PRIVACY POLICY
Last updated July 30, 2026
This Privacy Notice for Vancouver Sessions of Piano Foundation (doing business as Vancouver Piano Sessions) ("we," "us," or "our") describes how and why we might access, collect, store, use, and/or share ("process") your personal information when you use our services ("Services"), including when you:
Visit our website at http://www.vancouverpianosessions.com or any website of ours that links to this Privacy Notice
Use the VPS mobile app for enrolled program participants
Participate in Vancouver Piano Sessions programs and events
Apply through our online application forms
Engage with us in other related ways, including marketing or events
Questions or concerns? Reading this Privacy Notice will help you understand your privacy rights and choices. We are responsible for making decisions about how your personal information is processed. If you do not agree with our policies and practices, please do not use our Services. If you still have any questions or concerns, please contact us at info@vancouverpianosessions.com.
SUMMARY OF KEY POINTS
This summary provides key points from our Privacy Notice. You can find more details in the full sections below.
What personal information do we process? When you visit, use, or navigate our Services, we may process personal information depending on how you interact with us and the Services, the choices you make, and the products and features you use. Learn more in Section 1 and Section 15 (VPS Mobile App).
Do we process any sensitive personal information? Some information may be considered "special" or "sensitive" in certain jurisdictions. We may process sensitive personal information when necessary with your consent or as otherwise permitted by applicable law, including student data related to our educational programs.
Do we collect any information from third parties? We do not buy personal information from data brokers. We use service providers (such as Google Firebase, Stripe, Fillout, Airtable, and Apple) to host data, process applications, process payments, and deliver notifications on our behalf, as described in this Notice.
How do we process your information? We process your information to provide, improve, and administer our Services, communicate with you, for security and fraud prevention, and to comply with law. We may also process your information for other purposes with your consent.
In what situations and with which parties do we share personal information? We may share information in specific situations and with specific third parties, including service providers that help us operate our website, application forms, and mobile app.
How do we keep your information safe? We have organizational and technical processes and procedures in place to protect your personal information. However, no electronic transmission over the internet or information storage technology can be guaranteed to be 100% secure.
What are your rights? Depending on where you are located, applicable privacy law may give you certain rights regarding your personal information.
How do you exercise your rights? The easiest way to exercise your rights is by submitting a data subject access request at https://app.termly.io/dsar/b33fb2fb-24eb-45e9-8b42-40763e765787, or by contacting us at info@vancouverpianosessions.com.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
What Information Do We Collect?
How Do We Process Your Information?
What Legal Bases Do We Rely On to Process Your Personal Information?
When and With Whom Do We Share Your Personal Information?
How Long Do We Keep Your Information?
How Do We Keep Your Information Safe?
Do We Collect Information From Minors?
What Are Your Privacy Rights?
Controls for Do-Not-Track Features
Do United States Residents Have Specific Privacy Rights?
Forms Application
Do We Make Updates to This Notice?
How Can You Contact Us About This Notice?
How Can You Review, Update, or Delete the Data We Collect From You?
VPS Mobile App
1. WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT?
Personal information you disclose to us
In Short: We collect personal information that you provide to us.
We collect personal information that you voluntarily provide to us when you register on the Services, express an interest in obtaining information about us or our products and Services, when you participate in activities on the Services, when you use our mobile app, when you apply to our programs, or otherwise when you contact us.
Personal Information Provided by You. The personal information that we collect depends on the context of your interactions with us and the Services, the choices you make, and the products and features you use. The personal information we collect may include the following:
Email addresses
Names
Phone numbers
Mailing addresses
Contact preferences
Billing addresses
Debit/credit card numbers (through our payment processors, not stored directly by us in the mobile app)
Program access codes (for the VPS mobile app)
Lesson request notes and payment receipt information (through the VPS mobile app)
Schedule, venue, and program participation information
Sensitive Information. When necessary, with your consent or as otherwise permitted by applicable law, we process the following categories of sensitive information:
Student data
Payment Data. We may collect data necessary to process your payment if you choose to make purchases, such as your payment instrument number and the security code associated with your payment instrument.
Website and application forms: Payment data may be collected through our application portal and processed by our form and payment providers.
VPS mobile app: When in-app card payments are enabled, payment is processed by Stripe (https://stripe.com/privacy). Stripe handles card details; we do not store full payment card numbers in the App. We may store payment status and receipt notes or files you submit so VPS staff can confirm payment and schedule lessons.
