Privacy Policy

Ha² Architecture & Design Inc. (“Ha²”, “we”, “us” or “our”) respects your privacy. This policy explains what personal information we collect through this website, why we collect it, how we use it, and the choices you have.

This policy applies to ha2d.com. It does not apply to information you give us outside the website, such as during a project engagement, which is governed by your service agreement with us.

Ha² Architecture & Design Inc. is an architecture and design firm based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Address: 450 Preston Street, Suite A, Ottawa, Ontario, K1S 4N6, Canada
Email: houry@ha2d.com
Telephone: 613-883-3830

For the purposes of Canadian privacy law, Ha² Architecture & Design Inc. is the organization responsible for the personal information described in this policy.

We collect personal information only when you choose to give it to us. This happens in two places on our website.

Our contact form. When you submit an enquiry, we collect:

• Your full name and last name
• Your email address
• Your telephone number
• Your address
• Any comments or questions you choose to include

We ask for your address because we design buildings in specific places, and knowing the location of your property helps us tell you whether we can assist and what may be involved. You are not required to give us a full address; a neighbourhood or city is often enough at the enquiry stage.

Booking a meeting. Our website offers the option to book a meeting through Calendly, a third-party scheduling service. If you book a meeting, you provide your information directly to Calendly, and Calendly shares your booking details with us. This is described further in section 5.

Like most websites, our web server records basic technical information when you visit, including your IP address, browser type, the pages you view, and the date and time of your visit. This is standard server logging used to keep the website secure and working properly.

Google Analytics. We use Google Analytics to understand how people find and use our website, so that we can improve it. Google Analytics uses cookies and similar technologies to collect information such as the pages you visit, how long you spend on them, the website or search that brought you here, and general information about your device, browser and approximate location. This information tells us about patterns across all visitors. We do not use it to identify you personally, and we do not combine it with the information you give us through our contact form.

Google processes this information on our behalf, and its use is subject to Google’s own privacy policy. Google may store and process it on servers outside Canada.

You can opt out of Google Analytics on every website you visit by installing the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on, or by blocking cookies in your browser as described in section 6.

We do not use advertising pixels or remarketing tools on this website. We do not build advertising profiles about you, and we do not track you across other websites for advertising purposes.

We use the information you give us to:

• Respond to your enquiry and answer your questions
• Discuss a potential project with you and prepare a proposal if you ask for one
• Arrange and hold meetings you request
• Keep our website secure and prevent spam and abuse
• Meet our legal and professional obligations

We do not sell your personal information. We do not rent, trade, or otherwise disclose it for anyone else’s marketing purposes.

We will not add you to a marketing mailing list on the basis of a project enquiry. If we ever offer a newsletter, joining it will be a separate choice you make yourself, and you will be able to unsubscribe at any time.

Our website relies on a small number of external services. Each one may receive some information about you when the relevant part of the website loads or when you choose to use it.

• Google Analytics — measures how our website is used, as described in section 3.
• Google reCAPTCHA — protects our contact form from automated spam. Google receives technical information about your device and browsing in order to judge whether you are a person rather than a bot. Its use is subject to Google’s privacy policy and terms of service.
• Calendly — powers our meeting booking. If you book a meeting, the details you enter go to Calendly and are governed by Calendly’s own privacy policy.
• YouTube — hosts the videos shown on our website. When a video loads or plays, YouTube may set cookies and receive information about your visit, subject to Google’s privacy policy.
• Google Maps — used to show our location. Loading a map involves a request to Google.
• Our web host — stores the website and its data on secure servers on our behalf.

These companies are independent of us. We have no control over their practices, and we encourage you to read their privacy policies if you would like to understand them in detail.

Our website also contains links to our profiles on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram, and links to publications that have featured our work. Once you follow a link to another website, this policy no longer applies and that website’s own policy takes over.

A cookie is a small text file that a website stores on your device. The cookies used on this website fall into three groups:

• Essential cookies — set by WordPress so the website works, for example to keep a session running or to remember that you have submitted a form. The website cannot function properly without these.
• Analytics cookies — set by Google Analytics to measure how the website is used, as described in section 3.
• Third-party cookies — set by the services listed in section 5, particularly reCAPTCHA and YouTube, when those parts of a page load.

We do not use advertising cookies.

You can control or delete cookies through your browser settings, and you can opt out of Google Analytics specifically using the link in section 3. Blocking all cookies may prevent parts of this website, including the contact form, from working correctly.

We keep enquiry information for as long as we need it for the purpose it was given, and then for a reasonable period afterwards in case you contact us again about the same matter.

If your enquiry becomes a project, we keep the associated records for as long as required by our professional and legal obligations, which for architectural records can be a number of years after a project is complete.

If your enquiry does not lead to a project, we will delete or anonymise the information once it no longer serves any purpose. You may ask us to delete it sooner, as described in section 9.

Our website is served over an encrypted HTTPS connection, so information you submit through it is protected in transit. We restrict access to enquiry information to the people at Ha² who need it to respond to you, and our website is hosted on servers with access controls and security monitoring in place.

No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. Please do not send us sensitive personal information, such as financial or identity documents, through the website contact form. If we need information of that kind, we will arrange a secure way to receive it.

Under Canadian privacy law you have the right to:

Subject to that, and to the fullest extent permitted by law:

• Access the personal information we hold about you
• Correct information that is inaccurate or incomplete
• Withdraw consent to our use of your information, subject to legal and contractual limits
• Ask us to delete information we no longer need
• Ask questions about how we handle your information, and receive an answer

To exercise any of these rights, email us at houry@ha2d.com or write to us at the address in section 1. We will respond within a reasonable time, and normally within 30 days. We may need to confirm your identity before acting on a request.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you may contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, or the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario.

Our website and services are intended for adults. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has given us personal information, please contact us and we will delete it.

Some of the third-party services described in section 5 are operated by companies based outside Canada, and information handled by them may be stored or processed in other countries, including the United States. Information held in another country may be accessible to the courts and law enforcement authorities of that country under its laws.

We may update this policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or in the law. The date at the top of this page shows when it was last revised. Please check back occasionally. If we make a significant change, we will make that clear on this page.

If you have questions about this policy, or about how we handle your personal information, please contact us:

Ha² Architecture & Design Inc.
450 Preston Street, Suite A
Ottawa, Ontario, K1S 4N6
Canada
Email: houry@ha2d.com
Telephone: 613-883-3830