Introduction
Welcome Aide Society ("WelcomeAide," "we," "our," or "us") is committed to protecting the privacy and security of the personal information of all individuals who use our website, services, and programs. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you visit our website at welcomeaide.com and use our services.
Information We Collect
We may collect the following types of information:
- Contact Information: Name, email address, and other contact details you provide when filling out forms, contacting us, or subscribing to our newsletter.
- Inquiry and Form Information: Details about your inquiry, and information you enter into our tools (such as the resume builder, cover letter generator, benefits finder, or cost calculator) to produce a result for you.
- Chat Conversations: When you use Aida, our AI assistant, the messages you send and the responses you receive are processed and stored to operate the service. See AI Assistant and Chat Data below.
- Usage and Analytics Data: How you interact with our site, collected through Google Analytics and Microsoft Clarity, and only after you accept cookies. This includes pages viewed, device and browser type, and approximate location. Microsoft Clarity may also record anonymized session activity such as mouse movement, clicks, and scrolling. These tools use cookies and are not fully anonymous.
- Technical Data: We temporarily process your IP address to deliver the site, keep it secure, and limit abuse (rate limiting).
- Cookie Data: Information collected through cookies and similar technologies, as described in Cookies and Analytics below.
- Device Location (optional): if you tap "Use my location" in the Aida chat and allow your browser's prompt, your browser converts your position into a province and nearest community on your device. Only that province and community name are stored (on your device) and shared with Aida so it can suggest services near you. Your exact coordinates never leave your device, and you can stop sharing at any time with one tap.
How We Use Your Information
We use the information we collect to:
- Respond to your inquiries and requests
- Provide and improve our programs and services
- Send newsletters and updates (with your consent)
- Analyze website usage to improve user experience
- Comply with legal obligations
- Protect the rights and safety of our users and staff
- If you choose to opt in, information you provide through our tools may be used to help us build a better AI and support system so that future newcomers like you can get even faster, smarter help when they need it most.
- Operate Aida, our AI assistant, including generating responses and reviewing conversations (with personal identifiers removed) to improve answer quality.
AI Assistant and Chat Data
Aida, our AI assistant, is powered by Google's Gemini models, with Anthropic's Claude used as a fallback. When you chat with Aida, your messages are sent to these providers to generate a response. Conversations are stored temporarily (using Upstash) to operate the service, and a periodic internal summary of conversations may be reviewed by our team to improve answer quality. Before any such review, we automatically remove personal identifiers such as email addresses, phone numbers, Social Insurance Numbers, and street addresses. Please do not enter full sensitive identifiers, such as your complete Social Insurance Number, into the chat. Aida provides general information only and is not legal, immigration, financial, or medical advice.
Data Sharing and Disclosure
We do not sell, trade, or rent your personal information to third parties. We may share information only in the following circumstances:
- With your explicit consent.
- With third-party service providers that run our platform, each under contract and only for the stated purpose: Google (the Gemini AI that powers Aida, and Google Analytics), Microsoft (Clarity analytics), Stripe (donation payment processing), Resend (transactional and newsletter email delivery), Cloudflare (website hosting, delivery, and security), and Upstash (temporary storage of chat conversations).
- When required by law, or to protect the rights, safety, and security of our users, staff, or the public.
- In aggregated or de-identified form that cannot reasonably identify any individual.
International Data Transfers
Several of our service providers, including Google, Microsoft, Stripe, Resend, Cloudflare, and Upstash, operate on servers located in the United States and other countries. As a result, your information may be processed or stored outside Canada and may be subject to the laws of those jurisdictions. We choose providers that offer appropriate safeguards for the personal information they handle.
Data Security
We implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect your personal information against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. Our website uses HTTPS encryption, and we limit access to personal data to authorized personnel only. We retain personal information only as long as necessary for the purposes described in this policy or as required by law, after which it is deleted or de-identified.
Cookies and Analytics
Our website uses cookies together with Google Analytics and Microsoft Clarity to understand how visitors use our site. These analytics tools do not load until you accept cookies through our consent banner; if you decline, no analytics cookies are set. Google Analytics uses cookies and collects usage data, so it is not fully anonymous, although we enable IP anonymization and disable advertising and data-sharing features. You can change your cookie choice at any time and manage cookies through your browser settings.
Your Rights
Under Canadian privacy law (PIPEDA and BC's PIPA), you have the right to:
- Access the personal information we hold about you
- Request correction of inaccurate information
- Withdraw consent for data collection
- Request deletion of your personal information
- File a complaint with the Privacy Commissioner
Contact us
If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or wish to exercise your privacy rights, please contact us at:
Email: [email protected]