Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

The Goods is a brand, division and operating name of RealEasy Technologies Inc., a corporation incorporated under the laws of the Province of Alberta, Canada ("The Goods", "we", "us" or "our").

We operate the website at thegoods.ca and its subdomains (the "Site"), publish recipes, articles and related content, and distribute an email newsletter. This Privacy Policy (the "Policy") describes how we collect, use, disclose, retain and protect personal information in connection with all of those activities.

We are accountable for personal information under our control. We have designated a Privacy Officer who is responsible for our compliance with this Policy and with applicable privacy legislation:

Privacy Officer
RealEasy Technologies Inc. o/a The Goods
Red Deer, Alberta, Canada
Email: info@thegoods.ca

The Privacy Officer is also the individual able to answer, on our behalf, your questions about the collection, use, disclosure and storage of personal information by service providers located outside Canada, and to provide you with written information about our policies and practices in respect of those service providers. See Section 8.

2. Scope of this Policy

This Policy applies to personal information we collect:

• through the Site, including cookies and similar technologies;
• when you subscribe to our newsletter or otherwise communicate with us electronically;
• when you post a comment or otherwise submit content to the Site; and
• when you interact with pages or accounts we control on third-party platforms, to the extent the information is provided to us.

This Policy does not apply to the independent practices of third parties, including operators of websites we link to, social media platforms, advertisers, or merchants whose products we may reference. Those parties have their own privacy policies, which we encourage you to read.

"Personal information" means information about an identifiable individual. It does not include business contact information used solely to communicate with an individual in relation to their employment, business or profession, to the extent that information is excluded from the application of the legislation described in Section 3.

3. Legal framework

We handle personal information in accordance with:

• the Personal Information Protection Act (Alberta) ("PIPA");
• the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (Canada) ("PIPEDA"), in respect of personal information collected, used or disclosed in the course of commercial activities that cross provincial or national borders;
• Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation ("CASL"), in respect of commercial electronic messages; and
• the additional regional requirements set out in Section 14, where and to the extent they apply to us.

Where more than one of these applies, we apply the standard that is most protective of the individual.

4. Personal information we collect

4.1 Information you provide to us

4.2 Information collected automatically

When you visit the Site, we and our service providers automatically collect:

• IP address (which we truncate or discard where our tools permit);
• browser type, version and language; operating system and device type; screen and viewport dimensions;
• referring URL and exit pages; pages and content viewed; links, buttons and recipe controls clicked; time and date of access; time spent on pages; scroll depth;
• approximate geographic location inferred from IP address, at the city or regional level only — we do not collect precise geolocation from your device;
• cookie identifiers, local storage values and advertising identifiers; and
• error, performance and security logs generated by our hosting and content delivery infrastructure.

If you receive our newsletter, our email service provider also records whether a message was delivered, opened, clicked, bounced or reported as spam, and whether you unsubscribed. These signals are collected through pixels and tagged links embedded in the message.

4.3 Information we receive from third parties

We receive:

• aggregate and de-identified reporting from our analytics and advertising partners;
• delivery, bounce, complaint and unsubscribe data from our email service provider; and
• limited profile information (such as a display name and public profile image) if you interact with a social media page we control, as governed by that platform’s settings and privacy policy.

4.4 Sensitive information

We do not ask you for information about your health, ethnic origin, religion, political opinions, sexual orientation, biometric data, or government identifiers, and you should not send it to us.

If you volunteer information about an allergy, intolerance or dietary restriction when you write to us, that information may reveal information about your health. We treat it as sensitive. We use it only to respond to you; we do not use it for marketing, analytics or profiling; and we retain it only for the period described in Section 10.

4.5 Children

The Site is intended for a general adult audience and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from a child under 13 years of age, and we do not knowingly accept a newsletter subscription or comment from anyone under 16 years of age. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, contact the Privacy Officer and we will delete it. See also Section 14 for age thresholds that apply in particular jurisdictions.

5. Why we collect personal information, and our authority to do so

We collect, use and disclose personal information only for purposes that a reasonable person would consider appropriate in the circumstances, and only for the purposes identified below.

We will not use or disclose personal information for a new purpose that is materially different from those listed above without first identifying that purpose to you and obtaining your consent, unless the use or disclosure without consent is authorized or required by law.

6. Consent

How we obtain consent. Depending on the sensitivity of the information and your reasonable expectations, we rely on:

• express consent, which you give by an affirmative action such as entering your email address and confirming a newsletter subscription, or accepting cookie categories in our cookie banner;
• implied consent, which we infer from your voluntary provision of information for an obvious purpose, such as sending us a message through the contact form so that we can reply; and
• deemed consent or a statutory authority, in the limited circumstances permitted by PIPA and PIPEDA.

