Privacy Policy

Welcome friends (aka. our customers, partners, suppliers, users, visitors and followers). At House Work (“House Work” “we”, “us” or “our”) respecting your privacy is a non-negotiable, much like our unwavering commitment to spotless homes and education.  

Our Privacy Policy (“Privacy Policy”) explains how we collect, use, store, share and protect your personal information, as well as your rights and choices regarding your personal information.  Please do yourself a solid and review this Privacy Policy carefully to understand how the information you provide to us will be treated.  

If you do not want your information to be used in accordance with this Privacy Policy, in general or any part of it, you should not access our websites, purchase our products or use our services.

1. What this policy covers

Our Privacy Policy applies to Personal Information collected and processed by us when you engage with House Work in any of the following ways:

• Visit our website www.housework.com
• Visit and/or engage with our social media accounts;
• Grant us access to your home for cleaning services;
• Purchase our products and merchandise;
• Communicate with us or otherwise receive information from us via telephone, email, SMS text-messaging or social media; and
• Register for, attend or participate in our events, webinars, courses, programs, promotions, contests and surveys.

2. Definition of Personal Information

For the purposes of our Privacy Policy, personal information means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person.  It includes your full name, email address, telephone number, mailing address, shipping address, date of birth and other information that directly identifies who you are. It also includes information that may be used to uniquely identify you, or a device you use, such as an IP address, a cookie or unique identifier (collectively, “Personal Information”).  

We do not consider Personal Information to include information that has been anonymized (stripped of personal identifiers) or aggregated (combined with other data) so that it can no longer be used to identify a specific natural person, whether in combination with other information or otherwise.

3. What Personal Information we collect

3.1. Information you provide to us directly

It’s probably no surprise that we collect Personal Information that you provide about yourself, such as:

• Contact information: Your name, address, email address and phone number when you subscribe to receive communications, register for an event, course or contest, download a digital product, request customer support, or file a complaint.
• Audio Visual Information: If you attend an event, course or training program, in-person or virtual, or communicate with us by telephone we may collect your image (such as a recorded webinar or an uploaded profile picture) and/or voice with your consent. 
• Registration information: If you register for an online community or participate in a training program we may also collect your username, gender, birth date, business or employment-related information, and social media handles.
• Survey / Feedback: If you participate in a survey, questionnaire or focus group or send comments or messages to us (via email, text or social media platforms), we collect your answers and messages which may include Personal Information, to the extent you voluntarily choose to provide it.

3.2. Information we receive from third parties

We may receive Personal Information about you from third parties. Here are some examples:

• Online Store: House Work operates a Shopify store. Shopify collects and discloses to us information that you provide including your name, billing address, shipping address, email address, and phone number as well as information about how you shop, your purchases, network connection, IP address, browser and device. This enables us to operate our business, to troubleshoot technical issues and to improve your online shopping experience. See Shopify’s Privacy Policy.
• Training programs: ICOM Productions hosts digital content for our training programs. ICOM Productions collects and discloses to us information that you provide when you register for and use our online training program, including your name, billing address, email address and phone number as well as usage data. See ICOM Productions Privacy Policy.
• Advertising: We may receive information about you and your engagement with our advertisements from our ad servers, ad networks and social media platforms.

We do not collect and store credit card information. House Work is an e-commerce merchant that has fully outsourced all cardholder data functions to PCI DSS validated third-party service providers (e.g. Shopify Payments, PayPal) with no electronic processing, transmission or storage of any cardholder data on our systems or premises. We do not have access to any customer credit card information. We are therefore not responsible for payment processing or the collection, use or retention of your financial information. 

3.3. Information we collect from you automatically

We directly collect analytics data or use third party analytics tools to help us measure traffic and usage trends.  Here are some examples of information we collect from you automatically:

• Log file information: Log file information is automatically reported by your browser or mobile device and recorded by our servers each time you access our websites. Usage data may include such information as referring and exit pages, URLs, IP address, platform type, number of clicks, domain pages, landing pages, content viewed, the date and time of access, the frequency of your visits to our websites, time spent on particular pages, error logs and other similar information. 
• Cookies information and information taken from similar technologies: When you visit our websites, we will send cookies your computer that uniquely identifies your browser and may employ other related technologies, as such GIFS or web beacons, that will convey information to us about how you use the website (e.g., the pages you view, the links you click and other actions you take on the website) allowing us to track your online usage patterns over time. In addition, we may also use clear GIFs in HTML-based emails sent to you to track which emails are opened and which links are clicked.
• Location data: We may collect your precise or approximate location (i) from you, when you provide or confirm your billing or mailing address (e.g. when you purchase products from our Shopify-powered store); (ii) by inferring your location from your IP address; and (iii) from our third party service providers.

