Canadian Dental Association

CDA has developed a DAT Privacy Policy that specifically addresses the personal information that is collected, used, transferred and otherwise processed for the DAT Program, including when the DAT portion of this website is used. There are also specific Terms of Use for the DAT portion of the website. Review the DAT Privacy Policy and DAT website Terms of Use below.

DAT Privacy Policy
DAT Terms of Use

DAT PRIVACY POLICY

Last Updated: March 8, 2022

APPLICATION

This DAT Privacy Policy (“the Policy”) explains how the Canadian Dental Association (“CDA”, “we” or “us”) collects, uses, transfers and otherwise processes your personal information for the Dental Aptitude Test Program (the “DAT Program”), including when you use our website https://www.cda‑adc.ca/en/becoming/dat/. The DAT Program consists of the set of activities, policies, and procedures as determined by the CDA that occur to support the Dental Aptitude Test examination.

The CDA reserves its right to change this Privacy Policy at any time. If we decide to change our Privacy Policy, we will notify you by revising the date at the top of the policy and, in some cases, we may provide you with additional notice (such as adding a statement to the “Becoming a Dentist” web page, or sending you a notification). We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy whenever you visit the “Becoming a Dentist” web page to stay informed about our privacy practices and your rights.

The Policy only applies to the DAT portion of the CDA website at www.cda-adc.ca/en/becoming/dat/. The Privacy Policy applicable to the other portions of the CDA website may be found here https://www.cda-adc.ca/en/important_notices/website_privacy_policy/default.asp.

HOW WE COLLECT YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

Your Personal Information

“Personal information” is all information related to an identifiable individual, including, but not limited to, your name, address, phone number, fax number, email address, or government-issued identification, credit card information, your unique CDA candidate identification number, test results, test registrations, and any other information concerning or provided by you for the DAT Program.

Information We Collect Directly from You

We collect information you provide directly to us. For example, we collect information when your register for the DAT, request Testing Accommodations, provide us with evidence of your eligibility to take the DAT, purchase DAT products and Services, request that we send your test scores to certain dental schools and otherwise communicate with us.

The type of information we may collect from you includes:

Contact information, such as your name, email address, mailing address and telephone number
Registration information, such as your previous writing(s) of the DAT, date of birth, preferred language for correspondence with us and for the DAT
Payment information, such as your credit card number

Information We Collect Automatically About Your Use of Our Website https://www.cda-adc.ca/en/becoming/dat/.

IP Addresses

An Internet Protocol (“IP”) address is a unique number automatically assigned to your computer whenever you access the internet. IP addresses allow computers and servers to recognize and communicate with one another. The IP address, on its own, may not identify an individual. We will only use your IP address with other information to personally identify you when necessary to enforce our legal rights (e.g., for a forensic audit) or when required to do so by law enforcement authorities.

CDA uses third-party web analytics services, including Google Analytics, which, in part, use IP addresses to evaluate use of, and interaction with our site, such as the pages you visit. This information assists us in improving our website. We receive this analytics information in aggregate form from Google so that it cannot reasonably be manipulated to identify any particular individual user.

Cookies

Our sole use of cookies on https://www.cda-adc.ca/en/becoming/dat is to create a user session that prevents a user from being charged twice for the same order. Eventually the user will timeout and be redirected back to the beginning of the registration. The cookies do not contain user information and are not used for any other purpose.

HOW WE USE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

We use your personal information for a number of purposes related to the administration of the DAT:

management and operation of the registration, eligibility and requested testing accommodation processes;
the provision of products and services you may wish to purchase for the DAT Program;
administration of the examination;
investigation and prevention of testing irregularities, fraudulent transactions and other illegal activities to protect the integrity of the DAT examinations and the testing process; and
adherence to the policies and procedures In the DAT Candidate Guide.

The CDA administers the DAT in collaboration with the American Dental Association (the "ADA") whose Department of Testing Services ("DTS") has experience in the development and administration of an examination program in the United States on which the DAT is based. The ADA provides services to the CDA to support many of the DAT administration processes.

One of the services provided by the ADA is to verify the eligibility of a registrant who has previously taken the DAT with CDA ("DAT history"). DAT history includes, for each previous attempt:

their DAT ID number;
the language of the test;
the date of the test;
their component scores (biology, chemistry, natural sciences, perceptual ability and reading comprehension and average score)

Because the ADA also manages the contract with Prometric, it provides approved Testing Accommodation requests transferred from the CDA to Prometric for administration of the examination.

