Who we are

Plain Language Association International (PLAIN) is a nonprofit membership organisation incorporated in Canada. Our website address is: https://plainlanguagenetwork.org

If you have any questions about this privacy policy or how we handle your data, please contact us at: our contact page.

What data we collect and why

Contact form

When you use our contact form we collect your name, email address, and the contents of your message. We use this information only to respond to your enquiry. Your message is sent to a PLAIN email inbox and kept indefinitely so we can refer back to previous conversations if needed.

We do not add you to any mailing list as a result of submitting the contact form.

Membership data

If you become a PLAIN member, your membership data is collected and managed by GlueUp, our membership platform. This includes your name, email address, payment information, and membership records. Please refer to GlueUp’s privacy policy for details of how they handle your data.

PLAIN accesses your membership data through the GlueUp platform to verify your membership status and provide member-only content on this website. We do not store your membership data independently on this website.

Comments

If you leave a comment on our site we collect the data shown in the comment form, along with your IP address and browser information to help with spam detection.

Media

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

Cookies

Our website uses cookies in the following ways:

If you leave a comment, you may opt in to saving your name, email address, and website in cookies for your convenience. These cookies last for one year.

If you log in as a member, we set cookies to save your login information and display preferences. Login cookies last for two days. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks.

Third-party services

Google Analytics

We use Google Analytics to understand how visitors use our website. Google Analytics collects information such as how long you spend on a page, what country you are visiting from, and what device you are using. This data is anonymised and we cannot identify you personally from it.

Google Analytics sets its own cookies. You can opt out of Google Analytics tracking using the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on.

Google reCAPTCHA

We use Google reCAPTCHA on our contact form to protect against spam. reCAPTCHA collects hardware and software information, such as device and application data, and sends it to Google for analysis. This data is used only for spam prevention purposes. Please refer to Google’s privacy policy for more information.

YouTube

Some pages on our website include embedded YouTube videos. When you play a video, YouTube may set cookies on your device and collect data about your viewing. Please refer to Google’s privacy policy for more information.

Embedded content from other websites

Articles on this site may include embedded content such as videos, images, and articles. Embedded content from other websites behaves in the same way as if you had visited those websites directly, and may collect data about you or use cookies.

Who we share your data with

We do not sell or share your personal data with third parties for marketing purposes. Your data may be processed by the following services we use to run this website: Google (Analytics, reCAPTCHA), GlueUp (membership management), and our website hosting provider.

How long we retain your data

Contact form submissions are retained indefinitely in our email inbox so we can refer back to previous conversations.

Comment data is retained indefinitely so we can recognise and approve follow-up comments automatically.

Membership data is retained according to GlueUp’s data retention policy.

Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to:

  • request a copy of the personal data we hold about you
  • ask us to correct inaccurate data
  • ask us to delete your data
  • object to or restrict how we process your data

To make any of these requests, please contact us through our contact page.

Copyright notice

The materials on this website are the property of PLAIN and others, and are covered by the Canadian Copyright Act and related regulations and international agreements. If you wish to use any material from this website, it is your responsibility to determine who holds the copyright and to get permission before using it.

Links to other websites

Our website contains links to other websites. PLAIN is not responsible for the content or privacy practices of those websites. Links do not imply that PLAIN endorses those websites or their content.

Governing law

This website is managed and controlled by PLAIN. By accessing this website, you agree that all matters relating to its use are governed by the laws of the province of Ontario and the laws of Canada.

Changes to this policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. Please check this page periodically for any changes.