All personal information that you provide to us must be true, complete, and accurate, and you must notify us of any changes to such personal information.
2. HOW DO WE PROCESS YOUR INFORMATION?
In Short: We process your information to provide, improve, and administer our Services, communicate with you, for security and fraud prevention, and to comply with law.
We process your personal information for a variety of reasons, depending on how you interact with our Services, including:
To facilitate account creation and authentication and otherwise manage user accounts. We may process your information so you can create and log in to your account, as well as keep your account in working order.
To provide program schedules, lesson requests, practice room bookings, and announcements through the VPS mobile app.
To process applications submitted through our online application portal.
To process payments for program fees and private lessons when applicable.
To send push notifications you have agreed to receive about program announcements and related updates.
To save or protect an individual's vital interest. We may process your information when necessary to save or protect an individual’s vital interest, such as to prevent harm.
To comply with law and respond to lawful requests.
We may also process your information for other purposes only with your prior explicit consent.
3. WHAT LEGAL BASES DO WE RELY ON TO PROCESS YOUR INFORMATION?
In Short: We only process your personal information when we believe it is necessary and we have a valid legal reason to do so under applicable law.
If you are located in the EU or UK, this section applies to you.
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and UK GDPR require us to explain the valid legal bases we rely on in order to process your personal information. As such, we may rely on the following legal bases:
Consent. We may process your information if you have given us permission to use your personal information for a specific purpose. You can withdraw your consent at any time.
Contract. We may process your information where necessary to perform a contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract (for example, administering your participation in our programs).
Legal Obligations. We may process your information where we believe it is necessary for compliance with our legal obligations.
Vital Interests. We may process your information where we believe it is necessary to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of a third party.
If you are located in Canada, this section applies to you.
We may process your information if you have given us specific permission (i.e., express consent) to use your personal information for a specific purpose, or in situations where your permission can be inferred (i.e., implied consent). You can withdraw your consent at any time.
In some exceptional cases, we may be legally permitted under applicable law to process your information without your consent, including, for example:
If collection is clearly in the interests of an individual and consent cannot be obtained in a timely way
For investigations and fraud detection and prevention
For business transactions provided certain conditions are met
If disclosure is required to comply with a subpoena, warrant, court order, or rules of the court relating to the production of records
If the information is publicly available and is specified by the regulations
Other grounds permitted under Canadian privacy law
4. WHEN AND WITH WHOM DO WE SHARE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?
In Short: We may share information in specific situations described in this section and/or with the following third parties.
We may need to share your personal information in the following situations:
Service Providers. We share information with vendors who perform services for us, including:
Google Firebase — hosting program and account data, cloud functions, push messaging, and optional file storage (https://policies.google.com/privacy)
Stripe — payment processing when in-app or online payments are enabled (https://stripe.com/privacy)
Fillout and Airtable — application form processing (see Section 11)
Apple — push notification delivery on iOS devices (https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/)
Business Transfers. We may share or transfer your information in connection with, or during negotiations of, any merger, sale of company assets, financing, or acquisition of all or a portion of our business to another company.
Legal Requirements. We may disclose information where required by law or to protect rights, safety, and security.
We do not sell personal information.
5. HOW LONG DO WE KEEP YOUR INFORMATION?
In Short: We keep your information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Privacy Notice unless otherwise required by law.
We keep personal information only as long as necessary for the purposes described in this notice, unless a longer period is required or permitted by law. Our retention periods are:
— Participant name, access code, and program account: retained for 90 days after the participant's most recent program, then deleted or anonymized.
— Schedule, lesson, and practice room activity: retained for 90 days after the end of the program season, then deleted.
— Push notification tokens: deleted when the app is uninstalled, when notifications are disabled, or within 12 months of inactivity, whichever occurs first.
— Application materials, including audition recordings: retained for 24 months after the application cycle, then deleted, unless the applicant asks us to retain them for future consideration.
— Payment and financial records: retained for six years from the end of the relevant tax year, as required by the Income Tax Act, then deleted.
— Registration and consent records: retained for the duration of participation plus 24 months.
A participant, or the parent or guardian of a participant under 18, may request earlier deletion at any time by contacting our Privacy Officer. Where information has been stored in backup archives and immediate deletion is not possible, we will isolate it from further processing until deletion can be completed.