Withdrawing consent. You may withdraw your consent at any time, subject to legal or contractual restrictions and reasonable notice. To withdraw consent:

• for the newsletter: use the unsubscribe link in any message, or email info@thegoods.ca;
• for analytics and advertising cookies: use the Cookie Settings control in the Site footer;
• for anything else: contact the Privacy Officer.

We will tell you the likely consequences of withdrawal. Withdrawing consent does not affect processing carried out before the withdrawal, and it does not require us to delete records we are required by law to keep — for example, the record of your unsubscribe request itself, which we must retain in order to honour it.

We do not make consent to secondary purposes — such as receiving the newsletter or accepting advertising cookies — a condition of reading the Site, except where the information is genuinely required to provide the service you requested.

7. Cookies, analytics and advertising

7.1 What we use

A cookie is a small text file placed on your device. We also use similar technologies, including pixels, web beacons, local storage and software development kits. We group them into four categories:

• Strictly necessary — required to deliver the Site, route traffic, balance load, maintain security and remember your cookie choices. These are used without consent because the Site cannot function without them.
• Preference — remember settings such as your display or measurement preferences.
• Analytics — help us understand how the Site is used, which content is read, and where errors occur.
• Advertising — used by Google and its advertising partners to select, deliver, measure and report on advertisements, including personalized advertisements.

7.2 Managing your choices

Where required by law, we do not set preference, analytics or advertising cookies until you consent through our cookie banner. You can review and change your choices at any time using the Cookie Settings control in the Site footer, and you can withdraw consent as easily as you gave it.

You can also control cookies through your browser settings, including by deleting existing cookies, blocking all or third-party cookies, and clearing cookies when you close the browser. Blocking strictly necessary cookies will prevent parts of the Site from working.

7.3 Analytics

We use PostHog and Vercel Analytics and Speed Insights to generate aggregate reporting about Site usage and performance. Analytics data is retained as described in Section 10.

7.4 Advertising and Google AdSense

We display advertising on the Site through Google AdSense. In connection with that service:

• Google, as a third-party vendor, uses cookies to serve advertisements on the Site.
• Google’s use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve advertisements to you based on your visits to the Site and to other sites on the internet.
• You may opt out of personalized advertising by Google through Google Ads Settings at adssettings.google.com.
• You may opt out of some third-party vendors’ use of cookies for personalized advertising through the Digital Advertising Alliance of Canada at youradchoices.ca, the Digital Advertising Alliance at optout.aboutads.info, the Network Advertising Initiative at optout.networkadvertising.org, and, in Europe, at youronlinechoices.eu.
• Information about how Google uses data when you use our Site is available at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.

Where you are located in a jurisdiction that requires consent for personalized advertising, we obtain that consent through our cookie banner before advertising cookies are set, and non-personalized advertising may be served instead where consent is refused. Turning off personalized advertising does not stop advertisements from appearing; it changes how they are selected.

7.5 Opt-out preference signals

We honour the Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal, where your browser or extension transmits one, as a request to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information and of targeted advertising, in respect of the browser and device from which it is sent. Because a browser-level signal is not linked to an identified individual, it applies to that browser and device only.

We do not currently respond to "Do Not Track" browser headers, as no common standard for interpreting them has been adopted.

7.6 Embedded content and social features

Pages on the Site may include embedded content or share features from third parties, such as Instagram, Pinterest or a video platform. Embedded content behaves as if you had visited the third party’s own site, and that third party may set its own cookies and collect information about your interaction with the embedded content. We do not control those practices.

8. Disclosure of personal information

We do not sell personal information for money, and we have not done so in the preceding twelve months. We disclose personal information only as described in this Section.

8.1 Service providers

We use service providers to perform functions on our behalf. They may access personal information only to the extent necessary to perform those functions, are bound by written agreements requiring confidentiality and appropriate safeguards, and may not use the information for their own purposes.

A current list of our service providers, and written information about our policies and practices with respect to service providers outside Canada, is available on request from the Privacy Officer.

8.2 Other disclosures

We may also disclose personal information:

• to professional advisers — our lawyers, accountants, insurers and auditors, where necessary for them to advise us;
• in a business transaction — to a party to a proposed or completed sale, merger, financing, reorganization or transfer of all or part of our business or assets, subject to appropriate confidentiality protections, and provided the information is used only for purposes related to the transaction and, if the transaction completes, for the purposes in this Policy;
• where required or authorized by law — in response to a subpoena, warrant, court order, or other lawful demand, or to comply with a legal obligation;
• to protect rights and safety — where we have reasonable grounds to believe disclosure is necessary to investigate a breach of an agreement or a contravention of law, to prevent or detect fraud, or to address an urgent threat to the life, health or security of any person; and
• with your consent, for any other purpose we identify to you at the time.

