CBSA YouTube Terms of Use

The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) works to ensure Canada's security and prosperity by managing the access of people and goods to and from Canada.

The CBSA's YouTube channels (www.youtube.com/CanBorder in English and www.youtube.com/Frontierecan en français) are a great way to interact with the Agency and learn about the work we do. We look forward to sharing information with you beyond the conventional government Web experience, but always encourage visits to our Web site for more detailed information.

The use of YouTube by the CBSA is intended to encourage interaction between the users of this platform and the CBSA, and in no way verifies or confirms either the accuracy of user comments or their compliance with the guidelines outlined here. The CBSA does not endorse any of the views expressed in the comments posted by users.

Content

The CBSA YouTube channels (www.youtube.com/CanBorder in English and www.youtube.com/frontierecan en français) are mainly used as an alternative method for accessing videos already posted on the CBSA Web site. If you are looking for more information about the CBSA, the videos and their full descriptions are available on the CBSA Web site.

Links to other Web sites

From time to time, CBSA comments and videos may link to Web sites that are not under the control of the CBSA or the Government of Canada. These links are provided solely for the convenience of the users. The Government of Canada and the CBSA are not responsible for the accuracy, currency or reliability of the content. The Government of Canada and the CBSA do not offer any guarantee in that regard and are not responsible for the information found through these links, nor do they endorse the sites and their content.

Upload Frequency

The number of videos posted will vary; depending on when new content becomes available. During some periods, we may post significantly more or fewer videos than average. Videos will generally be posted Monday to Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. EST/EDT.

Availability

The CBSA YouTube channels are subject to downtime that may be out of the CBSA's control, because YouTube servers are managed by a third party. As such, we accept no responsibility for the YouTube Web site becoming unresponsive or unavailable.

Subscriptions

At this time, the CBSA will only subscribe to other Government of Canada institutions and organizations which we believe are relevant to the mandate of our work, including other governmental organizations.

You are required to have a valid YouTube account to subscribe to CBSA's YouTube channel and to comment or rate videos.

Subscribers/Friends

At this time, the CBSA will only accept friend requests from other Government of Canada institutions or those organizations that the CBSA subscribes to.  The CBSA will only take steps to remove or block channel subscribers if they do not abide by these Terms of Use. The CBSA will also report users to YouTube if they do not comply with YouTube's terms of service.

The appearance of a YouTube user as a subscriber to the CBSA YouTube channel, or a viewer/commenter on CBSA videos, does not imply endorsement.

Feedback and Messages

Feedback and interaction is highly encouraged. We will strive to read all video and channel comments, as well as emails sent to the YouTube accounts, and any emerging themes or helpful suggestions will be passed to the relevant people in the Agency. Although we are not able to reply individually to all messages, they will be handled on a case-by-case basis and responded to when deemed appropriate, in the CBSA's sole discretion.

If a comment or a question posed to the CBSA requires a response and/or a greater level of detail, we may develop a formal response and distribute the information through other channels such as our Web site. We will pay attention to emerging themes and helpful suggestions and look forward to this potential interaction.

Reporters are asked to send questions to the appropriate individual in Media Relations and to refrain from submitting questions on YouTube.

The CBSA cannot engage in issues of party politics or answer questions that do not comply with our commenting notice below.

Commenting

Comments on both the CBSA channels and CBSA videos are welcomed and the CBSA encourages open debate and discussion and will not discriminate against any differences of opinion, or comments that are critical of the Agency.

However, we will not respond to comments and may edit or remove comments that fit one of the following descriptions:

• contrary to the principles of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms;
• written in a language other than English or French;
• racist, hateful, sexist, homophobic, slanderous, insulting, life-threatening, abusive, aggressive, explicit, vulgar, violent, obscene, or pornographic in nature;
• comments that contain personal or secure information;
• comments that contain coarse language;
• serious, unproven, unsupported, or inaccurate accusations against individuals or organizations;
• comments that violate YouTube's Community Guidelines and Terms of Service;
• comments that encourage or suggest illegal activity;
• solicitations, advertisements, or endorsements of any financial, commercial or non-governmental agency;
• attempts to defame or defraud any financial, commercial or non-governmental agency;
• announcements from labour or political organizations;
• comments not sent by the author and/or posted by anonymous or robot accounts;
• repetitive posts copied and pasted by multiple users; and
• unintelligible or irrelevant messages.

Anyone acting contrary to these guidelines may be temporarily or permanently excluded from the dialogue spaces on these channels.

