Pacific Ridge Digital Media Inc., a British Columbia corporation (BC Registry Services company number BC1487293), is the data controller for Kelowna Daily (kelownadaily.com). This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and protect your personal information in compliance with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). Our registered office is Suite 800, 1055 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, BC V6E 3P3, Canada, and you can reach our privacy team at privacy@kelownadaily.com.
What personal data does Kelowna Daily collect?
We collect only the personal information that you voluntarily provide or that is necessary for the operation of a trusted regional news service. This includes your name and email address when you subscribe to our newsletter at /about-us/newsletter/, your name and contact details when you submit a news tip through /about-us/tip-us/, and any information you provide in correspondence to editorial@kelownadaily.com or other function emails. We may also collect technical data such as your IP address, browser type, and browsing behavior on our site through cookies and similar technologies, as detailed in our /about-us/cookie-policy/.
We do not collect sensitive personal data such as health information, political opinions, or biometric data unless you voluntarily provide it in the context of a news story or tip, in which case we handle it with heightened care and only with your explicit consent. Our fact-checking team, led by Standards & Fact-Checking Lead Andrew Leblanc, may verify information you provide, but we never require more information than is necessary for a specific purpose.
Why do we collect your data and what is our legal basis?
We collect your personal data for clearly defined purposes: to send you our newsletter, to process and respond to your news tips, to handle corrections and complaints, to manage advertising and commercial partnerships, and to improve our journalism through analytics. Under PIPEDA, our lawful bases include your consent (for newsletters and direct communications), the legitimate interest of operating an independent news publisher, and contractual necessity when you engage with our sponsored content or advertising services.
Every data collection point on our site explains the purpose at the time of collection. For example, when you sign up for the newsletter, we explicitly state that we will use your email to send you daily news summaries. Editor-in-Chief Catherine Roy oversees all editorial data practices to ensure they align with our /editorial-policy/ and never compromise reader trust. We do not use personal data for automated decision-making or profiling beyond standard analytics.
How long do we keep your personal information?
We retain your personal data only as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected or as required by Canadian law. Newsletter subscriber data is retained until you unsubscribe or after two years of inactivity. Tip submissions and correspondence are retained for up to three years for editorial verification purposes, after which they are securely deleted. Analytics data is anonymized after 26 months.
Our records retention schedule is reviewed annually by Managing Editor Marc Tremblay and our legal advisors. When data is no longer needed, we delete it using secure methods or anonymize it so it cannot be linked back to you. If you request deletion earlier through privacy@kelownadaily.com, we honour that request within 30 days unless we have a legal obligation to retain it, such as for reporting obligations under the /copyright-takedown-policy/.
Do we share or sell your personal data?
We never sell your personal data. Period. Kelowna Daily is funded through display advertising, affiliate links, commercial partnerships, and newsletter sponsorships, as disclosed in our /ownership-funding/ page, but none of these revenue streams involves selling reader information. We may share aggregated, anonymized data with advertisers for audience measurement, but this data cannot identify any individual.
We may share personal data with trusted service providers who help us operate the site, such as email delivery platforms, analytics services, and cloud hosting providers. These providers are contractually bound to protect your data and use it only for the specific services they provide. We comply with lawful requests from law enforcement or regulators, but we will notify you unless prohibited by law. Our /advertising-affiliate-disclosure/ page details how commercial relationships never determine editorial conclusions.
What rights do you have over your data?
Under PIPEDA, you have the right to access your personal information held by us, to correct any inaccuracies, and to withdraw your consent at any time. You can request a copy of the data we hold about you by emailing privacy@kelownadaily.com, and we will respond within 30 days. You also have the right to withdraw consent for our use of your data, such as unsubscribing from our newsletter or opting out of cookies through our /about-us/cookie-policy/.
To exercise your rights, contact our privacy team at privacy@kelownadaily.com. Please include your full name and the specific right you wish to exercise. We may need to verify your identity before processing your request. If you are unsatisfied with our response, you have the right to file a complaint with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada at https://www.priv.gc.ca/. Our /complaints-procedure/ page provides further details on how we handle reader concerns.
How do we protect your data?
We implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to safeguard your personal information against unauthorized access, loss, or alteration. This includes encryption of data in transit (HTTPS), secure server infrastructure, access controls limited to employees with a legitimate need, and regular security audits. Our team, overseen by Andrew Leblanc as Standards & Fact-Checking Lead, ensures that data protection is integrated into our editorial and operational workflows.
We also maintain a data breach response plan. In the unlikely event of a breach that poses a real risk of significant harm to individuals, we will notify affected readers and the Privacy Commissioner of Canada as required by PIPEDA. For more on our security practices, refer to our /accessibility-statement/, which also outlines our commitment to inclusive digital practices.
How does our use of AI affect your data?
As stated in our /ai-automation-policy/, AI-assisted tools may support research or drafting but never replace human editorial judgement, and they never have access to your personal data. Any AI tools we use are confined to processing anonymized, aggregated content—never individual reader information. All published content is reviewed by a human editor, and AI must never fabricate quotes, sources, or interviews.
We do not use AI to analyze reader behaviour or personal data for targeting purposes. If we ever introduce AI features that involve personal data, we will update this policy and seek your consent first. The editorial team, led by Editor-in-Chief Catherine Roy, ensures that our /fact-checking-policy/ and /corrections-policy/ maintain human accountability over any automated processes.
How do we handle data from minors?
We do not knowingly collect personal information from individuals under the age of 16 without parental consent. Our /safeguarding-minors-policy/ outlines specific protections, including limited data collection and immediate deletion of any inadvertently collected minor data. If you believe we have collected data from a minor, please contact privacy@kelownadaily.com immediately.
Our Community & Events Correspondent Kevin Sullivan and other editorial staff are trained to exercise extra caution when covering youth-oriented events or stories. We never publish identifying information about minors without verifiable parental consent or a clear public interest justification consistent with our /regional-reporting-policy/.
Our commitments
- We never sell or rent your personal data to any third party, and commercial partnerships never influence our editorial independence.
- We collect only the minimum personal data necessary for clearly stated purposes, and we delete it as soon as those purposes are fulfilled.
- We respond to all privacy requests—access, correction, or withdrawal of consent—within 30 days at privacy@kelownadaily.com.
- We hold our team and service providers to binding data protection contracts, reviewed annually by our legal and editorial leadership.
- We fully comply with PIPEDA and recognize your right to lodge a complaint with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada if our response is unsatisfactory.