Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada Social Media Terms of Use

The Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada (HIIC) social media accounts are a great way to stay on top of the department's news and information. We look forward to sharing information with you through our various social media platforms, but always encourage visits to our website for more detailed information.

Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada's use of social media is intended to encourage interaction between the user and Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada, and in no way verifies or confirms either the accuracy of user comments or their compliance with the guidelines outlined here.

By using a social media platform you are bound by the terms and services of that platform and its related policies and rules, which govern your access and use. You are strongly encouraged to read all of terms of use and services as well as policies for each platform with which you are interacting.

By participating in, liking, joining, subscribing or following Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada's social media accounts, you are also agreeing to these Terms of Use. These terms do not modify your agreement with an individual platform.

Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada does not endorse any of the views expressed in comments posted by users. Comments in violation of these Terms of Use may result in Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada blocking the user in question to prevent further inappropriate posts.

Interacting with Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada on Social Media

This notice has been written to explain how Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada interacts with the public on social media platforms.

Content and frequency

Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada uses social media as an alternative method of sharing the content posted on the department's website. By following our social media accounts (by "following," "liking" or "subscribing"), you can expect to see information about Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada's activities, programs, and initiatives.

The number of posts will vary, depending on the quantity of relevant material published each day. During some periods, we may post more or less frequently than average. You should expect to see new posts from Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada during regular working hours, Monday to Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. EST/EDT. Any activity during holidays, after core hours and on weekends would likely be along the lines of emergency or urgent communications of significant value to our social media communities. Otherwise, accounts will be relatively inactive during these times.

Availability

Because the servers of social media platforms are managed by a third party, Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada's social media accounts are subject to downtime that may be out of our control. As such, we accept no responsibility for platforms becoming unresponsive or unavailable.

Links to other websites and ads

Our social media accounts may post or display links or ads for websites that are not under our control. These links are provided solely for the convenience of users. The Government of Canada is not responsible for the information found through these links or ads, nor does it endorse the sites or their content.

Following, "Favouriting", Liking, and Subscribing

Our decision to "follow," "favourite," "like," or "subscribe" to another social media account does not imply an endorsement of that account, channel, page or site, and neither does sharing (re-tweeting, reposting, or linking to) content from another user.

Comments and interaction

We will read comments and participate in discussions when appropriate. We ask that your comments be relevant and respectful. We reserve the right to delete comments that violate this notice, and the user may be blocked and reported to prevent further inappropriate comments.

We cannot engage in issues of party politics or answer questions that break the rules of this notice.

We reserve the right to edit or remove comments that:

• Contain personal information;
• Are contrary to the principles of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms;
• Express racist, hateful, sexist, homophobic, slanderous, insulting or life-threatening messages;
• Put forward serious, unproven or inaccurate accusations against individuals or organizations;
• Are aggressive, coarse, violent, obscene or pornographic;
• Are offensive, rude or abusive to an individual or an organization;
• Are not sent by the author or are put forward for advertising purposes;
• Encourage illegal activity;
• Contain announcements from labour or political organizations;
• Are written in a language other than English or French;
• Are unintelligible or irrelevant;
• Are repetitive or spam; and
• Do not, in our opinion, add to the normal flow of the discussion.

Accessibility of Social Media platforms

Social media platforms are third-party service providers and are not bound by Government of Canada standards for Web accessibility.

If you have difficulty accessing content on our social media accounts, please contact us and we will try to solve the problem or provide you with the information in a different format.

The Government of Canada is committed to achieving a high standard of accessibility and is working to address issues with third-party service provider platforms. If you have any problems accessing any information on the site, visit Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada's website.

Copyright

Information posted by Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada is subject to the Copyright Act of Canada. For more information, see the Terms and Conditions page on the HIIC website.

Privacy

Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada's social media accounts are not Government of Canada websites and represent our presence on third-party service providers.

Information shared with Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada on social media is subject to the provisions of the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act, which means that the information you share with Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada's social media accounts may be captured, stored, accessed and disclosed in response to a request under either of these acts.

The personal information provided by you to Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada's social media accounts is collected under the authority of the Financial Administration Act (FAA), in accordance with the Policy on Communications and Federal Identity Act. This information is being collected to capture conversations between you and Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada via the Department's social media accounts. "Conversations" include questions and answers, comments, "likes", retweets and other interactions where you provide feedback on content that the Department has posted, or when the Department provides you with information based on content that you post. The personal information collected is described in Personal Information Bank entitled Public Communications (TC PSU 914). Under the provisions of the Privacy Act, individuals have the right of access to, correction of and protection of their personal information. Instructions for obtaining your personal information are provided in Info Source, a copy of which is available in major public and academic libraries or online at Info Source.

Personal information includes home addresses and telephone numbers, photographs containing images of identifiable individuals, and any other information consisting of personal information as defined in paragraph 3 of the Privacy Act. Should you have any questions about your privacy rights as explained in these Terms of Use, please contact the departmental Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) Coordinator.

Official languages

Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada respects the Official Languages Act and is committed to ensuring that information products are available in both French and English, of equal quality.

Through the very nature of the social media forum, content will vary between English and French accounts, particularly where messages and comments are concerned. Any comments that originate from Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada will be made available in both official languages when it concerns both English and French communities. Comments, responses, and questions that require a response will be answered in the official language of origin.

Users should be aware that some links will direct users to sites of organizations or other entities that are not subject to the Official Languages Act and that these sources are only available in the language in which they are written.

Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada employee use of social media

Some Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada employees use social media in a personal capacity under their own names or pseudonyms. Despite their professional affiliation with Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada, their posts do not represent the official or unofficial position of HIIC and should be considered the product of each individual as a private citizen.

Additional information

If you are looking for more information about the Department, please consult the Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada website.

Contact information

180 Kent Street
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada
K1P 0B6
Email: info@infc.gc.ca

For further contact details, please see Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada's Contact us page.

For media enquiries

Media representatives can contact Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada's Media Relations team during regular working hours. (media-medias@infc.gc.ca)

Thank you for taking the time to read our Social Media Terms of Use. We encourage your participation in our discussion and look forward to an active exchange of ideas.