We are accountable for the personal information under our control by establishing, training our staff in, and enforcing our privacy policies and procedures to promote compliance with these privacy principles.

We have designated a privacy officer who is accountable for personal information under our control and responsible for compliance with this Privacy Notice. Please see Our Privacy Office for information on how to reach the privacy officer.

 We have strict policies and procedures governing how we deal with your personal information. Every employee is responsible for respecting and protecting the personal information to which the employee has access.

We collect, use and disclose personal information responsibly and only for the purposes for which it was collected. When we collect personal information, we may use it to:

• Provide and manage products and services you have requested, including;
  • Open and operate your account,
  • Verify your identity,
  • Execute your transactions
  • Recording account information and report account status back to you
  • Respond to any request or questions you may have
  • Provide you with quality personalized client service and support
• Understand our customers and to develop and tailor our products and services
  • Determine suitability of products and services for you
  • Determine your eligibility for certain of our products and services, or products or services of others
  • Communicate with you about products and services that may be of interest
  • Market and advertise to clients and prospective clients
  • Perform data analytics
• Legal and Regulatory Obligations
  • Provide all required tax reporting
  • Comply with legal, regulatory, and contractual requirements, or as otherwise permitted or required by law
  • Fulfill obligations under federal anti-money laundering and suppression of terrorism legislation
  • Protect our interests, including recovering any debts you may owe us
  • Protect against fraud and other crime and to manage risk, including conducting investigations and proactive crime prevention measures

Your personal information may also be used for purposes named in your respective application forms and account agreements.

If a new purpose for using your personal information develops, we will inform you of that purpose.

Depending on the type and sensitivity of the personal information and the way you choose to interact with us (in person, internet, phone, email, etc.), we may obtain your consent in different ways.

• We may obtain your express consent verbally, online, or in writing. For instance, when we collect your information via our account application form, you will formally indicate your consent for us to collect and use the information when you sign the application.
• We may, however, get your implied consent through your use of a product or service, or when you approach us to obtain information, inquire or apply for products or services from us.
• Also, we may obtain consent directly from you or by your authorized representative, such as your mortgage agent, broker or their dealership.

Before we make information available to third parties, other than an agent or service provider who needs it, we will tell you at the time of consent or before we make the information available, who those third parties are, the kind of information we want to share with them, and why.

Revoking Consent

You may withdraw your consent for the collection, use and disclosure of your personal information at any time by forwarding a written request to the Privacy Officer. Please include your full name, address, telephone number and account number(s) on any correspondence to us.

However there are certain times when you may not withhold or revoke your consent including certain legal, regulatory, or contractual requirements.

We must receive reasonable notice of your request in order to honour your consent withdrawal.

Your decision to withhold or revoke your consent may limit the products and services that we may provide to you.

We limit collection of your personal information to that which we determine is necessary for the purposes we identify for you.

We only collect the personal information we determine we need for our identified purposes.

For instance, we may collect:

• Contact Information, including name, address, telephone number, and email address
• Date of birth to help us identify and authenticate you
• Social Insurance Number (SIN), as required to comply with Canada Revenue Agency’s reporting requirements and is also used to keep your information separate from that of other clients with a similar name
• Financial Information to ensure that products, services, and advice we provide are appropriate for you and the investments you make are suitable for you
• Device Information such as information about your browser, operating system, software applications, IP address, geolocation, security status, and other device information to improve your experience, to protect against fraud, and to manage risk
• Website Use Information such as browsing behaviour on our sites and links, location you click, form data and downloads, as well as other data gathered from the use of web tools (for instance, Cookies, Web Beacons, Tagging) to better understand your interests and needs so that we can serve you better. For more information, see our Online and Mobile Privacy Policy.
• Employment Information to open accounts and in order to comply with anti-money laundering and other regulations
• Audio Recordings, when we monitor or record incoming or outgoing telephone calls with you to ensure accuracy, security, service quality, for training purposes, and to establish a record. If you do not wish to have your call recorded, you have other options to conduct business with us, such as in person, online, or by communicating with us in writing
• Video Recordings or Photographs, as we may use video or photo surveillance in and around our offices for the safety of our clients and employees, and to protect against theft, property damage, and fraud
• Social Media, when communicating with us through social media, we may monitor or record our discussions for mutual protection, to enhance client service, and to confirm our discussions with you.
• Email Information, when you send us an email or ask us to respond to you by email, we learn your exact email address and any information included in the email. We use your email address to reply to you and we will store your communication and our reply in case we correspond further. IMPORTANT: We will not ask you to provide personal information or login information, such as username, passwords, PINs, security question and answers or account numbers, through unsolicited email. If you receive an email claiming to be from us that you believe to be fraudulent, do not respond and do not open or click any links or open attachments contained in the email. Please notify us immediately and then delete the email.

We do not use or disclose your personal information for purposes other than those for which it was collected, except with your consent or as required by law.

Use

We only use or disclose your information for the purpose(s) it was collected and as otherwise identified in this Notice.

Disclosure

Access to personal information is restricted to those staff members who need the information to carry out their job duties. Those employees maintain the information in the strictest of confidence and do not provide access to the information to anyone who is not authorized.

