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At
BC Travel Guide.ca, we are committed to providing our clients
and customers with exceptional service. As providing this
service involves the collection, use and disclosure of some
personal information about our clients, protecting their
personal information is one of our highest
priorities.
While
we have always respected our client’s 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 and customers 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’ and customers’ personal information. Our
privacy commitment includes ensuring the accuracy,
confidentiality, and security of our clients’ and customers’
personal information and allowing our clients and customers to
request access to, and correction of, their personal
information.
DEFINITIONS
Personal
Information –means information about an identifiable
individual. For example a client or customer’s name, home
address and phone number, email address, flight information
and credit card details. 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.
Privacy
Officer – means the individual designated responsibility for
ensuring that BC Travel Guide.ca complies with this policy and
PIPA.
POLICY
1 – COLLECTING PERSONAL INFORMATION
Unless
the purposes for collecting personal information are obvious
and the client and customer voluntarily provides his or her
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.
We
will only collect client and customer information that is
necessary to fulfill the following purposes:
- To verify
identity, we may collect name, home address, home telephone
number;
- To identify [client and customer]
preferences;
- To deliver requested products and
services;
- To ensure a high standard of service to our
[clients and customers];
- To meet regulatory
requirements;
POLICY
2 – CONSENT
We
will obtain client and customer consent to collect, use or
disclose personal information (except where, as noted below,
we are authorized to do so without consent).
Consent can
be provided orally, in writing, and electronically or it can
be implied where the purpose for collecting using or
disclosing the personal information would be considered
obvious and the client and customer voluntarily provides
personal information for that purpose.
Consent
may also be implied where a client and customer is given
notice and a reasonable opportunity to opt-out of his or her
personal information being used for mail-outs, the marketing
of new services or products, fundraising and the client and
customer does not opt-out.
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 and customers can withhold or withdraw
their consent for BC Travel Guide.ca to use their personal
information in certain ways. A client’s, customer’s, member’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 and customer in making the
decision.
We
may collect, use or disclose personal information without the
client’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 phone directory);
-
When we require legal advice from a lawyer;
- For the
purposes of collecting a debt;
- To protect ourselves from
fraud;
- To investigate an anticipated breach of an
agreement or a contravention of law.
POLICY 3 – USING AND DISCLOSING PERSONAL INFORMATION
We
will only use or disclose client and customer 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 gather information to
enhance the provision of our services;
- To contact our
clients and customers directly about products and services
that may be of
interest.
We
will not use or disclose client and customer personal
information for any additional purpose unless we obtain
consent to do so. We will not sell client and customer lists
or personal information to other parties.
POLICY
4 – RETAINING PERSONAL INFORMATION
If we use
client and customer personal information to make a decision
that directly affects the client and customer, we will retain
that personal information for at least one year so that the
client and customer has a reasonable opportunity to request
access to it.
We
will retain client and customer 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
We
will make reasonable efforts to ensure that client and
customer personal information is accurate and complete where
it may be used to make a decision about the client and
customer or disclosed to another organization.
Clients and
customers 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. .
POLICY
6 – SECURING PERSONAL INFORMATION
We
are committed to ensuring the security of client and customer
personal information in order to protect it from unauthorized
access, collection, use, disclosure, copying, modification or
disposal or similar risks.
The
following security measures will be followed to ensure that
client and customer personal information is appropriately
protected:
- The use of locked filing cabinets;
-
Physically securing offices where personal information is
held;
- The use of user IDs, passwords, encryption,
firewalls;
- Restricting employee access to personal
information as appropriate (i.e., only those that need to know
will have access; contractually requiring any service
providers to provide comparable security
measures.
We
will use appropriate security measures when destroying
client’s, customer’s, member’s personal information such
as:
- Shredding documents;
- Deleting electronically
stored information.
We
will continually review and update our security policies and
controls as technology changes to ensure ongoing personal
information security.
POLICY
7 – PROVIDING CLIENTS AND CUSTOMERS ACCESS TO PERSONAL INFORMATION
Clients
and customers have a right to access their personal
information, subject to limited exceptions.
A
request to access personal information must be made in writing
and provide sufficient detail to identify the personal
information being sought. Upon request, we will also tell
clients and customers how we use their personal information
and to whom it has been disclosed if applicable.
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.
A
minimal fee may be charged for providing access to personal
information. Where a fee may apply, we will inform the client
and customer of the cost and request further direction from
the client and customer on whether or not we should proceed
with the request.
If
a request is refused in full or in part, we will notify the
client and customer in writing, providing the reasons for
refusal and the recourse available to the client and customer.
POLICY
8 – QUESTIONS AND COMPLAINTS: THE ROLE OF THE PRIVACY OFFICER OR DESIGNATED
INDIVIDUAL
The
designated individual is responsible for ensuring BC Travel
Guide.ca’s compliance with this policy and the Personal
Information Protection Act.
Clients and customers should
direct any complaints, concerns or questions regarding BC
Travel Guide.ca’s compliance in writing to the Privacy
Officer. If the Privacy Officer is unable to resolve the
concern, the client and customer may also write to the
Information and Privacy Commissioner of British Columbia.
Contact
information for BC Travel Guide.ca:
1993 Kloppenburg
Court
Kelowna, BC V1P 1N6
Tel: 250-451-9306 Fax:
250.451-9308
Email:
info@bctravelguide.ca
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