PRIVACY POLICY
MELS STUDIOS & PRODUCTIONS S.E.N.C. (hereinafter “MELS”, “we”, “us” and “our”) wishes to inform you of the privacy practices and policies implemented on this site and the sites of MELS’s authorized affiliates (hereinafter the “Site”). More specifically, this privacy policy (hereinafter the “Policy”) describes the way we in which we collect, use, disclose and process information concerning you.
MELS is aware of concerns regarding the circulation of personal information and navigational data on the internet and aims to cooperate with you to ensure that your privacy is respected and protected. For this reason, we wish to inform you of the type of information we collect when you visit our Site and when, how and why we collect this information. We wish to specify that MELS restricts both the quantity and nature of the information collected. We therefore ask you to read the following Policy closely and to come back periodically to learn of any changes we may have made.
WHAT IS « PERSONAL INFORMATION » AND HOW IS IT COLLECTED?
Personal Information refers to information about an identifiable individual. That is, information that could be used to specifically identify you as the user, such as your first or last name, your physical or email address and your telephone number.
No Personal Information will be collected on the Site without your consent. Under special circumstances, and always honestly and lawfully, MELS will prompt you to enter Personal Information. For example, we might collect this information during your registration for one of our personalized services, emails and online contests, or when you indicate you are interested in receiving information about other services, contests or news regarding MELS or its partners. When MELS requests such information, you will be expressly notified in advance that you are providing Personal Information that will be subject to our practices regarding the collection, recording, development, modification, retention and destruction of such Personal Information. You will always have the option to decline our request for Personal Information or terminate a subscription to a personalized service you have previously accepted.
We might also automatically collect general anonymous information regarding your use of the Site, such as the date and time of your visit, the particular pages of the Site you visited, the type of browser you used, the IP address of your device, and the name of your internet service provider. Please see our Navigational Data policy below to learn more about such information.
WHY DO WE COLLECT PERSONAL INFORMATION?
The collection of this information allows MELS to provide an experience that is more relevant to your needs, to improve the Site’s content and interface, to reach you in the event you win a prize, to ensure that we are complying with our own Site rules for control purposes, and, only if you have so indicated, to communicate with you from time to time.
WHO MAY ACCESS THE PERSONAL INFORMATION?
It is important to specify that MELS’s advertisers, customers or partners do not have access to your Personal Information at any time. Only MELS has access to Personal Information submitted by you. If you are prompted to provide Personal Information for any other purpose, you will be automatically and expressly notified when this information is requested from you. No Personal Information will be made available to persons outside MELS without your prior written authorization. Therefore, we will not transfer, sell or disclose your Personal Information to any third party without your prior written consent.
WHERE AND HOW LONG DO WE STORE PERSONAL INFORMATION?
The Personal Information collected by MELS is stored in areas inaccessible to the public and protected by security measures appropriate for the information’s level of sensitivity. In order to protect the confidentiality of your Personal Information, MELS’ implements administrative, technical and physical protective measures for all the Personal Information under our custody and control. Our security measures aim to protect your Personal Information against loss, theft and unauthorized access, copy, use or modification.
We retain Personal Information only as long as necessary or relevant for the purposes mentioned in the Policy, and always in accordance with the law.
ARE THERE LIMITS TO MELS’S PROTECTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION?
Despite our good faith protection measures mentioned above, no one can perfectly secure or guarantee the safe transmission of data on this Site, or on the internet in general. Therefore, we cannot guarantee that your Personal Information will be perfectly secure from all loss, misuse or modification during its transmission. We must therefore deny liability for any use or misuse of your Personal Information by a third party, for example, if such Personal Information is intercepted during its online transmission or if we are hacked.
The only circumstances under which MELS might voluntarily disclose Personal Information apart from those expressly provided by law are the following: (a) at the request of a legal authority or in good faith if such action is reasonably required to comply with any law or regulation in effect; (b) to intervene in a trial, prevent fraud or protect or defend MELS’s rights, property or users; or (c) in extreme circumstances, to protect the personal safety of MELS users or the public.
CAN YOU ACCESS OR ASK US TO RECTIFY YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?
Yes, you can access or ask us to rectify your Personal Information by submitting a detailed request to: [email protected]. However, we can only satisfy your request if we already have a personal folder in your name in our files (for example, if you already communicated Personal Information to us when creating an account).
