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Personal Information Protection Private Sector Privacy LegislationPersonal Information Protection Policy AgnesKnowlesdotca Personal Information Protection PolicyAt AgnesKnowlesdotca, I am committed to providing my clients and customers with exceptional service. As providing this service involves the collection, use and disclosure of some personal information about clients and customers, protecting their personal information is one of my highest priorities. While I have always respected my clients and customers privacy and safeguarded their personal information, I have strengthened my commitment to protecting personal information as a result of British Columbia’s Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA). PIPA, which came into effect on January 1, 2004, sets out the ground rules for how B.C. businesses and not-for-profit organizations may collect, use and disclose personal information. I will inform my clients and customers of why and how I collect, use and disclose their personal information, obtain their consent where required, and only handle their personal information in a manner that a reasonable person would consider appropriate in the circumstances. This Personal Information Protection Policy, in compliance with PIPA, outlines the principles and practices I will follow in protecting my clients’ and customers’ personal information. My privacy commitment includes ensuring the accuracy, confidentiality, and security of my clients’ and customers’ personal information and allowing my clients and customers to request access to, and correction of, their personal information. DefinitionsPersonal Information –means information about an identifiable individual. Personal information does not include contact information (described below). Contact information – means information that would enable an individual to be contacted and includes name, title, telephone number, address, email or fax number. Contact information is not covered by this policy or PIPA. Policy 1 – Collecting Personal Information 1.1 Unless the purposes for collecting personal information are obvious and the client / customer voluntarily provides his or her personal information for those purposes, I will communicate the purposes for which personal information is being collected, either orally or in writing, before or at the time of collection. 1.2 I will only collect my clients’ and customers’ information that is necessary to fulfill the following purposes:
Policy 2 – Consent 2.1 I will obtain client consent to collect, use or disclose personal information. 2.2 Consent can be provided electronically or it can be implied where the purpose for collecting using or disclosing the personal information would be considered obvious and the client voluntarily provides personal information for that purpose. 2.3 Consent may also be implied where a client is given notice and a reasonable opportunity to opt-out of his or her personal information being used for mail-outs, the marketing of new services or products and the client does not opt-out. 2.4 Subject to certain exceptions (e.g., the personal information is necessary to provide the service or product, or the withdrawal of consent would frustrate the performance of a legal obligation), clients can withhold or withdraw their consent for AgnesKnowlesdotca to use their personal information in certain ways. A client’s decision to withhold or withdraw their consent to certain uses of personal information may restrict my ability to provide a particular service or product. If so, I will explain the situation to assist the client in making the decision. 2.5 I may collect, use or disclose personal information without the client’s, customer’s, member’s knowledge or consent in the following limited circumstances:
Policy 3 – Using and Disclosing Personal Information 3.1 I will only use client personal information where necessary to fulfill the purposes identified at the time of collection or:
3.2 I will not use or disclose client information for any additional purpose. 3.3 I will not sell client lists or personal information to other parties. Policy 4 – Retaining Personal Information 4.1 If I use client, customer, member personal information to make a decision that directly affects the client I will retain that personal information for at least one year so that the client has a reasonable opportunity to request access to it. 4.2 Subject to policy 4.1 I will retain client, customer, member personal information only as long as necessary to fulfill the identified purposes or a legal or business purpose. Policy 5 – Ensuring Accuracy of Personal Information 5.1 I will make reasonable efforts to ensure that client personal information is accurate and complete where it may be used to make a decision about the client. 5.2 Clients may request correction to their personal information in order to ensure its accuracy and completeness. A request to correct personal information must be made in writing and provide sufficient detail to identify the personal information and the correction being sought. 5.3 If the personal information is demonstrated to be inaccurate or incomplete, I will correct the information as required. Policy 6 – Securing Personal Information 6.1 I am committed to ensuring the security of client personal information in order to protect it from unauthorized access, collection, use, disclosure, copying, modification or disposal or similar risks. 6.2 The following security measures will be followed to ensure that client personal information is appropriately protected:
6.3 I will use appropriate security measures when destroying client’s personal information such as deleting electronically stored information. 6.4 I will continually review and update security policies and controls as technology changes to ensure ongoing personal information security.
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