection of Personal Information

We will generally collect personal information directly from you when you use our services or interact with us directly, as deemed necessary for the purposes defined in Section 5 below.

We may collect your personal information directly from you such as:

  • when you contact us or send us questions, comments, suggestions or complaints, we may collect contact information and information about your inquiry that is necessary in order to address it or to respond to you;

  • when you use our Sites, we may collect information about how you use the Sites and where you are located, as further discussed below; and

  • we may collect any other personal information you voluntarily provide to us in connection with any other matter.

We may also collect information you share regarding Canadian Postcode Lottery Foundation on social media such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Snapchat, and X/Twitter, including your name and the substance of your comments or feedback.

5. Usage of Personal Information

We will generally use your personal information as part of our normal business operations in order to provide you with our services through our Sites, and to support our operations, for research and development purposes, for marketing purposes or otherwise, with your consent or as permitted or required by law:

a. General business purpose

More specifically, we may use your personal information for the following business purposes:• to process your applications for funding;

  • to respond to your inquiries or requests;

  • to elaborate and improve our offerings and our services;

  • to protect our rights, property and safety and those of our employees and the public;

  • to maintain appropriate records for internal administrative purposes, including for staffing and management of personnel; and

  • to comply with legal requirements.

b. Research and development purpose

We may use personal information to understand and assess your interests and changing needs with a view to improving our services and developing new ones. When required by law, we will use anonymized information for these purposes.

c. Marketing purposes

We may use your personal information to provide you with personalized content and services, such as tailoring our services, our digital experience and offerings.

We may also use your personal information to communicate with you in a variety of ways (for example, by email, telephone, text message, direct mail or through our online support services) about our programs, services, promotions, contests or events that may be of interest to you. If you no longer wish to receive our commercial electronic messages, please follow the unsubscribe procedure included in each of these messages. For more information on this topic, see Section 9.

6. Retention of Personal Information

Please note that we will only retain your personal information for as long as reasonably necessary for the above purposes or as required by law. Once no longer required, your personal information will be securely destroyed or anonymized, in compliance with applicable laws.

7. Sharing of Personal Information

We shall not disclose or share your personal information without your consent to any company or person other than as authorized by law or as follows:

  • to those entities affiliated with Canadian Postcode Lottery Foundation for the purposes detailed in this Privacy Policy, including Novamedia Lotteries Canada Inc., Novamedia B.V., Deutsche Postcode Lotterie DT gGmbH, Novamedia Norsk Postkodelotteri AS, Postcode Lottery Ltd., Svenska Postkodlotteriet, Nationale Postcode Loterij N.V. and VriendenLoterij N.V.;

  • with vendors, consultants and other service providers who are assisting us with respect to any of the purposes stated in Section 5 above and require such information to perform their services for us, it being understood that they will only be permitted to use the information as part of the performance of their work for us or when the disclosure of your information is required by law and that such third parties will have appropriate privacy standards in place.

    Examples of service providers include:

  1. Marketing service providers, in connection with designing and assessing the success of our marketing efforts;

  2. Communications service providers, in connection with designing Canadian Postcode Lottery Foundation’s messaging and branding;

  3. Technology service providers, in connection with managing our Sites and services.

  • if we believe that the disclosure of personal information is required by law;

  • if we believe that the disclosure of personal information will help us protect our rights, our property and our safety and those of our employees and the public;

  • if we believe that the disclosure of personal information is necessary in the investigation of suspected or actual illegal activity or in response to a request by law enforcement authorities;

  • if such disclosure would be in a way that it would not directly identify you, such as through aggregate information as mentioned in Section 2 above; and

  • when required in the context of a prospective or completed business transaction, such as a transfer of assets or shares or merger, in accordance with applicable legal requirements.

8. Your Privacy Rights

For the most part, provincial privacy legislation in Canada provides that if we notify you (for example, through the distribution of this Privacy Policy) of the purposes for which we intend to collect, use or disclose your personal information, and those purposes are reasonable, we will have your implied consent to act in accordance with the Privacy Policy.

You have choices about the way Canadian Postcode Lottery Foundation handles your personal information.

1. Changing your communication preferences

You can always choose not to receive marketing or promotional messages from Canadian Postcode Lottery Foundation by email by clicking on “unsubscribe” in any email you receive.

Please note that even if you have indicated your choice not to receive commercial messages from us, we may still communicate with you in connection with a service, in accordance with applicable law. In addition, it may take up to ten (10) business days to register a change of preference across all our records.

2. Withdrawal of consent

You may withdraw your consent to the collection, use and disclosure of personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy at any time upon reasonable notice to Canadian Postcode Lottery Foundation in writing, subject to legal or contractual restrictions. To do so, please contact us using the information in the “Contact Us” section below.

The withdrawal of your consent may affect our ability to continue to provide you with the services that you have or would like to receive because the continued use and disclosure of your personal information is a necessary part of making the service available to you. In some circumstances, legal requirements may prevent you from withdrawing consent and/or we may be required to retain some of your personal information as detailed in Section 6.

9. Safeguards and Data Governance

We have implemented physical, organizational, contractual and technological security measures in an effort to protect your personal information and reduce the risk of loss or theft, unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, misuse or modification of your personal information. These measures include restricting physical access to our offices and records, restricting access to your personal information to only those employees or agents who require access to fulfil their responsibilities, and restricting unauthorized access, disclosure, use and misuse of your personal information in our custody and control. We also periodically update and review such security measures.

Our goal is to prevent unauthorized access, loss, misuse, sharing or alteration of personal information in our possession. We also use these safeguards when we dispose of or destroy your personal information.

10. Cross-Border Transfers of Personal Information

Your personal information may be transferred, stored, accessed, or used in a jurisdiction outside your jurisdiction of residence (for example, outside your province or outside Canada) in connection with our use of third-party service providers engaged by us. We engage these third-party service providers to assist us in providing our services to you.

We use our best efforts to ensure that all of our third-party service providers take reasonable security measures to protect your personal information (this includes technical, administrative, and physical safeguards to protect your personal information). We use our best efforts to ensure our service providers only use your personal information for authorized purposes we have made known to you or which are otherwise permitted by applicable law.

Where personal information is located outside of your province of residence or outside Canada, it is subject to the laws of that jurisdiction which may differ from those in your jurisdiction and any personal information transferred to another jurisdiction will be subject to law enforcement, regulatory, and national security authorities in that jurisdiction. Subject to these laws, we will to the best of our abilities use contractual measures to maintain protections that are at least equivalent to those that apply in Canada.

11. Accessing and Correcting your Personal Information

You may be entitled to access your personal information and request the rectification of information that is inaccurate, incomplete or no longer up to date, subject to limited exceptions set out in applicable laws.

Depending on the law applicable in the jurisdiction where you reside and subject to legal or contractual restrictions, you may also be entitled to:

  • request that we stop or restrict processing your personal information;

  • obtain a copy of the personal information we collected from you; and

  • obtain additional information about data processing, including the personal information collected and how it is processed by Canadian Postcode Lottery Foundation.

To submit a request, please contact us in writing using the relevant contact information listed in the “Contact Us” section below.

12. Contact Us

You can contact us at info@postcodelotteryfoundation.ca if you wish to ask questions, express concerns or submit a complaint regarding this Privacy Policy.