Fintracker

Privacy Principles

The Forward Form Solutions ("Solutions") is committed to protecting its customers' privacy and confidentiality in accordance with our obligations under the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, to the extent that such laws and policies are applicable to the delivery of the Fintracker software through Solutions' online portal hosted on our website and mobile app (collectively "the Service")

This Privacy Policy (the "Policy") explains how the Solutions will collect, use and disclose customers' Personal Information in the course of providing the Service. You must read the Policy carefully in order to gain a clear understanding of how Solutions will collect, use or disclose customers' Personal Information in the course of administering the Service and our website.

By using the Service or our website, or otherwise interacting with us, you consent to the collection, use and disclosure of your personal information by Solutions in accordance with the terms of and for the purposes set out in the Privacy Policy.

The following is a short summary of the key elements of this Policy. You can read the full version of the Policy following the summary.

SUMMARY OF PRIVACY POLICY

We may collect the following Personal Information about you:

Customer name
Customer complete physical address
Customer alternate contact information
Customer birth month and year
Password(s) customer is asked to create in order to use the Service
Answers to security questions customer is asked when they register for the Service
Type and version of the electronic device(s) customer uses to access the Service
Dates on which customer uses the Service
Customer's selected preferences, such as primary language of Service (English or French), etc.
Transaction property address
Sales representative/broker name
Date on which the customer's credit file was consulted
Nature of customer's principal business or occupation
Details of federal/provincial/territorial government-issued photo ID
Name of Canadian Credit bureau holding the credit file and reference number of credit file
Name of source verifying an individual identity and account or reference number
Measures taken to ascertain the identity of an unrepresented individual
Relationship between third party and customer, where the customer acts on behalf of a third party
Determination of the risk level of a money laundering or terrorist financing offence for a customer
Receipt of Funds Record, including transaction and payment information

We may use your Personal Information for the following purposes:

Initiate or provide customers with the Service and access to the website;
Provide customers with ongoing technical support;
Provide ongoing administration of customer registration;
Provide customers with relevant ads;
Comply with legal requirements such as a law, regulation, search warrant, subpoena or court order;
Detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, identity theft, security or other technical issues;
Protect the rights, property or safety of Solutions, our employees or customers, or the public, as required or permitted by law.

We may share your Personal Information with the following parties:

(a) Individuals or organizations who are our advisers, legal counsel or service providers;

(b) Individuals or organizations who are, or may be, involved in maintaining, reviewing and developing our systems, procedures and infrastructure including testing or upgrading our computer system;

(d) Brokers and compliance officers are provided with access to all real estate forms submitted by agents within a brokerage; and

(e) Administrators of McDermot Software Inc. that host the Service, who have access to all the data stored by Solutions.

Solutions does not otherwise share any Personal Information it collects with third parties unless authorized by the customer.

You have the following choices:

Cookies Settings and Preferences. You may disable cookies and tracking pixels through the settings in your browser. While doing so may negatively affect your experience with the use of our Service, it will not prevent us from transacting with you.
Advertising: We place ads on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn in order to engage with our targeted audience and make our ads more relevant to you. To opt-out of receiving relevant ads from us, you may contact us at info@fintracker.ca. Note that Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn may be able to use the data about your visits to our website for their own advertising purposes. You can opt-out of Facebook's, Instagram's and LinkedIn's use of cookies and pixel re-marketing by visiting their privacy policies.
Opt-Outs. You may contact our Privacy Officer at info@fintracker.ca to opt out of the use or sharing of your personal information. If you would rather not provide us with your Personal Information digitally, you can do manually. However, please note that declining to provide us with key information about the real estate transaction could result in a suspicious transaction report (STR). For more information on STRs, please see: https://www.fintrac-canafe.gc.ca/guidance-directives/transaction-operation/Guide3/str-eng/.