9. Storage and processing outside Canada

Some of our service providers store or process personal information outside Canada, including in the United States, as identified in the table in Section 8.1.

While personal information is located in a foreign jurisdiction, it is subject to the laws of that jurisdiction, and may be accessed by the courts, law enforcement agencies and national security authorities of that jurisdiction in accordance with those laws. This may include access under legal processes that do not provide the same protections as Canadian law and that do not require notice to you.

We take this into account when selecting service providers. We assess their security and privacy practices before engaging them, we require them by contract to protect personal information and to use it only for the purposes we specify, and we transfer only the information necessary for the function performed. Where personal information originating in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom is transferred outside those areas, we rely on the safeguards described in Section 14.1.

If you have questions about the collection, use, disclosure or storage of personal information by our service providers outside Canada, or would like written information about our related policies and practices, contact the Privacy Officer at info@thegoods.ca. This notice is given in accordance with the requirements of PIPA.

10. How long we keep personal information

We keep personal information only as long as reasonably necessary to fulfil the purpose for which it was collected, or as required by law, and we then destroy it, erase it, or render it non-identifying.

Where personal information has been used to make a decision that directly affects you, we retain it for at least one year afterward so that you have a reasonable opportunity to obtain access to it.

11. How we protect personal information

We maintain physical, organizational and technological safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of the information, including:

• encryption of data in transit using TLS across the Site and our administrative interfaces;
• encryption at rest for databases and stored media, as provided by our infrastructure providers;
• access on a least-privilege, need-to-know basis, with multi-factor authentication on administrative accounts;
• separation of production and development environments, and avoidance of production personal information in test environments;
• logging and monitoring of administrative access;
• contractual confidentiality and security obligations on service providers, and review of their security posture before engagement; and
• secure destruction of records at the end of their retention period.

No method of transmission or storage is completely secure. While we take our obligations seriously, we cannot guarantee absolute security, and you provide information to us at your own risk.

12. If there is a privacy breach

If we become aware of a breach of security safeguards involving personal information under our control, we will contain and investigate it, and we will assess whether it creates a real risk of significant harm to any individual. Where that risk exists, we will report the breach to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta and to the Privacy Commissioner of Canada as required, and we will notify affected individuals as soon as feasible with a description of the incident, the information involved, the steps we have taken and the steps you can take. We maintain records of breaches as required by law.

13. Your rights and how to exercise them

Subject to the exceptions in applicable law, you have the right to:

• be informed about our collection, use and disclosure of your personal information — this Policy is intended to satisfy that right;
• access the personal information we hold about you, and receive information about how it has been used and to whom it has been disclosed;
• correct personal information that is inaccurate or incomplete;
• withdraw consent, as described in Section 6;
• request deletion of personal information, where we no longer have a lawful basis or legal requirement to retain it; and
• complain, as described in Section 15.

Additional or differently framed rights may apply to you under Section 14.

How to make a request. Send your request to the Privacy Officer at info@thegoods.ca, with enough detail for us to identify the information you are asking about. We may ask for information reasonably necessary to verify your identity, and we will use that information only for verification.

Our response. We will respond within 45 days where PIPA applies and within 30 days where PIPEDA applies, and we will tell you if we need an extension permitted by law and why. Where we refuse a request in whole or in part, we will tell you the reasons and the provisions relied on, and how to complain. We may be required or permitted to refuse access where, for example, the information contains the personal information of another individual, is subject to solicitor-client privilege, would reveal confidential commercial information, or was collected for an investigation.

Fees. We do not charge a fee to respond to an access request from an individual about their own personal information under PIPEDA, other than in exceptional circumstances. Where PIPA permits a reasonable fee for an access request, we will give you a written estimate before proceeding and will not charge more than the estimate without your agreement.

Authorized agents. You may make a request through an authorized agent. We will require written authorization from you and verification of the agent’s identity.

14. Regional supplements

The following supplements apply in addition to the rest of this Policy, and prevail over it to the extent of any conflict, for individuals in the jurisdictions described.

14.1 European Economic Area, United Kingdom and Switzerland

We do not direct the Site at individuals in these regions, but if you are located there and the applicable data protection legislation applies to our processing:

• Controller. RealEasy Technologies Inc. o/a The Goods is the controller. Contact details are in Section 1.
• Legal bases. These are set out in the last column of the table in Section 5. Where we rely on legitimate interests, we have balanced those interests against your rights, and you may ask us for information about that assessment.
• Your rights. In addition to Section 13, you have the right to restrict processing, to object to processing based on legitimate interests, to object at any time to processing for direct marketing, and to receive personal information you provided to us in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format and have it transmitted to another controller where technically feasible.
• Automated decision-making. We do not make decisions producing legal or similarly significant effects concerning you based solely on automated processing.
• International transfers. Where we transfer personal information out of the EEA, the UK or Switzerland, we rely on an adequacy decision where one exists for the receiving country or the recipient’s certification, and otherwise on the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses, the UK International Data Transfer Addendum or the UK Addendum, together with supplementary measures where appropriate. You may request a copy of the relevant safeguards from the Privacy Officer.
• Complaints. You may lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority in your country of residence, place of work, or the place of the alleged infringement, including the UK Information Commissioner’s Office. We would appreciate the opportunity to address your concern first.

