Privacy Policy

About GPA:

Giannone Petricone Associates Inc. (“GPA”) is a is a Toronto based design firm made up of over 40 architects, led by principals Ralph Giannone and Pina Petricone.

Our Commitment:     

GPA is committed to protecting the personal information of our clients, consultants, colleagues, employees, as well as anyone submitting Personal Information, as defined herein for potential employment, or any other initiative sponsored by our firm.

Application of this Privacy Policy:

This Privacy Policy (the “Policy”) applies to GPA and to all visitors to this website. This Policy details our practices concerning the collection, use and disclosure of Personal Information provided to us when visiting our website. Our obligations apply to all of our directors, officers, employees, agents or representatives who provide services to our clients or on behalf of GPA in connection with our delivery of products, services and information, as well as our website. We urge you to read this Policy to gain a clear understanding of how we may collect, use and disclose your Personal Information in the course of our delivery of products, services or information, or in the course of your use of our website.

Do Not Provide Personal Information if you do not consent:

If you do not consent to the collection, use and disclosure of your Personal Information in accordance with this Policy, do not provide us with any Personal Information. It is important to note that most of our products and services accessed by or through this website can only be provided if we receive the required Personal Information from you. Consequently, should you choose not to provide us with the required Personal Information, we may be unable to offer these products and services to you.

What is Personal Information?

We define “Personal Information” as any information, recorded in any form, about an identified individual, or an individual whose identity may be inferred or determined from the information, other than business contact information (e.g., name, title, business address, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail address). This Policy does not cover aggregated data from which the identity of an individual cannot be determined. We retain the right to use business contact information and aggregated data in any way that we determine appropriate.

What and How do we collect Personal Information?

We collect Personal Information obtained through the use of this website including when you provide information seeking further information, newsletters and other communications.

A visitor to our website (www.gpia.com) is not required to reveal any information such as name, street address or telephone number.

We collect information when a person voluntarily completes an online form or request for information. We collect, use or disclose this information (the “User Submitted Information”) in a manner consistent with this Policy. We comply with Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation with respect to the sending of commercial electronic messages.

When a person wishes to submit an online form or request, he, she or they is asked to supply one or more items within the following classes of information: (a) identity; (b) contact details; and (c) marketing and communication preferences.

Some Personal Information may be collected on our website without your directly providing the information. For example, some information about internet users' traffic patterns is automatically collected and linked to users' Internet Protocol addresses. In appropriate circumstances such as investigation of a security breach, the IP address may be used with the cooperation of the ISP to locate and identify an individual using the website.

Server logs log information about visits to our website. This information is used to improve our website. We do not link this information to other data so as to identify individual visitors except for security purposes.

How We Comply with Privacy Laws:

In order to comply with the applicable privacy, we will:

(a) Only collect Personal Information that is relevant and necessary for the purposes identified at the time of collection (i.e., employment application, maintaining commercial relations, service needs, legal and regulatory requirements, etc).

(b) Where relevant and necessary, obtain consent for the collection, use and disclosure of personal information. You will be entitled to modify or withdraw your consent.

(c) Use and disclose Personal Information only for the specified purposes for which it was collected.

(d) Upon written request, provide you with information about the existence, use and disclosure of your Personal Information. You may opt-out of the use of your Personal Information by sending an email request to  mail@gpaia.com or contacting our Privacy Officer as set out in the Contact Information section below.

(e) Upon your written request, we will erase information that is inaccurate, out of date or is no longer required for the purpose(s) for which it was collected.

(f) Use appropriate security measures to ensure that Personal Information is secure and only store such information for as long as necessary for business or legal reasons.

Collection of Information through our Website and Your Consent:

By accessing and browsing our website, you agree that we may collect, use and disclose any information we collect about you through our website as described in this Policy or as otherwise permitted or required by applicable law. Our web server automatically collects visitor information in the form of the visitor’s domain or Internet Protocol (IP) address, as well as information about the pages being accessed, the date and time of your visit to our website. We use this information to better serve visitors by managing our site, diagnosing any technical problems, and improving the content of our website. We may also track your activity on other website or social media platforms that you visit after leaving the GPA website for the purposes of delivering advertising campaigns that may be of interest to you. For information on how you may opt-out of the collection of such information, please contact our Privacy Officer.

Withdrawal of Consent:

You may withdraw your consent to us collecting, using and disclosing your Personal Information at any time, subject to reasonable notice and any legal and/or contractual restrictions. However, you cannot withdraw your consent retroactively.