In case of a breach of security safeguards, we will:

determine whether the breach creates a real risk of significant harm to you, including physical, financial or reputational harm;
notify you, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada and/or any provincial Information and Privacy Commissioner(s), as appropriate;
notify any other organization or government institution that can reduce the risk or mitigate the harm from the breach; and
keep a record of the breach in accordance with our legal obligations.

How to contact us:

For more information about this Policy, our privacy practices or to obtain access to or correction of your personal information, please contact our Privacy Officer at info@fintracker.ca.

FULL VERSION OF PRIVACY POLICY

This Policy covers the following:

What is Personal Information?
What Personal Information does Solutions collect?
Why does Solutions collect customer's Personal Information?
How does Solutions collect customer's Personal Information?
How does Solutions collect Personal Information from Minors?
How does Solutions use customer's Personal Information?
When may Solutions disclose customer's Personal Information?
Cookies
How can customers access or correct any inaccuracies in their Personal Information?
How does Solutions protect customer's Personal Information?
Links to other websites.
Resolving customer privacy concerns.
Changes to this Privacy Policy.

Principles

In the delivery of the Service, Solutions complies with the following principles set out in Schedule I to PIPEDA:

Principle 4.1 (Accountability) – An organization is responsible for personal information under its control and must designate an individual responsible for compliance with PIPEDA;

Principle 4.2 (Identifying Purposes) – An organization must specify why it is collecting personal information, and such purposes must be identified at or before the information is collected;

Principle 4.3 (Consent) – An organization must obtain an individual's consent for the collection of personal information and subsequent use and disclosure;

Principle 4.4 (Limiting Collection) – An organization must limit the collection of information to that which is necessary for the identified purposes;

Principle 4.5 (Limiting Use, Disclosure, and Retention) – An organization must not use or disclose personal information for a purpose other than for which it was collected, except with the consent of the individual or where required or permitted by law;

Principle 4.6 (Accuracy) – An organization must ensure that personal information it maintains is accurate, complete, and up to date;

Principle 4.7 (Safeguards) – An organization must take appropriate safeguards to protect personal information;

Principle 4.8 (Openness) – An organization must be open about its policies and practices;

Principle 4.9 (Individual Access) – An organization must provide individuals with a right of access to their personal information, subject to certain restrictions as set out in PIPEDA; and

Principle 4.10 (Challenging Compliance) – An organization must advise individuals of its complaint procedures.

1. What is Personal Information?

"Personal Information" means any information, recorded in any form, about an identified individual or an individual whose identity may be inferred or determined from such information, other than business contact information (e.g. name, title, business address) collected, used or disclosed solely for the purpose of communicating or facilitating communication with the individual in relation to their employment, business or profession.

This Policy does not cover aggregated data from which the identity of an individual cannot be determined. Solutions retains the right to use aggregated data in any way that we determine appropriate.

2. What Personal Information does Solutions collect?

We collect the following types of Personal Information from customers during the registration process to become a user of the Service are:

Customer name
Customer complete physical address
Customer alternate contact information
Customer birth month and year
Password(s) customer is asked to create in order to use the Service
Answers to security questions customer is asked when they register for the Service
Type and version of the electronic device(s) customer uses to access the Service
Dates on which customer uses the Service
Customer's selected preferences, such as primary language of Service (English or French), etc.

We retain the CREA Fintrac forms (Individual Identification Information Record, Corporation/Entity Identification Information Record and Receipt of Funds Record) submitted by real estate agents, but do not keep true copies of the documents required in order to fill the mandatory fields in these forms.