Be vigilant! Our Site may contain links to websites managed by third parties. These links are offered to you only for your convenience. Clicking on these links leads you to another website. Be informed that MELS exercises no control over third-party websites and the fact that these sites are available on the Site in no way generates liability on MELS’s behalf. Thus, any Personal Information you provide to websites other than this Site are necessarily subject to the Personal Information policies of these other websites. In no event may MELS be held liable for abuses that could result therefrom or from the manner in which organizations administering these third party websites collect, use, disclose or process your Personal Information. We highly recommend that you read the Personal Information protection policies of these other websites carefully.
We also wish to draw your attention to the fact that voluntarily uploading and publicly disseminating Personal Information during chat sessions, by email, electronic bulletin board, blog, or any other interactive page of the Site is not covered by this Policy. Vigilance is of the essence when you communicate your Personal Information by these means and we request that you review our Terms of Use on this subject. In these cases, be informed that you would be transmitting your Personal Information at your own risk and that this Personal Information might be collected and used by third parties without your prior consent. For example, if you enter Personal Information online and this Personal Information is accessible to the public, you might receive unsolicited messages from third parties. MELS denies all liability in this regard. We therefore advise you to remain prudent and attentive at all times when you are surfing the internet or creating content on the internet, particularly when making online comments.
NAVIGATIONAL DATA
WHAT DOES «NAVIGATIONAL DATA» MEAN, AND HOW IS IT COLLECTED?
Navigational Data is general information about your electronic device or your navigational activity. It may include information about your IP address, your browsing history (such as the time and date you visited this site), the content of the different pages of this site you visited, the number of clicks during your visit, the type of device you used, your general geographic location (province or country), the advertisements or videos that you watched during your visit, and the address of the site you visited immediately before this site or that you visit immediately after this site.
Navigational Data is not Personal Information in that we do not use it, either alone or coupled with other information, with the intent of revealing your identity. The Navigational Data is used solely for the purposes expressed in this Policy.
Navigational Data is collected by means of so-called «cookies», which are small data files uploaded onto your electronic device (such as your computer, tablet or mobile) once you visit this site. The cookies are automatically sent by the server of this site onto the browser of your device (Internet Explorer, Safari, Mozilla, etc.) and are archived, by default, onto your device’s hard drive.
WHO COLLECTS NAVIGATIONAL DATA?
Navigational Data may be collected, in whole or in part, by: (a) us (being MELS), its affiliates and/or related companies (collectively, «us»); and (b) certain companies with which we collaborate for commercial or non-commercial purposes (such as our advertising and content partners, our service, solution and technological platform providers, or certain companies who wish to acquire our assets) (collectively, our «Partners»).
When the Navigational Data is collected directly by a Partner, we will first enter into an agreement with that Partner to ensure that the Navigational Data is collected, used and stored with caution and only as expressly disclosed in this policy. The Partner must agree to abide by all applicable laws in Quebec and guarantees the safety and confidentiality of any Navigational Data collected. Our Partners are not allowed to collect Personal Information, use spyware to collect data without your knowledge, or use cookies that you cannot disable.
IS NAVIGATIONAL DATA SHARED WITH THIRD PARTIES?
Unless you expressly authorize us to do so, we will not share your Navigational Data with any third parties other than our Partners. Even when we share the Navigational Data with our Partners, they are also bound by the rights, uses and limitations disclosed in this policy. We aim to ensure that the Navigational Data is solely used per our instructions and in accordance with this policy, and all applicable laws, security measures and confidentiality requirements.
HOW DO WE USE NAVIGATIONAL DATA?
Even if we are not members of the AdChoices programme, we encourage you to consult their website at www.youradchoices.ca to better understand online behavioural advertising and the different options and solutions available to you as a user. On our side, we use Navigational Data in the following ways
we generate statistical data about our level of readership, the performance and use of our sites and content, and the type of persons interested in our sites
we improve your browsing experience. For example, the settings of your browser (such as your preferred language, time zone and plug-ins) may be offered to you by default upon your next visit, so that you are not required to enter your settings and preferences upon each visit
we provide you with advertisements that are in line with your interests. In other words, advertisements may be tailored to you, given the content of the pages of this site that you have visited
WHERE AND FOR HOW LONG DO WE STORE NAVIGATIONAL DATA?
The Navigational Data may be stored on our servers, our providers’ servers, or our Partners’ servers, as applicable. The Navigational Data is only stored for as the long as necessary to fulfill the purposes described above, after which time it will be permanently deleted.
HOW CAN YOU AVOID HAVING YOUR NAVIGATIONAL DATA COLLECTED?
By browsing this site, you consent to having your Navigational Data collected in the manner and for the purposes detailed above. Nevertheless, you may at any time erase the cookies already on your browser or disable new cookies. Certain browsers allow you to pick and choose which cookies you allow on your browser and which cookies you disable. For more information on this subject, please turn to your browsing parameters.