You may, at any time, ask us not to send you further marketing materials about our goods and services. If you do not wish to receive further invitations to events, you may unsubscribe or contact our Privacy Officer and ask that we not contact you for these purposes.

Why GPA May Collect Personal Information:

GPA uses only fair and lawful methods to collect Personal Information. We collect certain information from you for the following purposes:

(a) communicating with our current, former and potential clients and other stakeholders:

(b) providing products, services and information to current, former and potential clients and other stakeholders;

(c) managing our relationships with current, former and potential clients and other stakeholders;

(d) distributing publications, invitations to events and programs, and other communications that may be of interest to current, former and potential clients and other stakeholders;

(e) responding to questions and concerns;

(f) meeting legal or regulatory requirements; and

(g) communicating for any other purpose for which we have current, former and potential clients' and other stakeholders' consent.

How GPA uses your Personal Information:

Our use of Personal Information is limited to the purposes described in this Policy, unless we expressly tell you otherwise. We do not otherwise sell, trade, barter, exchange or disclose for consideration any Personal Information we have obtained from you.

When GPA may disclose your Personal Information:

As a general rule, we hold all information concerning current, former and potential clients and other stakeholders in strict confidence. Except in limited circumstances or as otherwise described herein, we do not reveal this information to anyone unless you have expressly or implicitly authorized us to do so.

There are circumstances where the use and/or disclosure of Personal Information may be justified or permitted, or where GPA is obliged to disclose information without consent. These circumstances may include:

(a) Where required by law or by order or requirement of a court, administrative agency or other governmental tribunal;

(b) Where GPA believes, upon reasonable grounds, that it is necessary to protect the rights, privacy, safety or property of an identifiable person or group;

(c) Where it is necessary to permit GPA to pursue available remedies or limit any damages that GPA may sustain;

(d) Where the information is public as permitted by law; and

(e) Where it is reasonable for the purposes of investigating a breach of an agreement, or actual or suspected illegal activity; or

When this occurs, we will not disclose more information than is required or permitted by law. We may seek your consent to use or disclose Personal Information after it has been collected in cases where we wish to use or disclose the information for a purpose not previously identified or expressed in this Policy.

Use of Third Party Web Analytics Tools:

GPA may from time to time use computer generated analytics in order to help us measure traffic and usage trends for our website, analyze and track data, determine the popularity of certain content, better understand your online activity, and optimize the design and functionality of our website. We may also use analytics to record user visits to our website. GPA has no control over the privacy or security practices of such analytics providers.  On the date hereof, GPA used google analytics. More information is available at: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/7318509?hl=en, https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites and https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6004245

Cross-Border Transfer of Information:

GPA may transfer Personal Information to a service provider which is located outside of Canada where privacy laws may offer different levels of protection from those in Canada. Your Personal Information may also be subject to access by and disclosure to the local courts, law enforcement and national security authorities under the applicable foreign legislation.

If you are accessing this website from within the European Economic Area, this will involve transferring your data outside of the European Economic Area. Whenever we transfer your personal data out of the European Economic Area, we ensure a similar level of protection to that required by the European Economic Area is applied.

Please contact us should you desire further information on the transfer and storage of Personal Information.

Personal Information of Other Individuals:

If you need to provide us with Personal Information about other individuals (such as your employees, employer, supervisor, etc.), you represent and warrant to us that you will obtain their consent where required by law and prior to your disclosure to us. Consent is required for us to use and disclose the Personal Information of these individuals for the specific purpose(s) for which you made the disclosure.

Accuracy and Retention of Personal Information:

We endeavor to ensure that any Personal Information provided to us and in our possession is accurate, current and complete. If we become aware that Personal Information is inaccurate, incomplete or out of date, we will revise the Personal Information.

We keep your Personal Information only as long as it is required for the reasons it was collected. This period may extend beyond the end of a relationship with us, but it will only be held as long as it is necessary for us to communicate with you or to have sufficient information to respond to any issues that may arise. When we no longer require your Personal Information, we have procedures to securely destroy, delete, erase or convert it into an anonymous form.

Protection Of Personal Information:

We endeavour to maintain appropriate physical, procedural and technical security safeguards at our offices and information storage facilities to prevent any unauthorized access to, or loss, misuse, disclosure or modification of Personal Information. This also applies to our disposal or destruction of Personal Information.

