Privacy Policy

1. Preamble

This Privacy Policy is established in accordance with Law 25 on the protection of personal data in Quebec.

The personal information you entrust to us is valuable, and we make it our duty to protect it in order to maintain our professional and business relationship with you.

This policy aims to inform our members and users about the practices of our organization regarding the collection, use, sharing, retention, and accessibility of your personal information. This policy applies as long as we hold your information, including after the end of our professional and business relationship.

2. Responsible for the Protection of Personal Information

In order to ensure the compliance of our organization with this privacy policy and the principles underlying it, the Horticultural Cooperative Groupex and its marketing banners Maître Paysagiste and Passion Jardins have designated a responsible person for the protection of personal information.

If you have comments or questions about this policy or how the Cooperative and its banners manage your personal information, or if you wish to file a complaint in this regard, you can contact:

Chief of Personal Information Protection

Horticultural Cooperative Groupex and its marketing banners Maître Paysagiste and Passion Jardins
Sébastien Cordeau
General Manager
25, avenue Bégin
Lévis (Quebec)
G6V 4B8
[email protected]
1 877 838-7270, ext. 226
 

You can also file a written complaint with the Commission d’accès à l’information. Relevant information about this can be found on the Commission's website.

3. Personal Information That May Be Collected, By What Means, and For What Purposes

3.1 What Information Can We Collect?

The Horticultural Cooperative Groupex and its banners Maître Paysagiste and Passion Jardins collect only the personal information necessary for establishing communication with its members and users and for carrying out its activities.

Thus, the Cooperative and its banners may collect identifying information, namely:

  • First and last name
  • Mailing addresses
  • Personal phone numbers
  • Personal emails
  • Date of birth
  • Employment
3.2 What Means Are Used for Collection?

We may collect personal identification information from you when you interact with an employee of our organization authorized to collect this information, through a form, or when you send us an email.

3.3 Use of Personal Information

The Cooperative and its banners use personal information regarding its members and users for the following purposes:

  • To identify you and update your personal information;
  • To conduct data analysis to generate statistics and improve our services;
  • To promote services that may interest you; and
  • To inform you of any news or updates concerning our organization.

The Cooperative and its banners use your personal information solely for the purposes mentioned above. We will ask for your consent for any other use that was not previously planned, unless permitted by law.

Within the Cooperative and its banners, only staff members who need access to your personal information for their work have access. Furthermore, we have established and implemented internal procedures, such as restricted access, to ensure that each employee has access only to the information necessary for the tasks assigned to them.

3.4 Sharing Your Personal Information with Third Parties

The Cooperative and its banners may transfer the personal information collected to service providers and other trusted partners carefully selected by our organization. These providers and partners are obligated to keep personal information confidential, use it solely for the purposes for which the Cooperative and its banners disclose it, and process the personal information according to the principles set forth in this Policy.

Third-party providers and partners who have access to your personal information sign a confidentiality agreement with us and commit to using your information only for the purposes stated in the agreement, providing the same level of protection we offer. For example, we may share personal information with organizations like HortiCompétences for study, research, or statistical production, in accordance with the conditions provided by Law 25.

4. When Do We Need to Obtain Your Consent?

The Cooperative and its banners use your information only with your consent or if Law 25 permits us to do so. We may obtain your consent when you fill out a personal information collection form, by email, or when you directly communicate with our organization.

For example, we may obtain your consent when:

  1. You request information about a service offered by Groupex or a service offered by a third party, whether a supplier or partner;
  2. You register for an activity organized by Groupex or one of its banners (Open Houses, Groupex Congress, the Grande Virée Coop, etc.);
  3. You communicate with a member of one of our departments, whether marketing and events, sustainability, finance, including accounting and billing, or procurement; and
  4. You agree to receive communications from us to keep up to date with the latest news about our organization.

Furthermore, it is important to note that we do not obtain your consent for every interaction with you. For example, if you have given your consent to subscribe to our newsletter, we may consider that you accept to receive our newsletter each month until you decide to unsubscribe.

5. Cookies

The Cooperative and its banners use cookies on their respective websites, namely www.groupex.coop; www.passionjardins.com; and www.maitrepaysagiste.com, to facilitate navigation, personalize site use, for statistical purposes, to measure the audience and traffic on each website, and finally to understand how you use it as a member and user.

In short, cookies help us collect information about your browsing. The information collected includes:

  • The anonymized IP address of your computer
  • The pages visited (date, time, duration, and frequency of your visits)

As a member and user, you can configure your browser to block cookies by setting your internet browser. Furthermore, you can delete cookies at any time by clearing your browsing history.

By using the websites of the Cooperative and its banners, you agree to the placement of cookies on your computer, smartphone, or tablet.

6. Retention of Collected Personal Information

The Cooperative and its banners retain your personal information according to your membership status. For example, an active file refers to an active member or user, while an inactive file refers to a member or user who is no longer a member of the Cooperative or its banners.

The Cooperative and its banners do not retain any member file, whether active or inactive, on paper. All personal information is stored on a computer server. It is important to note that we retain all personal information in accordance with best practices for retention and archiving.

The Cooperative and its banners retain your personal information, in digital format, for as long as necessary to achieve the purposes for which the information was collected or as long as required or permitted by Law 25. The purpose, nature, and sensitivity of the information have been taken into account when determining retention periods.

Once you are no longer a member or user of the Cooperative and its banners, your personal information is archived electronically as former members for a period of six (6) years. When your information is no longer necessary, we destroy it securely.

We are committed to making significant efforts to protect your personal information from loss, theft, and unauthorized access, use, or disclosure. We have implemented security procedures to ensure this protection, including restricting access to your personal information by setting up:

  • Restricted access to email inboxes
  • Restricted access to computer servers
  • Firewalls

In this way, only employees who need to consult your information in the course of their work have access.

7. What Are Your Rights and How Can You Exercise Them?

In accordance with Law 25, every user has the right to request access to their personal information held by the Cooperative and its banners. They also have the right to request the correction of any inaccurate or incomplete information. To exercise these rights, the user can contact us at the address provided in section 2 of this Policy.

8. Update of the Privacy Policy

We reserve the right to modify this Privacy Policy at any time. Any modification will be published on our site with an update date. We encourage our users to regularly check this policy to stay informed about our practices regarding the protection of personal information.