McGill Law Journal Privacy Policy

Effective as of September 22nd, 2023.

Your privacy is important to the McGill Law Journal (“we“, “us”, “our”).

This Privacy Policy (“Privacy Policy”, “policy”) sets out our practices with respect to the collection, use, and disclosure of the personal information of individuals who visit our website https://www.lawjournal.mcgill.ca (our “Website“), subscribe to the Journal, make submissions, communicate with us, including by email, text, or telephone, or otherwise interact with us in any other manner (“you“, “your”). It also describes the rights you may have with respect to your personal information.

In this policy, “personal information” means information about an identifiable individual, which includes information that can be used on its own or with other information to identify, contact, or locate an individual. Information that is aggregated and/or de-identified and cannot be associated with an identifiable individual is not considered to be personal information.

Please read this policy carefully to understand our practices for collecting, using and disclosing your information. If you do not agree with our practices, your choice is not to use our Website or otherwise interact with us. By accessing or using this Website or otherwise interacting with us, you indicate that you understand, accept, and consent to the practices described in this policy.

This policy may change from time to time (see “Changes to This Privacy Policy”, below). Your continued use of this Website after we make changes indicates that you accept and consent to those changes, so please check the policy periodically for updates.

1. Types of Information We Collect

The information we collect from individuals who interact with us falls within the scope of information generally collected in the ordinary course by peer-reviewed journals. The following provides examples of the type of personal information that we may collect from you:

• Contact and identity information, such as your name, email and postal address, telephone number, and institutional affiliation. For institutional or corporate users of our services, we may need to collect the representatives’ names and other personal details;

• Technical information, including your login information, browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform, or information about your internet connection, the equipment you use to access our Website, IP address, location information (to the extent this can be determined from your IP address) and usage details; and

• Any other information you provide to us.

2. How we collect personal information

We collect personal information in a variety of ways, including directly from you, through online technologies (such as when you are interacting with us through our Website), and from third-party social media:

• Directly from you. We may collect information that you provide to us, such as when you make submission through our submission form, when you sign up to receive our newsletter or other communications, or when you provide us with your information in any other way.

• Automatically when you interact with our Website. When you visit our Website, we collect technical information from your devices (computers, mobile phones, tablets, etc.), including information about how you interact with our Website and information that allows us to recognize and associate your activity across devices.

• Through cookies and other online technologies. Our Website may make use of cookies, which automatically collect user data (such as user traffic patterns and server activity). A cookie is a small text file containing a unique identification number that is transferred from a website to the hard drive of your computer, allowing the Website to identify your computer and track your activities on the Website.

  You can set your browser to disable cookies, but if you do so, essential cookies will not be set and some parts of the Website may not function correctly.

• Through our use of third party social media. We have installed on the Website various social media plug-ins. We may also obtain and use analytical and statistical information from third-party social media platforms to help us measure performance and effectiveness of content we display on social media.

  Facebook and other third-party social media platforms that provide interactive plug-ins to enable social media features (e.g., to connect and share to Facebook) on the Website may use cookies to gather information on your use of the Website. How this collected data is used by a third-party social media platform is dependent on the privacy policy of that platform, which is available on that platform. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of such third parties as well.

3. How we use personal information

We may use the personal information we collect to provide you with our services, to manage our operations, to communicate information we think might interest you, to conduct research, and as otherwise permitted or required by law. More specifically, we may use your personal information for the following purposes:

• Providing Our Content and Other Services. We use your personal information in order to provide our services, including such purposes as:
  • Informing our readers about the authorship and editing of Journal content;
  • managing your subscriptions;
  • processing your transactions;
  • creating, administering, and maintaining your account; and
  • fulfilling your requests and responding to your inquiries.

• Managing Our Operations. We use your personal information to manage our operations, including:
  • managing our editorial process and our services;
  • communicating with you about your submission or subscription, as applicable;
  • deploying and managing our information technology applications and systems, including managing our Website;
  • notifying you of changes to our editorial process, services, terms, conditions or policies and to provide you administrative
    messages, updates, legal notices, technical notices or security alerts;
  • meeting our contractual and legal obligations;
  • maintaining the security of the public, our users and our staff;
  • protecting ourselves and third parties from errors and fraud.

• Marketing. We use your personal information to inform you about news, services or offers that we believe may be of interest to you. We may do this by communicating with you in a variety of ways, such as by email, telephone, direct mail, text message or through social media.
  If you no longer wish to receive our electronic marketing messages, please let us know by following the unsubscribe directions provided in our electronic marketing messages. Please note that:
  • Even if you have opted out of receiving electronic marketing communications from us, we may still contact you for transactional purposes, in compliance with applicable laws (e.g., for client service or reminder notices). We may also need to contact you with questions or information regarding your inquiries; and
  • It may take some time for all of our records to reflect changes in your preferences.

