The Auditor General for Local Government office (AGLG) is committed to protecting your privacy. We collect, use and disclose your personal information in accordance with B.C.’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act and other applicable legislation.

Personal information is defined broadly in FOIPPA as recorded information about an identifiable individual, other than business contact information, which is the information used to contact a person at a place of business.

This privacy statement will inform you of the personal information that may be collected from you when you visit our website and how that information may be used.

How does the AGLG collect personal information?

When you use our website’s “Contact Us” form, send us an e-mail or directly message us through a social media platform, we may collect your contact information and your message so that we may reply to you. We recommend that you don’t send sensitive personal information using these methods.

When you browse our site, our web server may collect personal information in the form of cookies and audit logs. This information is only used for analytics or for the operation and security of our website. A cookie is a small file stored on your computer by your web browser when using some websites. It may remain on your computer after the internet session finishes (until the cookie expires or is deleted by you).

What personal information is being collected?

The information collected is:

• The web browser and operating system you are using (for example, Vista, XP, Safari).
• The date and time of the visit.
• The pages or services accessed.
• If you were on another website before visiting our website, the URL (web address) of that previous website if it referred you to our website.
• The URL (web address) of the first website you visit immediately upon leaving our website if you were referred to that website by our website.
• The Internet Protocol (IP) network domain name (for example, shaw.ca) and address (such as 10.100.20) of the computer you are using. IP addresses and domain names are identifiers that may be used to distinguish between users and identify your internet service provider or your computer itself.

The AGLG, via its website, will notify you if cookies will be collecting additional information from you.

Why does the AGLG collect personal information?

We collect personal information to better understand general user trends at an aggregate level and improve web performance, web services and website maintenance. Personal information will only be used by authorized staff to fulfill the purpose for which it was originally collected or for a use consistent with that purpose, unless you expressly consent otherwise.

We may collect personal information through security audits to project against threats from hackers, and for other enforcement and security purposes. We do not use this data to determine your identity unless required to do so as part of an internal investigation or for another enforcement-related purpose, and then, only in compliance with B.C.’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

Can I opt out of the collection of my personal information?

Your browser may allow you to disable cookies, but you cannot opt out of the information collected for security audit purposes. Also, your decision to disable cookies may impair your ability to browse, read and download information contained on our website. However, you can still access our services by other methods such as personal contact, fax or mail.

Social media

LinkedIn – The AGLG uses LinkedIn, which is a third-party social media provider. Any personal information you provide through LinkedIn is not hosted on our server and is subject to LinkedIn’s terms of service and privacy policies.

Twitter – The AGLG uses Twitter, which is a third-party social media provider. Any personal information you provide through Twitter is not hosted on our server and is subject to Twitter’s terms of service and privacy policies.

Links to other websites

Our website includes links to other sites. When you follow a link, you leave our website and your use of any other website is no longer subject to our privacy policy, but rather those of the other websites you visit.

Contact us

If you have questions about this privacy policy, you can contact our office at 604 930-7100. You can also email us at info@aglg.ca or write to us at:

Auditor General for Local Government
#201 – 10470 152 Street
Surrey, B.C., V3R 0Y3