Privacy Policy

INTRODUCTION AND ACCEPTANCE

Welcome to the Ottawa Bluesfest website located at https://www.ottawabluesfest.ca (the “Website”). The Website, Ticketing System and App are collectively referred to as the “Services” under The Team Behind Bluesfest organization (the "Organization"). We hope you enjoy your visit and / or use of the Services. By visiting the Website and / or using the Services, you agree to be bound by the terms of the present Privacy Policy (the “Policy”). Ottawa Bluesfest is a registered non-profit organization in the country of Canada. The Policy was last modified on June 9th, 2018. The Organization reserves the right, at any time and without prior notice, to modify or replace any of the Policy. Any changes to the Policy can be found at this URL. It is your responsibility to check the Policy periodically for changes. Your use of the Services following the posting of any changes to the Policy constitutes acceptance of those changes. The Policy should be read in conjunction with the other festival policies, as these documents govern your use of the Services. Where you use the Ticketing System through the Services, you are also bound by the Purchase Agreement for Tickets. If you have any questions about the Policy, please email us.

GENERAL STATEMENT OF PRIVACY AND PROTECTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

The Team Behind Bluesfest takes your privacy and security of personal information very seriously. We have provided a secure environment and this strict Policy that describes the limited ways the information is used and the limited access to such information.

WHAT DOES THE PRIVACY POLICY COVER?

This Policy covers the treatment of personally identifiable information (“Personal Information”) and other information gathered by The Organization when you are using or accessing the Services. This Policy also covers the Organization’s treatment of any Personal Information that the Organization may share with its business partners or other third parties under very limited circumstances. This Policy does not apply to the general practices and treatment of information by third parties that the Organization does not own or control, including but not limited to any third party websites or services that you elect to access through the Services (“Third Party Services”), or to individuals that the Organization does not manage or employ. While we attempt to facilitate access only to those Third Party Services that share our respect for your privacy, we cannot take responsibility for the content or privacy policies of those Third Party Services. We encourage you to carefully review the privacy policies of any Third Party Services you access. Without limiting the generality of the preceding paragraph, the Organization may use third-party ticket vendors (“Ticket Vendors”) for certain events and this Policy does not cover information submitted to these Ticket Vendors that the Organization does not control. However, these Ticket Vendors may transfer to the Organization certain Personal Information such as your email address, but only if you consent to such sharing by the Ticket Vendor at their website or through the use of their services. Furthermore, in the event of a cancellation, postponement, or other significant change to an event for which you purchased tickets through a Ticket Vendor, the Organization may request your full contact information in order to inform you of the change in the event information. In such a case, we will not use this Personal Information for any other purpose. Finally, this Policy does not cover any Personal Information you send to the Organization via any non-secured mode of communications such as email, instant messenger or Twitter, as communications via these methods may be subject to interception, loss, or alteration. We encourage you to carefully examine what Personal Information you send to the Organization via these methods. Information may be entered into the Website or App when you wish to connect to a third party service integrated into the Website or App, such as Facebook or Twitter (the “Integrated Third Party Services”) but this information is not in any way collected or stored by the Organization, and it is only used for the stated purpose, to sign in to the Integrated Third Party Service.

COLLECTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION THROUGH THE TICKETING SYSTEM

When you use the Ticketing System to purchase tickets, the Organization collects the following Personal Information: name, email address, credit card information, and billing information including address and phone number. This information is only used for the following purposes: credit card processing; contacting you in the event of a cancellation, postponement, or other significant change to an event; and advertising or marketing purposes, but only upon your consent.

NO COLLECTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

The Organization does not, as a matter of course, gather any of your Personal Information while you are using the Services, unless you are asked to provide such information, for example by signing up to the mailing list. Where you have provided such information, it will only be used for the stated purpose. Personal phone number. This information is only used for the following purposes: credit card processing; contacting you in the event of a cancellation, postponement, or other significant change to an event; and advertising or marketing purposes, but only upon your consent.hosting partners to provide the necessary hardware, software, networking, storage, and related technology required to run the Services, and these vendors have been selected for their high standards of security.

