At Avalanche Canada, we are committed to providing our users with exceptional service. Providing this service involves the collection, use, and disclosure of some personal information about our users. Protecting this information is one of our highest priorities.
When you use the Avalanche Canada website, even if you’re just looking at our products, we receive information from you that tells us the type of device you’re using and your IP address.
If you have questions about this policy, feel free to contact us at info@avalanche.ca.
Basic Information
You don’t have to create an account to use some of our service features, such as searching and viewing public avalanche forecasts, weather forecasts, or Mountain Information Network (MIN) submissions. If you do choose to submit to the MIN, you must create an account so we are able to provide our services to you. Creating an account means you must provide some personal data, or you can link your Avalanche Canada account to a third-party network.
Mountain Information Network
Avalanche Canada’s MIN is publicly accessible and any information submitted is immediately viewable and searchable by anyone around the world.
The viewable information includes a small portion of your public profile. If you are registered with an email account, this portion corresponds to the first section of your email address (the part before the “@”) which will be public on any MIN submission. If you are registered with a third-party social network, then your public display name from that network will be made public with your MIN submission
The MIN was designed to help backcountry users make good decisions in avalanche terrain. The information submitted to this network can be critical for someone’s decision-making process and safety. For this reason, we encourage transparency when submitting information. But if you prefer to be anonymous, you are able to register with an email or social media account that does not identify you. Users are responsible for their submissions and should consider any sensitive content they share.
Please note that images, location data, and other content submitted to the MIN may be referenced or used by Avalanche Canada in public avalanche forecasts, educational materials, or other communications to provide up-to-date information to the public. Additionally, Avalanche Canada’s API enables this information to be shared with select third-party websites. Although we strive to protect your privacy, we cannot guarantee that third parties will apply the same privacy standards as Avalanche Canada in their use of MIN content.
Finally, we may contact users through the method they used to sign up (email, Facebook, etc.) for community engagement purposes, such as providing awards for the MIN of the Week winners.
Third Party Login
If you choose to create or log into your Avalanche Canada account using a third-party service (e.g., Google or Facebook), we will collect and process data such as your email address and display name for the purposes of logging you in and linking your Mountain Information Network (MIN) submissions to your account. Your data will be stored securely and will not be shared without your consent, except as required to provide our services or comply with legal obligations.
You may request deletion of your data at any time by contacting us at info@avalanche.ca. Upon request, we will remove your personal information from our systems, though data shared through our API or displayed in public submissions may persist on third-party platforms.
For more information on how these third-party services process your data, please review their Google and Facebook’s data policies.
Deletion
Any data submitted to the MIN can be removed upon request by contacting info@avalanche.ca.
Keep in mind that consumers of our API such as search engines and other third parties may still retain copies of your public information, such as your profile information and public MIN submissions, even after you have deleted the information from our services or deactivated your account. This includes any sharing on social media services.
Other Information Collected
Service Providers
We engage service providers to perform functions and provide services to us in the United States, Canada, and other countries. For example, we use a variety of third-party services to help operate our services, such as hosting our various blogs and wikis, and to help us understand the use of our services, such as Google Analytics and Mixpanel.
To read more about how Google uses data when you use our products, see https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.
To read more about how Mixpanel uses data when you use our products, see https://mixpanel.com/legal/privacy-policy/
Our developers use additional log data through tools such as Sentry and Vercel to monitor, troubleshoot, and improve site performance and user experience. We also use Meta Pixel for advertising purposes, helping us tailor and deliver relevant content to users; each service processes data in accordance with its respective privacy policy.
Cookies
A cookie is a small piece of data that is stored on your computer or mobile device. Like many websites, we use cookies and similar technologies to collect information about how our site is used and to improve our services. Cookies are not required to browse certain areas of our site, and you can adjust your browser settings to decline or alert you about cookies. However, some features may not work properly without them. We use both session cookies (which expire when you close your browser) and persistent cookies (which remain until they expire or are deleted) to understand how you interact with our site, enhance security, and personalize content, including language preferences or accessibility features.
Analytics and Log Data
We use analytics tools like Google Analytics and Mixpanel to gather anonymized data on how our site is used. These services provide us with information when you view content on or otherwise interact with our services, even if you have not created an account. We refer to this as “log data.” This log data includes information such as your IP address, browser type, operating system, the referring web page, pages and page sections visited, viewing duration, and limited device information and cookie information. We use this information to help us improve the user experience and effectiveness of our products to ensure robust and reliable performance.