Privacy policy

Last updated: October 16, 2026

Air Paddle Canada Inc., operating as Ottawa Valley Air Paddle ("OVAP", "we", "us"), respects your privacy. This policy explains what personal information we collect when you shop at ovap.ca, visit our store in Arnprior, book a tour, rental or demo, sign up for our emails or texts, or enter one of our contests, and what we do with it.

We are an Ontario business. We handle personal information in line with Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) and, for customers in Quebec, Quebec's Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector.

1. Who is responsible

Air Paddle Canada Inc. is responsible for the personal information we collect. Our Privacy Officer oversees how we handle it and answers privacy questions and requests.

Privacy Officer: Scott Fawcett, Founder & CEO
Air Paddle Canada Inc. (Ottawa Valley Air Paddle)
67 Madawaska Street, Arnprior, Ontario K7S 1S1, Canada
Email: support@ovap.ca (subject line "Privacy")
Phone: 613-900-4311

2. What we collect and why

What Examples Why we use it Where it comes from
Order and account information Name, email, phone, billing and shipping address, order history, account login To process and ship your order, send receipts and order updates, handle returns, warranty claims and price-match requests, and prevent fraud You, at checkout, in store, or when you create an account
Payment information Card type and last four digits, transaction records To take payment and issue refunds You, through our payment processors. We do not see or store your full card number.
Tour, rental and demo bookings Name, contact details, booking date, group size, participant names and ages, emergency contact, signed waiver, and any safety information you choose to give us (for example, swimming ability or a medical condition we should know about) To run the booking, contact you about it, and keep participants safe on the water You, when you book or sign a waiver
Customer support Messages, emails, chat transcripts, call notes, photos you send of a product issue To answer your question or resolve your issue You, by email, phone, website chat or in store
Marketing preferences Email address, mobile number, signup source, which messages you open and click, kayak quiz answers To send emails and texts you agreed to receive and to make them relevant to you You, when you sign up or take our kayak quiz
Reviews Name, review text, star rating, photos To publish your product review You, when you leave one
Contest entries Name, email, phone, region, answers to entry questions To run the contest, verify eligibility and contact winners You, when you enter
Device and browsing information IP address, browser and device type, pages and products viewed, search terms, referring site, cookie identifiers To run the site, remember your cart, understand how the site is used, and measure and improve our advertising Collected automatically through cookies, pixels and similar tools (Section 5)

We collect only what we need for these purposes. Safety and medical information from a waiver is used only to run your tour or rental safely, and only the staff running it can see it.

We sometimes send flyers by mail to street addresses taken from public, government open-data address sources. These lists contain addresses only, not names. We do not buy mailing lists with names on them.

3. Consent

By placing an order, booking or contacting us, you consent to us using your information for that purpose. Where a use is not obvious, such as marketing, we ask for your consent separately.

You can withdraw consent at any time by contacting us (Section 10), subject to legal or contract limits. For example, we must keep order records for tax purposes. If you withdraw consent we may not be able to provide some services.

4. Emails and text messages (CASL)

Emails. We send marketing emails to people who signed up (express consent). As CASL allows, we may also email customers who bought from us in the last two years (implied consent).

Texts. We send marketing text messages only to people who signed up for texts. Reply STOP to any text to stop receiving them, or HELP for help. Message and data rates may apply. How often we text is shown on the signup form.

Transactional messages (order confirmations, shipping updates, booking reminders) are sent to complete your order or booking. They are not marketing.

Every marketing email has an unsubscribe link. We process unsubscribe requests within 10 business days, usually much faster. Every message identifies Ottawa Valley Air Paddle and includes our mailing address.

5. Cookies, pixels and advertising

We and our partners use cookies, pixels and similar tools on ovap.ca. They do three jobs:

  • Necessary: make the store work, such as your cart, checkout and login. These cannot be switched off.
  • Analytics: show us how people use the site so we can improve it (Shopify Analytics, Google Analytics).
  • Advertising: measure our ads and show you OVAP ads on other sites and apps, based on what you viewed or bought here (Google, Meta, TikTok, Microsoft). These partners may combine this information with what they already know about you, under their own privacy policies.

Your choices:

We do not use your information to make automated decisions that have a legal or similarly significant effect on you. Our payment processor uses automated fraud screening on transactions.

We do not currently change our practices in response to browser "Do Not Track" signals, because there is no common standard for them.