6. HOW DO WE KEEP YOUR INFORMATION SAFE?
In Short: We aim to protect your personal information through a system of organizational and technical security measures.
We have implemented appropriate and reasonable technical and organizational security measures designed to protect the security of any personal information we process, including through our service providers. However, despite our safeguards and efforts to secure your information, no electronic transmission over the Internet or information storage technology can be guaranteed to be 100% secure, so we cannot promise or guarantee that hackers, cybercriminals, or other unauthorized third parties will not be able to defeat our security and improperly collect, access, steal, or modify your information. Although we will do our best to protect your personal information, transmission of personal information to and from our Services is at your own risk. You should only access the Services within a secure environment.
7. DO WE COLLECT INFORMATION FROM MINORS?
In Short: Children participate in VPS programs through parent or guardian enrolment, and we collect only minimal information from participants inside our app.
Participants under 18 are enrolled in VPS programs by a parent or legal guardian. Enrolment is completed by the parent or guardian, who provides the participant's registration information and consents to the participant's use of the VPS mobile app for program purposes.
The app does not ask participants for an email address, phone number, date of birth, mailing address, or location. Participants sign in with a program access code that we issue; they do not create an account, choose a password, or build a profile. Participants cannot message one another, post publicly, or view other participants' personal information. We do not use the app for advertising, behavioural tracking, or profiling, and we do not sell personal information.
A parent or guardian may at any time ask us to review, correct, or delete their child's information, or withdraw consent to their child's use of the app, by contacting our Privacy Officer using the details in Section 13. On withdrawal we will deactivate the access code and stop further use of the child's information through the app, subject to legal retention requirements.
If you believe a child's information has been collected without appropriate parental consent, please contact our Privacy Officer and we will investigate and, where appropriate, deactivate the account and delete the associated data.
Public events without an account: the app allows viewing of certain public program events without signing in. Guest mode does not create a participant account and is not associated with a child's name or access code.
8. WHAT ARE YOUR PRIVACY RIGHTS?
In Short: Depending on your state of residence in the US or in some regions, such as the European Economic Area (EEA), United Kingdom (UK), Switzerland, and Canada, you have rights that allow you greater access to and control over your personal information.
In some regions (like the EEA, UK, Switzerland, and Canada), you have certain rights under applicable data protection laws. These may include the right (i) to request access and obtain a copy of your personal information, (ii) to request rectification or erasure; (iii) to restrict the processing of your personal information; (iv) if applicable, to data portability; and (v) not to be subject to automated decision-making. In certain circumstances, you may also have the right to object to the processing of your personal information. You can make such a request by contacting us using the contact details in Section 13.
We will consider and act upon any request in accordance with applicable data protection laws.
If you are located in the EEA or UK and you believe we are unlawfully processing your personal information, you also have the right to complain to your Member State data protection authority or UK data protection authority.
If you are located in Switzerland, you may contact the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner.
Withdrawing your consent: If we are relying on your consent to process your personal information, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us. This will not affect the lawfulness of processing before withdrawal.
Opting out of marketing and promotional communications: You can unsubscribe from our marketing and promotional communications at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in the emails that we send, or by contacting us. We may still send service-related messages necessary for administering your account or responding to requests.
Account Information
If you would like to review, change, or delete information associated with your VPS mobile app account or other program account, contact us at info@vancouverpianosessions.com or submit a data subject access request at https://app.termly.io/dsar/b33fb2fb-24eb-45e9-8b42-40763e765787.
Upon your request to terminate an account, we will deactivate or delete your account and information from our active databases when no longer required, except where we must retain certain records by law or for legitimate program administration.
If you have questions or comments about your privacy rights, you may email us at info@vancouverpianosessions.com.
9. CONTROLS FOR DO-NOT-TRACK FEATURES
Most web browsers and some mobile operating systems and mobile applications include a Do-Not-Track ("DNT") feature or setting you can activate to signal your privacy preference not to have data about your online browsing activities monitored and collected. At this stage, no uniform technology standard for recognizing and implementing DNT signals has been finalized. As such, we do not currently respond to DNT browser signals or any other mechanism that automatically communicates your choice not to be tracked online.
California law requires us to let you know how we respond to web browser DNT signals. Because there currently is not an industry or legal standard for recognizing or honoring DNT signals, we do not respond to them at this time.
10. DO UNITED STATES RESIDENTS HAVE SPECIFIC PRIVACY RIGHTS?
In Short: If you are a resident of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, or Virginia, you may have specific privacy rights under state law.