4. How we use your Personal Information 

We are committed to only collecting and using Personal Information for lawful purposes. House Work relies upon several legal bases to process Personal Information, including: (a) your consent, which is revocable, (b) the terms and conditions of a contract that we’ve entered into with you; (c) our legitimate business interests; and (d) to comply with the law. 

In particular, we use your Personal Information for the following purposes:

• To enable the purchase and delivery of our products and services;
• To analyze trends and to track your usage and interactions with our websites (and third-party software services) and services to develop and improve our websites and services, to provide you with more relevant content and service offerings and to optimize the utilization of our products and services; 
• To provide customer support, and to respond to requests, questions, comments and complaints;
• To deliver information about our products and services, including targeted advertisements and promotions and personalized communications;
• To register you for events, webinars, courses and community groups;
• To assess and improve the effectiveness of marketing campaigns;
• To administer contests, promotions, and surveys;
• To assess and improve the user experience;
• To manage our sales and marketing activities and to measure corporate performance;
• To diagnose technical issues, to identify risks and to protect the security and integrity of our websites, products, services and data;
• To prevent fraudulent transactions and to protect our intellectual property and other assets; and
• To enforce our legal rights and limit its damages, to ensure we meet our legal and regulatory obligations (including to comply with judicial proceedings, court orders, legal processes, agreements and laws), to respond to lawful requests for information and to perform audits.

5. How we share your Personal Information

We do not sell, rent or lease your Personal Information we collect from you. We may, however, share your Personal Information for the purposes and on the legal bases described in Section 4, as follows:

• Service Providers: With contracted service providers to whom we outsource IT and system administration and security, digital downloads, hosting and storage, email services, analytics, advertising and marketing, printing, shipping, manufacturing, customer support and customer management. 
• Sponsors: With sponsors of an event, course, training program, contest or promotion that is organized or led by us to fulfill the terms of our sponsorship agreement. If required by applicable law, your consent will be obtained at registration, and your information will be subject to the sponsors’ privacy policies.  If you do not wish for your information to be shared, you may choose to opt-out via the registration form or otherwise by notifying us in accordance with Section 17.
• Third party networks and websites: With third party social media networks, advertising networks and websites so that we can market and advertise on third party platforms and websites.
• Professional Advisors: With professional advisors such as lawyers, accountants, forensic investigators, auditors and insurers only as reasonably necessary to request and obtain advice.
• Third Parties involved in a corporate transaction: With third parties to whom we sell, assign or transfer all or a portion of our business, assets, shares or websites or with whom we are involved in a merger, reorganization, dissolution or other fundamental corporate change. In accordance with applicable laws, we will use reasonable efforts to notify you of any transfer of Personal Information to an unaffiliated third party.
• Government/Law Enforcement Officials: With government and law enforcement officials to enforce and comply with the law, and as we reasonably believe, in our sole discretion, is necessary or appropriate to respond to claims and legal process (such as subpoena requests), to protect our property and rights or the property and rights of a third party, to protect the safety of the public or any person, or to prevent or stop activity we consider to be illegal. To the extent we are legally permitted to do so, we will take reasonable steps to notify you in the event that we are required to disclose your Personal Information to third parties as part of a legal process.
• With consent: With third parties where we have obtained your consent through an opt-in option provided to you or where we have otherwise obtained your prior written consent, for example if we desire to post or share your testimonial and feedback with the House Work community on our websites and social media accounts.

Anonymous or de-identified usage data may be shared with our service providers for the purpose of performing analyses. Aggregated, de-identifiable data may be shared with the public to demonstrate trends and general use of our services as well as for advertising, marketing and reporting purposes.

When engaging with us on social or in other public forums, communities, and blogs, be mindful that anyone who visits our websites may view your Personal Information or other information you choose to submit and post.

