Privacy Notice

This version is dated November 18, 2025.

Privacy Statement

Your privacy is very important to Wiikwemkoong Anishinaabemowin Aadiziwin Department (“WAAD”, “we”, “us” or “our” as context dictates) and we will treat your data with care and respect. We know that you care how information and data about you is collected, used, and shared. This Privacy Notice describes the privacy policy for Nanaamwin.ca (“Service”) and provides details on the collection, use, and/or dissemination of the information you provide. We reserve the right to change this Privacy Notice from time to time and we urge you to review this Privacy Notice regularly to familiarize yourself with any changes. By using the Service, you are accepting the practices described in this Privacy Notice.

The Service is only for Visitors and Users over the age of thirteen (13).

1. Who We Are

The Service is an online platform for members of the general public who are visitors (“Visitors”) as well as those who registered to use the Service (“Users”). As a platform, the Service enables Users to learn the Anishinaabemowin language by accessing words and their related phrases, themed resource material and games as well as online classes supported by teaching material. The Service also enables Visitors to have restricted access to some but not all of the content that is available to registered Users. Visitors are not required to provide any personal information in order to have said limited experience of the platform.

The Service is offered by Wiikwemkoong Anishinaabemowin Aadiziwin Department (“WAAD”, “we”, “us” or “our” as context dictates), a department of Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory. We also use technology licensed from third parties and obtain assistance from service providers to provide you the Service (such parties collectively our “licensors”).

As a community, the Service may enable Users, and Visitors where applicable, to participate in online discussions, share opinions and perspectives, access curated material and connect with and recognize other Users including through the use of discussion forums, online meeting and webinar conferencing capabilities of the Service (“Conferencing”). Due to the fact that each online meeting or webinar conference may be controlled by an independent host/presenter, and that each discussion forum may be led by an independent host moderator, we cannot guarantee how the system and privacy information will be managed by the independent host/presenter.

To provide the Service, we may be required to collect, use, and share certain information. The type of information we collect, together with a description of how we use and/or share it, is described below.

2. Information Collection, Use, and Storage

In order to use the Service, as a registered member, a User must first create an account. The two options available are: 1) logging in via a social media account (e.g. Facebook or LinkedIn) which will then be associated with the User Account or 2) entering a valid email address and password, followed by email verification - i.e. an email with a link sent to the User’s email account used to verify an active email account.

Once the account is created, a User must complete the registration form. During registration a User is required to give contact information (such as name and email address) and unique identifiers (such as a password), as well as other information that will appear on their profile page and may be used, when the feature is made available, for a member listing page. In addition, Users may provide additional information in the course of making use of and contributing to the Service. We use this information, including any personal information, to provide the Service and to contact the User in connection with the Service.

Each User will have a member profile page that may be accessible to other members, when the feature is made available, when they are logged into the Service. This profile page will display information collected on the registration form or later on from each User, including but not limited to the User’s level of speaking proficiency as it relates to Anishinaabemowin and whether they belong to a First Nations or Indigenous community. The latter being optional information that each User may or may not choose to disclose. The User’s email address is not displayed.

If, when the feature is made available, the profile page becomes accessible to other members through a member directory, it will also display information about the User's activity for the purpose of making it easier for other members to see who else is involved in the community, to find common interests between themselves, to choose to communicate with one another, and to see what contributions are being made and recognized based on the community features available (e.g. including but not limited to posts, contributed resources, etc). Also, when such features are made available, the activity of Users might be displayed on the Service in a variety of ways, such as on activity streams, for the benefit of other Users.

Visitors to the site who are not registered Users will have access to this member listing page, when the feature is made available, but not individual member profile pages. The member listing page will display the User’s name and their speaking proficiency, as collected during registration or updated by User by editing their profile page. The User’s email address is not displayed.

We also store information that we collect on Users and Visitors including the information collected above as well as images and files uploaded by the User and/or third parties, usage and activity information - to the extent possible using industry standard technologies such as cookies, log files and databases. This information will only be used for the purpose of providing community features as described above and seamless operation of the Service as well as for analysis for the purpose of optimizing the performance, operations and enhancing of our Service and will not be shared with any third-party except as described under "Sharing" below.

In order to provide the Services, we store your information, including personal information, with industry-leading third parties who provide underlying cloud technology for the Services. These providers are located in the United States and Canada. While your information is stored with our cloud-hosting providers, it is protected by encryption in transit and at rest.

If you are located outside of the United States, please note that your personal information therefore will be transferred to and stored within the United States, and may be accessible to law enforcement and other authorities.

3. Communications and Customer Service

We may send new Users one or more welcoming emails to verify password and username, and other useful information aimed at helping Users use the Service. Users may also occasionally receive information related to the Service, such as a monthly email newsletter, to which the User has the option to unsubscribe from. On occasion, it may be necessary to send out a service-related announcement. For instance, if the Service is temporarily suspended for maintenance we may send Users an email. We communicate with Users on a regular basis to provide requested services and in regards to issues relating to their account.

Though we make reasonable efforts to preserve User privacy, we cannot ensure that all of your private communications and other personally identifiable information will never be disclosed in ways not otherwise described in this Privacy Statement. We may need to disclose personal information when required by law wherein we have a good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with a current judicial proceeding, a court order or legal process; or third parties may unlawfully intercept or access transmissions or private communications. Please be aware that no data transmission over the Internet or information storage technology can be guaranteed to be secure.

We will also disclose your information when we believe it is appropriate in connection with efforts to investigate, prevent, or take other action regarding illegal activity, suspected fraud or other wrongdoing; to protect and defend the rights, property or safety of our organization, our Users, our employees, or others; to comply with applicable law or cooperate with law enforcement; or to enforce our Service’s terms and conditions or other agreements or policies.

