Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA) – Our Agency’s Commitment to your Privacy

The Insurance Exchange is committed to providing our clients with excellent service. Doing business with a multi-line insurance broker involves providing information about yourself, so protection of your personal information is one of our highest priorities.

Our brokerage and the insurance industry have a solid track record of respecting your personal information. As a result of federal and provincial legislations, we have further strengthened our privacy commitment by informing you of why and how we collect, use and disclose your personal information. You can be assured that we will only handle your personal information in a manner that a reasonable person would consider appropriate in the circumstances.

What is PIPA?

PIPA or Personal Information Protection Act came into effect on January 1st, 2004. PIPA has been implemented to regulate the way that the private sector organizations collect, use, keep secure and disclose personal information. With the legislation in place, it ensures that organizations manage personal information responsibly. This essentially means that individuals have been given more control over the way their personal information is handled and has a right to request access to and/or correction of that particular information.

Why do we collect personal information?

When you first become a client or whenever you acquire or renew a product from us, we need to collect some of your personal information.
Common purposes include:

• Enable us to acquire or renew an insurance policy for you.
• Assist you and assess your ongoing needs for insurance.
• Assess your need for other products, such as financial products, and offer them to you.
• Ensure your information is accurate and up-to-date.
• Protect us both against error or fraud.

What personal information do we collect?

Personal information is information that identifies you as an individual client and relates specifically to you. Depending on the purpose(s) for which we need to collect it, we may ask for the following personal information about you including:

• Basic information such as your name, address, telephone, fax number, e-mail address, birthdate and marital status.
• Claims history.
• Credit and past payment records.
• Driver’s record.
• Details about your property such as the value of your home and its contents.
• Medical information.
• Smoking habits.
• Employment information.

We may obtain this information from:

• You.
• Insurance companies.
• Other insurance brokers or agents.
• Credit organizations.
• Motor vehicle and driver licensing authorities.
• Financial institutions.
• Medical professionals.

Who do we disclose your personal information to?

For many of the purposes identified above, we will need to share your personal information with others in order to serve your needs. These other parties commonly include:

• Insurance Companies.
• Other insurance brokers or agents.
• Credit organizations.
• Professionals working with us such as adjusters or lawyers.
• Financial institutions.

How do we protect your personal information?

In order to protect your personal information and right to privacy we will:

Not collect, use or disclose your personal information for any purpose other than those that we identify to you.

Keep your personal information only for as long as we need it to fulfill the stated purpose or as required by law.

Maintain your personal information in as accurate, complete and up-to-date a form as possible.

Safeguard your personal information to the best of our ability.

Respond to any request you may make to access or correct the personal information we hold about you.

Obtain the appropriate consent from you for the collection, use or disclosure of your personal information.

Consent

We may obtain your express consent or we may determine that consent has been implied by the circumstances.

We might ask you for your express consent in writing.
We may ask for your express consent in person or over the telephone.
We may determine that by seeking insurance through our organization, your consent has been implied for us to deal with your personal information in a reasonable manner.

There are also legal exceptions in which we will not need to obtain your consent or explain the purposes for the collection, use or disclosure of your personal information. This could apply when there is an emergency situation, or if it is necessary for your protection or ours.

Our Safeguards

Our organization will use the appropriate safeguards such as:

Make reasonable security arrangements to protect personal information in our custody including physical measures, technical tools and organizational controls.

Safeguard personal information from unauthorized access, collection, use, disclosure, copying, modification or disposal.

Protect personal information regardless of the format in which it is held.

Our Agency’s goals in protecting your personal information and providing you with Choices

It is our Agency’s goal to strengthen our privacy commitments. We want our clients to be informed about our privacy policies and aware that they have choices. You have the right to refuse to allow us to obtain your personal information as well as withdraw a previously given consent at any given time. However, this may limit or even prevent our ability to provide you with the products or service you desire.
For example, if you do not allow us to obtain information about the claims history of your home, it is unlikely that we will be able to provide you with home insurance.

If you have any concerns towards the privacy of your personal information, we would gladly discuss your concerns and assist you in making your decisions.