Terms of Use and Privacy Policy – General Version

By visiting our website or using the services we provide, including our mobile application, you confirm that you have read, understand, and agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy set out below. You should not use suicide.ca if you do not agree to them.

The suicide.ca platform and its services are operated by Association québécoise de prévention du suicide (AQPS) in collaboration with a number of suicide prevention centres in Quebec.

Note: We promote Quebec’s suicide prevention hotline (1-866-277-3553), but it is not part of suicide.ca. The Terms of Use and Privacy Policy below do not apply to the hotline.

Our counsellors do their best to meet your expectations and needs. Therefore, they will not attempt to send help to your home unless, as a last resort, they have a reason to believe that you are in immediate danger. However, we can never guarantee that sending emergency services will work. If you or a loved one is in immediate danger, call 911. Please consult our intervention framework for more information on how suicide.ca’s online chat and text messaging services work.

All suicide.ca tools and services are confidential, including the mobile app. We make every effort to respect and protect your privacy in accordance with the Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector and we offer transparent and accountable management of any personal information you may provide to us.

Cookies and other tracking data 

A cookie is a small text file stored on your device that allows data about your Internet habits to be recorded. 

Some cookies or other tracking data are mandatory for a website’s general functioning. Therefore, collecting these essential cookies does not require your consent.  

During your first visit to suicide.ca, you may choose which non-essential cookies to activate, through a pop-up consent window. Your choice will be saved and applied to any future visits to the site, for 6 months or until you clear your cache (erase the recorded data manually). However, you may change your cookie preferences at any time by clicking on the « Personalize your cookie preferences » link accessible at the foot of the page.  

Additionally, when you download the My Tools mobile app through the Apple Store or Google Play, you consent to cookies and other tracking data used for site personalization to be collected according to your preferences. 

Any cookies and tracking data that you allow to be collected from our partners, as well as all mandatory cookies and tracking data, will be stored for a maximum of 6 months.    

These cookies are grouped into the 3 following categories:  

 
1) Site performance 

These cookies are mandatory as they are necessary to the functioning of the site. 

Azure Stack Edge : 

Asset-suicide-ca.azureedge.net  

Cloudflare : 

cdnjs.cloudflare.com 

Didomi  

suicide.ca :  

Culture, GeolocationZone, userLoggedIn 

Microsoft Azure :  

ARRAffinity, ARRAffinitySameSite, modernizr, TiPMix, x-ms-routing-name 

Youtube :  

ytidb::LAST_RESULT_ENTRY_KEY, YtIdbMeta#databases#undefined 
 

2) Advertising performance 

These cookies help us measure the effectiveness of our advertisement campaigns and suggest outreach and informational content. 

Google Ad Manager : 

www.google.com_/ads/ga-audiences 

Meta (Facebook): 

Fbp 

Google Adword / Google Ads : measures effectiveness and improves relevance of our advertisements on certain sites. 


3) Data analysis 

Cookies can help analyse content and navigation data on suicide.ca in order to improve it.  

Google Analytics : 

_ga, __gat, _gid, www.google-analytics.com_/collect 

 

Google Analytics  

When you visit suicide.ca, information is collected with your consent by Google Analytics tools (for the web) and Firebase (for the mobile app, My Tools). This information includes, among other things, the browser being used, the language of web navigation, the pages visited and the length of the visit(s), the browser IP address, the approximative location (city) of this IP address, and the external pages that directed you to the platform.  

For confidentiality reasons, Google Analytics and Firebase transmit this information to us in the form of depersonalized data that does not allow us to identify you personally. Additionally, some information, like IP addresses, are not communicated to us at all. The depersonalized data communicated by analytic tools allow us to establish statistics to improve our services and suggest targeted advertisements according to your interests. If you would like to know more about the data collected by Google Analytics and Firebase, you can consult their internal confidentiality policy (Google Analytics et Firebase). 

The Meta Pixel (Facebook) 

Suicide.ca uses the Meta pixel (Facebook) to follow the behaviour of suicide.ca visitors that clicked on a Meta (Facebook) advertisement. The pixel allows us to evaluate the effectiveness of suicide.ca advertisements for statistical and research purposes, as well as to improve awareness campaigns to better reach vulnerable people in online spaces.  

Data collected by the Meta pixel (Facebook) do not allow us to identify you. However, the data is stored by Meta (Facebook) and could be linked to your Meta profile (Facebook) for other advertisement ends (see Meta (Facebook)’s own conditions : https://www.facebook.com/privacy/policy as well as how to personalize your preferences concerning targeted advertisements directly on Meta (Facebook) : https://accountscenter.facebook.com/ad_preferences.