We may provide your information to third parties, including:

• To third party service providers for servicing purposes – We disclose to them only such personal information as they need to perform the services. We do not authorize them to use or disclose the personal information for their own marketing or other purposes. We have contracts in place holding these companies to the same standards of confidentiality by which we are governed. They may be located in Canada or other jurisdiction or countries and may disclose information in response to valid demands or requests from governments, regulators, courts and law enforcement authorities in those jurisdictions or countries in accordance with the applicable law in that jurisdiction or country.
• To your Mortgage Agent/Broker
• To your legal representatives
• To your financial institutions and Lenders
• To Real Mortgage Associates company affiliates, We may share personal information among any of the subsidiaries and affiliated companies that comprise Real Mortgage Associates. Who perform administrative services for us and/or to better understand your financial needs and to provide products and services we believe may interest you.
• To governments, government agencies, regulators, including self-regulators, when required or permitted to do so by law, including in response to a search warrant, court order, or other demand or inquiry which we believe to be valid
• To protect our interests, we may disclose information to any person or organization, including an investigative body, in order to prevent, detect or suppress, financial abuse, fraud, criminal activity, protect our assets and interests, or manage or settle any actual or potential loss or in the case of a breach of agreement or contravention of law. We may also disclose information to help us collect a debt owed to us
• In the event of a transfer of a business, we may buy or sell a business (or evaluate those transactions) which would result in certain personal information forming business assets that would be purchased or sold as part of a transfer. We may also transfer personal information as part of a corporate reorganization or other change in corporate control
• In other situations where we have your consent, for instance, sharing your information with an authorized party.

We do not sell or rent client lists or personal information to third parties.

We have policies in place that govern the retention of your personal information, so we keep it only for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfill its intended purpose or to satisfy legal requirements. When we no longer retain your personal information, we have procedures to destroy, delete, erase, or convert it to an anonymous form, in a manner that keeps it safe in the process.

Where your information is kept

Your personal information is kept:

• In electronic or paper format in our offices
• In secure off-site storage facilities, or
• In the offices of our service providers

We may store your personal information via third party entities that reside in foreign jurisdictions. Information may be transferred to, accessed and/or retained by these third parties. We have contracts in place holding these companies to the same standards of confidentiality by which we are governed. We and/or a third party may be compelled, by law or otherwise, to provide information to a third party, subject to applicable privacy law. We must abide by applicable privacy law in the jurisdiction(s) in which we operate.

Retention

We have policies in place that govern the retention of your personal information so we keep it only for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfill its intended purpose or to satisfy legal requirements. The length of time we keep your information will depend upon the product or service and the nature of the information.

Deletion

When we no longer retain your personal information, we have procedures to destroy, delete, erase or convert it to an anonymous form, in a manner that keeps it safe in the process.

We maintain your personal information in as accurate, complete, and up-to-date form as is needed for its use.

We are committed to maintaining the accuracy of your personal information and take reasonable efforts to keep your information complete and up-to-date. We maintain your personal information in as accurate, complete, and up-to-date form as is needed for its use.

If you discover inaccuracies in our records, or your personal information changes, please notify your financial advisor or contact our Client Services Department directly [Note this is a link to contact information for Client Services] so that we can make the necessary changes. Failure to notify us of changes to your personal information may negatively impact the way we communicate or provide services to you. Where appropriate, we will advise others of any material amendments to your personal information that we may have released to them.

We maintain appropriate security safeguards to protect against unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use or modification, theft, misuse, or loss of your personal information in our custody or control. These safeguards are appropriate to the sensitivity of the information.

We maintain appropriate physical, electronic, technological, procedural, and organizational safeguards to protect against unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use or modification, theft, misuse, or loss of your personal information in our custody or control. These safeguards are appropriate to the sensitivity of the information.

We have agreements in place with third party service providers requiring that any information we provide to them must be safeguarded and used only for the purpose of providing the service we have requested the provider to perform.

Upon request, we will inform you of the existence, use and disclosure of your personal information and will give you access to that information, with few exceptions.

Individuals do not always need to use their right under the law to access or correct their personal information with us. Clients are encouraged to contact our Client Services department to correct or access their information. However, you do have the right, subject to certain limitations, to formally request to review or verify your personal information, or to find out to whom we have disclosed it. To make a formal request for access, send a written request addressed to the Privacy Officer in Contact Us below. Please include your full name, address, telephone number, and account number(s) on all correspondence to us and provide enough detail to allow us to identify the information you want.

Upon request, we will provide you with access to your personal information we have on record at the time of the request. Please note that we may not be able to provide you with this information in certain circumstances, for example without limitation, where such information:

• Contains references to other persons
• Contains proprietary information confidential to us or your financial advisor
• Has been destroyed
• Is too costly to retrieve
• Is subject to legal or some other form of privilege
• Cannot be disclosed for legal reasons
• Relates to an investigation

If we are unable to provide some of the personal information, we hold about you, we will tell you why where permitted by law.

We will advise you in advance if a minimal charge will be required for conducting the search and we will respond to your request within 30 days.