Your
Privacy Matters to Us
Pelling & Associates Insurance is subject to the Personal
Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act ("C-6" or "PIPEDA")
effective January 1st, 2004. The purpose of this Act is to make all
public bodies, including financial service institutions, more
accountable to the public in the way they collect, use and dispose
of information.
Pelling & Associates Insurance collects, creates and maintains
information for the purposes of issuing, underwriting, and servicing
insurance policies. The purpose of this web page is to inform the
public, and policyholders about the legislation and to answer
general questions concerning how the Act will affect the collection,
use, disclosure and protection of information.
Pelling & Associates Insurance Privacy Act Officer,
Debbie Hurtig,
can be reached at 604 263 3400.
Privacy Policy
Pelling & Associates Insurance is committed to respecting the
privacy rights of individuals by ensuring that their personal
information is collected, used, and disclosed in an appropriate
manner. We have designated a Privacy Officer on behalf of Pelling &
Associates Insurance who has sufficient authority within the company
to ensure compliance.
We
will use reasonable means to ensure that personal information is
given a level of protection while being processed by a third party.
Common purposes for collection include:
-
Enabling the Broker to acquire or renew an insurance policy;
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Assisting the customer with their claim
-
Assisting a 3 rd party dealing with our customer's claim
We may
obtain express consent for the collection, use, or disclosure of
personal information OR we may determine that consent has been
implied by the circumstances.
Express consent is specific authorization given to us by the
Insureds, either orally or in writing. Implied consent is one in
which we have not received oral or written authorization from the
Insureds, but the circumstances allow us to collect, use, or
disclose the personal information.
Consent may be withdrawn at any time, however, we would require such
withdrawal to be in writing.
There
are circumstances wherein we are not required to obtain an
individual's consent or explain the purpose for collection, use or
disclosure of their personal information:
We may
collect personal information without consent where it is in the
individual's interest and timely consent is unavailable, or to
investigate a breach of an agreement or a contravention of a law;
-
In
an emergency situation where an individual's life, health or
security is threatened;
-
We
may disclose personal information without consent for law
enforcement, national security, debt collection, to a lawyer
representing our company or in an emergency position (see above)
-
We
will only use or disclose personal information for legitimate
purposes. We will retain the personal information only as long
as necessary for the fulfillment of why we collected the
information initially.
Pelling & Associates Insurance will ensure the accuracy and
completeness of personal information under our care and control.
Pelling & Associates Insurance will also protect the personal
information, regardless of the format, against loss, theft,
unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use, or modification. When
we transfer client information to a third party, we will mask any
information that is not needed by the third party. Our methods
include:
-
Locked filing cabinets;
-
Floor alarm system with motion detectors
-
All computer-based data is protected by passwords, encryption
and firewalls
-
All computer-based data is regularly backed-up and stored
off-site in both on-line and off-line formats. Data is purged
from computer systems after seven years.
-
All closed claims files of our Insureds are stored in a secure
facility. Those records are destroyed seven years after their
closed date. All paper documentation is placed in recycling bins
- either shredded or not.
-
Pelling & Associates Insurance also has a paper shredder on
site.
All
staff are aware of who our Privacy Officer is so if any member of
the public calls, they can be directed to our Officer.
Upon
written request, an individual will be informed as to whether or not
we hold personal information about him/her. If Pelling & Associates
Insurance does hold such information, we will provide access to that
information and how we use it to that individual. We will respond to
all written requests within 30 days (unless we explain we need a
longer period).
We may
refuse the request and, in that regard, our refusal will be
explained in writing.
We
will not be providing access to information to an individual if that
personal information reveals information about someone else,
someone's life or security might be threatened, the information was
collected without consent for the purposes of an investigation of a
breach of an agreement or contravention of the law.
Our
Privacy Officer will keep a Privacy Log in which each request or
complaint is logged as to name, time, date, request or complaint,
answer or resolution.