• Research and Analytics. We may use your personal information in order to conduct research and data analytics, in order to understand readership behaviors, as well as tracking geopolitical and social elements of scholarly communication, guiding our work in publishing and improving the Journal, and understanding how visitors interact with our Website and ensuring it functions properly.

When possible, we will use your information in an aggregated and/or de-identified format.

4. How we share personal information

In addition to the specific situations discussed elsewhere in this policy, we share or disclose information as provided below:

• Service Providers. We may share your information with our service providers. Among other things, service providers may help us to administer our Website and our operations, and provide technical support.

Peer reviewers. Where you have made a submission for consideration by the Journal, we may share your name and institutional affiliation with the peer reviewers reviewing your submission.

• As Permitted or Required by Law. Applicable laws may permit or require the use, sharing, or disclosure of personal information without consent in specific circumstances. These circumstances include situations where it is necessary to disclose information in response to subpoenas, warrants, or court orders, or in connection with any legal process, or to comply with relevant laws. We may also share your information in order to establish or exercise our rights, to defend against a legal claim, to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding possible illegal activities, suspected fraud, safety of person or property, or a violation of our policies. If this happens, we will not share more personal information than is reasonably required to fulfill that particular purpose.

Other than as listed above, we may, with your implied or express consent, share or disclose your personal information with third parties, in accordance with applicable laws.

5. Cross-border Transfers

We or our service providers may transfer your personal information to jurisdictions outside the place where you reside or where we are located. In such cases, your personal information will be subject to the laws of those other jurisdictions and may be available to foreign government authorities under lawful orders and laws applicable in such jurisdictions. Regardless of the company or person who processes your information and where it is processed, we will take steps to protect your information in accordance with applicable data protection laws and this policy.

6. Third Parties

The Website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins, services, social networks, or applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow the third party to collect or share data about you. If you follow a link to a third-party website or engage a third-party plugin, please note that these third parties have their own privacy policies and we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies. We do not control these third-party websites, and we encourage you to read the privacy policy of every website you visit.

7. How We Protect & Retain Personal Information

We have adopted physical, technological and organizational processes and procedures to protect the confidentiality of personal information and to safeguard personal information against loss or theft, as well as unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use or modification, in light of, among other things, the sensitivity of the information and the purposes for which it is to be used. We maintain practices to protect your information by:

• Providing a framework for our handling of your personal information;
• Defining roles and responsibilities for handling your information from the moment we collect it until it is destroyed; and
• Governing our internal process for dealing with complaints regarding the protection of personal information.

Except as otherwise permitted or required by applicable law or regulation, we will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. Under some circumstances we may anonymize your personal information so that it can no longer be associated with you.  

8. Your Rights

You are entitled to request access to, and, if necessary, correct your personal information collected by us. In order to make such a request, please contact our privacy officer in writing (see the “Contact Us” section below). It is your responsibility to provide accurate, correct and complete information.

Your right to access or correct your personal information is subject to applicable legal restrictions. Upon request, we will provide you with access to your personal information within a reasonable timeframe, in compliance with applicable laws. We may take reasonable steps to verify your identity before granting access or making corrections.

You may be entitled under applicable law to withdraw your consent (except in limited circumstances, including legal or regulatory requirements or as a result of your contractual obligations with us). If you choose not to provide us with certain personal information or if you withdraw your consent, where such withdrawal is available, we may not be able to provide you with our services. You may withdraw consent to processing (where such processing is based upon consent) by contacting us at the address provided in the “Contact Us” section below.

9. Changes to this Privacy Policy

If we decide to change this Privacy Policy, we will post a new version of the policy reflecting these changes on the Website. If the changes we make are significant, we will provide a more prominent notice when required by applicable laws. By continuing to interact with us or use our services after the modified version of the policy has been posted or you have been informed of such update, you agree to be bound by all such changes unless you advise us in writing, by phone or by e-mail that you wish to withdraw your consent in accordance with the procedures provided in this policy. If you do not agree to the changes in our policy, it is your responsibility to stop using our services. It is your obligation to regularly review this policy to ensure that you read, understand and agree to the latest version of the policy. The “Effective Date” at the top of this Privacy Policy indicates when it was last updated.

10. Contact Us

If you have any questions, comments, or complaints concerning our privacy practices, please contact us at the coordinates below:

journal.law@mcgill.ca

3644 Peel Street, Montreal, Quebec H3A 1W9