Privacy Policy
Effective Date: November 1, 2026
1. Introduction
FestConnect is a curated matching platform operated by Ottawa Festival Network (“OFN”).
FestConnect is built and maintained for OFN by Kaerensoftware, a technology service provider that acts on OFN’s behalf and under its direction. OFN decides how information in FestConnect is used.
FestConnect helps businesses and festivals identify potential partnership opportunities based on audience, objectives, values, interests, and organizational fit.
FestConnect is not a public directory. Businesses and festivals do not automatically receive access to each other’s profiles, questionnaire responses, match scores, or contact information. Potential matches are reviewed by authorized OFN staff, and OFN controls when and how introductions are made.
This Privacy Policy explains what information FestConnect collects, how it is used, where it is stored, who may receive it, how long it may be retained, and the choices available to users.
2. Information We Collect
Account Information
FestConnect may collect:
- Email address
- Password, stored only as a salted cryptographic hash and not in plaintext
- Email verification status and date
- Sign-up date
- Last sign-in time
- Preferred interface language
- Account role and status
Contact Information
We may collect:
- Contact name
- Contact email
- Contact phone number, where provided
- Organization name and affiliation
Business and Festival Profile Information
Depending on the type of organization, this may include:
- Business or festival name
- Industry or festival category
- Location
- Short organizational biography
- Additional notes
- Festival dates and recurrence
- Estimated attendance
- Audience demographics
- Geographic draw
- Languages
- Festival programming
- Brand or festival characteristics
- Partnership objectives and priorities
- Preferred partnership types
- Deliverables or activation interests
- Previous partnership experience
- Customer profile and the audiences a business wants to reach
- Audience sizes a business is interested in
- Preferred level of involvement in a partnership
- Reasons for interest in event partnerships
- Current sponsorship status
- Whether an event is age-restricted
- Values the organization considers important
- Industries or festival types a user chooses to exclude
These fields are used to support the matching process.
Festival Leadership and Community Information
Festivals are asked whether the organization is led by or serves particular communities, including Indigenous, Black, LGBTQ+, disability, women-led, youth-led, or cultural communities.
The leadership question must be answered, but it includes a “None / not applicable” answer, so a festival never has to identify with a particular community. The question about the communities a festival serves is optional. Both are used to support partnership alignment.
Because this information may in some circumstances reveal information about identifiable individuals, particularly in small organizations, OFN will limit access to authorized personnel.
Match and Administrative Information
FestConnect may generate and retain:
- Match scores
- Score breakdowns
- Snapshot copies of profiles at the time of matching
- Match status
- Decline reasons
- Administrative score adjustments and reasons
- OFN staff notes
- Introduction details
- Partnership outcome information such as deal type, value bracket, or term
This information is used internally by OFN to manage and evaluate the matching process.
Security and Activity Information
FestConnect may collect:
- Two-factor authentication codes
- Activity logs
- Administrative actions
- Profile edits
- Invitation activity
- Security-related events
- IP addresses and browser information, used to limit repeated sign-in, password-reset and support attempts, and recorded in our hosting provider’s server logs
- Support requests
- Banned email records
Two-factor authentication codes are temporary and expire after five minutes. A code is deleted once it has been used.
3. How We Use Information
Information may be used to:
- Create and manage accounts
- Authenticate and secure user access
- Verify email addresses
- Build business and festival profiles
- Generate potential matches
- Calculate internal match scores
- Allow OFN staff to review and assess potential matches
- Facilitate introductions
- Record outcomes of introductions
- Communicate with users about accounts, matches, security, or support
- Improve the operation of FestConnect
- Prevent misuse or abuse
- Maintain internal accountability
- Meet legal or regulatory obligations
4. How Matching Works
FestConnect uses profile and questionnaire information to calculate potential alignment between businesses and festivals.
Matching may consider factors such as:
- Audience demographics
- Audience size
- Geography
- Industry or festival category
- Brand or festival characteristics
- Values and community alignment
- Partnership objectives
- Partnership type and level of involvement
- Deliverables or activation interests
- Exclusions identified by either party
FestConnect may generate automated scores and recommendations.
Automated scoring does not result in an automatic introduction.
Authorized OFN staff review potential matches and decide whether an introduction is appropriate.
Internal match scores, score breakdowns, administrative overrides, and staff notes are not shared with businesses or festivals.
5. Who Can See Your Information
OFN Staff
Authorized OFN administrators may access:
- Profiles
- Questionnaire responses
- Match scores
- Administrative notes
- Match histories
- Introduction records
Businesses and Festivals
A business or festival can see its own profile and certain aggregate information about its matches.
Users do not receive the identity, profile, questionnaire responses, or match score of another participant through the platform.
Matched Participants
FestConnect does not provide in-platform messaging between businesses and festivals.