The CDA has entered into a written agreement with the ADA to receive services from the DTS to support the DAT. The agreement requires the ADA, as well as any subcontractors it retains to assist with the delivery of these services, such as Prometric as the test administration vendor, to provide your personal information with a comparable level of protection as is provided by the CDA.

When your personal information is available to the ADA, Prometric or other subcontracted vendors in the United States, the laws of that country apply to the information. The CDA's contract with the ADA or its privacy policies cannot override these laws. As a result, there exists a risk that United States law enforcement or regulatory agencies might be able to obtain access to your personal Information under the laws of the United States.

WHEN WE DISCLOSE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

We do not disclose your personal Information to third parties, except as described in this Privacy Policy. We may disclose your personal information:

For the Purpose of the Examination Program

The CDA will disclose your examination results to the dental schools and/or other entities in accordance with your written authorization or as you have designated in your electronic registration for the DAT at: https://www.cda-adc.ca/en/becoming/dat/register_dat/ for the purposes of the Examination Program. Your examination results may be released or reported without your authorization in accordance with those policies in this Candidate Guide indicating that such notification is appropriate, for example the notification of dental schools or dental regulators concerning an irregularity.

For Policy Making

As explained in the "Purpose of the Examination" section of the Candidate Guide:

"The Dental Aptitude Test (DAT) Program is provided by the Canadian Dental Association (CDA) to assist dental schools in selecting first-year students. Dental schools use information concerning candidates’ DAT performance to inform admissions decisions. While most dental schools require applicants to participate in the DAT Program, DAT results are just one factor considered in evaluating applicants. Validity studies have shown that test scores in conjunction with academic performance are useful in predicting success in dental school. The relative importance of these predictors in the admission process is determined by each dental school."

Because dental schools require applicants to take the DAT, there is interest from both students as well as dental school administrators in understanding the role that DAT results generally, specific test items, as well as other factors such as undergraduate academic performance, play as a predictor of a student's performance while in dental school and in their first few years of practice.

We may disclose your DAT results to researchers conducting statistical analyses to answer these questions provided we are satisfied that their research practices and their privacy policies will provide your personal information with a comparable level of protection as is provided by the CDA.

As Permitted or Required by Law

The CDA will disclose your personal information as permitted or required by law. This Includes:

to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation;
protect and defend the CDA's rights and property;
protect to safety of the Users of the CDA website and/or the public; and
protect against legal liability

HOW WE PROTECT YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

The CDA has implemented a number of measures to protect your privacy and the confidentiality and security of your personal information. Security measures include physical precautions such as locking file cabinets and restricting access to cabinets, offices and files. The CDA's contract with the ADA is one of organizational measures it has in place, as well as limiting access on a "need-to-know" basis; that Is, limiting access to your personal information to only those personnel who require access in order to perform their employment responsibilities. All employees are made aware of the importance of protecting personal information against loss or theft, as well as unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use or modification regardless of the format in which the information is held. Technological measures including passwords and encryption are implemented in our systems

The CDA recognizes the sensitivity of certain personal information related to the DAT Program. According, we have implemented additional security safeguards for the purposes of the administration of the DAT:

regular exchanges of personal information between the CDA and the ADA, such as the CDA DAT testing history file and the ADA Results File use a secure file transfer protocol ("sFTP");
ad hoc communications of personal information between the CDA and ADA are sent through documents exchange via encrypted channels onto corporate OneDrive folders where access permissions are managed by the CDA Information technology department;
your examination results are uploaded into a server where they may be accessed only by the dental schools and others you have authorized through an sFTP; and
in those very limited cases in which the CDA has not implemented an sFTP with a dental school you have identified as a recipient of your examination results (e.g., because the CDA rarely has a need to communicate with this particular dental school), we will send your examination results by way of password-protected PDFs or other secure means.

RETENTION OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

Our retention periods for personal Information are based on our business needs and legal requirements. We retain personal Information for as long as Is necessary for the purposes we have Identified in this Privacy Policy. We may also retain certain transaction details and correspondence (e.g., related to DAT results audit) until the time limit for claims arising from the transaction has expired.

Generally, electronic data for all DAT registrants who take the DAT will be held for a period of 10 years from the date of the registrant's receipt of their DAT scores. In the event that an individual has not used [https://www.cda-adc.ca/en/becoming/dat/register_dat/] to register for the DAT, personal information will be retained for a period of five years.

LINKS TO OTHER WEBSITES

This Privacy Policy applies to the DAT pages of the CDA website at https://www.cda‑adc.ca/en/becoming/index.asp and other mechanisms through which the CDA processes your personal information for the DAT Program.

