Legal

Privacy Policy

📅 Effective: January 1, 2025 🔄 Last updated: January 1, 2025 🇨🇦 Governed by Ontario, Canada law

Table of Contents

  1. Who We Are
  2. Information We Collect
  3. How We Use Your Information
  4. How We Share Your Information
  5. Data Storage & Security
  6. Your Rights
  7. Cookies & Tracking
  8. Children's Privacy
  9. Third-Party Services
  10. Changes to This Policy
  11. Contact Us

Plain language summary: Northern Skills Academy collects only the information needed to operate your account and deliver our services. We store your data on servers in Canada. We do not sell your personal information. Ever. You can request deletion of your data at any time by emailing hello@nsacademy.ca.

Section 01

Who We Are

Northern Skills Academy ("NSA", "we", "us", or "our") operates the Northern Skills Academy mobile application and website at nsacademy.ca. We are a Canadian company providing skills training programs for trades professionals, headquartered in Ontario, Canada.

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and protect personal information when you use our app, website, or services. By using NSA, you agree to the practices described in this policy.

For questions about this policy, contact us at hello@nsacademy.ca.

Section 02

Information We Collect

Information You Provide Directly

Information Collected Automatically

Information We Do NOT Collect

Section 03

How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect to:

We do not use your personal information for advertising purposes and we do not sell your data to any third party.

Section 04

How We Share Your Information

We share your personal information only in the following limited circumstances:

Service Providers

We work with trusted third-party companies to help operate our services. These providers are contractually bound to protect your data and may only use it to provide services to us:

Business Plan Accounts

If your account is part of a Business plan, your employer (the account administrator) can see your progress, completion rates, and quiz scores within their organisation's dashboard. They cannot see your personal messages or payment information.

Legal Requirements

We may disclose your information if required by law, court order, or government authority, or if we believe disclosure is necessary to protect the safety of any person or to prevent illegal activity.

Business Transfers

If NSA is acquired, merged, or sold, your information may be transferred as part of that transaction. We will notify you via email and/or a prominent notice on our website before your information is transferred and becomes subject to a different privacy policy.

Section 05

Data Storage & Security

Where Your Data Lives

Your personal information is stored on servers located in the Canada Central region through our database provider Supabase. We chose Canadian hosting deliberately to keep your data within Canada and subject to Canadian privacy law (PIPEDA).

How We Protect Your Data

Data Retention

We retain your account information for as long as your account is active. If you delete your account, we will delete your personal information within 30 days, except where we are required to retain it by law (for example, financial records for tax purposes, which we retain for 7 years as required by the Canada Revenue Agency).

Security notice: While we take reasonable measures to protect your information, no method of transmission over the internet is 100% secure. If you believe your account has been compromised, contact us immediately at hello@nsacademy.ca.

Section 06

Your Rights

Under Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and applicable provincial privacy laws, you have the following rights regarding your personal information:

To exercise any of these rights, email us at hello@nsacademy.ca with the subject line "Privacy Request." We will respond within 30 days.

Opting Out of Marketing

Every marketing email we send includes an unsubscribe link. You can also email us to be removed from our mailing list. Note that we will still send you transactional emails (account confirmations, receipts, booking confirmations) as these are necessary to provide our service.

Section 07

Cookies & Tracking

Website Cookies

Our website (nsacademy.ca) uses cookies to remember your preferences and understand how visitors use the site. We use:

Mobile App

The NSA mobile app does not use traditional browser cookies. We use secure local storage to keep you logged in between sessions. This data stays on your device.

Do Not Track

Our website respects the Do Not Track (DNT) browser setting. If you have DNT enabled, we will not load Google Analytics tracking on your session.

Section 08

Children's Privacy

Northern Skills Academy is a professional trades training platform intended for adults aged 16 and over. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 16.

If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child under 16 has provided us with personal information, please contact us at hello@nsacademy.ca and we will delete that information promptly.

Section 09

Third-Party Services

Our app and website integrate with the following third-party services. Each has their own privacy policy which governs how they handle data:

When you use the Ask the Expert chat feature, your messages are processed by Anthropic's API to generate responses. Anthropic processes this data in accordance with their privacy policy. We do not share your name, email, or account details with Anthropic — only the content of your chat messages.

Section 10

Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time as our services evolve or as required by law. When we make material changes, we will:

Your continued use of NSA after changes are posted constitutes your acceptance of the updated policy. If you do not agree with the changes, you may delete your account by contacting us.

Section 11

Contact Us

If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or how we handle your personal information, please contact us:

🏔️ Northern Skills Academy — Privacy

Email: hello@nsacademy.ca

Website: nsacademy.ca

Province: Ontario, Canada

We aim to respond to all privacy requests within 30 days. For urgent security concerns, please include "URGENT" in the subject line.

You also have the right to contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada at priv.gc.ca or by calling 1-800-282-1376.