Privacy Policy

1. About This Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Prepared for Duty Recruitment Service Inc. (“Prepared for Duty”, “we”, “us”, or “our”) collects, uses, discloses, stores, and protects your personal information through the Competency Gauge testing platform. The platform includes:

• our current information website at https://testing.preparedforduty.ca; and
• our online testing environment at https://testing.preparedforduty.ca/pfdgauge, where you create an account and take tests

(together, the “Platform”).

We handle personal information in accordance with Alberta’s Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA) and, where it applies, the federal Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). Our commercial electronic messages follow Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL).

Our other services, such as recruitment, coaching, and job postings, are covered by our main Privacy Policy at https://www.preparedforduty.ca/privacy-policy/. If the two policies differ on how personal information is handled on the Platform, this Privacy Policy governs.

A summary of this Privacy Policy is also shown within the testing environment, and a downloadable PDF copy is available. If there is ever a difference between them, this page governs.

2. Contact Us and Our Privacy Officer

Our Privacy Officer is responsible for our compliance with this Privacy Policy and with applicable privacy laws. Our Privacy Officer can answer your questions about how we, and our service providers (including those outside Canada), collect, use, disclose, and store personal information.

To ask a question, request access to or correction of your personal information, withdraw your consent, or make a complaint, contact our Privacy Officer:

• Within the testing environment: use “Contact the privacy officer” on your profile page
• Email: hello@preparedforduty.ca (please include “Privacy” in the subject line)
• Phone: 780-266-8911
• Mail: Attention: Privacy Officer, Prepared for Duty Recruitment Service Inc., PO Box 25535, Edmonton, AB T5T 7E7
• Website: the contact form at https://testing.preparedforduty.ca/contact-us/

3. Definitions

• Candidate: an individual who creates an account on the Platform to take tests, whether as part of a recruitment process or for practice.
• Competency Gauge: our aptitude testing and assessment system, accessible through the Platform.
• Department or Hiring Employer: a municipality, organization, or emergency services department that has engaged us to administer testing for its recruitment.
• Personal information: information about an identifiable individual, such as your name, email address, test responses, test results, and webcam images captured during proctored tests.
• Service provider: an organization that performs services on our behalf, such as hosting, security, analytics, email, or payment processing.

4. Consent

We collect, use, and disclose personal information with your consent, except where the law permits or requires otherwise.

• Creating an account: when you create an account, you are asked to accept this Privacy Policy and our other Platform policies. We keep a record of when you accepted each version.
• Tests for a Department or Hiring Employer: when you take a test as part of a recruitment process, you consent to us sharing your results and related assessment information with the Department or Hiring Employer that requested the test (see Section 9).
• Proctored tests: before a proctored test begins, you are asked to allow access to your webcam. Images are captured only if you give that permission (see Section 7).
• Newsletters: we send newsletters and promotional emails only with your express consent (see Section 15).

You may withdraw your consent at any time by contacting our Privacy Officer, subject to legal or contractual restrictions and reasonable notice. Withdrawing consent may mean you can no longer use the Platform, take a test, or be considered in a recruitment process that requires one.

If you do not want your personal information handled as described in this Privacy Policy, please do not create an account or submit personal information through the Platform.

5. Personal Information We Collect

Account information

• Username, first name, last name, and email address.
• Your password, stored in encrypted (hashed) form. We cannot see your password.
• Optional information you choose to provide: city or town, country, phone number, department or service, and organization or municipality.
• The dates and times your account was created and last used, and the IP address of your most recent login.
• Records of which versions of our policies you accepted, and when.

Testing information

• The tests you are enrolled in, and how you were enrolled (for example, through an access/coupon code).
• Your test answers, scores, and results; the time spent on each question and test; your attempts; and when each attempt was started and submitted.

Proctoring images (proctored tests only)

• Webcam images captured every 30 seconds during the test, with the time each image was taken (see Section 7).

Activity logs

• The testing environment automatically records what you do in it, such as logging in, opening a test, and submitting answers, with the date, time, and IP address of each action. These logs help us run the Platform securely, troubleshoot problems, and investigate test integrity concerns.

