Who we are

We are Pause Photography + Design. Our website address is: https://pausephoto.ca.

This website and our photography and graphic design services are proved by Pause Photography + Design. Providing services to individuals, families, communities, businesses, child care centres and schools primarily in the Edmonton, Alberta region, but extending across Canada, we are a trusted provider of visual communications through design and photography.

What personal data we collect, why we collect it and how it’s used

Customer Information

The use, disclosure and retention of your personal information is limited. We collect personally identifiable information about you if you specifically provide it to us. This includes information you provide when you complete a contact form, visit us for a portrait session and complete applicable portrait agreements and model releases, enlist our services for graphic design work and provide information for design agreements and invoicing, place an order, contact us directly by phone or email, sign up for one of our newsletters, or enter a contest or give away. The personal information you provide us may also include information about others, such as when you use a website feature to share images with friends and family, sign children up for school sibling photos, or sign a model release for a minor. We use this information you share with us only for the purpose for which it was collected, including:

  • provide products or services you requested
  • to respond to questions or concerns
  • to improve or develop products and services
  • to improve the content of our site and monitor the usage of our site
  • to communicate with you about our products, services, promotions, special offers and studio events

Picture Day Information (Schools/Daycares)

In preparation for picture day, Pause Photography + Design collects specific directory-type information from the school or daycare (“Data”). The Data we collect depends upon the specific services we are providing to that particular school or daycare. We limit collection to only that which is necessary for an authorized school purpose. Typically, we collect school roster and classroom information in advance of picture day to ensure names and images match in order to effectively distribute proofs to families. If permitted, we collect parent’s email addresses from the school in order to deliver picture day related information to families. On picture day, we photograph each child who participates with their class in accordance with the school or daycare’s requirements. By participating in picture day, you (an individual over 18, a parent or guardian) consent to the use of your own and/or your child’s name and images created to be included group classroom photos, class composites, yearbooks and other school related products or services that may be commissioned by the school or daycare. If you would like to withdraw your consent, you must contact the studio by email or phone before your school or daycare’s photo ordering deadline.

We use the Data collected as necessary to create, offer and deliver student images and school administrative services to the school and families of the students. Data is typically used in the following ways:

  • to create and deliver to schools the products and services needed for the school’s admin purposes and/or for use in the yearbook
  • to deliver picture day notices on behalf of the school and provide families an opportunity to purchase our photographs

In addition, Data may be incorporated into school service items. For example, if Pause Photography + Design is providing ID cards or images for the school’s student database, we need the student ID number along with the student image to provide the appropriate services. Schools ultimately decided how little or how much information is used in producing school service items and their own approach to sharing information with us.

Website Comments and Spam Protection

When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.

An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

We also use Google’s reCAPTCHA to reduce spam through our contact forms. The Google Terms of Service – Privacy and Terms can be found here: https://policies.google.com/terms.

Media

If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.

Cookies, analytics, related technologies and other information we collect through this website

In addition to personal information you provide through our website(s), we use analytics and cookies from third-party partners such as Google (https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en-US#infocollect) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/policy.php) for analytics and marketing purposes. These technologies let us know what type of browser you are using, the website from which you enter www.pausephoto.ca or http://design.pausephoto.ca and the pages you view as you browse our site. This technology does not identify you personally, it just helps us compile stats about our visitors and their use of our site(s). We use these stats to help improve our website design and content in connection with marketing programs.

A “cookie” is a small data file stored by your web browser on your computer’s hard drive. Cookies are necessary to use the site. A cookie allows our web serve to balance customer traffic on our website to enhance performance of our website and online services. If you disable your cookies, you may not be able to visit our site or take advance of all features available on the site. After you end your session, the cookie from the web server will remain on your computer until you manually delete it. No personal information is stored on this cookie. Accepting cookies through your web browser is your personal choice, however, if you choose not to accept cookies, you may not be able to take full advantage of this websites features.

If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.

If you have an account and you log in to this site, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.

When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.

If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.

Embedded content from other websites

Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.

These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracing your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

Consent to use your personal information

By using this website, participating in a portrait session, school picture day or enlisting us for graphic design work, you consent to our collection, use and disclosure of the personal information you provide to us as described in this Privacy Statement or as otherwise permitted by law.

Schools/Daycares
When the school/daycare provides the Data we need to produce and deliver images and other school products/services, we rely on the participating school to have obtained the appropriate consent to do so. The way in which the school or daycare collects, uses and shares personal information will be set out in the school/daycare or school board’s privacy policy.

In partnership with the school or daycare, we publicize picture day in advance of the actual days we attend the school to take photos. Schools may also independently publicize this. If a child appears on picture day to have their photo taken, we assume the appropriate consent has been received. If you do not wish your child to participate in picture day, please contact the school and make this known in advance of picture day.