We further protect Personal Information by restricting access to those employees who need access to provide products, services or information. If a GPA employee misuses Personal Information, we will consider the act a serious offence for which we may take disciplinary action up to and including terminating employment. If any individual or organization misuses Personal Information, we will consider it a serious issue and may take action up to and including terminating any agreement between GPA and that individual or organization.

We audit our procedures and security measures from time to time to ensure that they remain effective and appropriate.

Access To Your Personal Information:

You have the right to access and review the Personal Information we hold about you. We will endeavour to provide the information in question within a reasonable time. When we will not or cannot disclose information, we will provide the individual making the request the reasons for non-disclosure.

Further information concerning GPA’s access policy and procedures may be obtained by contacting our Privacy Officer as set out in the Contact Information section below.

Despite our efforts, errors sometimes do occur. If you identify any Personal Information that is out-of-date, incorrect or incomplete, please contact our Privacy Officer and we will make the corrections promptly. We will also use every reasonable effort to communicate these changes to other parties who may have inadvertently received incorrect or out-of-date Personal Information from us. We will not charge you for verifying or correcting your Personal Information.

Cookies and similar technologies:

(a) Cookies: In browsing the Internet, you will encounter a technology called “cookies”, which are small data files that are saved to your device when you visit our website. These are commonly used to provide you specific information from a website, and to provide the website’s operator information about you. We may use both session cookies and persistent cookies. A session cookie is a temporary file which is only active while you are on the website and is erased once you close your browser. Unlike a session cookie, a persistent cookie is not deleted when you close your browser and will remain on your device indefinitely.

These cookies are used to improve navigation on website and to collect aggregate statistical information. This information may be used for advertising and marketing initiatives after you conclude your session on the GPA website. The cookies may also track your activity on other website or social media platforms that you visit after leaving the GPA website. You may opt out of such tracking by adjusting the cookie settings on your browser.

Adjusting Cookie Settings on Your Browser: Most Internet browsers are initially set to accept cookies. If you do not wish to accept cookies, you can set yours to refuse cookies or to alert you when cookies are being sent. However, doing so may prevent you from accessing all or part of our websites. If you wish to disable cookies on your browser, or be prompted prior to a cookie being loaded, you can do so by adjusting your browser’s settings. Consult each individual browser’s “help” feature for more information.

(b) Embedded Scripts: An embedded script is a programming code that is designed to collect information about your interactions with our website(s), such as information about the links on which you click. The code is temporarily downloaded onto your device from our web server or a third party service provider. The code is active only while you are connected to our website and is deactivated or deleted once you disconnect from the website.

Link to other Websites:

Our website may contain links to other sites. This Policy only applies to Personal Information that we collect, use and disclose. We are not responsible or liable for the privacy practices of third parties, and we strongly recommend that you review their privacy policies before you disclose Personal Information to them.

Electronic Communications:

Email is our preferred method of communicating with you and others. Unless you object, we may use unencrypted plain text or HTML-based emails when communicating with you. These emails, and other electronic communications from us, may contain information that is confidential or privileged, unless you instruct us not to send such information electronically.

While we make every effort to secure all electronic communications within our control, there are inherent risks involved with exchanging information electronically. For example, third parties may accidentally or deliberately intercept this information. We are unable to accept responsibility or liability for any damages you may suffer as a result of the interception, alteration or misuse of information during electronic exchanges.

Changes to this Policy:

This Policy is in effect as of June 10, 2023. From time to time, we may review this, Policy. We reserve the right to change this Policy, and any of our policies or procedures concerning our practices for handling Personal Information, at any time and without any prior notice.

In the event of changes to this Policy, we will post a notice on our website at https://www.gpaia.com/. Policy changes will apply to the information collected from the date of posting to GPA’s website, as well as to existing information in our records.

Privacy Concerns:

We will promptly respond to questions and concerns relating to our Personal Information handling practices and this Policy and do our utmost to resolve your concerns. In every instance, we will consider our obligations with respect to confidential information, as well as our separate obligations under applicable privacy legislation. We may need to ask you for Personal Information to verify your identity.

Please contact us should you desire further information on the transfer and storage of Personal Information.

Contact Information:

In the event of questions about access to your Personal Information, our collection, use, management or disclosure of Personal Information; or this Policy, please contact our Privacy Officer at mail@gpaia.com , 96 Spadina Avenue, Suite 900, Toronto, ON Canada M5V 2J6, (416) 591-7788.