OFN makes introductions separately, such as by email or phone.
The matched party receives information only when OFN decides to facilitate an introduction.
6. How Information Is Shared
FestConnect is not a public directory.
OFN controls disclosure between participants.
When OFN identifies a strong potential fit, it may share information reasonably necessary to facilitate an introduction.
Private questionnaire responses, internal notes, match scores, score breakdowns, and administrative information are not disclosed to another participant unless OFN determines that disclosure is appropriate and authorized.
We do not sell or rent personal information.
7. Service Providers and Cross-Border Processing
FestConnect uses third-party service providers to operate the platform.
Kaerensoftware
Kaerensoftware builds and maintains FestConnect for OFN. It may access information in FestConnect only as needed to operate, support, troubleshoot and secure the platform.
Railway
FestConnect’s application and PostgreSQL database are hosted by Railway in its US East region in Virginia, United States.
As a result, information submitted through FestConnect is stored and processed in the United States and may be subject to the laws applicable in that jurisdiction.
Resend
FestConnect uses Resend to deliver transactional email.
Resend receives recipient email addresses and the content of transactional messages necessary to deliver those messages.
Support email
Messages sent through the FestConnect support form are delivered by email to the FestConnect support inbox, which is currently managed by Kaerensoftware on OFN’s behalf. That inbox is hosted by an email provider, which receives the content of support messages.
8. Emails Sent by FestConnect
FestConnect may send transactional emails relating to:
- Email verification
- Two-factor authentication
- Password resets
- Email or password changes
- Sign-up attempts
- Account invitations
- Organization-owner invitations
- Support requests
Transactional emails are delivered through Resend.
9. Cookies
FestConnect currently uses four types of cookies:
- A session cookie used to keep users signed in (lasts up to 7 days)
- A CSRF security cookie
- A language preference cookie (lasts up to one year)
- A short-lived cookie that carries one-time on-screen messages, such as a confirmation after saving
These cookies are used for essential security, authentication, and functional purposes.
FestConnect does not currently use advertising or analytics cookies.
10. Data Security
FestConnect uses administrative and technical safeguards designed to protect user information.
These include:
- Password hashing
- HTTPS
- HSTS
- Secure session and CSRF cookies
- Role-based access controls
- Permission testing
- Rate limiting
- Email verification
- Two-factor authentication functionality
Two-factor authentication is required for OFN administrators and is available to business and festival users, who can turn it on in their account settings.
11. Data Retention
OFN applies the following retention periods. OFN staff carry out the deletions, as FestConnect does not yet delete records automatically:
- Accounts and organization profiles with no sign-in or OFN activity for three years are reviewed and deleted, unless the organization asks OFN to keep them.
- Match records, staff notes and activity logs are kept for three years after a match is closed or the related organization profile is deleted.
- Banned email records are kept until OFN lifts the ban.
- Server logs that contain IP addresses are kept by our hosting provider under its own retention settings.
Some records can outlast an account:
- Deleting a user account removes the login but does not automatically remove the organization profile, questionnaire responses, or match history.
- Contact information may remain associated with a userless organization profile.
- Match records contain snapshot copies of profiles and may therefore retain historical information even after a profile is edited.
12. Access, Correction, and Deletion Requests
Users may contact OFN to request access to, correction of, or deletion of personal information, subject to applicable legal and operational requirements.
At present, deleting a user login does not automatically delete the organization profile or match-history snapshots.
A complete deletion request may therefore require administrative and technical action beyond closing the account.
When OFN receives a full deletion request from an authorized representative of an organization, OFN deletes the account login, the organization profile and questionnaire answers, the organization’s matches and the profile snapshots stored with them, and staff notes about the organization. OFN keeps only a record that the deletion was carried out and any information it is required by law to retain.
Access and deletion requests can also be started from the Privacy section of a user’s account settings (“Request my data” and “Request account closure”).
To submit a privacy request, contact:
Tara Shannon, Privacy Officer, Ottawa Festival Network: tara@ottawafestivals.ca
13. Third-Party Links
FestConnect may contain links to third-party websites or services.
OFN is not responsible for the privacy practices, security, or content of those third parties.
14. Children
FestConnect is intended for businesses, organizations, festivals, and individuals acting in a professional or organizational capacity.
It is not intended for children.
15. Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy as FestConnect, our practices, or applicable requirements change.
The current version will be posted with its effective date.
Where appropriate, significant changes may also be communicated through the platform or by email.
16. Privacy Law and Jurisdiction
FestConnect handles personal information in accordance with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and, where it applies, Quebec’s Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector.
17. Contact
FestConnect / Ottawa Festival Network
Privacy Officer: Tara Shannon, Executive Director
Email: tara@ottawafestivals.ca
Mailing address: 56 Sparks Street, Unit 304, Ottawa, ON K1P 5A9