The following informed will be retained as part of our Individual Identification Information Record, as required to be completed by a REALTOR member whenever they act in respect of purchase and sale of real estate:

Transaction property address
Sales representative/broker name
Date on which the customer's credit file was consulted
Nature of customer's principal business or occupation
Details of federal/provincial/territorial government-issued photo ID
Name of Canadian Credit bureau holding the credit file and reference number of credit file
Name of source verifying an individual identity (e.g. government/financial entity/utility provider) and account or reference number
Measures taken to ascertain the identity of an unrepresented individual
Relationship between third party and customer, where the customer acts on behalf of a third party
Determination of the risk of a money laundering or terrorist financing offence for a customer: assessed level of risk and explanation
Receipt of Funds Record, including transaction and payment information, as required to be completed by a REALTOR member for every amount of funds received in the course of a single purchase or sale real estate transaction

We also collect business information about corporate clients (Corporation/Entity Identification Information Record, as required to be completed by a REALTOR member whenever they act in respect of purchase and sale of real estate.

We may also collect non-personally identifiable information about customers' use of our Service or website when they interact with or use our Service or website, or respond to e-mails, newsletters or promotional or other information communications.

3. Why does Solutions collect Personal Information?

Solutions may use the Personal Information customers provide to enable customers to use sign language to communicate with voice telephone users as follows:

(a) Initiate or provide customers with the Service and access to the website;

(b) Provide customers with ongoing technical support;

(d) Provide customers with relevant ads;

(e) Comply with legal requirements such as a law, regulation, search warrant, subpoena or court order;

(f) Detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, identity theft, security or other technical issues;

(g) Protect the rights, property or safety of Solutions, our employees or customers, or the public, as required or permitted by law.

Solutions may also use aggregated non-identifying information for research and analysis in order to improve the Service or our website, or in connection with promotional or other informational communications

4. How does Solutions collect customers' Personal Information?

Solutions only collects Personal Information for purposes that would be considered reasonable in the circumstances and only such information as is required for the purposes of providing the Service. We use only fair and lawful methods to collect Personal Information.

Unless permitted by law, no Personal Information is collected, without first obtaining the consent of the individual concerned to the collection, use and disclosure of that information. However, we may seek consent to use and disclose Personal Information after it has been collected in those cases where we wish to use the information for a new or different purpose where the individual concerned has not already consented to such a use of their personal information.

In most cases and subject to legal and contractual restrictions, customers are free to refuse or withdraw their consent at any time upon reasonable, advance notice. It should be noted that in certain circumstances, the Service can only be offered if customers provide their Personal Information to Solutions. Consequently, if a customer chooses not provide us with the required Personal Information, we may not be able to offer them the Service. We will inform the customer of the consequences of the withdrawal of consent.

5. How does Solutions Use customers' Personal Information?

Solutions uses the information we collect to provide customers with the Service and the website, and to respond to customer questions. We also use it to provide a better user experience and to continue improving the quality of our products and services. We may use Personal Information and other information to communicate with customers about our Service, including updates or newsletters, or to deliver content that may be of interest to customers.

We also use the information we collect to ensure that our Service and website remain functioning and secure, or to investigate, prevent or act on any illegal activities or violations of our Service Agreements. Our use of Personal Information is limited to the purposes described in this Policy and Solutions does not otherwise sell, trade, barter, exchange or disclose for consideration any Personal Information it has obtained.

6. When may Solutions Disclose Customers' Personal Information?

(i) Solutions may disclose Customers' Personal Information to:

(a) Individuals or organizations who are our advisers, legal counsel or service providers;

(b) Individuals or organizations who are, or may be, involved in maintaining, reviewing and developing our systems, procedures and infrastructure including testing or upgrading our computer system;

(d) Brokers and compliance officers are provided with access to all real estate forms submitted by agents within a brokerage; and

(e) Administrators of McDermot Software Inc. that host the Service, who have access to all the data stored by Solutions.

Solutions does not otherwise share any Personal Information it collects with third parties unless authorized by the customer.

