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Terms & Conditions

LEGAL NOTICES AND DISCLAIMERS OF LIABILITY

This website (“Website”) and mobile application (“Mobile App”) are operated by or on behalf of the Alberta Retired Teachers’ Association (“ARTA”). All content on this Website and Mobile App are the copyrighted property of ARTA and/or its various third party providers and distributors.

Except to the extent that you have been granted express prior written permission from ARTA, none of the content or data found on the Website or Mobile App may be reproduced, republished, distributed, sold, transferred, modified, posted, transmitted or distributed. You may download, display and print the materials presented on the Website or Mobile App for your personal use.
Certain names, words, titles, phrases, logos, icons, graphics or designs in the pages of the Website or Mobile App may constitute trade names, registered or unregistered trademarks or service marks ("Trade-marks") of ARTA or used under license by ARTA. However, the display of Trademarks on pages at the Website or Mobile App does not imply that any license has been granted to you or to any third party.

Any unauthorized downloading, re-transmission, or other copying or modification of Trade-marks or other contents of the Website or Mobile App may be a violation of statutory or common law rights which could subject the violator to legal action.
You represent, warrant, and covenant that your use of the Website or Mobile App shall not:
1. Violate any applicable local, provincial, state, national or international law, statute, ordinance, rule or regulation;
2. Interfere with or disrupt computer networks connected to the Website;
3. Impersonate any other person or entity, or make any misrepresentation as to your employment by or affiliation with any other person or entity;
4. Forge headers or in any manner manipulate identifiers in order to disguise the origin of any user information;
5. Upload, post, transmit, publish, or distribute any material or information for which you do not have all necessary rights and licenses;
6. Upload, post, transmit, publish or distribute any material which infringes, violates, breaches or otherwise contravenes the rights of ARTA or any third party, including any copyright, trademark, patent, rights of privacy or publicity or any other proprietary right;
7. Interfere with or disrupt the use of the Website or Mobile App by any other user, nor “stalk”, threaten, or in any manner harass another user;
8. Upload, post, transmit, publish, or distribute any material or information which contains a computer virus, or other code, files or programs intending in any manner to disrupt or interfere with the functioning of the Website, or that of other computer systems;
9. Use the Website or Mobile App in such a manner as to gain unauthorized entry or access to the computer systems of others;
10. Upload, post, transmit, publish or distribute any material or information which constitutes or encourages conduct that would constitute a criminal offence, give rise to other liability, or otherwise violate applicable law;
11. Upload, post, transmit, publish, or distribute any material or information that is unlawful, or which may potentially be perceived as being harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, libellous, vulgar, obscene, or racially, ethnically, or otherwise objectionable;
12. Reproduce, copy, modify, sell, store, distribute or otherwise exploit for any commercial purposes the Website, or any component thereof (including, but not limited to any materials or information accessible through the Website);
13. Use any device, software or routine to interfere or attempt to interfere with the proper working of the Website; or
14. Take any action that imposes an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on the Website infrastructure.
Download the complete MyARTA Health Hub Terms & Conditions here. 
Some of the areas of the Website or Mobile App (“Secure Areas”) require passwords or other forms of access control in order for a user to gain access and use the Website’s functionality. If you are permitted to access and use one of the Secure Areas of the Website, it is your responsibility to keep your password or other access control methodology private so that it cannot be used by others. ARTA is not and will not be liable for any damages, losses or expenses suffered by you or any third party as a result of any unauthorized person gaining access to any of the Secure Areas through use of your password or other access methodology, and you agree that you will indemnify ARTA for any damages, losses or expenses that it may suffer, including any claims made against ARTA by third parties, as a result of such access or use by an unauthorized person.
In no event will ARTA be liable for any damages, including without limitation direct or indirect, special, incidental, or consequential or punitive damages, losses or expenses, whether or not ARTA, or representatives thereof, are advised of the possibility of such damages, losses or expenses, arising in connection with:
1. Your use of, or inability to use, this Website or Mobile App.
2. Use of this Website or Mobile App, or inability to use, by any other party.
3. Any failure of performance, error, omission, interruption, defect, delay in operation or transmission, computer virus or line or system failure, loss of data or otherwise.
4. The communication by you of any confidential or sensitive information, or our communication to you of such information, over the internet.
Information on the public areas of this Website and Mobile App are for informational purposes only and is not intended to provide financial, legal, accounting or tax advice and should not be relied upon in that regard.