Accommodation requests

• If you ask for an accommodation, such as extra time, the information you provide to support the request, which may include health or disability information (see Section 8).

Form submissions

• Contact form: your name, email address, phone number, and message.
• Bulk purchase inquiry form: your name, email address, department or organization, position or title, preferred test dates, number of test seats, and any other details you provide.

Payments

• For practice test purchases: the date, amount, payment status, the test purchased, and the PayPal transaction ID. We do not receive your credit card number or banking details (see Section 17).

Newsletter subscriptions

• Your email address, your name if you provide it, the date you subscribed, and your subscription preferences.

Website and technical information

• IP address, approximate location, browser and device type, pages visited, time on site, and referring websites, collected through cookies and similar technologies on our information website (see Section 16).

6. How We Use Personal Information

• Running tests: creating and managing your account, verifying your identity when you log in, enrolling you in tests, and recording and scoring your answers.
• Test integrity: verifying who is taking a proctored test, and identifying and investigating possible cheating or irregularities.
• Recruitment support: sharing results with the Department or Hiring Employer that requested the test, preparing assessment reports, and providing departments with summary statistics about how candidates performed.
• Accommodations: arranging accommodations you request.
• Service and support: responding to inquiries, processing bulk purchase requests and practice test purchases, providing technical support, and sending you emails about your account and tests (see Section 14).
• Newsletters: sending newsletters and information about our services, only if you have opted in (see Section 15).
• Platform operation and security: protecting the Platform from spam, bots, and unauthorized access, and understanding how our information website is used so we can improve it.
• Legal and compliance: complying with applicable laws, meeting our obligations to Departments and Hiring Employers, and establishing or defending legal claims.

We do not sell personal information.

7. Proctoring

Some tests are proctored to verify that the enrolled candidate is the person taking the test and to protect the fairness of the test.

How it works. Before a proctored test begins, your browser asks for permission to use your webcam. If you allow it, an image of you is captured from your webcam every 30 seconds until you finish the test. The images are linked to your test attempt.

No facial recognition. We do not use facial recognition or any other automated analysis of images. Images are only reviewed by people.

Where images are stored. Proctoring images are stored within our testing environment, on our hosting provider’s servers in the United States. Our proctoring feature is provided by software (from eLearning23) that runs on our own server; images are not send to eLearning23 or any other company.

Who can see them. Proctoring images can be viewed by our authorized administrators. Where needed to resolve a test integrity concern, they may be shared with the Department or Hiring Employer that requested the test.

How long we keep them. We delete proctoring images 6 months after the test, or sooner once the related recruitment process is complete and no review is needed. We keep images longer only while a test integrity review or dispute about that attempt is ongoing.

Your choice. You may decline webcam access. If you do, you will not be able to take a proctored test, which may affect your participation in a recruitment process that requires it.

8. Accommodation Requests

If you request an accommodation, we use the information you provide only to assess and arrange the accommodation. We treat it as confidential, limit access to the people who need it, and share it with the Department or Hiring Employer only to the extent needed to arrange the accommodation. Where possible, we share only the accommodation itself (for example, “extended time”) rather than the reasons for it. Accommodation information is kept and deleted withy our test records (see Section 11).

9. Who We Share Personal Information With

• Our team: our owner, employees, and contractors who need the information to administer the Platform. Contractors are bound by written confidentiality obligations.
• Departments and Hiring Employers: if you take a test as part of a recruitment process, the Department or Hiring Employer that requested it receives your results, scores, and related assessment information, and may receive proctoring images and accommodation information as described in Sections 7 and 8. Departments can see information only about candidates int heir own recruitment processes. They use it for recruitment and selection and handle it under their own privacy policies. Departments may also receive summary statistics about how candidates performed.
• Service providers: organizations that perform services on our behalf (see Section 10). They may use personal information only to provide services to us, and we require them to protect it.
• Legal and regulatory authorities: where required or authorized by law, such as in response to a court order or legal process, or where we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to comply with the law or protect our legal rights.
• Business transactions: if our business is sold, merged, or reorganized, as permitted by law and subject to appropriate protections.