At Delta Marine Services Ltd. (“Delta Marine”), we are committed to providing exceptional service. As providing this service involves the collection, use, and disclosure of some Personal Information about our clients, customers, and employees, protecting their Personal Information is one of our highest priorities.
While we have always respected our clients’, customers’, and employees’ privacy and safeguarded their Personal Information, we have strengthened our 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.
We will inform our clients, customers, and employees of why and how we 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 we will follow in protecting clients’, customers’, and employees’ Personal Information. Our privacy commitment includes ensuring the accuracy, confidentiality, and security of our clients’, customers’, and employees’ Personal Information and allowing our clients, customers, and employees to request access to, and correction of, their Personal Information.
This policy also applies to any service providers collecting, using, or disclosing Personal Information on behalf of Delta Marine, if applicable.
DEFINITIONS
Personal Information: means information about an identifiable individual (e.g., including name, age, home address and phone number, social insurance number, marital status, religion, income, credit history, medical information, education, employment information). Personal Information does not include Contact Information (described below).
Contact Information: means information that would enable an individual to be contacted at a place of business and includes name, position name or title, business telephone number, business address, business email or business fax number. Contact Information is not covered by this policy or PIPA.
Designated Individual: means the individual designated responsibility for ensuring that Delta Marine complies with this policy and PIPA.
Policy 1 – Collecting Personal Information
1.1 Unless the purposes for collecting Personal Information are obvious and the client, customer, or employee voluntarily provides their Personal Information for those purposes, we 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 We will only collect client, customer, and employee information that is necessary to fulfill the following purposes:
- To contact our clients, customers, and employees;
- To open and manage an account;
- To conduct business transactions
- To deliver requested products and services;
- To enrol the client, customer, or employee in a program;
- To meet regulatory requirements;
- To collect and process payments;
- To deliver sales offers and campaigns.
Policy 2 – Consent
2.1 We will obtain client, customer, and employee consent to collect, use or disclose Personal Information (except where, as noted below, we are authorized to do so without consent).
2.2 Consent can be provided orally, in writing, electronically, through an authorized representative or it can be implied where the purpose for collecting using or disclosing the Personal Information would be considered obvious and the client, customer, or employee voluntarily provides Personal Information for that purpose.
2.3 Consent may also be implied where a client, customer, or employee is given notice and a reasonable opportunity to opt-out of their Personal Information being used for mail-outs, the marketing of new services or products, fundraising and the client, customer, or employee 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, customers, and employees can withhold or withdraw their consent for Delta Marine to use their Personal Information in certain ways. A client’s, customer’s, or employee’s decision to withhold or withdraw their consent to certain uses of Personal Information may restrict our ability to provide a particular service or product. If so, we will explain the situation to assist the client, customer, or employee in making the decision.
2.5 We may collect, use, or disclose Personal Information without the client’s, customer’s, or employee’s knowledge or consent in the following limited circumstances:
- When the collection, use, or disclosure of Personal Information is permitted or required by law;
- In an emergency that threatens an individual’s life, health, or personal security;
- When the Personal Information is available from a public source (e.g., a telephone directory);
- When we require legal advice from a lawyer;
- For the purposes of collecting a debt;
- To protect ourselves from fraud; or
- To investigate an anticipated breach of an agreement or a contravention of law.
Policy 3 – Using and Disclosing Personal Information
3.1 We will only use or disclose client, customer, or employee Personal Information where necessary to fulfill the purposes identified at the time of collection or for a purpose reasonably related to those purposes such as:
- To conduct client, customer, or employee surveys in order to enhance the provision of our services;
- To contact our clients and customers directly about products and services that may be of interest;
- The disclosure is clearly in the interests of the individual and consent cannot be obtained in a timely way;
- The disclosure is necessary in order to collect a debt owed to the organization or for the organization to repay an individual money owed to them by the organization; or
- The disclosure is for the purpose of complying with a subpoena, warrant or order issued or made by a court, person or body with jurisdiction to compel the production of personal information.
3.2 We will not use or disclose client, customer, or employee Personal Information for any additional purpose unless we obtain consent to do so.