Other anonymized data

We also collect anonymized data when you fill out certain questionnaires on the platform, including: 
 

• The self-assessment questionnaire 
• The triage questionnaire prior to using the online chat tool 
• The surveys offered following online chat and text message exchanges (right away, after one week, and after 4 weeks) 

 

The data we collect from these questionnaires does not identify you personally and is therefore not considered personal information. It helps us adapt our services to fit your situation (e.g., prioritizing your online chat request if we believe you are in immediate danger), determine which types of people use our services and gain insight into their needs, improve our services, and assess the impact our services have on users.  

 

 

Personal information

Personal information is information about individuals that makes it possible to identify them. It is confidential and is treated as such. It includes your first and last names, email, phone number, region, gender, income, birthplace, and age.

You are not required to provide personal information to use most suicide.ca services and tools, and we do not collect any personal information without your consent. We only collect personal information that is required to properly operate our services and meet your needs to the fullest possible extent, as well as information you agree to share with us.

We collect personal information when you perform any of the following actions on our website or mobile application:

• Use our online chat or text message services
• Create a user account
• Use your private user account (My Tools)
• Use My safety plan
• Contact us via our contact or complaint forms 
• Use certain self-management tools or complete certain questionnaires or surveys provided on the platform (e.g., sociodemographic questionnaires and questions in the online chat waiting room)
• Sign up for the newsletter or provide your email address another way (e.g., via an assessment survey)

​

Details about the use of online chat and text messaging services

When you’re chatting or texting with someone at suicide.ca, you may choose to provide us with personal information, such as details about your situation. The contents of all chat and text conversations are stored. Counsellors also complete intervention reports following chat or text message conversations. These documents allow us to supervise the counsellors’ work and assess our services. Only authorized people are allowed to access these documents (e.g., the clinical coordinator, the assessment committee, and the complaints officer) and their use is strictly limited to the purposes set out in the “How is your personal information used?” section. These documents are destroyed after 5 years.

 

We work collaboratively with each person to find ways to keep them safe. Therefore, we will not attempt to send help to your home unless, as a last resort, we have a reason to believe that you are in immediate danger. When emergency services are sent without a person’s collaboration, it is done so based on personal information, such as the IP address, source port, or cellphone number, which are automatically collected for chat and text intervention service operations by our partner, Thrio. However, we can’t guarantee that sending emergency services will work. If you or a loved one is in immediate danger, call 911. In exceptional cases and if you contact suicide.ca by text message, we may call you at the phone number you use to text, in an attempt to ensure your safety and avoid an uncooperative rescue.

Details about the use of your private user account via My tools

You can choose to provide personal information when you create a private suicide.ca user account via My tools (using the website or the mobile app). We will never consult this information except in exceptional cases where we are required to do so by law. If you ever decide to delete your private account, all this information will be permanently destroyed. You can delete your account by going to the « My Account » menu accessible when you click on your profile icon. This menu includes the following items:

• Email
• Logout
• Account deletion
• Change Password
• Change language 

Specifics concerning the use of the interactive Safety Plan 

When you fill out your safety plan, you must indicate your email address to be able to save the information that was added. A singular link is sent to you by email so you can access your plan to consult and update it. You may choose to include personal information in your safety plan. We will never consult this information except in exceptional cases where we are required to do so by law. If you ever decide to delete your private account, all this information will be permanently destroyed. To delete your plan, you may contact us via our contact form. 

Details about the use of the contact and complaint forms

When you use our contact or complaint forms, the people responsible for processing requests may open a follow-up file to ensure your request is processed properly. These files contain your first and last names, any contact information you have provided, the date of receipt and subject of the request, a description of the problem, and your expectations, if you have mentioned any. If necessary, the people responsible for processing requests may communicate with you to better understand your needs or obtain additional information. Each complaint file is kept for 5 years from the date the file is closed.

 

 

How is your personal information used?

Your personal information will not be used for any purpose other than the following:
 

• Better meeting your needs, responding to requests and complaints, and ensuring our services run smoothly
• Supervising our counsellors’ work
• Assessing and improving our services, including through the production of statistics. Note that data used for assessment does not contain your first or last names or any city or location that could make it possible to determine your location.

 

Who has access to your personal information?

Within the suicide.ca team, only a few authorized people have access to the personal information you provide to us.

All service providers we work with (e.g., the provider that hosts suicide.ca’s data) are subject to privacy laws. They do not have access to any personal information you provide to us.

In certain situations, we could decide to transmit some of the information we collect:

• To agencies conducting scientific research or assessments. In such cases, the person responsible for personal information protection at suicide.ca will ensure that:
  
  
  • The research agency’s privacy standards are similar to suicide.ca’s policy
  • The research is subject to approval and monitoring by a competent ethics committee


• To people authorized by law to access your information, in exceptional cases only (e.g., the coroner’s office, a judge, the police)

In cases where we are required to provide information to third parties, their own privacy policies apply.

Your personal information will not be transmitted to anyone other than the parties listed above without your consent. AQPS does not trade or sell personal information with other parties.
 

