The purpose of this article is to simplify and explain through examples your legal responsibilities, as a party involved in the organization of an event, regarding the personal information of the passes buyers.
First of all, it is your responsibility to review our Terms of Use and our Personal Information Management Policy. By using our platform, you have accepted our conditions and to comply with the requirements of all applicable laws and regulations relating to the protection of personal information. It is therefore essential to read these legal documents.
Personal Information Definition
Let's start at the beginning: what do we mean when we use the terms "personal information" or "Personal data".
Both expressions mean the same and can be used interchangeably, even if we usually say "personal information". A personal information is any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person. This definition has a very wide reach and targets even the information obtained indirectly. Constitute personal information, for example: name, age, sex, civic address, email address, phone number, identification number, location data, IP address, online identifier, online behavior, or to one or more specific elements unique to its physical, physiological, genetic, psychic, economic, cultural, or social identity. In short, any information about an individual allowing to identify them.
That being said, a single information may not be personal information since it does not identify the individual (eg IP address, age or gender), but when it is crossed with a other information (eg an e-mail address or the name of the individual), all this data becomes personal information, since it is now attached to an individual. In concrete terms, this means that a database containing, for example, only information on the age, sex and postal code of individuals who have purchased banknotes, will not be covered by the provisions on the protection of personal property. personal informations. However, in the event that the individual's email address or name is entered, the entire database will be considered to contain personal information.
Buyers' Rights
Legally, your passes buyers have several rights regarding their personal information including, but not limited to :
(For more details, see Terms of use & Personal Information Management Policy)
Transparency : Knowing which personal information has been collected, to whom it was shared, and for what purpose. If a customer asks you these types of questions, you must provide the information.
Disclaimer when personal information breach: You have a legal obligation to notify all customers affected by a breach of personal information, to provide them with a point of contact, to describe the likely consequences, and to take steps to remedy the breach.
Erasure (right to be forgotten): This right means that you must delete the customer's personal information from your systems if they request it.
The right for protected personal information: You are under the obligation to have appropriate security measures that will limit the risks of unauthorized disclosure of personal information.
You must have (at all times) a person responsible for the management of personal information in your organization, who will, among other things, ensure compliance with these obligations.
How do I know if the buyer wants to receive promotional offers or not?
In the Marketing tab of the management tool, select "Purchaser Data". Click on the "+" icon to add a data type. Under Marketing you will find Email Share. If this column says "Yes", the customer has agreed to receive commercial communications from you. If this column says "No", you can only contact the buyer for reasons related to the event for which they purchased (more details below).
You can also use the Shared Email Addresses module to get a complete list of buyers who have agreed to receive promotional communications. In this module you will see the email address, preferred language, and latest date of consent.
Communication with a customer who has refused promotional communications
When a customer has refused to receive promotional communication, here are a few examples where you contact the clients:
To give the pass(es) they have purchased, the order confirmation, or the reminder ahead of your event.
To convey important information about your event (changes to the event, cancellation, etc.). Note that you may also provide certain information (provided it is fairly brief) through the reminder email, the purchase confirmation, or the email containing the e-tickets.
In case of issues. For example if you have suffered from a breach of personal information and must notify the buyers.
To respond to any request from the client, including any questions relating to the processing of personal information.
Communication with a customer who has accepted promotional communications
When a customer agrees to receive promotional offers, you will be able to communicate directly with them for contests, promotions, and other reasons. However, as soon as a customer requests to stop receiving promotional offers from you, Canadian law requires you to stop sending them to this person immediately.
Normally, email sending services (Mailchimp, for example) will offer you a tracking tool to update your mailing lists.
It is important to understand that the information available on thepoinofsale.com does not reflect information from your personal lists, but those available through our database. For example, if a buyer has agreed to receive promotional offers when purchasing a ticket, but has decided, after receiving your newsletter, to unsubscribe by contacting you directly, the information available on our platform will remain unchanged because there is no synchronization in between to two services.
Contests, Promotions & Third Party Agreements
Take an example of a competition. How can you communicate with the winning customers?
If you organize the contest yourself, you will only be able to communicate with the winners if they have agreed to receive promotional offers.
If you organize the contest with a partner, you must remember that even if the ticket buyers have agreed to receive your promotions, they have not agreed to you sharing their personal information with a third party. You must therefore communicate, yourself, with the winners, and only if they have agreed to receive promotional offers.
If you organize the contest in partnership with Thepointofsale.com, the customers have consented to our website's Terms of Use conditions which stipulate that we can communicate with them for contest reasons of competition. For this reason, Thepointofsale.com will be able to communicate with customers regardless of their preferences.
Promotions Partnership: What happens if you have an agreement with a third party?
If you have decided to promote the services of a third party in exchange for similar promotion on their end, you must bear in mind, once again, that your customers have not agreed to share their personal information with this third party, but only with you. You can send an email promoting the third party services with a link to their products or subscriptions to their newsletter list, but this email must be sent on your behalf, not theirs. Legally, you simply can't share the personal information of your customers without their consent.
It is important to ask yourself questions about the legal use your events participants in regard to their personal information. When in doubt, please refer to our Terms of Use and our Personal Information Management Policy. These documents explain in detail your privileges and responsibilities.
This article is not a legal document. If you still have questions, please contact your event advisor or open a chat window at the bottom right of this page to speak with one of our team members.