When you click on the links to the Prometric website, you are informed about the personal information that Prometric collects about you for the administration of the DAT examination, and how it is used and disclosed. Please review those sections of the Prometric Privacy Policy that explain in more detail how the test administrator processes both your biometric and other identity information for the purposes of ensuring the integrity of the testing process and the results.

YOUR PRIVACY RIGHTS FROM THE CDA

You may request access to, or correction of your personal information that the CDA processes for the DAT Program. You may also contact us if you have any questions or comments about our privacy practices or this Privacy Policy.

To reach us by mail, please send your Inquiry to:
Chief Privacy Officer
Canadian Dental Association
1815 Alta Vista Drive
Ottawa, ON K1G 3Y6

Or contact us by email at: reception@cda-adc.ca

TERMS OF USE GOVERNING THE USE OF AND ACCESS TO CDA’S BECOMING A DENTIST WEBSITE

Last Updated: March 8, 2022

APPLICATION AND INTERPRETATION

These Terms of Use apply when you access the CDA website https://www.cda‑adc.ca/en/becoming/dat/ (the “Website”). We operate the Website as a service to individuals and other entities that are interested in our products and services (the “Services”) for the Dental Aptitude Test Program (the “DAT Program”).

By accessing and using the Website, each user (individually a “User” and collectively the “Users”) agrees to be bound by the terms governing the use of and access to the Website (“Terms of Use”) that include CDA’s Privacy Policy and all other related policies and procedures included in the Candidate Guide (collectively referred to as the “Policies”). These Terms of Use do not apply to other sections of the CDA website www.cda-adc.ca. The Terms of Use for the other sections of the CDA website may be found at: https://www.cda-adc.ca/en/important_notices/terms_of_use/default.asp

By accessing and using the Website, you acknowledge that you have read and understand the Policies and agree to be bound by them. The CDA reserves its right to change, alter, revise, amend or modify the Policies at any time without any prior notice to Users of the Website. Any use of the Website following any change, alteration revision, amendment, or modification to the Policies shall constitute acceptance of the Policies by the User.

If we decide to change our Policies, we will notify you by revising the date at the top of the Terms of Use and, in some cases related solely to the Privacy Policy, we may provide you with additional notice (such as adding a statement to the “Becoming a Dentist” web page, or sending you a notification). We encourage you to review these Terms of Use whenever you visit the “Becoming a Dentist” web page to stay informed about the terms governing your use of the Website.

USE OF THE WEBSITE

You agree not to do, or attempt to do, any of the following when using the Website, subject to applicable law: (a) access or use the Website in any way that violates or is not in full compliance with any applicable local, provincial, national, or international law, regulation, or statute (including export laws), contracts, or intellectual property rights, or constitutes the commission of a tort, or for any purpose that is harmful or unintended (as determined solely by the CDA), or other in full compliance with the Policies; (b) access, tamper with, or use services or areas of the Website that you are not authorized to access; (c) alter information on or obtained from the Website; (d) tamper with postings, registration information, profiles, submissions, or Contents (as defined below) of other users of the Website; (e) use any robot, spider, scraper, or other automated means or interface not provided by us to access the Website or extract data or gather or use information, such as email addresses or images, available from the Website in a way that interferes with or is inconsistent with the intended operation of the Website, as determined by the CDA in its sole discretion, or transmit any unsolicited commercial email, advertising, “junk mail,” “spam,” or “chain letters” to or from the Website; (f) frame any part of the Website, or deceptively link to the Website, or otherwise make it look like you have a relationship to us or that we have endorsed you for any purpose except as expressly permitted in writing by us, as determined in our sole discretion; (g) impersonate or misrepresent your identity or your affiliation with any person or entity; (h) reverse engineer any aspect of the Website or do anything that might reveal or attempt to reconstruct source code, or bypass or circumvent measures employed to prevent or limit access to any area, Contents, or code of or on the Website (except as otherwise expressly permitted by law); (i) send to or otherwise direct to or from the Website, or operate on it, harmful, illegal, deceptive, or disruptive code such as a virus, “spyware,” “adware,” or other code that could adversely impact the Website or any recipient; (j) take any action which might impose a significant burden (as determined by us in our sole discretion) on the Website’s infrastructure or computer systems, or otherwise interfere with the ordinary operation of the Website; or (k) engage in phishing or other deceptive practices for the purpose of collecting usernames or passwords.