We share your personal information with our authorized technical service providers, or licensors, to the extent needed for them to provide their services to us; they are not permitted to share your personal information for any other purposes.

When you attend an event hosted within the Services, when the feature is made available, you understand that any information you choose to share while participating in the event will be visible and that a) if you connect using your electronic device then your display name will also be shared with the host/presenter and other attendees and/or b) if you dial in using a telephone, if this option is enabled, then your phone number or caller ID will also be visible. You also understand that we cannot control how the host/presenter and other attendees will use, collect and/or disseminate information you share in the context of the session. Accordingly, you understand and agree that we are not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of the host/presenter and/or any third-party websites, and you agree that we are not responsible for how such information is ultimately used.

We are not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of any third-party websites that are linked from the Service, and they are not endorsed by us or covered under this Privacy Notice. In the event you provide any information to those websites, personal or otherwise, you agree that we are not responsible for how such information is collected, used and shared. We recommend that you review the Privacy Notice and Terms of Use for all third-party sites that you visit.

We may share aggregated demographic information that is not linked to any personally identifiable information with our partners, sponsors, and Users.

5. Cookies

We also store information that we collect through industry-standard technologies such as cookies, log files, images uploaded by the user, and/or third parties in order to provide seamless operation of the Service.

"Cookies" are small pieces of information that some websites store on your computer's hard drive when you visit them. Like many other websites, the Service uses cookies to provide information relating to your use of our Service.

Most web browsers automatically accept cookies but allow you to modify security settings so that you can approve or reject cookies on a case-by-case basis. Our Service requires that both cookies and JavaScript be enabled. If you reject cookies, the Service will not work properly for you.

We do not use or allow 3rd party cookies to be installed on the Service that may collect personally-identifiable information (PII) about your online activities over time and across different websites once you have left the domain of our site.

In order to maintain the reliability and security of the Service, we do log the IP address from which you are connecting. Additionally, we also use Google Analytics, a web analytics tool provider located in the United States to help us understand how users engage with the Service. The information collected by Google Analytics includes what kind of device or browser you are using and the IP address from which you are connecting. Although Google Analytics records your IP address, this information is not shared with us and therefore not linked to our records. To opt out of analysis by Google Analytics based on the use of the Service, please visit: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout

California Do Not Track (DNT) Disclosure.

The Service does not respond to the “Do Not Track” (DNT) setting of a user’s web browser.

6. Correcting / Updating / Deleting / Deactivating Personal Information

If a User’s personally identifiable information changes (such as the email, postal code, or location), updates can be made by accessing the profile preferences.

If you no longer wish to use the Service, you can request that your account be deleted by contacting us at support at nanaamwin.ca. In addition, abandonment or non-use of your User Account for 24 months may lead to the termination of use of the Service and deletion of your User Account.

If your account is deleted, your personally identifiable information will be permanently deleted and your activity and Content uploaded to the Service will be anonymized, or deleted. The content of communication sent between Users, as applicable, or to any external email address cannot, like any regular email, be altered or removed upon account deletion.

The following information will continue to be used for reporting purposes:

The date you registered and the date your account was deleted.
Anonymized records of all your activity.

Notwithstanding, after you have terminated your use of our Service, your information may remain stored in an aggregated format for up to 6 months via disaster recovery backups.

7. What We Do with Anonymized Information

Subject to the requirements of applicable laws, we may make use of information from users, such as their content and activity for the following purposes, including for commercial use, after the information has been de-identified, i.e. all personal information that could be used to identify a user has been removed or anonymized:

To conduct scientific research
To develop marketing materials for our products
To be used within digital and print publications
To develop and improve new and current products, services and platforms
To support delivery of the Services (e.g., quality control or fraud detection)

We may also share aggregated information that is not linked to any personally-identifiable information with our licensors, partners, sponsors, and users for the purposes listed above.

8. About Your Rights

You have the right to access the data we hold about you that is tied to your active account, subject to exceptions that may be available or required under applicable law and any time extensions for response as may be required and available under applicable law. A request can be sent to the Privacy Officer directly (privacy@nanaamwin.ca). Within 30 days of receipt of the request, we will provide instructions and access to the file.

Opting out or withdrawing consent

If, at any time, you decide that you want us to stop storing or processing your information, you can withdraw the consent you provided when registering for Nanaamwin.ca by contacting us at support at nanaamwin.ca.

9. Applicable Laws and Regulations

We are required to comply with the applicable federal and state privacy laws within the United States of America and the applicable federal and provincial privacy laws within Canada.

Based on the geographical limitations in which the users of the Services reside, i.e. within the United States of America and Canada only, we are not required to comply with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”).

10. Notification of Changes

If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes to this privacy notice in places that we deem appropriate and revise the “last updated” date at the top of this Privacy Notice. We will use information in accordance with the privacy policy under which the information was collected. If we are going to use Users' personally identifiable information in a manner different from that stated at the time of collection (“Material Change”), we will notify Users via email and Users will have a choice as to whether or not to consent to this Material Change. You can withdraw consent by requesting that your User Account be deleted. If explicit consent is required and not given within the stated timeframe, as applicable, you will cease to be eligible for access to the Service and the necessary steps will be taken to delete your User Account in accordance with our handling of abandoned User Accounts.

11. Contact Information

If you have any questions, suggestions, or complaints regarding our privacy notice or how we process your personal information, please contact us at privacy at nanaamwin.ca.

Page actions