VIETNAMESE PROFESSIONALS ASSOCIATION OF BC
(VPABC) SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION
Last Revised: April 20, 2026
This Privacy Policy explains how the VPABC Scholarship Foundation (“we,” “us,” “our”) collects, uses, discloses, and protects Personal Information in accordance with the Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA) of British Columbia (BC), Canada. PIPA BC regulates the way private sector organizations within BC collect, use, keep, secure, and disclose Personal Information. “Personal Information” means any factual or subjective information about an identifiable individual.
We respect the privacy of our website visitors, as well as our scholarship and bursary applicants. This Privacy Policy outlines how we handle Personal Information you provide to us or that is collected when you use our website.
We are committed to safeguarding the confidentiality of your information and fulfilling our obligations concerning the Personal Information of all individuals that we collect, use, or disclose.
Consent
By using our website or by submitting a scholarship or bursary application, you agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy, and you provide your consent to the collection, use, and disclosure of your Personal Information as described in this Privacy Policy, where such consent is required or permitted by applicable law.
We may also, from time to time, collect Personal Information relating to parents or legal guardians where reasonably necessary to support the assessment of an applicant’s eligibility, including financial need verification. In such cases, separate and explicit consent will be obtained directly from the parent or legal guardian prior to the collection, use, or disclosure of their Personal Information. Each parent or guardian will be treated as a distinct data subject with independent consent requirements.
Collection of Your Personal Information
When you submit a scholarship application, we may ask you to provide us with certain Personal Information that can be used to contact, identify, and/or evaluate your application and qualifications. We only request information on a need-to-know basis and at the appropriate stage of the selection process. The Personal Information that we may collect from you, include, but is not limited to:
• First name and last name;
• Address and email address;
• Phone number;
• Photo identification;
• School reports and/or transcripts;
• Resume;
• Employment information; and
• Limited financial information (e.g., relevant income thresholds or tax figures) where required for eligibility assessment;
If you provide us with the Personal Information of others, such as family members, you confirm and represent that you are authorized to do so and that you have obtained any necessary permissions from those individuals. You also acknowledge that we may process such information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
Use of Your Personal Information
We may use Personal Information for the following purposes:
• To contact you by email, telephone calls, SMS, or other equivalent forms of electronic communication, such as a mobile application’s push notifications regarding updates or informative communications related to the functionalities, products, or contracted services, including the security updates, when necessary or reasonable for their implementation.
• To evaluate your application and to assess whether you meet certain criteria or qualifications to receive a scholarship or bursary from us.
• To disburse the scholarship or bursary proceeds to the successful candidates.
• For other purposes such as internal administrative purposes, program evaluation, and improving scholarship program operations using aggregated or de-identified information where possible.
Disclosure of Your Personal Information
We may share your Personal Information in the following situations:
• With your consent: We may disclose your personal information for any other purpose with your consent.
• With service providers: We may share your Personal Information with third party service providers, software, tools, and platforms (“Third- Party Platforms”) to contact you. If so, you consent to our use of your Personal Information on such Third-Party
Platforms for the purpose of evaluating your application, which are governed by their own terms of service and privacy policies. We are not responsible for the privacy practices, security, or data handling of any Third-Party Platforms.
• With affiliates: We may share your information with our affiliates. Affiliates include our parent company and any other subsidiaries, joint venture partners, or other companies that we control or that are under common control with us.
Under certain circumstances, we may be required to disclose your Personal Information by law or in response to valid requests by public authorities (e.g., a court or a government agency).
We may disclose your personal data in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to:
• Comply with a legal obligation or court order
• Protect your personal safety or that of the public
• Protect against legal liability
Retention of Your Personal Information
We will retain your Personal Information only for as long as is necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy.
Application records are generally retained for up to one year for unsuccessful applicants, unless a longer retention period is required for legal, audit, or administrative purposes.
Successful applicant records may be retained longer where necessary for ongoing administrative, funding, and compliance obligations.
Storage or Transfer of Your Personal Information
Your Personal Information is processed and stored in Canada. We do not transfer your Personal Information outside of Canada.
Website Usage Data
Your Website Usage Data is collected automatically when you access our website. Website Usage Data may include information such as your device’s internet protocol address (e.g., IP address), browser type, browser version, the pages of our website that you visit, the time and date of your visit, the time spent on those pages, unique device identifiers, and other diagnostic data.
When you access our website through a mobile device, we may collect certain information automatically, including, but not limited to, the type of mobile device you use, your mobile device
unique ID, the IP address of your mobile device, your mobile operating system, the type of mobile internet browser you use, unique device identifiers and other diagnostic data.
We may also collect information that your browser sends whenever you visit our website or when you access the service by or through a mobile device.
Tracking Technologies and Cookies
We use cookies and similar tracking technologies to track the activity on our service and store certain information. Tracking technologies used are beacons, tags, and scripts to collect and track information and to improve and analyze our service. The technologies we use may include:
• Cookies or Browser Cookies. A cookie is a small file placed on your device. You can instruct your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, if you do not accept cookies, you may not be able to use some parts of our service. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our service may use cookies.
• Flash Cookies. Certain features of our service may use local stored objects (or Flash cookies) to collect and store information about your preferences or your activity on our service. Flash cookies are not managed by the same browser settings as those used for browser cookies.
• Web Beacons. Certain sections of our service and our emails may contain small electronic files known as web beacons (also referred to as clear gifs, pixel tags, and single-pixel gifs) that permit the company, for example, to count users who have visited those pages or opened an email and for other related website statistics (for example, recording the popularity of a certain section and verifying system and server integrity).
Cookies can be “Persistent” or “Session” Cookies. Persistent Cookies remain on Your personal computer or mobile device when you go offline, while Session Cookies are deleted as soon as You close your web browser.
Necessary or essential cookies are essential to provide you with services available through the website and to enable you to use some of its features. They help to authenticate users and prevent fraudulent use of user accounts. Without these cookies, the services that you have asked for cannot be provided, and we only use these cookies to provide you with those services.
Persistent cookies allow us to remember choices you make when you use the website, such as remembering your login details or language preference. The purpose of these cookies is to provide you with a more personal experience and to avoid you having to re-enter your preferences every time you use the website.
Security of Your Personal Information
The security of your Personal Information is important to us. While no method of transmission or storage is completely secure, we implement reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of the information. While we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.
Links to Other Websites
Our service may contain links to other websites that are not operated by us. If you click on a third-party link, you will be directed to that third party’s site. We strongly advise you to review the Privacy Policy of every site you visit.
We have no control over and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third-party sites or services.
Changes to this Privacy Policy
We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the updated Privacy Policy on this website.
You are advised to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any changes. Changes to this Privacy Policy are effective when they are posted on this page.
Contact Us If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or our practices, you can contact us by email at hello@vpabc.ca. You may also request access to or correction of your Personal Information by contacting us at this email address.