LIMITED GATHERING OF INFORMATION FOR STATISTICAL AND SECURITY PURPOSES

The Organization automatically collects certain information using a third-party analytics program, Google Analytics, to help us understand how our users use the Services, but none of this information identifies you personally. For example, each time you visit the Website or otherwise use the Services, we automatically collect your IP address, browser and computer type, access times, the web page from which you came, and the web page(s) you access (as applicable). We use this information only to better understand your needs and the needs of the Services users in the aggregate. The Organization also makes use of information gathered for statistical purposes to keep track of the number of visits to the Website and which pages on the Website with a view to introducing improvements. Your IP address and other relevant information may be used in order to trace any fraudulent or criminal activity, or any activity in violation of the Terms of Service.

SECURITY OF INFORMATION

We use only industry best practices in keeping any data collected secure. This includes the HTTPS / SSL / TLS (Secure Socket Layer) protocol for all ticket-purchasing transactions and for authentication and data transfer to Integrated Third-Party Services. In addition, the Organization uses third party vendors and hosting partners to provide the necessary hardware, software, networking, storage, and related technology required to run the Services, and these vendors have been selected for their high standards of security.

NON-DISCLOSURE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION TO THIRD-PARTIES

Except as provided in the next paragraphs, the Organization does not divulge any Personal Information gathered via the Services to third parties. Moreover, Ottawa Bluesfest does not sell any information regarding its users to third parties. Only the employees, representatives, subcontractors, or officers of The Organization are responsible for the management and development of the Services, and only these individuals have access to the information collected there. These employees, representatives, subcontractors, or officers all have been instructed to comply with the Policy. Notwithstanding anything in the Policy to the contrary, we may share any information we have collected about you or that you have submitted: (1) in response to subpoenas, court orders, or legal process, or to establish, protect, or exercise our legal rights or defend against legal claims or demands; (2) if we believe it is necessary in order to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities, fraud, or situations involving potential threats to the safety of any person; (3) if we believe it is necessary to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding situations that involve abuse of the Services infrastructure or the Internet in general (such as voluminous spamming, denial of service attacks, or attempts to compromise the security of the Website infrastructure or the Services generally); (4) to a parent company, subsidiaries, joint ventures, or other companies under common control with the Organization (in which case we will require such entities to honour this Policy); (5) if the Organization is acquired by or merged with another entity (in which case we will require such entity to assume our obligations under this Policy, or inform you that you are covered by a new privacy policy); (6) when you explicitly consent to the providing of such information to third parties, such as our business partners, when it will only be used for the stated purpose. In addition, the Organization uses certain Integrated Third Party Services to augment the Services. Personal Information is transferred from the Organization to the operators of these Integrated Third Party Services, but only to the extent required in order for them to function properly, and only upon your express submission of such information. Finally, the Organization may transfer your email address to Facebook, but only for the purpose of creating a Facebook Custom Audience, in order to serve advertisements on Facebook that may be of interest to you. Please see the “Advertisements” section further in this Policy for more information.

REMOVAL FROM MAILING LIST AND DELETION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

You may unsubscribe from the Organization mailing list at any time, by following the link at the bottom of all The Team Behind Bluesfest emails. Note that unsubscribing from the mailing list in this manner may not necessarily delete all your Personal Information from the Organization databases. If you wish to ensure that all Personal Information is removed from our databases, please contact us.

RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH THE INTERNET

Despite the Organization's efforts to ensure third parties will not access or obtain your Personal Information through your use of the Services, complete confidentiality and security cannot currently be guaranteed on the Internet. Communication via the Internet is subject to interception, loss, or alteration. You acknowledge and agree that the Organization cannot be held responsible for damages resulting from the transmission of confidential information or Personal Information over the Internet and that such communications are at your own risk. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY The Team Behind Bluesfest, and / or its respective officers, directors, owners, officials, partners, partnerships, principals, employees, affiliates and other related entities, servants, agents, representatives, successors and assigns, will not be held liable for any damages resulting from the misuse of any information collected via the Third Party Services or by any third party, or any misuse of any information collected through the Website not in violation of the Policy.

ADDENDUM

As you browse https://www.ottawabluesfest.ca/ , advertising ‘cookies’ may be placed on your computer so that we can understand what you are interested in. Our display advertising partners, then enables us to present you with retargeting advertising on other sites based on your previous interaction with https://www.ottawabluesfest.ca/. The techniques our partners employ do not collect personal information such as your name, email address, postal address or telephone number.

© The Team Behind Bluesfest 2025