In short, be respectful and make sure your comments are relevant to the CBSA or the video about which they are posted. If you have any questions about this commenting notice or how we apply it, please contact us.

A few other important notes:

• We cannot commit to replying to every comment or question posted. We will, however, attempt to engage in conversations when possible.
• The views of participants commenting on these pages do not necessarily represent the views of the Canada Border Services Agency.
• You participate at your own risk, taking personal responsibility for your comments, your username and any information provided. To protect your own privacy and the privacy of others, please do not include full names, phone numbers home or email addresses, photographs containing images of identifiable individuals, or any other personal information in the body of your comment.
• Reporters are asked to send questions to the Media Relations group through their normal channels and to refrain from submitting questions here as comments. Reporter questions will not be replied to via YouTube.
• Additional information can be found in the Important Notices section of the Canada Border Services Agency Web site.

Accessibility

YouTube is a third-party service provider and is not bound by Government of Canada policies for Web accessibility.

The Government of Canada is committed to achieving a high standard of accessibility and is working to address issues with third-party service provider platforms. As such, all videos uploaded to our YouTube channel will be available on our Web site in accessible formats.

Copyright

Information posted by the CBSA is subject to the Copyright Act of Canada. For more information, see the Important Notices page on the CBSA Web site.

Official Languages

The CBSA respects the Official Languages Act and is committed to ensuring that information products of equal quality are available in both English and French. Videos will be posted simultaneously on CBSA's French and English YouTube channels.

Through the very nature of the social media forum, content will vary between the English and French YouTube accounts, particularly where messages and comments are concerned. Any comments that originate from the CBSA will be made available in both official languages. Comments, video responses, and questions that require a response will be answered in the official language of origin, unless it is deemed of interest to all Canadians.

Users should be aware that some links direct users to Web sites of organizations or other entities that are not subject to the Official Languages Act and that these sources are only available in the language in which they are written. These Web sites are not under the control of the Government of Canada and are provided solely for the convenience of visitors.

The YouTube interface is available in multiple languages including English and French. To change the interface's language settings, select either “English” or “French” from the language selection menu available in YouTube's website footer (the bottom of the website).

Privacy

The CBSA's YouTube channels are not Government of Canada Web sites and represent our presence on YouTube, a third-party service provider. Users are encouraged to read YouTube's Privacy Notice. 

To protect your own privacy and the privacy of others, the CBSA recommends that you do not include personal information in your comments or video response. Personal information includes home addresses and telephone numbers, photographs containing images of identifiable individuals, and any other information consisting of personal information as defined in paragraph 3 of the Privacy Act.

Information shared with the CBSA on YouTube is subject to the provisions of the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act, which means that the information you share with the CBSA via the commenting function on our channel or videos may be captured, stored, accessed and disclosed in response to a request under either of these acts.

The personal information provided by you to the CBSA's social media accounts is collected under the authority of section 4 of the Privacy Act, which authorizes the collection of information relating directly to an operating program or activity of the CBSA, and in accordance with the Communications Policy of the Government of Canada.

This information is collected to capture conversations between you and the CBSA via the Agency's social media accounts. “Conversations” include questions and answers, comments, ratings, shares and other interactions where you provide feedback on content that the Agency has posted, or when the Agency provides you with information based on content that you post. The personal information collected is described in Personal Information Bank entitled Public Communications (PSU 914).

Under the provisions of the Privacy Act, individuals have the right of access to, correction of and protection of their personal information. Instructions for obtaining your personal information are provided in Info Source, a copy of which is available in major public and academic libraries or online.

Should you have any questions about your privacy rights as explained in these Terms of Use, please contact the departmental Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) Coordinator.

Additional Information

If you are looking for more information about the Agency, please consult our Web site.
 
The usual ways of contacting us for official correspondence are detailed in the Contact Us section of our Web site.

If you have questions about this Terms of Use, please contact sm-ms@cbsa-asfc.gc.ca.

Contact information

The CBSA YouTube channels (www.youtube.com/CanBorder and www.youtube.com/Frontierecan) are managed by the Social Media Coordination team in the Communications Directorate of the CBSA, located at:

Corporate Marketing Unit
Canada Border Services Agency
191 Laurier Ave W., 9th floor
Ottawa ON
Canada
K1A 0L8

Email: sm-ms@cbsa-asfc.gc.ca
 
For further contact details, please see the Contact Us page on the CBSA Web site.

For media enquiries

Media representatives can contact CBSA's Media Relations.

Thank you for taking the time to read this Terms of Use. We encourage your participation in our discussion and look forward to an active exchange of ideas.