| |
Objective & Scope of Policy
Consistent with our professional obligations,
Simon Renouf Professional Corporation (‘SRPC’)
is dedicated to maintaining high standards of
confidentiality with respect to personal information
provided to us. This policy
statement has been prepared to affirm our
commitment to maintaining the privacy of our
clients and others and to inform you of our
practices concerning the collection, use and
disclosure of Personal Information collected by
SRPC.
Our obligations as legal professionals are
governed, in part, by the Code of Professional
Conduct of the Law Society of Alberta. SRPC is
also governed by the Alberta Personal
Information Protection Act, which imposes
obligations regarding the way private sector
organizations within Alberta collect, use and
disclose personal information. These obligations
apply to all professionals, employees,
contractors and agents who provide services in
connection with our delivery of legal and other
services to our clients.
For the purposes of this Policy, “Personal
Information” means any information, recorded in
any form, about an identified individual, or information through which an individual's identity may be inferred or determined. This policy
does not cover any information, recorded in any
form, about more than one individual where the
identity of the individuals is not known and
cannot be inferred from the information
(“Aggregated Information”). SRPC retains the
right to use Aggregated Information in any way
that it determines appropriate.
Using contractual or other arrangements, SRPC
shall ensure that agents, contractors or third
party service providers, who may receive
Personal Information in the course of providing
services to SRPC as part of our delivery of
products and services, protect that Personal
Information in a manner consistent with the
principles articulated in this Policy Statement.
Professional Relationship
As a general rule, all information concerning
the business and affairs of a person or
organization acquired (1) for the purposes of
determining whether SRPC will enter into a
professional relationship or (2) in the course
of a professional relationship shall be held in
strict confidence and not revealed to anyone
unless expressly or implicitly authorized by the
person or organization concerned. A professional
relationship develops when SRPC agrees to be
retained to provide services to a particular
individual or organization. In order to protect
their own interests, individuals or
organizations should not send confidential
information to SRPC until they have had a direct
discussion with a professional at the firm
regarding the retention of SRPC to provide legal
services.
The Collection, Use & Disclosure of Personal
Information
Your provision of Personal Information to SRPC
means that you agree and consent to the collection, use, and disclosure of your Personal
Information in accordance with this Privacy
Policy. If you do not agree with these terms,
you are requested not to provide any Personal
Information to SRPC. Unfortunately, certain
services can only be offered if you provide
Personal Information to SRPC. Consequently, if
you choose not to provide us with any required
Personal Information, SRPC may not be able to
offer you those services.
SRPC collects only such information from
individuals or organizations as is required for
the purposes of providing services or
information to them.
SRPC does not sell, trade, barter or exchange
for consideration any Personal Information it
has obtained. Unless permitted by law, no
Personal Information is collected about an
individual without first obtaining the consent
of the individual to the collection, use and
dissemination of that information.
Personal Information will be collected, to the
extent possible, directly from the individual
concerned.
Unless in the context of providing legal or
other services, SRPC does not knowingly collect
Personal Information from anyone under the age
of 18, especially children under 13, and does
not use such information if it discovers that it
has been provided by a minor.
SRPC may disclose Personal Information to
organizations that perform services on its
behalf. Personal Information will only be
provided to such organizations if they agree to
use such information solely for the purposes of
providing services to SRPC and under the
instruction of SRPC and, with respect to that
information, to act in a manner consistent with
the relevant principles articulated in this
Policy.
Please note that there are circumstances where
the use and/or disclosure of Personal
Information may be justified or permitted or
where SRPC is obliged to disclose information
without consent. Such circumstances may include:
- Where required by law or by order or requirement
of a court, administrative agency or other
government tribunal;
- Where SRPC believes, upon reasonable grounds,
that it is necessary to protect the rights,
privacy, safety or property of an identifiable
person or group;
- Where it is necessary to establish or collect
money owing to SRPC;
- Where it is necessary to permit SRPC to pursue
available remedies or limit any damages that
SRPC may sustain; or
- Where the information is public.
Where obliged or permitted to disclose
information without consent, SRPC will not
disclose more information than is required.
Accuracy
SRPC endeavours to ensure that any Personal
Information provided and in its possession is as
accurate, current and complete as necessary for
the purposes for which SRPC uses that
information.
Retention
SRPC keeps Personal Information only as long as
it is required for the reasons it was collected.