6. How we transfer and store your Personal Information

We operate out of Canada and our software service providers are primarily based in Canada and the United States. Personal Information is therefore typically collected, processed and stored in Canada or the United States, however, there may be circumstances where that occurs elsewhere. For instance, if you are located in the European Economic Area, your Personal Information will be processed by Shopify’s Irish Affiliate, Shopify International Ltd and may be transferred to Canada and/or the United States.  Personal Information is subject to the laws of the country or jurisdiction where it is processed and stored. By using our websites and purchasing our products and services you consent to the processing, transfer and storage of Personal Information outside the country of your residence. 

7. How long we keep your Personal Information

We retain your Personal Information only for as long as it is needed to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected or as otherwise required to meet our legal or business obligations. 

8. How we protect your Personal Information

We have implemented reasonable administrative, technical and physical measures in an effort to safeguard your Personal Information including but not limited to firewalls, security software, data encryption, two-way authentication protocols and information access controls.  When we use third party service providers to process your Personal Information, we enter into legal agreements requiring such service providers to apply safeguards too. 

Despite our commitment to data security and instituting robust safeguards, no data transmission over the Internet is 100% secure. As a result, we cannot guarantee the security of any Personal Information you transmit to our websites (including third party service providers) and social media platforms, and you do so at your own risk.

9. When Personal Information is compromised

In the event that we become aware that Personal Information in our possession or under our control is compromised (i.e. there has been a security breach or other unauthorized access, use or disclosure) we will take reasonable steps to investigate the situation and where appropriate, notify you if we determine that your Personal Information has been, or is likely to have been compromised, and take such other steps as may be required by applicable laws and regulations.

If you know or have reason to believe that your Personal Information has been subject to unauthorized use or access, disclosed with your consent or otherwise compromised please contact us at the address provided in Section 17.

10. How we might communicate with you

We may contact you directly regarding products or services you purchase from us, such as may be necessary to complete a transaction, deliver a product or invoice for a service. We may also contact you regarding products or services if additional information is required, to cancel services or to solicit your customer satisfaction feedback. 

If you have provided us with your consent, and subject to applicable laws and regulations, we may send you marketing communications about products, services, events, promotions, contests and information that may be of interest to you. These contacts may include email, text (SMS) messages, postal mail, telephone and private notifications and messages via social media platforms and software applications. 

E-mail communications you receive from us will generally contain an unsubscribe link allowing you to opt-out of receiving future marketing communications or to change your contact preferences. 

11. Cookies

Cookies are small text files that our websites send to your browser to store on your computer or device to uniquely identify you. Cookies track your usage and remember certain information about you to improve your experience, personalize advertisements and to inform analytics. Most cookies are “session cookies,” which are automatically deleted whenever you leave a website. Other “persistent cookies” will remain on your computer until you delete them.

To enhance our content and to deliver a better online experience for our users, we sometimes embed images and videos from other websites. We currently use, and may in future use content from third-party websites such as Facebook and Instagram. You may be presented with cookies from these third-party websites. Please note that we do not control these cookies. The privacy practices of these third parties will be governed by the parties’ own privacy policies. We are not responsible for the security or privacy of any information collected by these third parties, using cookies or other means. You should review the relevant third party privacy policy for information on how these cookies are used and how you can control them.

We also use Shopify analytical tools and Google Analytics to collect information about purchasing behavior, service usage and the demographic and interest-level information of our customers and users. Shopify and Google use cookies in order to collect demographic and interest-level information and usage information from users of the services, including without limitation, information about the pages where users enter and exit the websites and what pages users view on the websites, time spent, browser, operating system, and IP address. Cookies allow Shopify and Google to recognize a user when a user visits the websites. Shopify and Google share information with us about age range, gender, geographic regions, general interests, and details about devices used to visit websites and purchase items. We do not link information we receive from Shopify or Google with any of your personally identifiable information. For more information regarding Google’s use of cookies, and collection and use of information, see Google’s Privacy Policy and Safeguarding your data.  You can opt out of Google Analytics tracking here. For more information regarding Shopify’s use of cookies and customer tracking and to manage your preferences, see Shopify’s Cookies and Customer Tracking webpage  which contains a variety of apps, features and developer tools to protect your privacy including its Customer Privacy App.

