THE NOTARY FOUNDATION PRIVACY POLICY (June 2009):
1. PRIVACY POLICY
The professionals and staff at The Notary Foundation recognize the importance of privacy and the sensitivity of personal information. Although the federal Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act do not apply to our activities, we are committed to protecting personal information we hold in accordance with law. This Privacy Policy outlines how we manage personal information and safeguard privacy.
2. PERSONAL INFORMATION
Personal information means information about an identifiable individual, but does not include the name, title or business address or telephone number of an employee of an organization.
3. PERSONAL INFORMATION AT THE NOTARY FOUNDATION
NFBC has relationships with a wide range of notaries, lawyers and grant recipients. In doing so, we often collect and use personal information. As well, NFBC sends to individuals information concerning developments regarding our various activities.
4. COLLECTING PERSONAL INFORMATION
We collect personal information fairly and in accordance with the law. Generally, we collect personal information directly from individuals to whom it relates.
Sometimes we may obtain information about individuals from other sources including, without limitation, any person interacting with Notary Foundation grantees, other members of the legal profession, financial institutions, information in grant applications, and consumer-reporting agencies (see “Credit Bureaus” below).
5. CONSENT
In most cases, if we collect, use, or disclose personal information, we will obtain consent from the individual to whom it relates. Sometimes we will ask for consent in writing, but in some cases, we may accept verbal consent. Sometimes consent may be implied through conduct with us or the nature of an individual’s relationship with us. Should consent be withdrawn, that may impact on our activities. The Notary Foundation of B.C. Privacy Policy Page 2 of 3 Building Better Communities, One Grant at a Time
6. USE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION
We use personal information to receive interest on notaries pooled trust accounts, to administer our information databases, to build and to maintain our expertise and knowledge, and to include individuals in our information distribution and marketing activities. We also use personal information to facilitate the making of grants. If an individual no longer wishes to receive information about developments in our various activities, he or she can ask us not to send any further material.
7. DISCLOSURE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION
NFBC does not disclose personal information to third parties (except to the Society of Notaries Public of British Columbia) to enable them to inform their members of the Foundations activities and to maximize the investment and revenue return to the NFBC.
Under certain circumstances The Notary Foundation may disclose personal information. Some examples are:
- when the relevant individual has consented to the disclosure;
- when we are required by law to do so, or required by a warrant, a subpoena, or rules of court to do so;
- when either the interest collection or the grant-making activities in which we engage require us to disclose personal information to third parties, an individual’s consent will be implied, unless he or she tells us otherwise;
- where it is necessary to collect interest from a pooled trust account;
- where the disclosure is to a successor to all or a part of The Notary Foundation activities;
- if we engage a third party to provide administrative services to us (such as computer back-up services, archival file storage, or insurance) and the third party is bound by obligations regarding privacy which are consistent with this Policy; or
- if we retain other professionals or firms in the course of our activities and the professionals or firms are each bound by obligations regarding privacy which are consistent with this Policy
8. UPDATING INFORMATION
Since we use personal information to engage in our activities, it is important that the information be accurate and up-to-date. If during the course of your relationship with The Notary Foundation, any of your personal information changes, we ask that you please inform us so that we can make any necessary changes. We may also periodically inquire whether particular individual’s personal information is accurate and up-to-date. The Notary Foundation Privacy Policy Page 3 of 3 Building Better Communities, One Grant at a Time
9. SECURING PERSONAL INFORMATION
The Notary Foundation takes precautions to ensure that personal information is kept safe from loss, unauthorized access, modification or disclosure. Among the steps taken to protect personal information are:
- premises security;
- confidentiality policies;
- deploying technological safeguards like security software and firewalls to prevent unauthorized computer access or “hacking”; and
- Internal password and security policies.
10. E-MAIL
E-mail is not an entirely secure medium, and appropriate precautions should be taken when contacting us to send personal or confidential information such as financial information and grant applications.
11. CREDIT BUREAUS
To help us to try to prevent fraud, and to check the identity of individuals and in order to assess applications, on occasion we may request information about individuals or organizations from the files of consumer-reporting agencies.
12. WEB SITE
Our website contains links to other sites, which are not governed by this Policy.
On our website, like most other commercial websites, we may monitor traffic patterns, site usage and related site information in order to optimize our web service. We may provide aggregated information to third parties, but these statistics do not include any identifiable personal information.
The Notary Foundation does not use cookies nor does The Notary Foundation use any electronic means to automatically collect personal information from users of The Notary Foundation website or their computers; however, web servers used by The Notary Foundation will automatically collect Internet Protocol (“IP”) addresses and we may view our web server IP log from time to time to prevent fraudulent acts and possible network attacks.
13. QUESTIONS
Any questions regarding personal information should be directed to:
Todd McKendrick
Executive Officer
The Notary Foundation
Email: tmckendrick@notaryfoundation.ca
14. CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY
The Notary Foundation reviews all of its policies and procedures periodically and we may change this Privacy Policy from time to time.