(ii) Where Solutions transfers Personal Information to service providers or contractors that perform services on our behalf, we will require those third parties to use such information solely for the purposes of providing services to Solutions or our users, and to have appropriate safeguards for the protection of that Personal Information. Sharing of information with third party service providers and contractors will occur only after those entities have entered into a confidentiality agreement that:

(a) prohibits them from using, allowing access to, or disclosing customer Personal Information to any other party (unless required to do so by law); and

(b) requires them to have appropriate protections in place to ensure the ongoing confidentiality of customer's Personal Information.

(iii) Cross border transfer of information legal retention obligations.

Solutions may transfer personal information to a service provider which is located outside of Canada where privacy laws may offer different levels of protection from those in Canada. Customers' personal information may also be subject to access by and disclosure to law enforcement agencies under the applicable foreign legislation.

7. Where disclosure can be made without consent>

Please note that there are circumstances where the use and/or disclosure of Personal Information may be justified or permitted or where Solutions 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 governmental tribunal;
Where Solutions 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 permit Solutions to pursue available remedies or limit any damages that we may sustain;
Where the information is public as permitted by law;
Where it is reasonable for the purposes of investigating a breach of an agreement, or actual or suspected illegal activity; or
Where it is necessary for the purpose of a prospective business transaction if the information is necessary to determine whether to proceed with the transaction or to complete the transaction, or a completed business transaction where the information is necessary to carry on the activity that was the object of the transaction. A "business transaction" includes:
the purchase, sale or other acquisition or disposition of an organization or a part of an organization, or any of its assets;
the merger or amalgamation of two or more organizations;
the making of a loan or provision of other financing to an organization or a part of an organization;
the creating of a charge on, or the taking of a security interest in or a security on, any assets or securities of an organization;
the lease or licensing of any of an organization's assets; and
any other prescribed arrangement between two or more organizations to conduct a business activity.

Where obliged or permitted to disclose information without consent, Solutions will not disclose more information than is required.

8. Cookies and tracking pixels

We use Cookies to collect usage information when you visit our website and to serve advertisements to users. Cookies are small text files placed on your hard drive that assist us in providing a more customized website experience. It is our policy to use cookies to make navigation of our website easier for visitors.

Declining cookies: If you are concerned about cookies, most browsers permit individuals to decline cookies. To learn how you may be able to reduce the number of cookies you receive from us, or disable cookies that have already been installed in your browser's cookie folder, please refer to your browser's help menu or other instructions related to your browser. You can also learn more about cookies by visiting www.allaboutcookies.org, which includes additional useful information on cookies and how to block cookies using different types of browsers. Note that while declining cookies may negatively affect your user experience on our websites, it will not prevent us from transacting with you.

Tracking pixels

We use pixels to track clicks to our website from our ads on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. The use of pixels allows us to understand and deliver ads and make them more relevant to you. You can opt-out of our use of this information by modifying the settings in your browser.

Note that Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn may be able to use this data for their own advertising purposes. You can opt-out of Facebook's, Instagram's and LinkedIn's use of cookies and pixel re-marketing by visiting their privacy policies.

9. How can Customers access or correct any inaccuracies in their Personal Information?

Solutions endeavors to ensure that any Personal Information provided and in its possession is as accurate, current and complete as necessary for the purposes for which we use that information. If a customer advises Solutions that Personal Information is inaccurate, incomplete or out of date, we will revise the Personal Information and, if necessary, use its best efforts to inform third party service providers or contractors which were provided with inaccurate information so that those third parties may also correct their records.

Solutions permits the reasonable right of access and review of Personal Information held by us about an individual and will endeavour to provide the information in question within a reasonable time, generally no later than 30 days following the request. To guard against fraudulent requests for access, we may require sufficient information to allow us to confirm that the person making the request is authorized to do so before granting access or making corrections.

We will provide information from our records in a form that is easy to understand. Solutions reserves the right not to change any Personal Information, but will append any alternative text the individual concerned believes to be appropriate.

Solutions will not charge customers for verifying or correcting their information, however, to the extent permitted by applicable law, there may be a minimal charge imposed if you need a copy of records.