PRIVACY POLICY

Among other matters, the DAT Privacy Policy explains how the CDA, collects, uses, transfers, discloses, and otherwise processes personal information when a User accesses the Website. The CDA reserves the right to change the DAT Privacy Policy at any time with or without notice to Users of the Website. The current version of the DAT Privacy Policy will be posted here.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

This Website is owned and operated by the CDA and contains materials protected by copyright, trademark and trade secret laws of Canada and other countries, as well as any and all applicable laws, statutes, and regulations.

The materials and content accessible via this Website, including, but not limited to, text, names, data, compilations, graphics, logos, buttons, icons, images, audio, video, code, methods, techniques, models, and software (collectively, the “Contents”), are the property of, or licensed by the CDA and are protected by the applicable patent, copyright, trademark, and trade secret laws of Canada and other countries. Except as otherwise expressly permitted under the Policies, Users may only download copyrighted material for their own personal or dental school use, provided that the User is explicitly prohibited from modifying the Contents in any way and/or modifying or otherwise altering any copyright, trademark, and other proprietary notices on the Contents. The User may not copy, store (either in hard copy or in electronic format), transmit, transfer, perform, broadcast, publish, reproduce, create a derivative work from, display, distribute, sell, offer for sale, license, rent, lease, frame, deep link to, or otherwise use the Contents in any manner inconsistent with the rights of the CDA, including, but not limited to, any use of the Contents for any commercial purpose, without the prior written consent of the CDA.

INDEMNIFICATION

Each User of the Website agrees to indemnify, save, defend, and hold the CDA and each of the CDA’s successors, assigns, or licensees (together with any of their respective officers, directors, and employees) harmless against any damages, losses, liabilities, judgments, costs, or expenses (including any attorneys’ fees and costs) arising out of claims by any third party relating to the User’s usage of the Website, or any breach or violation of the Policies or any other terms and conditions contained on this Website.

LINKS TO THIRD PARTY WEBSITES

These Website Terms of Use apply to the use of the Website https://www.cda‑adc.ca/en/becoming/dat/.

With the exception of the link to the Prometric site as described in the Privacy Policy above, and any other links to third party websites that the CDA may specifically identify in its Policies, from time to time, a User’s access to third-party sites, the User may also be subject to the terms of use, legal notices, privacy policies, and other policies of such third-party website. Links from this Website to third-party websites are provided by the CDA to the User solely for the User’s convenience. The User understands and agrees that if the User elects to leave this Website via a link to a third-party site, the content of that third-party site is not reviewed, provided, or endorsed by the CDA, and the CDA has not reviewed, provided, or approved the terms of use or other policies governing such third-party sites. The CDA does not monitor and does not make any representation or warranty with respect to or assume any liability for any third-party site, including, without limitation, any products or services that are advertised or made available for purchase through such third-party site.

GOVERNING LAW AND JURISDICTION

The User understands and agrees that any claim, action, proceeding, or other legal action arising out of or related to the Policies, or the User’s use and/or access of the Website, shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the province of Ontario and the federal laws of Canada applicable in the province, without regard to principles of conflict of laws.

Any claim, actions, proceeding, or other legal action arising out of or related to the Policies will be resolved exclusively by a court of competent jurisdiction.

DISCLAIMER

The Website, Services, and Contents are provided to users on an “as is,” “as available” basis. The CDA, CDA’s licensors and/or service providers, and their respective affiliates, subsidiaries, officers, directors, employees, and agents make no, and hereby disclaim all, representations or warranties, whether express or implied, with respect to the Website, the Services, Contents, and/or the Policies. The CDA does not represent or warrant that: (a) operation of the Website shall be uninterrupted or error free, (b) functionality contained in the Website shall meet the user’s requirements, or that (c) the Website shall operate in combination with other hardware or software.

To the fullest extent permitted under any applicable law, the CDA hereby disclaims all warranties of any kind, express or implied, including, but not limited to, any representations and warranties regarding accuracy, timeliness, completeness, noninfringement, title, merchantability, or fitness for any particular purpose.

The CDA assumes no responsibility or liability with respect to the consequences of any errors or omissions in connection with the Website, the Services, the Contents, and/or Policies. In no event shall the CDA be liable to any user or third party for any claim arising out of or relating to the User’s usage and/or access of the Website, the Services, any of the Content, and/or the Policies.

In no event will the CDA be liable to the user or any third party for special, indirect, incidental, consequential, punitive, or exemplary damages, even if the CDA has been advised of the possibility of such damages. In no event will the CDA be liable to the User or any third party for any loss of revenues, loss of profits, loss of business, loss of use, or loss of data. In no event shall the CDA, CDA’s licensors and/or service providers, and their respective affiliates, subsidiaries, officers, directors, employees, and agents be liable to you for any damages in excess of the fees paid by you.