How and where is your personal information stored?

Any information you provide is securely stored in Canada.

Suicide.ca makes every effort to protect your personal information. But no technology is foolproof, so there is always some degree of risk. We urge you to be prudent to help us keep your information safe and secure. For example, you should change your passwords frequently if you use our mobile application or create a private account on My Tools.

If you prefer not to provide personal information, you will still be able to access a number of our services, including online chat and text messaging.
 

How to manage your personal information

At any time, you have the right to request access to your personal information and to request that it be corrected, updated or deleted. You can also withdraw your consent for the use of your data for specific purposes, such as scientific research. To do so, you may contact the person responsible for the protection of personal information at suicide.ca. However, due to certain settings on suicide.ca (e.g.: ability to remain anonymous), we may not be able to fulfill certain requests for personal information. Please be assured that we will make every effort to respond to your requests. For example, we may contact you for clarification.
 

Security measures to protect your personal information

In order to protect the information you transmit while visiting the website or using the mobile application, we have implemented physical, technical, and administrative safety measures that prevent unauthorized access, use, and disclosure of information. The suicide.ca team is constantly working to improve the strength and security of its technological systems. However, Internet use is never risk free and we recommend having appropriate antivirus or protection software when using our platform. AQPS is not responsible for any damage you or your equipment may suffer while using suicide.ca.

 

Suicide.ca contains links to external sites. Suicide.ca is not responsible for the manner in which these sites back up, store, or manage your personal information. If you wish to browse these sites, we invite you to read their privacy policies and terms of use before doing so. We are not responsible for the quality of the information on these sites.

We strive to provide the most up-to-date, complete, and accurate information possible. But it is possible that some of the information on the suicide.ca platform may not be exhaustive or may no longer be up to date at the time you consult it. It is also possible that information may be modified, added, or deleted by our team, including the list of services and resources.

In order to offer quality services and content, we work with suicide prevention professionals and specialists (researchers, practitioners, etc.). Suicide.ca and its services are not a substitute for the advice of a physician. We take numerous precautions to protect Internet users who use our platform. But AQPS cannot be held responsible for any direct, indirect, or any other kind of loss or damage that may result from using the suicide.ca platform.

All content on the suicide.ca platform (site, online chat and text messaging services, My Tools), including texts, drawings, graphics, images, videos, and photographs, are the property of AQPS, as is the suicide.ca brand, which is a registered trademark. This material and the suicide.ca brand are protected by intellectual property rights.

© 2024 Association québécoise de prévention du suicide. All rights reserved.

Suicide.ca content may be used for personal or educational purposes. It may not be modified or used for commercial purposes. Any modification or use of content that is not for personal or educational purposes must receive prior authorization from AQPS.

AQPS is a non-profit organization founded in 1986 and has some 200 members. Its mission is to mobilize stakeholders, support communities, provide tools for counsellors and support workers, raise public awareness, and influence decision makers in an effort to prevent suicide.

The suicide.ca platform is a set of digital services designed to provide information, assistance, and support to people who are thinking about suicide, worried about a loved one, or grieving a person who has died by suicide. Suicide.ca also offers resources for suicide prevention and mental health professionals. These services include a website that provide information, online chat and text messaging services, and a number of self-management tools that are available in the My Tools section of the website or on the My Tools mobile application. 

The online chat and text messaging services are available in Quebec only. They are operated by trained counsellors who are accustomed to talking openly about suicide. They can give you an opportunity to discuss your situation, express what you’re going through without judgement, and feel less alone in your suffering. These services do not constitute medical care. They are ad hoc, confidential, and free of charge. If you contact suicide.ca by text, charges may apply depending on your cell phone plan.

The mental health self-management tools, including private user accounts, are designed to help you manage your emotions and mental health. You decide how and when to use them. In order to access your private space, you need to create a user account and log in to it. Private accounts can be created and accessed anywhere in Canada.

We are committed to doing everything in our power to provide top-quality service to everyone, without discrimination based on medical condition, culture, sexual orientation, gender expression, education, marital status, religion, professional status, social environment, or age (except in certain cases to protect minors).

Changes may be made to these terms and this policy from time to time. Please consult them regularly if you use our services often.

By using suicide.ca, you agree to and accept these Terms of Use.

If you have questions, comments, or complaints regarding these terms of use, please feel free to contact us via the contact form. We will respond as soon as possible.

Suicide.ca is funded by Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux of Quebec and operated by Association québécoise de prévention du suicide, a non-profit organization founded in 1986.

Suicide.ca (website and mobile application) is the property of Association québécoise de prévention du suicide:

5400, bd des Galeries, local 575,
Quebec City, QC G2K 2B4
Ph.: 418 614-5909

Web developer: nventive

Web host: Azure

© 2024 Association québécoise de prévention du suicide. All rights reserved.