Information provided by ARTA on its Website and Mobile App are believed to be accurate and reliable, but we cannot represent, warrant or guarantee that such information is accurate or complete or current at all times. While we endeavour to keep the information current, such information is subject to change at any time without notice. ARTA makes reasonable commercial efforts to make the Website and Mobile App available, however, it is not responsible for any service interruptions. ARTA will not be liable for any loss resulting from a cause over which it does not have direct control, including, but not limited to, failure of electronic or mechanical equipment or communication lines, telephone or other interconnect problems, computer viruses, unauthorized access, theft, operator errors, severe weather, earthquakes, or natural disasters, strikes or other labour problems, wars, epidemics, pandemics or governmental restrictions.
ARTA makes no warranties or representations whatsoever about any other website which you may access through this Website, nor are there any conditions, whether statutory or implied, on the part of ARTA. When you access a non-ARTA website, it is independent from ARTA, and ARTA has no control over the content on that website. In addition, a link to a non-ARTA website does not mean that ARTA endorses or accepts any responsibility for the content, or use, of such website. It is your responsibility to take precautions to ensure that whatever you select for your use is free of such items as viruses, worms, trojan horses and other items of a destructive nature.

Links from or to websites outside this Website or Mobile App are meant for convenience only. ARTA does not review, endorse, approve or control, and is not responsible for any websites linked from or to this Website, the content of those websites, the third parties named therein, or their products and services. Linking to any other website is at your sole risk and ARTA is not and will not be responsible or liable for any damages in connection with such linking. Links to websites offering downloadable software are for convenience only and ARTA does not endorse any such software and is not responsible or liable for any damages, losses, difficulties or consequences associated with downloading the software. Use of any such downloaded software is governed by the terms of the license agreement, if any, which accompanies or is provided with such software.
This Website and your use of it will be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Province of Alberta and the federal laws of Canada applicable therein, without regard to the principles of conflicts of law.

PRIVACY

Protecting your privacy and the confidentiality of your personal information has always been fundamental to the way we do business and is the responsibility of every employee of the Alberta Retired Teachers’ Association (“ARTA”). The range of products and services we offer our Retiree Benefits Plan participants continues to expand and the technology we use continues to change. But, no matter how our business changes, we are committed to protecting and respecting your right to privacy and confidentiality.

ARTA is committed to the protection of any personal information collected by it or in its custody, including any information transferred to a third party to fulfil the purposes for which the information was collected.

Personal information includes any information, recorded or not, about an identifiable individual. Examples of personal information that are identifiable include names, age, gender, social insurance numbers, health status, health history, financial information, benefit claims data, etc. It also includes information which can be matched with other information in order to establish an individual’s identity.
The ARTA privacy code outlines our policies and procedures on privacy and describes the ways we ensure that your privacy and the confidentiality of your personal information is protected. It is based on the ten privacy principles outlined in Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act also known as PIPEDA. Our adoption of these principles sends a powerful message to the general public that we have policies and procedures in place that control the collection, use and disclosure of personal information; it also reinforces our existing commitment to customer service.

Our privacy code balances the privacy rights of our groups and benefit plan participants, and our employees with the legitimate information requirements to provide customer service and to meet our human resource requirements. It consists of the following key principles:

1. To establish your identification.
2. To provide you and/or your dependents with the applicable benefit coverage.
3. To protect you and us from error and fraud.
4. To provide ongoing access to other services of ARTA
When you first become a group and benefit plan participant of ARTA, your personal information is obtained and used only with your consent. We obtain your consent before we:
1. Provide benefit coverage.
2. Offer you other ARTA services.
3. Obtain, use or disclose to other persons, information about you
4. Use your personal information in any way we did not inform you about previously.

Your consent can be either express or implied. Express consent can be verbal or written. For example, when you sign an enrolment form you are giving us written consent to use your personal information to provide you and/or your dependents with benefits; when you submit a claims form, you are giving us written consent to use your personal information to reimburse you for benefit costs that you incur.

Consent can be implied or inferred from certain actions. For example, if you present your benefit identification card to a pharmacist/dentist in lieu of paying for a prescription/dental procedure, it can be implied as consent for the pharmacist/dentist to provide your personal information to ARTA to obtain payment for the service rendered, and for ARTA to process the related claim for payment and provide other services.

For our existing Retiree Benefits Plan participants, we will continue to use and disclose your personal information previously collected in accordance with our current privacy code, unless you inform us in writing otherwise. We will assume that consent has been obtained for the continued use or disclosure of your personal information by the processing of any existing or future benefit claims that you submit for reimbursement or access to other services.
You can withdraw your consent any time after you’ve given it to us, provided there are no legal or regulatory requirements to prevent this.

