Privacy Policy

1. Who We Are

BFS Beirut Film Society — Canada (“BFS Canada”, “we”, “us”) is a federally incorporated not-for-profit organization under the Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act, Corporation Number 1707077-2. We are also registered in Québec (NEQ 1181017014).

Our registered address is 100-2555 Boul. le Corbusier, Laval, Québec H7S 2H2. We operate the website beirutfilmsociety.ca.

Questions about this policy? Contact us at [email protected] or through our Contact page.

2. What This Policy Covers

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose and protect personal information when you visit beirutfilmsociety.ca, use our Beirut Film Society mobile app for iOS and Android, purchase event tickets, attend a screening, sign up for our newsletter or otherwise interact with BFS Canada. It is intended to comply with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and Québec’s Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector (Law 25 / Bill 64).

3. Information We Collect

We collect personal information only when necessary for the purposes described in this policy:

• Contact information — name, email address and phone number, when you fill out our contact or partner enquiry form.
• Event & ticket data — name, email and billing address when you purchase tickets. Payment details are processed directly by our payment provider and are not stored on our servers.
• Newsletter subscription — email address, when you sign up for our mailing list.
• Communications — messages you send us through the website or by email.
• Technical data — IP address, browser type, pages visited and time of visit, collected automatically through server logs and analytics tools.

4. How We Use Your Information

We use your personal information to:

• Process ticket purchases and send booking confirmations;
• Send newsletters and event announcements (with your consent);
• Respond to enquiries and partnership requests;
• Operate and improve our website;
• Comply with applicable Canadian law and meet our obligations as a non-profit.

We do not sell, rent or trade your personal information to third parties for marketing purposes.

5. Legal Basis for Processing

We process your personal information on the following grounds:

• Consent — for newsletter subscriptions and optional uses. You may withdraw consent at any time.
• Contractual necessity — to fulfil a ticket purchase or respond to an enquiry you initiate.
• Legitimate interest — for website analytics and security, where your fundamental rights do not override our interest.
• Legal obligation — where required by Canadian federal or Québec provincial law.

6. Sharing With Third Parties

We may share personal information with:

• Payment processors (e.g., Stripe) — to process ticket payments securely under their own privacy policies.
• Email service providers — to deliver newsletters and transactional emails on our behalf.
• Analytics services — we may use tools such as Google Analytics (configured to anonymize IP addresses) to understand how visitors use our website.
• Legal authorities — if required by a court order, subpoena or other legal process, or to protect the rights or safety of BFS or others.

We do not transfer your data outside Canada except to processors in jurisdictions with comparable privacy protections and only under appropriate safeguards.

7. Cookies and Tracking Technologies

Our website uses cookies to provide core functionality and improve your experience:

• Strictly necessary cookies — required for the website and shopping cart to function (e.g., session cookies). No consent is needed for these.
• Analytics cookies — help us understand visitor behaviour in aggregate, with identifiers anonymized where possible.
• Social media embeds — pages that embed content from Facebook, Instagram, YouTube or TikTok may cause those platforms to set their own cookies under their respective privacy policies.

You can manage or disable cookies through your browser settings. Disabling strictly necessary cookies may affect website functionality.

8. Social Media Platforms

We maintain accounts on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube and TikTok. When you interact with us on those platforms, the platform’s own privacy policy applies. We do not control data collected by those platforms.

9. Data Retention

• Transaction records are kept for seven (7) years in accordance with Canadian accounting and tax requirements.
• Newsletter subscriber data is kept until you unsubscribe.
• Contact form messages are kept for up to two (2) years unless required for an ongoing matter.
• Web server logs are retained for up to ninety (90) days.

10. Your Rights

Under PIPEDA and Québec Law 25, you have the right to:

• Access the personal information we hold about you;
• Correct inaccurate or incomplete information;
• Withdraw consent at any time where processing is based on consent;
• Request deletion of your personal information, subject to legal retention obligations;
• Data portability — receive a copy of your data in a structured, machine-readable format where applicable;
• Lodge a complaint with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada or the Commission d’accès à l’information du Québec.

To exercise any of these rights, please email [email protected] with the subject “Privacy Request”. We will respond within 30 days.

11. Security

We take reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect personal information. Our website uses HTTPS encryption. No method of transmission over the internet is completely secure, however, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

12. Children’s Privacy

Our website, mobile app and services are not directed at children under 14 years of age. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children without verifiable parental consent. If you believe a child under 14 has provided us with personal information, please contact us to have it removed.

13. Our Mobile App

The Beirut Film Society app is free, contains no advertising and includes no third-party analytics, advertising or tracking SDKs. We do not sell or rent personal information, and nothing in the app is used for profiling or automated decision-making. In addition to the information described above, the app involves the following:

• Your account. Your name, email address and, if you provide it, your phone number, so your tickets and saved films follow you between the app and the website.
• Sign-in token. When you sign in, the app stores a token in the device keychain so you stay signed in. It is not a copy of your password. Signing out deletes it.
• Push notification token. If you allow notifications, Apple or Google gives us an anonymous device token so we can send you screening reminders and schedule changes. It identifies a device, not a person, and we send it nothing else. You can turn notifications off at any time in your device settings; the token is deleted when you sign out or uninstall the app.
• Attendee details you enter. When you buy tickets in the app you give a name and email for each attendee, so each ticket can be issued in the right name. Payment itself happens on our website — no payment card details are ever entered in, or seen by, the app.
• Tickets and entry records. Each ticket carries a QR code. When it is scanned at the door we record that the ticket was used, when, and at which entrance, so a ticket cannot be used twice.
• Wallet passes. If you add a ticket to Apple Wallet or Google Wallet, we register that pass so it can be updated if the screening time or venue changes.
• Saved films. The screenings you bookmark, stored against your account so they appear on every device.
• Photographs and video you choose to share. The app has a photo booth. If you use it, the app asks permission to use your camera, and your photo library only if you choose to bring in a picture you already had. Sound is recorded only if you tap to record a video clip. A photograph or clip leaves your device only when you tick the consent box and press send; what you send, any caption you write, your name and the screening it belongs to are uploaded, and the picture is reviewed by a member of our team before anyone else can see it. We record the wording of the consent you agreed to and when you agreed to it. Location data is removed from every picture before it is uploaded, and we do not use face recognition on any photograph. You can withdraw a picture you sent from “My photos” in the app, ask us to remove one at any time, and turn off the remembered consent in Settings.

Deleting your account from the app. Account > Delete my account removes your account and personal details permanently. Tickets you have already bought remain valid, and payment records we are required by tax law to keep are retained without your personal details. You can also ask us to do this by writing to [email protected].

14. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The “Last updated” date at the top of this page will reflect when the most recent changes were made.

15. Contact Us

For privacy questions, requests or complaints, please contact:

BFS Beirut Film Society — Canada
Privacy Officer
100-2555 Boul. le Corbusier, Laval, Québec H7S 2H2
Email: [email protected]
Federal Corporation No. 1707077-2  ·  Québec NEQ 1181017014