We keep customers' 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 purpose for which it was collected and the nature of the information. This period may extend beyond the end of the customer's relationship with us but it will be only 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 customers' Personal Information is no longer required for Solutions' purposes, we have procedures to destroy, delete, erase or convert it into an anonymous form.

10. How does Solutions protect Customers' Personal Information?

Solutions endeavours to maintain appropriate physical, procedural and technical security with respect to our offices and information storage facilities so as to prevent any loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, or modification of Personal Information. This also applies to our disposal or destruction of Personal Information. Solutions also restricts access to Personal Information to those employees that require access to the information in order that we may provide our Service.

If any officer, employee or volunteer of Solutions misuses Personal Information, this will be considered as a serious offence for which disciplinary action may be taken, up to and including termination of employment/volunteer contract. If any third party individual or organization misuses Personal Information obtained solely for the purpose of providing services to Solutions, this will be considered a serious issue for which action may be taken, up to and including termination of any agreement between Solutions and that individual or organization.

A "breach of security safeguards" is defined as the loss of, unauthorized access to or unauthorized disclosure of personal information resulting from a breach of an organization's security safeguards or from a failure to establish those safeguards. In case of a breach of security safeguards involving your Personal Information under Solutions' control, we will notify you and the Privacy Commissioner of Canada if it is reasonable in the circumstances to believe that the breach creates a real risk of significant harm to you, including physical, financial or reputational harm. We will also notify any other organization or government institution that can reduce the risk or mitigate the harm from the breach.

What you can do to protect your Personal Information:

In order to enhance the protection of your Personal Information, Solutions recommends that users protect their mobile devices with a passcode and sign out of the application after use to avoid data from being accessed or copied if the mobile device is lost or stolen.

11. Links to other websites

Solutions may provide links to, or automatically produce search results for, third-party web sites or resources or third-party information referencing or linking to third-party web sites or resources. Solutions has no control over such third-party Web sites and resources, and customers acknowledge and agree that Solutions is not responsible for the content or information contained therein. When customers follow such a link, they are no longer protected by our Privacy Policy, and we encourage all customers to read the privacy statements or other disclaimers of such other parties. Solutions is not responsible for the privacy or security practices or the content of non-Solutions web sites, services or products.

Solutions cannot and does not guarantee, represent or warrant that the content or information contained in such third-party Web sites and resources is accurate, legal, non-infringing or inoffensive. Solutions does not endorse the content or information of any third-party web site or resource and, further, Solutions does not warrant that such web sites or resources will not contain viruses or other malicious code or will not otherwise affect your computer. By using any of Solutions' systems or web sites to search for or link to a third-party web site, customers agree and understand that Solutions shall not be responsible or liable, directly or indirectly, for any damages or losses caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with their use of, or reliance on, Solutions to obtain search results or to link to a third-party web site.

12. Resolving customer privacy concerns

In the event of questions about: (i) access to customer's Personal Information; (ii) our collection, use, management or disclosure of Personal Information; or (iii) this Policy; Customers are to contact Solutions' Privacy Officer by sending an e-mail to our Privacy Officer at info@fintracker.ca.

Solutions will investigate all complaints and if a complaint is justified, we will take all reasonable steps to resolve the issue.

13. Changes to this Privacy Policy

Solutions will update this policy from time to time if our practices change or if the law requires changes to it. We will post any Privacy Policy changes on our website and, if the changes are significant, we will provide a more prominent notice and a summary of the relevant changes at the top of the page. Customers should review this policy regularly for changes, and can easily see if changes have been made by checking the Effective Date below. If customers do not agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy or any other Solutions' policy, agreement, or disclaimer, they should exit the site and cease use of all Solutions services immediately. Customer's continued use following the posting of any changes to this Policy means they agree to be bound by the terms of this Privacy Policy.

Effective Date: This Privacy Policy was last updated on March 21, 2024.

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