14.2 Quebec

If and to the extent that the Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector (Quebec) applies to us:

• the person in charge of the protection of personal information is the Privacy Officer identified in Section 1;
• before communicating personal information outside Quebec, we conduct a privacy impact assessment that considers the sensitivity of the information, the purposes of its use, the protective measures in place and the legal framework of the receiving jurisdiction, and we proceed only where the information would receive adequate protection;
• we obtain your separate consent before activating any technology that allows you to be identified, located or profiled, and we inform you of the means available to deactivate it;
• you may request that we cease disseminating personal information about you, or that a hyperlink giving access to it be de-indexed, where dissemination contravenes the law or a court order;
• you may request a copy of computerized personal information you provided to us in a structured, commonly used technological format; and
• you may make a complaint to the Commission d’accès à l’information du Québec.

14.3 California and other United States jurisdictions

We do not believe we meet the thresholds that make the California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act ("CCPA"), applicable to us. We nonetheless provide the following disclosures and make the following rights available as a matter of practice, without conceding that the CCPA or any similar state law applies to us.

Categories of personal information collected in the preceding twelve months, the purposes for collection, and the categories of recipients:

We collect these categories from the sources described in Section 4 and use them for the business purposes described in Section 5. We do not sell personal information for monetary consideration. Our use of advertising cookies as described in Section 7.4 may constitute "sharing" of identifiers, internet activity and inferences for cross-context behavioural advertising under the CCPA. You may opt out of that sharing at any time using the Cookie Settings control in the Site footer, or by transmitting a Global Privacy Control signal as described in Section 7.5.

We use sensitive personal information only for the purposes permitted without a right to limit — that is, to perform the services you request. We do not use or disclose it to infer characteristics about you.

We do not knowingly sell or share the personal information of consumers under 16 years of age.

Rights. Subject to verification, you may request to know the categories and specific pieces of personal information we have collected, the sources, the purposes, and the categories of recipients; to delete personal information we have collected from you; to correct inaccurate personal information; and to opt out of sharing. We will not discriminate against you for exercising these rights, and we do not offer financial incentives in exchange for personal information. Submit requests to info@thegoods.ca, or through an authorized agent with written authorization. We will confirm receipt within 10 business days and respond within 45 days, extendable once by a further 45 days with notice.

Shine the Light. California residents may request information about disclosures of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. We do not make such disclosures.

Other states. Residents of other United States jurisdictions with comprehensive privacy legislation may have rights to access, correct, delete and port personal information, to opt out of targeted advertising and profiling, and to appeal a refusal. We extend the mechanisms described above to those residents and will respond to appeals in writing with our reasons.

15. Complaints

If you have a concern about how we have handled your personal information, contact the Privacy Officer at info@thegoods.ca. We will acknowledge your complaint, investigate it, and give you a written response describing our findings and any steps we have taken.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you may contact:

Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta
Suite 410, 9925 – 109 Street NW, Edmonton, Alberta T5K 2J8
Telephone: 780-422-6860 | Toll free in Alberta: 1-888-878-4044
oipc.ab.ca

Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
30 Victoria Street, Gatineau, Quebec K1A 1H3
Toll free: 1-800-282-1376
priv.gc.ca

Individuals outside Canada may also contact the supervisory authority identified in Section 14.

16. Third-party links

The Site contains links to third-party websites, including affiliate links as disclosed in our Terms of Use. We are not responsible for the content, security or privacy practices of those sites. Following a link means the third party may collect information about you under its own policies.

17. Changes to this Policy

We may update this Policy to reflect changes in our practices, our service providers, or the law. We will post the updated Policy on this page and revise the "Last updated" date. If a change materially affects how we handle personal information already collected, we will provide notice on the Site and, where we hold your email address and the change requires it, by email, and we will obtain your consent where the law requires us to. Your continued use of the Site after a non-material change takes effect indicates your acceptance of it.

Previous versions of this Policy are available on request from the Privacy Officer.

18. Contact

RealEasy Technologies Inc. o/a The Goods
Attention: Privacy Officer
Red Deer, Alberta, Canada
info@thegoods.ca

Please include "Privacy Request" in the subject line and describe your request clearly so that we can respond efficiently.