If you don’t consent to certain uses of personal information, or if you withdraw your consent, we will not be able to administer your benefit coverage. If so, we will explain the situation to you to help you with your decision.
We may collect, use or disclose your personal information without your consent in the following situations:
1. For an emergency that threatens your life, health or security. We will subsequently inform you of this disclosure.
2. For legal reasons. We may be compelled to release this information by a court of law or other legal or regulatory authority. If so, our policy is to disclose the information only to the extent required.
3. To another organization for the purposes of investigating a breach of an agreement or a contravention of the laws of Canada or a province that has been, is being, or is about to be committed and it is reasonable to expect that disclosure with your knowledge or consent would compromise the investigation.
4. To another organization for the purposes of detecting or suppressing fraud, suspected fraud or of preventing fraud or suspected fraud that is likely to be committed and it is reasonable to expect that the disclosure with your knowledge or consent would compromise the ability to prevent, detect or suppress the fraud or suspected fraud.
5. Made to a government institution, a part of a government institution or your next of kin or authorized representative and:
- There are reasonable grounds to believe that you have been, are, or may be the victim of financial abuse,
- The disclosure is made solely for the purposes related to preventing or investigating the above, and
- It is reasonable to expect that disclosure with your knowledge or consent would compromise the ability to prevent or investigate the abuse.
6. In accordance with other provisions as provided for in the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (Canada) or the Personal Information Protection Act (Alberta).
Our employees who have access to your personal information are made aware of how to keep it confidential. As a condition of employment with ARTA, each employee signs an Agreement requiring all information that they have access to be treated confidentially. We have security standards to protect our systems and your personal information against unauthorized access and use. This protects your personal information at all times when it is stored in data files or handled by our employees.
We keep your personal information only so long as we need it for the products and services you are using, to provide ongoing access to other services of ARTA, when you are a group and benefit plan participant and for a reasonable time thereafter, or to meet any legal, regulatory, or tax requirements. We have retention standards, which meet these requirements. We destroy your personal information when it is no longer needed or required, or we remove your name from the information.
You can check your personal information to verify its accuracy. You can ask our Member Support Team by phone at 1-855-212-2400 to obtain the personal information we hold about you, or if you have signed up for on-line access, you may visit our website at myarta.net. If you identify information that requires correction, we will assist you in identifying the appropriate means to have the correction(s) made.

Please note that we may not be able to provide information about you from our records if it contains references to other persons, is subject to legal privilege, contains information proprietary to ARTA, is unreasonable or impractical to reasonably retrieve, or cannot be disclosed for other legal reasons.
Whenever possible, we will correct any personal information which we may have given to an outside organization. If a third party has given us personal information which you tell us is wrong, we will give you the name and address of that party so that you can correct the information.
If you ask, we will let you know the names of outside companies or organizations we’ve given personal information to, or direct you to the appropriate individual to ask for such information.
We will deal quickly with your request to see your personal information and always respond to you promptly.
There may be files that include information about you and other Benefit Plan participants, or that have information confidential to ARTA or are the property of ARTA. Because we must protect everyone’s confidentiality and legal rights, we cannot make these files available to persons outside of ARTA. However, we will make available to you any factual information about you contained in such files.
We have policies and procedures in place to assist our employees in adhering to the ARTA Privacy Code. As laid out in Section C, 3.7 of ARTA’s Policies and Procedures Document, our Chief Executive Officer serves as ARTA’s Risk Officer and must take due diligence to ensure ARTA is in compliance. As Risk Officer, the ARTA CEO ensures that no practice, activity, decision or organizational circumstance is unlawful, imprudent or in violation of commonly accepted business and professional ethics. If any person or act is found to be non-compliant, the ARTA Risk Officer reports the breach to the Board of Directors for further action.

If you have any questions or complaints about our the Risk Management section of our Policies and Procedures document, or about how we are living up to it, let us know right away.
ARTA is committed to treating you with the greatest respect and consideration, and providing the highest level of service. If you have any concerns or questions about privacy and confidentiality – or any other concerns about the way a request for personal information was handled, you can take the following actions:
Write to: ARTA Risk Officer
Alberta Retired Teachers’ Association
15505 137 Avenue NW
Edmonton, Alberta
T5V 1R9

The ARTA Office will acknowledge your complaint. Within two weeks of receiving your enquiry, the ARTA Risk Officer will write or call to tell you the problem has been resolved, or, in more complex cases, advise you what further steps are being taken and when you may expect a resolution.
If your concern remains unresolved, please contact:

Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (Edmonton)
#410, 9925 – 109 Street NW
Edmonton, AB T5K 2J8
Phone: 780-422-6860
Fax: 780-422-5682 (please call the office to confirm receipt of a sent fax)
Toll-Free: 1-888-878-4044

Or

Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (Calgary)
Suite 2460, 801 6 Avenue SW
Calgary, AB T2P 3W2
Phone: 403-297-2728
Fax: 403-297-2711 (please call the office to confirm receipt of a sent fax)
Toll-Free: 1-888-878-4044

Website: oipc.ab.ca

DIGITAL SECURITY

The rapid expansion of electronic communication has revolutionized the way we work and provide services to you. At the Alberta Retired Teachers’ Association (“ARTA”), information security is fundamental to the way we do business and is the responsibility of every employee. It is specified in our employment agreements and regularly confirmed in writing.

Whether you choose to access our services online, over the telephone, via our Mobile Application (App), or in person, we follow rigorous security procedures and use state of the art technologies to protect your information and transactions against unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration and misuse.

We design Information Security at ARTA to protect the information, the information systems and communications that deliver the information from harm resulting from failures of confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The following are key principles considered in our security processes:

  1. Accountability: Everyone who accesses ARTA information systems is responsible for protecting them and will be held accountable for the use of these systems.
  2. Awareness: Everyone who accesses ARTA information systems must be aware of the risks and security initiatives.
  3. Multidisciplinary: Security must be addressed taking into consideration both technological and non-technological issues.
  4. Integration: Security must be co-ordinated and integrated.
  5. Reassessment: Security must be reassessed periodically
  6. Timeliness: Security procedures must provide for monitoring and timely response.
  7. Societal Factors: Ethics must be promoted by respecting the rights and interests of others.

While we do our utmost to ensure security and confidentiality, there are steps you can take as well to enhance your security when using the Internet and when conducting business online.

SECURITY IN THE ARTA NETWORK

Many Internet sites are secured through encryption. Encryption encodes the information that flows between your computer or mobile phone and our computer systems protecting it from unauthorized interception, viewing and alteration.

The transmission of your personal information on ARTA web pages and the Mobile App is secured through encryption. In addition, personal information forwarded to us through the web pages and Mobile App is also secure.

Our sites will allow only a minimum of 128-bit encryption. Websites have been fully tested and support the two most recent versions of the following browsers:
- Microsoft Explorer
- Google Chrome
- Apple Safari
Log-on IDs and passwords are used by computer systems and websites to verify your identity. A log-on ID and password allow you to access services and information specific for your private use. Anyone who can access your log-on ID and password can also access your information.

Your password will not be saved and must be re-entered each time you log-on to a secured online service page or the Mobile App.
1. Do not share your passwords with others, including family members.
2. Use passwords that are difficult for others to guess. For example, don’t use passwords like your name, the names of family members, your address, or any other information that might be found in your purse or wallet if lost or stolen.
3. Do not use short passwords as these are easier for others to guess. The longer the password, the more difficult you make it for others. Many providers of Internet based services establish standards that define and enforce a minimum length for passwords. ARTA has standards for minimum length of passwords. Our ID and password standards are available through our online help functions on our website.
4. Avoid using the same password for multiple applications or Internet services wherever possible. This is particularly important for any Internet application where access to your private or financial information is enabled.
5. Change your passwords frequently.
Cookies are used by ARTA to maintain security during a session on our Website, ensuring that each session is unique and authorized between you and ARTA’s web-based systems.

ARTA does NOT use cookies for the following purposes:
1. To follow the surfing behaviour of visitors once they leave ARTA websites. Additionally, tracking information that may be gathered during a visit to an ARTA website will not be used for promotional purposes.
2. For added security, cookies are not used to remember usernames and passwords. You will be required to provide this information each time you log-on to a secured online service page.
3. ARTA does not associate any of the information collected via cookies with your personal or financial information
When you send us an email or ask us to respond to you by email, we learn your exact email address and any information you have included in the email. We use your email address to acknowledge your comments and / or reply to your questions, and we will retain your communication and our reply as required under appropriate legal, regulatory and ARTA business practices. We will never send you an email asking for passwords and we will not make your email address available to anyone else.

Email sent or received over the internet may not be secure and we recommend that you use caution when forwarding email messages to us.

If you have any questions regarding the authenticity or security of email you have received from ARTA, please do not hesitate to contact us at 1-855-444-ARTA (2782).