Privacy Policy

Overview

Wait Time Canada is a health systems observatory and portfolio project that collects publicly available emergency room wait time data from official provincial health authority websites. We are committed to transparency in our data handling practices.

What Data We Collect

Public Health Data

We collect publicly available wait time data from official provincial health authority sources:

Hospital names and locations
Emergency room wait time estimates
Stretcher occupancy percentages (where available)
Methodology metadata (metric definitions, calculation methods)

This data is already public and contains no personal health information (PHI) or personally identifiable information (PII).

Analytics Data

We do not use analytics tracking, cookies, or third-party tracking scripts. We do not collect IP addresses, browser fingerprints, or usage analytics.

No User Accounts

This platform does not require user registration, accounts, or login. We do not collect names, email addresses, or any personal information from visitors.

How We Use Data

We use publicly available health data to:

Display current emergency room wait times
Analyze and document methodology differences across provinces
Monitor data quality and detect anomalies
Generate aggregate statistics and temporal trend analysis
Support health systems research and policy evaluation

Data Sources

All data is collected from official provincial sources:

Ontario: Ontario Health
Quebec: Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux (MSSS)
Alberta: Alberta Health Services (AHS)
British Columbia: Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA)

We do not collect data from patients, hospitals, or healthcare providers directly. All data originates from publicly accessible government websites.

Canadian Privacy Law Compliance

PIPEDA (Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act): This project does not collect, use, or disclose personal information as defined by PIPEDA. We exclusively use aggregate, anonymized, publicly available health system data.

PHIPA (Personal Health Information Protection Act - Ontario): This project does not handle personal health information (PHI). Wait time data does not identify individuals, reveal patient conditions, or contain health records.

Data Retention

We store historical wait time measurements for research and analysis purposes:

Raw measurements: Retained for 30 days, then deleted
Aggregate summaries: Retained permanently for temporal trend analysis
Methodology metadata: Retained permanently for research documentation

Third-Party Services

This platform uses the following third-party services:

Mapbox: Map tile rendering for hospital location visualization. Mapbox may collect geolocation data for map rendering. See Mapbox Privacy Policy.
Neon PostgreSQL: Database hosting (data is encrypted at rest and in transit).
Netlify: Frontend hosting with CDN caching.

We do not share data with advertising networks, data brokers, or marketing platforms.

Your Rights

Since we do not collect personal information, traditional data subject rights (access, deletion, correction) do not apply. However:

You can view all data sources and methodology documentation at /methods
All source code is open source and available on GitHub
Data quality reports are publicly visible at /data-quality

Contact

Questions about data handling practices? Contact us through:

GitHub Issues: github.com/jerdaw/waittimecanada/issues
Repository: See contact information in README

Changes to This Policy

We may update this privacy policy as the project evolves. Changes will be reflected in the "Last updated" date above. Material changes will be documented in the project CHANGELOG.

Important Disclaimer

This is a data observatory and portfolio project, not a medical service. For medical emergencies, call 911. For health advice, contact your provincial health line (811 in most provinces).