Categories of Personal Information We Collect
The table below shows categories of personal information we may collect across our Services (website, application forms, and mobile app). What we collect from you specifically depends on how you interact with us.
CategoryExamplesCollected
A. Identifiers
Name, email, phone, mailing address, unique account/access code, online identifier, device push token
YES
B. Personal information (CA Customer Records)
Name, contact information, education, employment, financial information
YES
C. Protected classification characteristics
Gender, age, date of birth, race and ethnicity, national origin, marital status, demographic data
YES (primarily through application forms)
D. Commercial information
Transaction information, purchase history, payment information
YES (when payments are made)
E. Biometric information
Fingerprints and voiceprints
NO
F. Internet or other network activity
Browsing history, search history, online behavior, interest data
NO
G. Geolocation data
Device location
NO
H. Audio, electronic, sensory, or similar information
Images, audio, video, performance recordings, payment receipt attachments
YES
I. Professional or employment-related information
Business contact details, job title, work history, professional qualifications
YES
J. Education Information
Student records and directory information
YES
K. Inferences
Profiles drawn from personal information
NO
L. Sensitive personal Information
Student data; payment card information (processed by Stripe, not stored by us)
YES
We only collect sensitive personal information as defined by applicable privacy laws for purposes allowed by law or with your consent. We do not collect or process sensitive personal information for the purpose of inferring characteristics about you.
Your Rights
You may have the right to know, access, correct, delete, obtain a copy of, and non-discrimination for exercising your privacy rights, as applicable under your state’s law.
How to Exercise Your Rights
To exercise these rights, contact us by submitting a data subject access request at https://app.termly.io/dsar/b33fb2fb-24eb-45e9-8b42-40763e765787, by emailing info@vancouverpianosessions.com, or using the contact details in Section 13.
We have not sold personal information in the preceding twelve (12) months and will not sell personal information in the future.
11. FORMS APPLICATION
When you apply to Vancouver Piano Sessions programs, including the Performing Artists program and the VPS Concerto Competition, your application is submitted through our application portal hosted at apply.vancouverpianosessions.com. This portal is powered by Fillout, a third-party form service. Information collected through the application process may include your name, email address, phone number, date of birth, mailing address, institutional affiliation, performance videos, and payment information. This data is stored and processed by Fillout and Airtable on our behalf. We use this information solely for the purpose of evaluating applications, administering our programs, and communicating with applicants. We do not sell or share your personal information with unrelated third parties. For more information on how Fillout handles your data, please refer to Fillout's Privacy Policy at https://fillout.com/privacy.
12. DO WE MAKE UPDATES TO THIS NOTICE?
In Short: Yes, we will update this notice as necessary to stay compliant with relevant laws.
We may update this Privacy Notice from time to time. The updated version will be indicated by an updated "Last updated" date at the top of this Privacy Notice. If we make material changes to this Privacy Notice, we may notify you either by prominently posting a notice of such changes or by directly sending you a notification. We encourage you to review this Privacy Notice frequently to be informed of how we are protecting your information.
13. HOW CAN YOU CONTACT US ABOUT THIS NOTICE?
If you have questions or comments about this notice, you may email us at info@vancouverpianosessions.com or contact us by post at:
Vancouver Sessions of Piano Foundation
105 – 1620 Haro St
Vancouver, British Columbia V6G 1G7
Canada
14. HOW CAN YOU REVIEW, UPDATE, OR DELETE THE DATA WE COLLECT FROM YOU?
You have the right to request access to the personal information we collect from you, details about how we have processed it, correct inaccuracies, or delete your personal information. You may also have the right to withdraw your consent to our processing of your personal information. These rights may be limited in some circumstances by applicable law.
To request to review, update, or delete your personal information, please fill out and submit a data subject access request at https://app.termly.io/dsar/b33fb2fb-24eb-45e9-8b42-40763e765787 or email info@vancouverpianosessions.com.
15. VPS MOBILE APP
This section describes how the VPS mobile app ("App") handles personal information. If anything in this section conflicts with other parts of this Privacy Notice, this section applies to your use of the App.
Who can use the App
The App is intended for VPS program participants (students, faculty, and administrators). Some participants are under 13. All participants under 18 are enrolled by a parent or legal guardian, who consents to their use of the app as part of enrollment.
