Hi, we’re the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (the “OHRI”), the team that makes the BEACON Platform and, specifically, the BEACON mobile application for suicide prevention (the “App”). In this Privacy Policy, the company will be referred to as “OHRIOHRI”.
At OHRI, we don’t sell or give the BEACON Platform or the App to patients and individuals directly; you’re getting the App through a healthcare provider. This organization is identified by the Agency ID you’ve been told to enter into the App in order to create an account. Throughout the rest of this document, this other organization who is enabling your use of the App and who will know almost everything about how you use it and have access to almost all the data you enter into it, will be referred to as the“Provider” or “your Provider”.
Please read this Privacy Policy closely. If you’re like most people, you want your personal information protected, perhaps especially your health information.
By using the App, you’re giving us consent to collect, store, access and disclose the data that you and/or your Provider enter into the BEACON Platform in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
This Privacy Policy will describe the following:
If you have any more questions after reading this Privacy Policy, please discuss them with your Provider.
Please review this page regularly as we may update this Privacy Policy from time to time.
In the course of your creating an account, your use of the App, and the Provider’s use of the entire BEACON Platform, personally identifiable information about you (“PII”) will be captured and stored in the BEACON Platform.
The PII that may be stored through your interactions with the App and through the use of the BEACON Platform by your Provider includes, without limitation, your name, username, alias name, email address, IP address, telephone numbers, photographs, names of personal contacts, the names of locations you may enter, goals, tasks, answers to survey questions, optional trackable data (exercise, meals, social time with pets) and the content of all messages, both individual and group messages, you might send using the App to counselors, coaches, or other authorized users of the BEACON Platform.
The App and the BEACON Platform may also collect certain information automatically, including, without limitation, the type of mobile device you use, your mobile devices unique device ID, the IP address of your mobile device, your mobile operating system, the type of mobile Internet browsers you use, and information about the way you use the BEACON Platform (“Automatically Collected Information”).
Your Provider has access to all of the PII. OHRI, which operates the BEACON Platform for the Provider, has access to all the PII and the Automatically Collected Information.
OHRI may disclose your data to other organizations when (1) required to by law, such as to comply with a subpoena, or similar legal process; or (2) when we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, protect your safety or the safety of others, investigate fraud, or respond to a government request.
Also, OHRI may use outside, trusted individuals and companies to help us deliver the BEACON Platform and related services who, in this capacity, may have access to your data.
The App has optional features: (1) High-risk Locations, which enables you to input an address or specific location that you think could be harmful to you and (2) Safe Locations, which enables you to input an address or specific location that will support you in a time of crisis. If you set a High-risk or Safe Location and then you go near the location with your phone, the App is designed to alert you that you are near this location. This is an optional feature and it only works if you set your phone to share your location with the App.
If you are using the High-risk Location or Safe Locations features and you have set your phone to share your location with the App, when this feature is triggered, the BEACON Platform will collect the longitude and latitude of your location. The BEACON Platform will also store the names you give the locations entered and it will store when you go near a location. However, this information will be linked to an internal anonymous identifier and will not link your name to these locations.
The App has the capability to push notifications to the home screen of your mobile device. A push notification is a message that pops up on a mobile device and can be sent at any time, even when you are not using the app.
This feature is optional. To be enabled, you must first allow notifications from the App on your mobile device. At any time, notifications can be turned off through the settings within the App and/or through the settings on your mobile device.
If you opt to allow push notifications from the App, you will receive notifications such as reminders and message alerts, but never anything detailed or specific. Please be aware that these notifications will indicate that they are from the App and may appear on your home lock screen where others may be able to see them.
OHRI stores your data on secure Amazon Web Services (“AWS”) servers located in Canada. You can learn more about AWS and how it helps us protect your information here: https://aws.amazon.com/canada/aws-in-canada/.
We are committed to safeguarding the confidentiality of your data. We provide physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards to protect information we process and maintain. For example, we limit access to this information to authorized employees and contractors who need to know that information in order to operate, develop or improve the BEACON Platform. In addition, the BEACON Platform employs a variety of technical safeguards to protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of your data including encryption of the data in transit and at rest and other industry best practices. Please be aware that, although we strive to provide reasonable security for the information that we process and maintain, no security system can prevent all potential security breaches. Furthermore, information sent or received over the internet is generally not secure and may be intercepted, lost or altered. OHRI cannot guarantee the security of any communication to or from the BEACON Platform.
Your data will be stored in the BEACON Platform for as long as your Provider remains a customer of OHRI.
If you have stopped using the App and have deleted the App from all of your mobile devices, and you would like your PII to be erased or deleted from the BEACON Platform, please reach out to your Provider. Once your PII is deleted from the App, it cannot be retrieved.
The App and the BEACON Platform is not for patients under the age of thirteen. If a parent or guardian becomes aware that his or her child has entered their own personal data into the App or been given an account by a Provider, please contact your Provider.
Your use of the BEACON Platform is an acknowledgement that you understand and consent to this Privacy Policy. OHRI may modify this Privacy Policy at any time effective upon its posting. Your continued use of the BEACON Platform constitutes your acceptance of this Privacy Policy and any updates.
If you have any questions regarding the Privacy Policy, please contact your Provider.