3.3 We will not sell client, customer, or employee lists or Personal Information to other parties.
Policy 4 – Retaining Personal Information
4.1 If we use client, customer, or employee Personal Information to make a decision that directly affects the client, customer, or employee, we will retain that Personal Information for at least one year so that the client, customer, or employee has a reasonable opportunity to request access to it.
4.2 Subject to policy 4.1, we will retain client, customer, or employee 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 We will make reasonable efforts to ensure that client, customer, and employee Personal Information is accurate and complete where it may be used to make a decision about the client, customer, or employee or disclosed to another organization.
5.2 Clients, customers, and employees 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.
A request to correct Personal Information should be forwarded to the Designated Individual.
5.3 If the Personal Information is demonstrated to be inaccurate or incomplete, we will correct the information as required and send the corrected information to any organization to which we disclosed the Personal Information in the previous year. If the correction is not made, we will note the client’s, customer’s, or employee’s correction request in the file.
Policy 6 – Securing Personal Information
6.1 We are committed to ensuring the security of client, customer, and employee Personal Information in order to protect it from unauthorized access, collection, use, disclosure, copying, modification, disposal, or similar risks.
6.2 The following security measures will be followed to ensure that client, customer, employee Personal Information is appropriately protected:
- Locking filing cabinets;
- Using user IDs, passwords, encryption, firewalls;
- Restricting employee access to Personal Information as appropriate (e.g., only those that need to know will have access); and
- Destroying documents containing personal information, or removing the means by which the Personal Information can be associated with particular individuals, as soon as it is reasonable to assume that retention is no longer necessary for legal or business purposes.
6.3 We will use appropriate security measures when destroying client’s, customer’s, or employee’s Personal Information, such as shredding documents and deleting electronically stored information.
6.4 We will continually review and update our security policies and controls as technology changes to ensure ongoing Personal Information security.
Policy 7 – Providing Clients, Customers, and Employees Access to Personal Information
7.1 Clients, customers, and employees have a right to access their Personal Information, subject to limited exceptions, such as:
- disclosure would reveal Personal Information about another individual, health, and safety concerns;
- the information is protected by solicitor-client privilege;
- the disclosure of the information would reveal confidential commercial information that, if disclosed, could, in the opinion of a reasonable person, harm the competitive position of Delta Marine;
- the information was collected or disclosed without consent, as allowed under section 12 or 18 of PIPA, for the purposes of an investigation and the investigation and associated proceedings and appeals have not been completed;
- the information was collected or created by a mediator or arbitrator in the conduct of a mediation or arbitration for which they were appointed to act: (a) under a collective agreement, (b) under an enactment, or (c) by a court; and
- the information is in a document that is subject to a solicitor’s lien.
7.2 A request to access Personal Information must be made in writing and provide sufficient detail to identify the Personal Information being sought. A request to access Personal Information should be forwarded to the Designated Individual.
7.3 Upon request, we will also tell clients, customers, and employees how we use their Personal Information and to whom it has been disclosed, if applicable.
7.4 We will make the requested information available within 30 business days, or provide written notice of an extension where additional time is required to fulfill the request.
7.5 A minimal fee may be charged for providing access to Personal Information. Where a fee may apply, we will inform the client, customer, or employee of the cost and request further direction from the client, customer, or employee on whether we should proceed with the request.
7.6 If a request is refused in full or in part, we will notify the client, customer, or employee in writing, providing the reasons for refusal and the recourse available to the client, customer, or employee.
Policy 8 – Questions and Complaints: The Role of Designated Individual
8.1 The Designated Individual is responsible for ensuring Delta Marine’s compliance with this Personal Information Protection Policy and the PIPA.
8.2 Clients, customers, and employees should direct any complaints, concerns or questions regarding Delta Marine’s compliance in writing to the Designated Individual. If the Designated Individual is unable to resolve the concern, the client, customer, or employee may also write to the Information and Privacy Commissioner of British Columbia.
Contact Information for the Designated Individual:
Tracy Chupick
Email: tracy@delta-marine.com
The Designated Individual is subject to change from time to time.