Resident Doctors of BC Privacy Statement

Resident Doctors of BC is committed to ensuring the protection, privacy, and appropriate use of personal information under its responsibility. As such, RDBC complies with the following ten principles in its use of personal information.

Accountability

Resident Doctors of BC is responsible for the personal information under its care, and may be held accountable to its protection and appropriate use. RDBC has numerous safeguards in place to protect this information and govern its use, and has designated a privacy officer to respond to questions or concerns related to the protection and use of personal information.

Identifying the Purpose

RDBC will, at the time of collection, inform individuals of the purpose for collecting personal information. In the running of ordinary RDBC business, RDBC will follow the principles laid out in PIPA and PIPEDA. Additionally, when contractually carrying out services on behalf of public bodies, such as HEABC, RDBC will follow the regulations set out in FIPPA.

Obtaining Consent

Consent for RDBC to collect information will be requested at the time of collection, and an explanation will be provided regarding the purpose of consent. Any member can contact RDBC to rescind or change the nature of their consent. For any optional services, members will be informed of the purpose of collection and be asked to opt-in or opt-out. Other than information required for the ordinary running of RDBC, membership will not be dependent on providing optional information, nor will it be dependent on opting-in to receive newsletters or other non-essential communications.

Limiting Collection

At the time of collection, members will be informed whether information is mandatory or optional. RDBC will not collect more information than what is necessary for the stated purpose. Choosing to refuse consent to collect optional information will have no negative impact on membership, and any potential consequences (such as receiving less communication) will be explained at the time.

Limiting Use, Disclosure, and Retention

Information collected will only be used for the purpose stated at the time of collection. If already collected information needs to be used for a different purpose, consent will be newly requested for this purpose. Resident Doctors of BC, including its staff and Board of Directors, will never disclose, sell, or otherwise give out members’ personal information. No member should disclose another member’s personal information. RDBC follows an internal policy regulating its response to external communications requests, in which no personal information will be given out to external parties. Members’ personal information will be retained for a maximum period of 7 years after membership ends, after which time it will be deleted from the system in its entirety, and physical copies will be destroyed. In no instance will Resident Doctors of BC ever request a member(s) to disclose personal information of their patients.

Accuracy

Resident Doctors of BC will keep up-to-date and accurate records of personal information, to the best of its knowledge. Any member may contact RDBC.

Using Appropriate Safeguards

Resident Doctors of BC will use appropriate, industry standard safeguards to secure all personal information in its care.

Openness

This policy will be distributed amongst RDBC staff, Board of Directors, and members. A version of this policy, with any sensitive information removed, will be published to the website.

Providing Individual Access

Access to an individual’s own personal information will be granted on request in a timely manner. Access to personal information will only be denied in the instance that there can be a reasonable assumption that supplying this information will cause harm to the individual or another individual, or in the instance that granting access will unintentionally disclose another member’s personal information.

Providing Recourse

Any individual with a concern regarding Resident Doctors of BC’s compliance with these principles or the relevant governing laws may contact RDBC directly, or can find further information through the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia at oipc.bc.ca