Privacy Policy
Last updated: November 06, 2026
PhD Career Academy is operated by Winnova Management Inc., based in Sherwood Park, Alberta. This policy explains what personal information we collect through phdcareeracademy.com and our emails, why we collect it, where it is kept, and the choices you have.
We follow Alberta’s Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA), Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) where it applies, and Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL).
The short version
- We collect only what we need to do what you ask: send a guide, deliver your Career Claimers Index™ results, book a call, or run a program.
- We never sell or rent your information.
- We email you only with your consent, and every email has an unsubscribe link.
- You can ask to see, correct, or delete what we hold about you.
Who is responsible
Don Back, Managing Partner, is responsible for how PhD Career Academy handles personal information. You can reach him at info@phdcareeracademy.com with any question about this policy or your information.
What we collect, and why
Field Notes. Your name, your email address, and the situation you choose when you sign up. We use them to send Field Notes and, occasionally, news of programs and events, and to understand which ideas are most useful to readers in each situation.
Free guides and workbooks. Your name and email address, so we can send what you asked for. If you also tick the Field Notes box, we add you to Field Notes as above.
The Career Claimers Index™. See the next section.
Career Strategy Calls. Your name, email address, the time you choose, and anything you tell us about what you would like to discuss. We use them to hold the call (by Zoom) and prepare for it.
Talk and workshop requests. Your name, email address, organization, and the details of your event, so we can reply and plan.
Messages you send us. Whatever you include, so we can reply.
Member accounts and programs. Your name, email address, username, and password (stored encrypted, never readable by us), your progress through course material, and anything you post in the member community. We use them to give you access and run the program.
Programs through your university or a funded program. If you join a program through a university partner or a program supported by a grant, we usually report only totals, such as how many people took part and completed it, with no one named. If our agreement with the university or funder requires named information, such as your attendance or completion, we report only what it requires, and we will tell you when you join.
Purchases. Your name, email address, and billing details. Card payments are handled by our payment processor, Stripe; we never see or store your card number.
Website visits. Like most websites, ours records technical information such as your IP address, browser, the pages you visit, and the site that referred you. We use it to keep the site secure and working, and, through Google Analytics, to see in aggregate which pages are read.
The Career Claimers Index™
The Career Claimers Index™ is a self-assessment of career readiness across two dimensions: Professional Agency and Academic Attachment.
What we collect: your name, email address, and consent; your answers to its 30 questions; the scores calculated from your answers, which place you in one of four career readiness profiles; and the date and number of times you have taken it. Some questions ask about your financial situation and sense of security. Don uses those answers only to prepare for a coaching conversation if you have one with him.
How we use it: to calculate your results and send them to you by email; to send you a short series of emails matched to your profile (you can stop them at any time); if you work with Don, to prepare for your conversations; and to improve the assessment using combined scores that don’t identify anyone.
What we don’t do: we never sell or share your answers or scores.
Storage: your answers and scores are kept with your contact record in our email system on our website’s server. If you take the assessment again, your new scores replace the old ones; we keep a count of how many times you have taken it. We delete your assessment records within 30 days if you ask.
Email and your consent
We send Field Notes, assessment follow-ups, and news of programs and events only to people who have agreed to receive them. When you sign up for Field Notes, we send a confirmation email first, and you are subscribed only once you confirm.
We keep a record of when and how you gave consent. If you unsubscribe, we keep your email address with that record and the date you left, so we can show we had consent and make sure we don’t email you again.
Every email says who it is from, how to reach us, and has an unsubscribe link that works straight away. Messages you need in order to use something you asked for, such as a guide, a booking confirmation, or a password reset, are sent whether or not you subscribe.
Who else handles your information
We use a small number of service providers to run the site and send email. Each handles your information only to provide its service to us.
| Provider | What it does for us | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Bluehost | Hosts the website and its database, including our contact records | United States |
| Amazon Web Services | Sends our emails (Amazon SES); stores the downloadable guides (Amazon S3) | Canada (email); United States (downloads) |
| Website analytics (Google Analytics); calendar for booked calls | United States | |
| Zoom | Video for Career Strategy Calls and coaching | United States |
| Akismet (Automattic) | Checks form submissions for spam | United States |
| Wordfence (Defiant) | Protects the site from attacks; checks the IP addresses of visits | United States |
| Stripe | Processes card payments | United States and Canada |
Information stored or accessed outside Canada. As the table shows, some of these providers store or process information in the United States, where it is subject to US law and may be accessed by authorities there. To ask how these providers handle your information, contact Don Back at info@phdcareeracademy.com.
Cookies
Our site uses cookies that are needed for it to work: to keep you signed in, protect forms from spam, and secure the site. It also uses Google Analytics cookies to count visits. We don’t show advertising and don’t use advertising cookies. You can block or delete cookies in your browser; signing in to a member account needs them.
How long we keep it
- Subscribers: while you are subscribed. After you unsubscribe, only your email address and the consent and unsubscribe records (see above).
- Career Claimers Index™: while you are a contact, or until you ask us to delete it.
- Calls, enquiries, and talk requests: as long as we need them to respond and to keep a record of our work together.
- Clients and purchases: six years, as Canadian tax law requires for business records, and for reporting to the institutions and funders we work with.
- Website and security logs: for the short periods set by our hosting and security providers.
How we protect it
The site uses an encrypted connection (HTTPS). Passwords are stored encrypted. Access to contact records is limited to Don and anyone helping him who needs it for their work. We use security software and keep backups. No system is perfectly secure; if a breach ever created a real risk of significant harm to you, we would notify you and Alberta’s Information and Privacy Commissioner, as the law requires.
Your choices and rights
You can ask us at any time to:
- tell you what personal information we hold about you and how we have used it;
- correct anything that is wrong;
- stop emailing you (or use the unsubscribe link in any email); or
- delete your information, apart from what we must keep by law.
Write to info@phdcareeracademy.com. We reply within 30 days.
If you are unhappy with our answer, you can contact the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta or the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.
If you live in the European Union or the United Kingdom, you also have the rights given by the GDPR, including to restrict or object to how we use your information and to receive it in a portable format. We rely on your consent for emails and the Career Claimers Index™, and on our legitimate interest in a secure, working website for site logs and analytics. You can also complain to your local data protection authority.
Age
This site is for adults. We don’t knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18.
The member community
Participants in programs hosted in our member community can post there, and what you post can be seen by other members. Please think before sharing personal details there.
Changes to this policy
We will update this page when our practices change, and change the date at the top. If a change affects how we use information you have already given us, we will tell you by email and ask for your consent where the law requires it.
Contact
Don Back, Managing Partner
PhD Career Academy (Winnova Management Inc.)
Sherwood Park, Alberta, Canada
info@phdcareeracademy.com