Cookies may be controlled, blocked or restricted through your web browser settings and/or our website preferences. Our websites display a pop-up banner every time a user accesses the website, affording you the option to manage your permissions for various types of cookies. Note that all cookies are browser specific. Therefore, if you use multiple browsers or devices to access websites, you will need to manage your cookie preferences across each of these environments. 

If you restrict, disable or block any or all cookies, the websites may not operate properly and you may not be able to access some or all of the services through the websites. We will not be liable for any impossibility to use the websites or services or limited or degraded functioning thereof, where such are caused by your settings and choices regarding cookies.

If you have disabled one or more cookies, we may still use information collected from cookies prior to the disabled preference being set; however, we will stop using the disabled cookies to collect any further information.

12. Your European GDPR Rights

This section of the Privacy Policy applies to you if you are located in the European Economic Area (EEA), Switzerland or United Kingdom (UK). We process your Personal Information in accordance with European laws and regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR).  We only process your Personal Information if we have a lawful basis to do so as provided under section 4 and we may transfer your Personal Information outside of Europe subject to appropriate safeguards.

Under the applicable laws, you have certain rights in respect of your Personal Information, including the right to (subject to certain limitations):

• Request a copy of your information;
• Request that we correct inaccuracies relating to your information;
• Request that your information be deleted or that we restrict access to it;
• Request that we restrict the processing of your information;
• Request portability of your information; and
• Object to our use of your information.

If you wish to exercise any of the rights described above, please email us at: [email protected]. We may need to verify your identity or authority to make the request and place of residence prior to completing your rights request.

If we are unable to resolve your request, or if you are concerned about a potential violation, you also have the option to report the issue or make a complaint to the data protection authority in your jurisdiction. You may find contact details on ec.europa.eu.

13. Your California Privacy Rights

The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) requires us to provide a list of the “categories” of personal information we collect, as the term is defined in the law, from California residents in the last 12 months. Here is our list:

• Identifiers;
• Commercial information;
• Characteristics protected by law;
• Internet network activity information;
• Geolocation data;
• Audio, visual or similar information;
• Professional or employment-related information; and
• Inferences we draw from any of the above information categories.

We do not “sell” (as defined in the CCPA) your Personal Information.

If you are a California resident, the CCPA affords you certain rights, including the right to (subject to certain limitations):

• Request access to specific types of Personal Information;
• Understand how we collect, from what sources, and to whom we share Personal Information as well as the purposes for collecting and sharing Personal Information;
• Request the deletion of some or all Personal Information we have pertaining to you; and
• Not receive discriminatory treatment for exercising your rights under the CCPA.

If you wish to exercise any of the rights described above, please email us at: [email protected]. We may need to verify your identity or authority to make the request and place of residence prior to completing your rights request.

14. Children

Our websites, products and services are not intended for or directed at kiddos. We do not knowingly collect Personal Information from children under the age of 13, or such other applicable age of consent for privacy purposes in relevant jurisdictions. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has provided us with Personal Information without your consent, please notify us at the address provided in Section 17 and we will promptly and securely destroy the information. 

15. Third party websites and links

Our websites and services may contain links to other websites, applications, platforms and services maintained by third parties. Third parties, including the social media platforms that host our branded social media pages, are governed by their own privacy policies. We make no warranties, representations or endorsements with respect to the privacy policies of any such third parties, which you should review to better understand how they are collecting, using and sharing your Personal Information.  We are not liable for any acts or omissions of third parties to whom you share Personal Information. 

16. Changes to this Policy

We will update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our policies, practices, systems, and technologies and to remain compliant with the applicable laws.  The current version published on our websites will have an “effective date” at the top.  This means the updated terms will take effect, and be binding on you as of the effective date. If we make a material update, we may provide you with notice prior to the update taking effect, such as by posting a notice on our website or by contacting you directly, or where legally required will seek your consent to these changes.

We encourage you to periodically review this Privacy Policy to stay informed about our collection, use and sharing of your Personal Information and your legal rights.

17. Contact Us

We are happy to chat and resolve any questions or concerns relating to your privacy and the processing of your Personal Information. 

To seek clarification or express concerns about this Privacy Policy, to report suspected misuse of your Personal Information or to exercise your rights relating to your Personal Information, please email [email protected] or write to us at: 

House Work 
Attn: Lana Carstairs, Chief Operations Officer
Address: PO Box 8053, Cochrane, AB T4C 2J7