Who we share your data with

We will never sell or license your personal information to others. We use certain cookies or tracking codes for the purpose of analytics in order to provide you with the best browsing experience on our site.

If you choose to share personal information with us through this website or by transacting business with us, we may share it internally to provide you with products and services you have requested. We backup your images and school Data with Backblaze, an online backup provided based in the United States. As such, your personal information may be subject to the laws of that company’s jurisdiction, which may be different from Canadian Laws. You may review their security (https://www.backblaze.com/security.html) and privacy policies (https://www.backblaze.com/company/privacy.html) on their website. We may also share this information with third party service providers who provide support services to us or help us with our marketing programs. If so, these parties are only authorized to use the information solely in conjunction with the specific service(s) they provide to or on behalf of Pause Photography + Design.

In addition, there may be limited circumstances in which we may disclose the personal information, such as in response to a search warrant or other legally valid inquiry or order, or to an investigative body in the case of a breach of an agreement or contravention of law, or as otherwise required or permitted by applicable Canadian or other law. We may also disclose personal information where necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims and to investigate or prevent actual or suspected loss or harm to individuals or property.

Online credit card transactions are securely processed through a credit card processing company. Pause Photography + Design does not receive or store credit card information. Only invoice information required to provide accurate order fulfillment is transmitted to Pause Photography + Design.

How we safeguard your personal information

The security of your data is important to us, but remember that no method of transmission over the Internet or method of electronic storage is 100% secure. While we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security. We have implemented safeguards reasonably designed to protect against unauthorized access and disclosure of all personal information under our control, including appropriate technical, physical and administrative safeguards and security measures. We do not record, process or store credit card information, as we use external credit card processing companies who provide secure services.

Accuracy

We want to keep your personal information up-to-date, accurate and relevant for its intended use. We rely on you to let us know if your address, telephone number or other information you provide us changes, so we may provide you with the best possible service.

How long we retain your data

If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.

For users that register on our website (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.

For commercial photography (including headshots), personal or family portraits and graphic design services, we retain your information indefinitely and as long as necessary to provide you with the products and services you have enlisted us for. Images are guaranteed to be backed up for 2 calendar years.

Schools/Daycares
We retain Data from schools/daycares only as necessary and allowed to promote the sale of portraits to parents, to retrieve the images to supply picture day orders for the current school year and to support the school for an approved administrative purpose, after which time the Data is securely destroyed. This time period may vary according to individual school requirements. Typically, Pause Photography + Design retains School Data and student images for 2 calendar years following picture day, unless the school requires a different retention period, or a child’s parent or guardian requests that the image be deleted earlier.

Customers who purchase images and/or log in to a proofing account for viewing, sharing and ordering photos should check the image retention policy or Terms of Service for the applicable website. If you are a customer or account owner, you may contact us directly at any time to initiate account deletion. We reserve the right to condition our compliance with your request on proof of your identity and/or relationship to the subject(s) who’s images are stored.

Access and the rights you have over your data

You have the right to access, update and correct inaccuracies in your personal information in our custody or control. To access your personal information, a request must be submitted in writing to us. We will respond to your request for access or information in a reasonable time. There may be times when we are unable to fulfill your request – for example, if providing access to your personal information would reveal confidential commercial or proprietary information or personal information about someone else (and we are unable to separate your data), or if we are prohibited by law from disclosing the information. We may request certain personal information for the purposes of verifying the identity of the individual seeking access to their personal information records. If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.

Where we send your data

Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service. We also utilize analytics and other tracking data as outlined above in “Who we share your data with”.

Children

Our website does not market to anyone under the age of 18 (“Children”). We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 18. If you are a parent or guardian and you are aware that your Child has provided us with personal information, please contact us. If we become aware that we have collected personal information from children without verification of parental consent, we take steps to remove that information from our servers.

CAN SPAM Act

The CAN-SPAM Act is a law that sets the rules for commercial email, establishes requirements for commercial messages, gives recipients the right to have emails stopped from being sent to them, and spells out tough penalties for violations.

We collect your email address in order to market to our mailing list or continue to send emails to our clients after the original transaction has occurred.To be in accordance with CANSPAM, we agree to the following:

    • not use false or misleading subjects or email addresses
  • identify the message as an advertisement in some reasonable way
  • include the physical address of our business or site headquarters
  • monitor third-party email marketing services for compliance, if one is used
  • honour opt-out/unsubscribe requests quickly
  • Allow users to unsubscribe by using the link at the bottom of emails sent through our email marketing service. If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from receiving future emails, you can email us at info@pausephoto.ca and we will promptly remove you from ALL correspondence