Disabling the cookies on this site will not block you access to our page. However, you will be treated as a new user upon each visit and the advertisements you receive will be random and non-personalized.
Certain advanced functionalities of this site may be inadvertently affected by disabling cookies because some cookies enable advanced interaction between different pages of our site. If you are experiencing difficulties as a result of disabling the cookies on our site, we invite you to contact us at any time.
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU CLICK ON AN ADVERTISEMENT OR AN EXTERNAL LINK EMBEDDED ON OUR SITE?
When you click on an advertisement or an external link embedded on our site, you will be redirected to the site of the advertiser and third party sponsoring the link, respectively. The new site will have its own policy regarding Navigational Data that may differ from ours and the new site will also likely have its own cookies. The policy of this site will no longer apply and your online activity will be subject to the new site’s policies.
CAN YOU ACCESS OR ASK US TO RECTIFY YOUR NAVIGATIONAL DATA?
Yes, you can access or ask us to rectify your Navigational Data by submitting a detailed request at [email protected]. However, we can only satisfy your request if we already have a personal folder in your name in our files (for example, if you already communicated Personal Information to us when creating an account) and if we are further able to confirm that the Navigational Data contained in that personal folder is in fact yours.
TERMS OF USE
PRELIMINARY REMARKS
This contract constitutes a legal agreement between you, as the visitor using this website (the “Site”) and MELS STUDIO & PRODUCTIONS S.E.N.C. (“MELS”).
By browsing (or registering to) this Site, you accept to be bound by these terms of use (hereinafter the “Terms”) for as long as you are browsing (or are registered to) the Site. Your access to the Site is conditioned upon your full compliance with these Terms. You must read the Terms and comply with them without reservation, in their entirety.
ACCEPTANCE OF THE TERMS
These Terms apply to the entire Site and to any products or services provided on the Site by MELS. By using this Site, you declare that you will comply with the Terms of the Site and with all applicable laws.
COPYRIGHTS AND TRADEMARKS
All the content on this Site that was created, developed, designed or generated by MELS (e.g. texts, illustrations, images, codes, trademarks and URLs), as well as the selection, composition and arrangement of such content, are protected by worldwide copyright and either belong to or are licenced to MELS. You are strictly prohibited from using the components of the Site, in whole or in part, without MELS’s prior written authorization. No licence or right of use is granted to you or may be inferred from your use of this Site. More specifically, unless you obtain MELS’s written authorization or you are expressly permitted to do so by the Site’s functionalities, you are prohibited from modifying, copying, distributing, transmitting, broadcasting, reproducing, compiling, arranging or saving MELS’s content, or from transferring such content to anyone in any manner whatsoever, including by reproducing or transmitting an excerpt of the content (whether or not accompanied by a hyperlink). You are also prohibited from selling or profiting in any manner from any content, information, software, product or service you might obtain from the Site, and from creating works derived from such content.
USER NAME AND PASSWORD (WHERE THIS FUNCTIONALITY IS AVAILABLE ON THE SITE)
Be sure not to share your account information or password with anyone as this information should be kept confidential. MELS is not liable for any unauthorized use of your account, and you accept all liability arising from acts committed by any person using your password. If the confidentiality of your account is compromised, please notify MELS at ● as soon as possible so we can help you avoid further fraudulent use of your account. MELS is not liable for any loss or damage resulting, in particular, from your failure to comply with the security measures set out in this section. We recommend that you read carefully the LIMITED LIABILITY and INDEMNIFICATION sections of these Terms for a better understanding of the scope of your and our liability with respect to the Site.
USING ONLINE COMMUNICATION SERVICES
Accuracy. You represent that all the information you have provided to us when creating your account is true, accurate, up to date and complete and that you have all the required authorizations to provide this information and create this account. You undertake not to create a false identity or provide false information. At all times, you undertake to keep your account up to date and as accurate as possible, and to modify your account information accordingly as soon as any change occurs or you learn that a change has occurred. At no time may you use the Site or its services or create an account for the purpose of misleading us or others.
False information. If you provide information that is false, inaccurate, deceitful, incomplete or otherwise not in compliance with these Terms, MELS reserves the right, at its sole and entire discretion, to suspend or cancel your account with or without notice or the possibility of dispute, and to inform the competent authorities of your actions.
Netiquette. To make the experience of navigating this site as enjoyable as possible for everyone, your participation in forums, chat rooms, blogs, interactive components and more generally any page of the Site where you can leave comments, express yourself, contribute and enrich the content posted by your elements including any ticket notes, data, commentary, adding animation, article, publication, text, link, hyperlink, hypertext, photo, picture, file, video, music, audio and/or video elements, webcasting and more generally any materials generated by you in any form whatsoever (the “Contribution“) must at all times comply with these Terms.
