Introduction
Gambling Sites operates the website at Gambling Sites, an independent publisher of reviews and guides about licensed online gambling sites available to players in Canada. This policy explains what personal data we collect when you use our website, why we collect it, who we share it with, how long we keep it, and what rights you have over it.
We do not operate a casino, sportsbook or any other gambling service. We do not hold player accounts, take deposits, accept wagers or pay out winnings. When you follow a link from our site to an operator, that operator becomes responsible for your data under its own privacy policy, which we encourage you to read before registering.
Which Privacy Laws Apply
Our primary framework is Canadian. We handle personal information in line with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and, where it applies, with provincial privacy legislation including Quebec’s Law 25 and the private-sector acts of Alberta and British Columbia.
Because our website is reachable from outside Canada, we also apply:
- the EU and UK GDPR for visitors in the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom, including legal bases for processing, data-subject rights and transfer safeguards;
- the CCPA and CPRA for residents of California, including the rights to know, delete, correct and opt out of the sharing of personal information.
Where two frameworks differ, we apply the standard that gives you the stronger protection.
What Personal Data We Collect
We collect only what a publishing website needs to run. There is no identity verification, no source-of-funds checks and no financial account data on our side.
- Technical and device data: IP address, browser type and version, operating system, device type, screen resolution, language settings and referring URL;
- Usage data: pages viewed, time on page, scroll depth, internal search terms, links clicked including outbound clicks to operators, and the general path you take through the site;
- Contact data: the name and email address you give us when you write to us, submit a correction or ask a question;
- Newsletter data: your email address and subscription preferences, if you choose to subscribe;
- Comment or feedback data: any content you voluntarily submit, such as a review comment or a report of an inaccuracy;
- Approximate location: derived from your IP address at the province or country level, so we can show the operators and provincial rules relevant to where you are;
- Cookie and identifier data: cookie IDs, session identifiers and similar technologies, described in our Cookies Policy;
- Marketing preferences: your consent choices and any withdrawal of them.
We do not knowingly collect special-category data, financial account credentials, government identity documents or gambling transaction histories.
How We Collect It
Data reaches us in three ways. Directly from you, when you email us, subscribe or submit a form. Automatically, through cookies, server logs and analytics scripts as you browse. From third parties, namely our analytics provider, our hosting and security provider, and operators or advertising networks that report aggregated referral statistics back to us.
Legal Bases for Processing
Under PIPEDA our processing rests on your consent, expressed or implied, together with the limited exceptions the Act allows. Under the GDPR we rely on the following bases:
- Legitimate interests for site security, fraud and abuse prevention, aggregate traffic measurement and improving our editorial coverage.
- Consent for non-essential cookies, analytics beyond what is strictly necessary, and marketing email.
- Performance of a contract where you have asked us for a specific service, such as delivering a newsletter you subscribed to.
- Legal obligation where we must retain or disclose data to comply with applicable law or a valid legal request.
How We Use Your Data
- To deliver the website and keep it available, fast and secure;
- To understand which reviews and guides are useful, and where readers lose the thread;
- To show content and operator information appropriate to your province;
- To answer your emails, corrections and complaints;
- To send the newsletter you subscribed to, and nothing else, until you unsubscribe;
- To measure, in aggregate, how many readers move from our pages to an operator;
- To detect and prevent scraping, spam, fraud and attacks on the site;
- To meet our legal and regulatory obligations.
We do not use your data to build advertising profiles about you, and we do not sell personal information.
Sharing and Disclosure
We share personal data only with parties that need it to run this website:
- Hosting and content delivery providers, which necessarily process server logs and IP addresses;
- Analytics providers, which process usage and device data on our behalf under contract;
- Email service providers, which process subscriber addresses for the newsletter;
- Security and anti-abuse providers, which process technical data to filter malicious traffic;
- Professional advisers, such as auditors or legal counsel, where confidentiality obligations apply;
- Law enforcement, courts or regulators, where disclosure is legally required or necessary to protect our rights or the safety of others.
Operators listed on our site receive no personal data from us. If you click through to one, your subsequent relationship is with that operator alone.
International Data Transfers
Our providers may process data outside Canada, including in the United States and the European Union. Where we transfer personal data internationally, we rely on contractual protections comparable to those the data would receive in Canada, and for transfers out of the EEA or the UK we rely on adequacy decisions or Standard Contractual Clauses. You may contact us for information about the safeguards in place for a specific transfer.
Data Retention
We keep personal data only as long as the purpose requires:
- Server and security logs: up to 12 months, then deleted or anonymised;
- Analytics data: up to 26 months in aggregated or pseudonymised form;
- Email correspondence: up to 24 months after the matter is closed;
- Newsletter subscriptions: until you unsubscribe, plus a short suppression record so we do not email you again;
- Consent records: for as long as needed to demonstrate that consent was validly obtained.
Because we do not run gambling accounts, the multi-year retention obligations that anti-money-laundering law places on licensed operators do not apply to us.
Your Privacy Rights
Depending on where you live, you may:
- Ask what personal data we hold about you and receive a copy of it;
- Have inaccurate data corrected;
- Ask us to delete data we no longer need;
- Withdraw consent at any time, including for cookies and marketing;
- Object to processing based on legitimate interests, or ask us to restrict it;
- Receive your data in a portable, machine-readable format;
- Opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information, which in our case is straightforward, since we do neither;
- Be free from discrimination for exercising any of these rights.
Write to privacy@GamblingSites to exercise a right. We respond within 30 days, as PIPEDA requires, and sooner where we can. If you are unhappy with our answer, you may complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, to your provincial privacy commissioner, or to your local supervisory authority if you are in the EEA or the UK.
Cookies
We use cookies and similar technologies for essential site functions, for analytics and, where you consent, for measuring referral performance. You can control non-essential cookies through our consent banner and through your browser settings. Full detail sits in our Cookies Policy.
Security
We protect personal data with encryption in transit, restricted administrative access on a need-to-know basis, hardened hosting, logging of administrative actions and regular patching. No system is perfectly secure, so we do not promise absolute protection. If a breach affects your personal data and creates a real risk of significant harm, we notify you and the relevant authorities as the law requires.
Age Restriction
This website is intended strictly for adults. You must be at least 19 years old to use it, or 18 if you are in Alberta, Manitoba or Quebec. We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone below the legal gambling age in their province. If we learn that we hold such data, we delete it promptly. Parents and guardians who believe a minor has contacted us should write to privacy@GamblingSites.
Responsible Gambling
Gambling carries real financial and personal risk, and our content is written on that basis. If gambling has stopped being entertainment for you, free and confidential help is available in Canada. Our Responsible Gambling page lists the organisations and the tools you can use, including deposit limits and self-exclusion.
Changes to This Policy
We update this policy when our practices, providers or the law change. The revision date at the top always reflects the current version. Material changes are announced on the website, and if you subscribe to our newsletter we tell you there as well.
Contact
Questions about this policy, or about how we handle your data, go to privacy@GamblingSites. General enquiries go to support@GamblingSites. We answer email within two business days.
The controller of your personal data is GamblingSites.