Privacy

The short version

• We ask for as little as we can, and only for the help you asked for.
• We never sell or trade your information. We never share it unless you ask us to, or the law requires it.
• We do not ask for your Social Insurance Number, bank or card numbers, or passwords, and we do not want them.
• You can ask what we have about you, ask us to fix it, or ask us to delete it. We will.
• If you make a web account, we keep your email and a scrambled password. We never see your card number.
• This website has no cookies, no tracking, and no advertising.

Who we are

Reachable is a project of the Reachable Access Society (incorporation in progress) in Victoria, BC. The person responsible for privacy is the founder, Gabriel Prundaru. Email hello@reachablesociety.ca or call us.

What we collect, and why

Reachable Line (the help line)

Your phone number (so the helper can call you back if you ask), what you said during the call, and a recording of the call. The recording exists so a volunteer can check the automated helper's work and fix its mistakes. If you ask for a callback, we also keep your name and the topic.

Reachable Number

The name you go by, one way to reach you, your PIN, the phone we forward to, and your voicemail messages, including the phone numbers of people who call you. That is what is needed to run a phone number. We do not ask for ID, an address, or a legal name.

A web account (only if you make one)

Your email address, a password, your name, and a phone number if you give us one. You do not need an account to have a Reachable Number — the phone way works with no email at all. We store your password scrambled so that nobody here can read it, and we will never email you asking for it. If you pay for a number, we record that you paid, the date, and a reference such as an e-transfer number. We never see or store your card number, and we do not keep your bank details. If someone covers your fee, the only thing we record is that it is covered. We do not record why, and nobody has to explain.

Reachable Benefits

The benefits finder on this website runs entirely in your browser and sends nothing to us. If you ask for help applying, we keep your name, how to reach you, and what you told us about your situation. When a navigator helps you with a form, you keep your documents; we do not take copies.

Reachable Tech

Your organisation's name, your name, and how to reach you.

Volunteers

Your name, how to reach you, your references, and the result of a criminal record check where the role requires one. We keep the result (clear or not), not the document.

Who can see it

Only the Reachable volunteers and directors who need it to help you, and they agree in writing to keep it private. Your Reachable Number voicemail can be heard only with your PIN. We open a mailbox only if you ask us to fix a problem with it, and we tell you when we do.

The Reachable Line uses an artificial-intelligence service to understand speech and to answer. That means the words you say are processed by a technology provider. We will name the providers we use on this page before the line opens, and we will only use providers that agree not to use our calls to train their systems.

Where it is kept, and for how long

• Information is kept on a server we control in Victoria, BC.
• Call recordings from the Reachable Line are deleted on a schedule. We will publish the number of days on this page before the line opens.
• Callback and help requests are deleted once the request is finished and a short follow-up period has passed.
• Reachable Number mailboxes are kept as long as you use the number. If a number has not been used for about 90 days, we try to reach you before closing it, and we delete the messages when we do.
• We keep as little as we can, for as short a time as we can. Our data retention policy will be published here.

Your rights

• Ask what we have about you. We will tell you within 30 days, as PIPA requires.
• Ask us to correct anything that is wrong.
• Ask us to delete your information or close your Reachable Number. We will, unless the law requires us to keep something.
• Withdraw your consent at any time. We will tell you what that means for the service you are using.
• Complain. Tell us first and we will try to fix it. You can also contact the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia at oipc.bc.ca.

This website

• No cookies, no analytics, no advertising, no social media buttons.
• The "Larger text" button saves your choice in your own browser. It never leaves your device.
• The forms on this site send what you typed to our server, or, until our server is live, open your own email app so that you send it yourself. Each form says which.
• The website files are hosted by GitHub Pages. Like any web host, GitHub may record your internet address (IP address) in its logs.