Content. Any Contribution that is abusive, defamatory, obscene, offensive, discriminatory, racist, violent or sexist and that contains illegal material or infringes any intellectual property rights is prohibited. Your Contribution must not be in violation of public order or any applicable laws and regulations. In particular, but without limitation, your Contribution cannot be pedophilic, pornographic, child-pornographic or incite crime, violence, hatred, racism, anti-Semitism, xenophobia, homophobia, war crimes or crimes against humanity. Your Contribution cannot discriminate against a person or a group of people based on ethnicity, religion or race, nor denigrate, defame, harm the reputation, privacy and image of a third party. Threats, harassment and cyberbullying are strictly forbidden. Your Contribution is entirely your responsibility and your words are your own. Your Contribution must not physically damage or allow damage to the site and its features.
Privacy. You should not communicate information of a personal or confidential nature, or identify yourself or another user. Remember that no one is anonymous on the Internet. It is your responsibility to be careful and protect yourself by limiting disclosure of your personal or identifiable information. For more details, please see our Privacy Policy.
Copyright. You must ensure at all times that you have, or have secured, all necessary rights to make your Contribution (including all necessary intellectual property rights). By submitting your Contribution, you accept and acknowledge that you are granting a non-exclusive, transferable, perpetual license to MELS to use your Contribution in all media, now known or hereafter devised. Accordingly, MELS may, without any remuneration, publicly or privately broadcast, encode, distribute, reproduce (in whole or in part), modify, display, communicate, adapt, edit, publish, translate and generally use your Contribution. In addition, you hereby waive any moral rights in your Contribution. Subject to the rights granted above, you retain the intellectual property rights and copyright to your Contribution.
Your opinion. Your Contribution is a reflection of your personal thoughts, preferences, tastes, and more generally of yourself. You should not suggest that your Contribution represents or was made on behalf of a third party unless expressly authorized to do so. You cannot suggest or imply that MELS approves or endorses your Contribution, unless expressly authorized.
Respect. Freedom of expression must be respected. Everyone is entitled to his or her opinion, and so you must respect everyone’s comments, ideas and Contributions, even if you disagree with them.
ILLEGAL CONTENT
Remember that solely you are responsible for the content you share on the Site and the consequences arising from such content. You may not use the Site or the Site’s services to conduct or send any survey, contest, pyramid scheme or chain letter, or to spam, hack or commit any other act for illegal purposes. It is also forbidden to perform acts that might infringe upon another person’s rights or their enjoyment of the Site and its functionalities. MELS reserves the right, at its own discretion, to delete any content uploaded onto this Site. However, this is an option and not an obligation. Therefore, you understand that MELS does not make any representation concerning its control of the content on the Site, particularly given the volume of information available and the speed at which data can be transmitted on the service. MELS reserves the right to take action against you or any person who does not comply with these Terms, and to inform the competent public authorities of unlawful activities, information or content of which MELS is aware.
No defamatory, obscene, violent or racist content is authorized on this Site. No illegal material that violates the intellectual property of others is authorized on this Site. More specifically, but without limitation, no pedophilic or pornographic content or any content inciting crime, violence, hatred, racism, anti-Semitism, xenophobia, homophobia or praising war crimes or crimes against humanity is permitted. No content, by its nature or its form, may incite discrimination against a person, a group of persons or a family based on ethnicity, religion or race, nor may the content denigrate or defame a third party or impair the reputation, privacy or image of a third party.
SAFETY OF CHILDREN AND TEENAGERS ON THE INTERNET
An ever growing number of children and teenagers use the internet and they derive many obvious benefits from such use. However, as with any other environment, they can become the targets of crime or exploitation because they are more vulnerable. This is why we recommend that you monitor the use of the internet by your children, teenagers and any other person in your custody or care, and that you offer them common-sense safety tips and recommendations. Such measures often prevent them from being exposed to offensive data and from becoming the victims of harassment or other criminal acts. To reduce the risks of exposure of your children, teenagers and any other person in your custody to such elements, perform reasonable supervision of their use of your internet service. Your children, teenagers and any person in your custody or care should be aware that they must never disclose Personal Information or otherwise identify themselves, particularly in forums or chat rooms, by email, on an electronic bulletin board, on a blog, on a micro-blog or on any page of any website. It is important that they be encouraged to disclose their concerns to you if they receive messages that make them uncomfortable or shock them. These recommendations will help them browse the internet as informed users and will allow you to ensure that these services help to enrich their development.