How you sign in
The App uses a program access code, not an email-and-password login. Your access code acts as your account identifier. We do not ask children to provide an email address or phone number inside the App to create an account.
Information we collect through the App
Depending on how you use the App, we may collect:
Name — To display your schedule, lesson requests, and program events.
Account identifier — Your access code (stored as a unique account ID in our systems) to sign you in and link data to the correct person.
Schedule and program data — Lesson times, locations, venues, teachers, and public events.
Lesson and booking activity — Private lesson requests, notes you submit, and practice room reservations.
Payment-related information — Payment receipt notes you submit and payment status for lessons (when applicable).
Push notification token — If you allow notifications, so we can send program announcements and related alerts.
Device/platform information — Mobile platform (e.g., iOS) associated with your push token.
We collect only what is reasonably needed to run the App. We do not use the App for advertising, behavioral tracking, or selling personal information.
Information we do not collect in the App
The App does not require users to enter:
Email address
Phone number
Date of birth or age
Mailing address
Social media profiles
(VPS may collect some of this through separate program registration channels such as our website or application forms; those are covered elsewhere in this Privacy Notice.)
Guest mode (no account)
You may open the App and view Public Events without signing in. In Guest mode we do not create a student account for you and do not associate Guest browsing with your name or access code.
Participants under 13
Participants under 13 are enrolled by a parent or legal guardian, who provides the participant's registration information and consents to the participant's use of the app as part of enrollment. Access codes are issued to the participant through their parent or guardian.
The app collects no personal information directly from a child beyond what is described in this section. It does not request an email address, phone number, date of birth, or mailing address from participants, and it is not used for advertising or behavioural tracking.
A parent or guardian may contact our Privacy Officer at any time to review, correct, or delete their child's app data, or to withdraw consent, after which we will deactivate the account.
Contact: info@vancouverpianosessions.com
How we share App information
We share App data only as needed to operate the program:
Google Firebase (Firestore, Cloud Functions, Cloud Messaging, and optionally Cloud Storage) — Hosts account, schedule, and request data; delivers push notifications. Privacy policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy
Stripe (when in-app card payments are enabled) — Processes lesson payments; Stripe handles card details. We do not store full card numbers in the App. Privacy policy: https://stripe.com/privacy
Apple (iOS) — Delivers push notifications on Apple devices. Privacy policy: https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/
We do not sell personal information collected through the App.
Payments in the App
When card payments are enabled, payment is processed by Stripe. Card numbers and security codes are entered in Stripe’s payment interface and handled according to Stripe’s policies. We may store payment status and any receipt note or file you submit so VPS staff can confirm payment and schedule your lesson.
If card payments are not yet enabled, you may submit a payment receipt note (and optionally an attachment) for VPS to review manually.
Data retention
We keep personal information only as long as necessary for the purposes described in this notice, unless a longer period is required or permitted by law. Our retention periods are:
— Participant name, access code, and program account: retained for 90 days after the participant's most recent program, then deleted or anonymized.
— Schedule, lesson, and practice room activity: retained for 90 days after the end of the program season, then deleted.
— Push notification tokens: deleted when the app is uninstalled, when notifications are disabled, or within 12 months of inactivity, whichever occurs first.
— Application materials, including audition recordings: retained for 24 months after the application cycle, then deleted, unless the applicant asks us to retain them for future consideration.
— Payment and financial records: retained for six years from the end of the relevant tax year, as required by the Income Tax Act, then deleted.
— Registration and consent records: retained for the duration of participation plus 24 months.
A participant, or the parent or guardian of a participant under 18, may request earlier deletion at any time by contacting our Privacy Officer. Where information has been stored in backup archives and immediate deletion is not possible, we will isolate it from further processing until deletion can be completed.
Your choices
Push notifications — Allow or deny in your device settings.
Access or delete your data — Email info@vancouverpianosessions.com or use our data subject access request form at https://app.termly.io/dsar/b33fb2fb-24eb-45e9-8b42-40763e765787.
Calendar export — If you choose “Add events to calendar,” the App requests permission to write events to your device calendar; that data stays on your device.
Security
We use industry-standard measures through our service providers to protect App data. No method of transmission or storage is 100% secure.
Contact
Questions about the App: info@vancouverpianosessions.com
This Privacy Policy was originally created using Termly's Privacy Policy Generator and has been updated by Vancouver Piano Sessions to reflect our website, application forms, and mobile app.