Privacy Policy

This statement outlines how personal privacy is protected when using the Town of Milton’s website. The Town is committed to safeguarding any personal information you provide while visiting its website. As part of this commitment, the Town explains what information may be collected, the reasons for its collection, how it will be used, and who may have access to it.

The Town’s privacy practices are designed to comply with the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (MFIPPA). MFIPPA requires municipal governments to protect personal information in their custody or control and to follow strict rules regarding its collection, use, retention, disclosure, and disposal.

The Town of Milton strives to ensure that only necessary personal information is collected, and that such collection is authorized under applicable statutes, by-laws, legislation, and regulations. All practices adhere to the privacy requirements outlined in these governing authorities.

This privacy statement applies only to interactions directly with the Town of Milton’s website, including the applications and services hosted on it. It does not apply to third-party applications that the Town may use to deliver specific services. These third-party applications are developed by external providers and are licensed for use by the Town of Milton.

Definition of Personal Information

For the purpose of this policy "personal information" means any information relating to an identified or identifiable individual. This can include a name, address, telephone number, email address and other identifiable information.

What Information do we collect?

When you visit The Town of Milton websites, you do so anonymously. When you direct an enquiry to a Town division through our website, we will ask you to provide your name and mailing address or email address for the purpose of responding to your enquiry. Your information is then sent into the appropriate department within the Town and only those who require this information to respond to your enquiry or complete your service request will have access to the personal information provided.

Depending on the services(s) you are accessing/requesting on the Town website we may ask for the following personal information about you including but not limited to:

basic identification information such as your name, address, telephone number(s), e-mail address, birth date;
medical information such as any condition that may affect your ability to participate in recreation activities, etc.;
emergency contact information.

The Town of Milton’s web hosting provider does not collect or retain any personal information you submit to the Town to access or request a service. Records of your website visit will be stored in our provider’s web server logs which may include information such as your ISP-assigned IP address, date/time of visit, along with user-agent information such as your web browser name, version and operating system platform. Any Town site where personal information is requested will contain a notice outlining our legal authority to collect it and include the following information:

the purpose for collecting the personal information;
how it will be used and who will have access to it;
who to contact if you have any questions about these practices.

Personal information is only disposed of according to the Town of Milton’s approved records retention schedule. To ensure personal information is unrecoverable, a utility program is used to remove the electronic data. Any paper records generated are shredded.

SSL Technology:

Encryption technology is used on the Town’s website. This technology ensures a secure digital tunnel is created between your web browser and the Town’s website in order to prevent any information from being surreptitiously eavesdropped and collected by unauthorized third parties not involved in the information exchange. Depending on the web browser you use, a security icon will typically appear in your web browser to indicate the existence of encryption. If encryption is not available through a site, an alternative means of communication will be recommended.

Use of Cookies:

The Town of Milton uses browser cookie technology on its website. Browser cookies are small data files that are stored on your local computer and may be referenced upon a return visit to our site or other third party websites using similar technologies or applications as the Town. Cookies save and store specific settings or preferences you’ve requested the website remember of you. Town web pages use cookies for one of the following three practices:

Single-session cookies, which log users over a single session and do not maintain data over multiple sessions or visits,
Multi-session cookies for use in web analytics, which log users visits over multiple sessions purely to gather data to analyze web traffic statistics, and
Multi-session cookies for use as persistent identifiers (persistent cookies), which log users activities over multiple visits with the intent of remembering data, settings, or preferences unique to that visitor.

The Town’s website uses persistent cookies to improve users’ experience by remembering settings related to functionality. Other multi-session and single-session cookies are used in combination with the website’s analytics software for website improvements.

You have the ability to accept or decline cookies. All Web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can modify your browser settings to decline cookies if you prefer.

By declining cookies, use of interactive features or online services that depend on cookies will not function as intended. If you choose to accept cookies, all browsers offer the ability to later delete cookies that you have accepted. If you choose to delete cookies, any settings and preferences controlled by those cookies will be deleted and may need to be automatically recreated upon a return visit.

Third Party Links:

Occasionally, we may include or offer third party products or services on our website. These third party sites have separate and independent privacy policies. We therefore have no responsibility or liability for the content and activities of these linked sites.

Why is Personal information collected?

The Town collects and retains personal information for a number of reasons:

To process your requests for services, products or additional information;
To communicate/contact you regarding services that you have requested;
To advise you of changes to our services and of service interruptions;
To meet legal and regulatory requirements;
To maintain a payment history;
To collect unpaid accounts;
To establish, administer and maintain billing, payment and other services related to accounting as well as security measures concerning your business and client relationship with us.

Who do we disclose your personal information to?

We do not sell or rent your personal information. Sometimes we must share your personal information with others in order to serve your needs. The following are some situations in which we share personal information:

to companies contracted to process your requests (ex. DocuPet)
for law enforcement purposes;
for purpose of acting in an emergency to facilitate contact with your next of kin if you become injured or ill.

How do we protect your personal information?

In order to protect your personal information, The Town:

collects only the personal information needed to provided services;
keeps your personal information only for as long as we need it to provide services;
safeguards your personal information to the best of our ability;
responds to any request you may make to access or correct the personal information we hold about you;
Obtains the appropriate consent from you for the collection, use or disclosure of your personal information.

Some other security methods/procedures include:

the use of passwords for the protection of electronic information;
firewalls for network security;
standards relating to the storage of personal information;
Policies regarding the removal of records from the workplace, security of records in locked cabinets, briefcases, locking records in secure areas, etc.
an access and privacy policy directory for staff reference to help restrict unauthorized access or release of your personal information;
disposal of personal information in a confidential manner such as shredding; and
procedures to address situations such as the loss, theft or inadvertent release of personal information

Freedom of Information

The Town of Milton endeavors to make its information accessible to the public. Some records however contain information that is either privileged or of a personal nature. The Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act compels the municipality to review such documents prior to their disclosure. Request to access such records requires a written request.

Your Consent

By using our site, you consent to our privacy policy

Changes to our Privacy Policy

If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on this page

Contact Information

The Town of Milton is committed to protecting your personal information. If you have any questions regarding The Town of Milton’s Privacy Policy, you can contact us via:

E-mail: foi@milton.ca
Telephone: 905-878-7252
In writing/person: Town of Milton, 150 Mary Street, Milton ON L9T 6Z5

For more information about the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, please visit the Ontario Information & Privacy Commission website.