NETWORK SECURITY AND EFFICIENCY
MELS does not guarantee the total efficiency or security of the Site. Despite MELS’s security efforts, it is possible that a hacker might succeed in penetrating the server. It is therefore important to bear in mind, BEFORE YOU REGISTER OR USE YOUR ACCOUNT (IF APPLICABLE) and BEFORE BROWSING THE SITE that it is possible that ill-intentioned individuals will access the Site’s servers and use certain information for their own purposes. IN NO EVENT may MELS or any of its directors, officers, employees or agents be held liable for the acts of computer hacking or any damage or loss that this might cause you.
The Site may undergo occasional outages or certain programming errors caused by updates or certain events beyond MELS’s control. Neither MELS nor its directors, officers, employees or agents may be held liable for your inability to browse, use or access the Site at any time for any reason (e.g. defective telephone line, incompatible modem, broken cable, inadequate configuration, and incorrect browser). Moreover, MELS reserves the right to maintain and update the Site at all times, which may result in the temporary unavailability of the Site or its services.
EXTERNAL LINKS
MELS or a third party may provide a link on the Site to other websites or sources. MELS cannot control these other websites and sources and does not warrant or guarantee their availability or functionality. MELS does not endorse or approve the content on these websites or sources, and it disclaims all liability and warranties in connection with such content. MELS reserves the right to insert or authorize advertisements on the Site, which may result in links to other websites. At no time does MELS approve nor is MELS responsible for the ideas, opinions, products, services or, more generally, the content conveyed on such other websites.
LIMITED LIABILITY
MELS, its parent companies, subsidiaries and affiliates are in no way liable for damages, including compensatory, direct or indirect damages, or any other damages of any nature whatsoever that may have been caused to you or to any other legal or natural person resulting from advice, notifications, opinions, recommendations or information obtained on the Site, from any technology whatsoever on the Site, or from any human or technical error that may occur at any stage whatsoever, from technical problems or defects of the electronic network or the communications network, online computer systems, servers, IT equipment, software, data transmissions or any other technical or congestion problem on the Site. MELS may not be held liable for the loss of all or part of the content, including during upload, alteration or modification of the content by MELS, you or third parties. MELS does not guarantee any traffic on the Site. Moreover, guardians, parents and other persons with parental authority remain responsible at all times for the health, welfare, monitoring, supervision and education of the minor or any other person in their custody. You are solely and entirely responsible for all content you generate and upload on the Site, if applicable. MELS is not liable for fraudulent or malicious use of the Site and its service.
INDEMNIFICATION
MELS is not liable for the content and actions generated by you or third parties on the Site or in relation to the Site. You accept that you are solely and exclusively responsible for your content and you acknowledge that you have produced it knowingly. MELS is not liable for any breach of the Terms by or with you or a third party. Moreover, the Site and MELS, its directors, representatives, officers, employees, agents or mandataries in no way endorse your comments, content, intentions or the opinions or those of third parties. You will indemnify and defend MELS and its subsidiaries, parent company, officers, agents and employees in the event that a lawsuit is instituted against MELS in connection with a violation of these Terms by you or any person who has access to your account.
FORCE MAJEURE
MELS is not liable, without limitation, for any delay, non-performance, interruption, suspension, reduction or disruption, in whole or in part, of the Site or MELS’s obligations hereunder, nor for any damages or losses you might suffer resulting from any event beyond MELS’s reasonable control (a force majeure), including lock-outs and strikes.
APPLICABLE LAW AND AMENDMENTS
This contract is governed by the laws of the Province of Quebec. You hereby acknowledge that any dispute arising from or related to the use of the Site will be subject to the jurisdiction of the courts of the District of Montreal in the Province of Quebec.
These Terms may be amended by MELS at any time, including to reflect any changes made to the Site, such as the addition, modification or removal of certain conditions, elements and functionalities of the Site in light of technical upgrades and legislative amendments. These amendments will come into effect immediately after being published in the Terms. You should therefore check these Terms regularly because using the Site means you accept the Terms in their entirety and all subsequent amendments that MELS might make from time to time. If you do not agree to these Terms, you should abstain from using the Site, creating an account (if such functionality exists) or contributing to the Site (if such functionality exists) and, in the event you disagree with any amendment of the Terms, you undertake to delete your account completely as soon as possible and not to browse on the Site any longer.
PRIVACY OFFICER
Jonathan Lee Hickey, Senior Vice President, Legal Affairs and Corporate Secretary and Privacy Officer: [email protected]
