We are obliged to keep your personal information confidential except under the following special circumstances:

• When authorized by you
• When required by law
• When permitted by law

Personal information, such as name, address, phone, email and age, is collected and used with the individual's implied or explicit consent. Sensitive personal information (such as a credit card number) requires explicit consent (verbal, or written (email, e-store, hard copy).

The consent terms are implied when a person fills out an application form, either on paper, at the local level or on our Web Store website (https://secure.rasc.ca), or when a person who is a member of the RASC participates in any activity of the RASC that is related to the goals of the RASC, including, but not limited to, meetings, public events organized by the RASC and/or its Centres, mailing lists, discussion forums, chats or other events, both offline and online, or any other activity where members may gather together, formally or informally, or any activity related to astronomy that a member pursues individually, whether in public or in private.

When Authorized by You

With respect to the matter of privacy, we use the personal information to respond to any application for our services and to provide our services to you, as well as in the following ways:

• to facilitate the provision of our services by sharing your information with our third party service providers such as our distributors who mail the Journal and Handbook to members and fulfill bulk orders.
• to investigate potentially fraudulent or questionable activities regarding the use of our services;

In addition we may also collect, use and disclose personal information when required or permitted by law.

In some cases, such as when you apply for membership or place an order over the telephone, your consent to the use and/or disclosure of your information will be obtained verbally. In other cases, your consent may be obtained in writing or electronically.

When Required by Law & Permitted by Law

The type of information we are legally required to disclose may relate to criminal investigations or government tax reporting requirements. In some instances such as a legal proceeding or court order, we may also be required to disclose certain information to authorities. Only the information specifically requested is disclosed and we take precautions to satisfy ourselves that the authorities that are making the request have legitimate grounds to do so.