6. Who we share it with

We do not sell, rent or trade customer lists. We share personal information only with service providers who help us run the business, and only what they need for that job. They are bound by contract or their own published terms to protect it. The one exception to "only for us" is the advertising partners in Section 5, which may also use browsing and purchase information for their own advertising purposes. You can limit this using the choices in Section 5.

Provider What they do for us
Shopify Runs our online store, in-store point of sale, checkout and customer accounts
Shopify Payments (including Shop Pay and Shop Pay Installments), Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal and any other payment option shown at checkout Process payments and instalment plans
Klaviyo Sends our marketing emails and stores email preferences
Attentive Sends our marketing texts and stores text preferences
Google (Analytics, Ads, Merchant Center, YouTube) Site analytics, advertising and product listings
Meta (Facebook and Instagram) Advertising and our Facebook and Instagram shop
TikTok Advertising and our TikTok shop
Microsoft (Microsoft Advertising and shopping) Advertising and product listings
Locally Shows shoppers which products we have in stock nearby, and passes along order or reservation details if you buy through it
Judge.me Collects and publishes product reviews and sends review-request emails
RevenueHunt Runs our kayak-finder quiz
Booqable Takes tour, rental and demo bookings
Tidio Website live chat
Printful Prints and ships our branded apparel orders
Advanced Shipping Rules Calculates shipping rates at checkout
Canada Post, Freightcom and the couriers and freight carriers we book through them Deliver your order
Cloudflare Hosts our contest entry site (win.ovap.ca)
Our accountants and professional advisers Bookkeeping, tax and legal advice, under confidentiality

When you buy through a marketplace channel such as the Shop app, Facebook or Instagram, Google or TikTok, that platform also handles your information under its own privacy policy.

We may also disclose personal information when the law requires it, to respond to a lawful request such as a court order, to protect our rights, property or safety or that of others, or as part of a sale or reorganization of our business, in which case the buyer must protect it as this policy describes.

7. Where your information is stored

Several of our service providers, including Shopify, Klaviyo, Attentive, Google, Meta, TikTok and Microsoft, store or process information outside Canada, mainly in the United States. While it is there, it is subject to the laws of that country, and courts or authorities there may be able to access it. We choose providers with strong security practices and contract terms.

We sell primarily to customers in Canada. If you order from outside Canada, your information is handled as this policy describes and under Canadian law.

8. How long we keep it

We keep personal information only as long as we need it for the purposes above or as the law requires.

  • Order, payment and tax records: seven years, which covers what Canadian tax law requires.
  • Email and text marketing lists: until you unsubscribe. If you go three years without opening, clicking, buying or contacting us, we remove you.
  • Tour, rental and demo waivers: seven years after the activity. For participants under 18, until seven years after they turn 18.
  • Contest entries: 12 months after the final draw. Winners' records are kept for seven years.
  • Support conversations and chat transcripts: three years.

When we no longer need information, we securely delete it or make it anonymous.

9. How we protect it

We use safeguards suited to how sensitive the information is. These include encrypted checkout, payment processors that meet card-industry security standards (PCI DSS), access limited to staff who need it, and account security on the systems we use.

No system is perfectly secure. If a breach creates a real risk of significant harm to you, we will notify you and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (and, for Quebec residents, the Commission d'accès à l'information) as the law requires.

10. Your rights

You can:

  • Ask what personal information we hold about you and how we have used and shared it.
  • Ask us to correct information that is wrong or incomplete.
  • Withdraw consent to marketing or other optional uses.
  • Ask us to delete information we no longer need to keep.
  • Ask for a copy of information you gave us, in a commonly used format.

Email support@ovap.ca (subject line "Privacy request"), call 613-900-4311, or write to the Privacy Officer at the address in Section 1. We may need to confirm your identity first. We will respond within 30 days and tell you if we need longer. Requests are free.

11. Children

Our website and marketing are aimed at adults. We do not knowingly collect personal information online from anyone under 16. Information about children who join a tour, rental or demo is provided by, and with the consent of, their parent or guardian. If you believe a child has given us information, contact us and we will delete it.

12. Questions and complaints

Contact our Privacy Officer first (Section 1). We will look into your concern and respond.

If you are not satisfied, you can complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada: www.priv.gc.ca · 1-800-282-1376 · 30 Victoria Street, Gatineau, Quebec K1A 1H3. Quebec residents can also contact the Commission d'accès à l'information du Québec: www.cai.gouv.qc.ca.

13. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy when our practices or the law change. We will post the new version here with a new "Last updated" date. If a change materially affects how we use information we already hold, we will tell you and ask for consent where required.