The length of time we retain information varies,
depending on the product or service and the
nature of the information. This period may
extend beyond the end of a person’s relationship
with us but it will only be for so long as it is
necessary for us to have sufficient information
to respond to any issues that may arise at a
later date. When your Personal Information is no
longer required for SRPC’s purposes, we have
procedures to destroy, delete, erase or convert
it into anonymous form.
Security
SRPC endeavours to maintain adequate physical,
procedural and technical security with respect
to its offices and information storage
facilities so as to prevent any loss, misuse,
unauthorized access, disclosure or modification
of Personal Information.
SRPC further protects Personal Information by
restricting access to it to those employees that
the management of SRPC has determined need to
know that information in order that SRPC may
provide its services.
In terms of communicating Personal Information
to SRPC, you may wish to note that there is no
method of transmitting or storing data that is
completely secure. While the physical
characteristics of each are different, mail,
telephone calls, faxes and transmissions over
the Internet are all susceptible to possible
loss, misrouting, interception and misuse of the
information being communicated or transmitted.
As do many organizations, SRPC attempts to
strike a reasonable balance between security and
convenience. In communicating with clients and
others, SRPC often requests the right to use a
method of communication that is less secure than
some of its less convenient alternatives. An
example of this is email. At this time, when we
use email, it may be sent as unencrypted plain
text. We do this because SRPC believes that many
of our clients and others cannot readily process
encrypted email. This is done for the
convenience of our clients but has the security
concern that, if misrouted or intercepted, it
could be read more easily than encrypted email.
SRPC Website
SRPC provides clients and others with general
access to its website. During the course of an
individual’s use of the Internet, he or she will
learn of the common use of “cookies.” “Cookies”
are files or pieces of information that may be
stored in a computer’s hard drive when an
individual visits a website. Most Internet
browsers are initially set to accept cookies. If
you do not wish to accept cookies, you can set
yours to refuse cookies or to alert you when
cookies are being sent. SRPC’s website does not
presently use cookies, clear GIFs or any type of
“web bug.”
Requests for Access to Personal Information
The law permits individuals to submit written
requests to us to provide them with:
- their Personal Information under our custody or
control;
- information about the purposes for which their
Personal Information under our custody or
control has been and is being used by us; and
- the names of persons to whom, and the
circumstances in which, their Personal
Information has been and is being disclosed by
us.
SRPC will respond to requests in the time
allowed by the Personal Information Protection
Act and will make reasonable efforts to assist
applicants and to respond as accurately and
completely as reasonably possible. All requests
may be subject to any fees and disbursements the
law permits us to charge.
An individual’s ability to access his or her
Personal Information under our control is not
absolute. The law provides that we must not
disclose Personal Information where:
-
the disclosure could reasonably be expected to
threaten the safety or physical or mental health
of an individual other than the individual who
made the request;
- the disclosure would reveal personal information
about another individual; or
- the disclosure would reveal the identity of an
individual who has in confidence provided us
with an opinion about another individual and the
individual providing the opinion does not
consent to the disclosure of his or her
identity.
The law further provides that we may choose not
to disclose Personal Information where:
- the Personal Information is protected by any
legal privilege;
- the disclosure of the information would reveal
confidential commercial information and it is
not unreasonable to withhold that information;
- the Personal Information was collected by us for
an investigation or legal proceeding;
- the disclosure of the Personal Information might
result in similar information no longer being
provided to us when it is reasonable that it
would be provided;
- the Personal Information was collected or
created by a mediator or arbitrator in the
conduct of a mediation or arbitration for which
he or she was appointed to act
- under an agreement,
- under an enactment, or
- by a court; or
- the Personal Information relates to or may be
used in the exercise of prosecutorial
discretion.
The Personal Information Protection Act
indicates that it is not to be applied so as to
affect any legal privilege. We will not disclose
information that is privileged where the
applicant is not the client in whom the
privilege is vested.
Requests for Correction of Personal
Information
The law permits individuals to submit written
requests to SRPC to correct errors or omissions
in their Personal Information that is in our
custody or control. We will:
- correct the Personal Information and, if
reasonable to do so, send correction
notifications to any other organizations to
whom we disclosed the incorrect information;
- decide not to correct the Personal Information
but annotate the Personal Information that a
correction was requested but not made.
Contacting or Communicating With Us
If you have any questions with respect to our
policies concerning the handling of your
Personal Information, or if you wish to request
access to, or correction of, your personal
information under our care and control, please
contact:
Simon Renouf Professional Corporation
930 Phipps McKinnon Building
10020 – 101A Avenue
Edmonton, AB T5J 3G2
780-424-6750
780-424-7768 (fax)
|
