Confidentiality policy and protection of personal information

BC ASSUR / Terms and conditions / Privacy and confidentiality

Terms and conditions | Privacy and confidentiality | Complaints handling

PRIVACY

BC ASSUR invests considerable effort in implementing physical, organizational and technological measures to guarantee respect for the privacy and protection of the personal information of its customers, prospects and partners. To this end, we invite you to read our confidentiality and protection of personal information policy via this web page.

BC ASSUR is an independent damage insurance brokerage firm carrying on business in several Quebec regions, including Saguenay Lac-St-Jean, Beauce, Abitibi, Côte-Nord, Bas-Saint-Laurent, Gaspé and Quebec. BC ASSUR represents its clientele to approximately thirty insurers.

BC ASSUR has taken means and made efforts to protect his clients, prospects and partners’ right to privacy. Our certified representatives are governed by their code of ethics and by federal and provincial legislation governing our business sector. Our firm’s mission is to offer high quality services.

In order to facilitate access to information, here is a list of the main legislative references governing the protection of personal information:

Definition of personal information

Personal information means information which relates to a natural person and directly or indirectly allows that person to be identified.

Collection and use of information

Based upon the insurance products required or purchased by the client or prospect, and in accordance with applicable law, BC ASSUR collects and keeps essential information required to:

  • At any time, carry out a complete analysis of protection requirements;
  • Initiate an insurance quote for the product(s) requested;
  • Issue an insurance policy to this effect, if applicable;
  • Carry out follow-ups investigations of claims;
  • Pay for an acquired product or service;
  • Create a Client centre;

 

The purpose of this data collection is to provide you with products and services and to improve them. To that end, among other things, we aim to:

  • Analyse the possibility to offer you an insurance quote for products and services that you are looking for;
  • Update the information contained in your file to amend your insurance policies in order to represent you as your mandated insurance broker;
  • Offer you support services;
  • Protect your privacy;
  • Fulfil our legal obligations and ensure respect of our rights and those of third parties;
  • Recover any sum due;
  • For purposes of recruitment, deal with employment applications and assess whether a candidate meets requirements for a position;
  • For purposes of reorganization or change in our business.

This means that the above information may be communicated to one or more insurers.

In order to proceed with the analysis or update of your file, the information that you provided to BC Assur and that by BC ASSUR collected shall be automatically processed through BC ASSUR’s data systems. This system determines your admissibility for coverage or for a change in coverage and the amount of the insurance premium. At any time, you can submit your observations and comments to a member of BC ASSUR personnel if you wish this decision to be revised.

 

Information gathering by Google Analytics

Google Analytics collects depersonalized information in order to analyse traffic on our Internet sites. BC ASSUR uses this data solely for the purpose of improving the quality of services and information offered on our Internet websites.

BC ASSUR may use cookies and other technologies to collect and keep information on your use of our site and to allow you access to some of our on-line services. Please read the terms and conditions of use of our Website.

If you choose to deactivate those cookies, you might no longer be able to access certain parts of our Website.

Consent

No information about you shall be collected by BC ASSUR without your consent.

Subject to certain limitations, you may withdraw your consent to the collection, use or communication of your personal information. Under these circumstances, BC ASSUR may no longer be in a position to offer the product or service requested, or the best possible rate for your insurance policy.

You may contact our person in charge of the protection of personal information at the following email address: protection_renseignements@bc-assur.com or by dial the following toll-free number: 1.866.482.0999.

Communication of personal information and protection of privacy

BC ASSUR protects your personal information. None of your personal information is communicated to third parties without your consent.

Nevertheless, BC ASSUR is governed by the laws and regulations applied by legally authorized regulatory bodies. As a result, BC ASSUR is required to respond to requests for collecting and communicating of information from these regulatory bodies. Those bodies include, without limitation, the following:

  • Insurance brokers and claims adjustors;
  • Insurers, reinsurers, financial institutions and their respective regulatory bodies ;
  • The fichier central des sinistres automobiles (central data base for automobile accidents) of the Société d’assurance automobile du Québec and similar data bases of another province or territory;
  • Credit, risk and claims data analysis agencies;
  • A Tribunal or a Court that has issued an order to that effect;

In these cases, BC ASSUR takes measures to ensure that the privacy of your personal information is respected.

Authorized BC ASSUR suppliers and business partners who require access to personal information for the purposes set forth in this policy may have access without any additional consents being required from you. These include, without limitation, the following suppliers and partners:

  • Any computer services firm and any hosting service of our Website;
  • Any professional with whom BC ASSUR carries on business during the course of providing services, including accountants, tax experts, lawyers, notaries and other professionals;
  • Any marketing or advertising firm offering services, or any platform used by such entities;
  • Any bank or financial institution with whom BC ASSUR carries on business or who processes your financial information in order to make payments;
  • Any on-line payment platform; and
  • Any external data storage server, including, without limitation, online cloud servers.

Any and all of the aforementioned suppliers and business partners shall be governed by a non-disclosure agreement that prohibits any collection, use or communication of personal information other than those that are authorized and that , guarantee the protection of your information or data.

For storage on cloud servers, personal information may transit via third party jurisdictions, that is foreign countries: Note that BC ASSUR solely retains the services of reputable businesses who also have confidentiality policies.

For purposes of external processing: BC ASSUR communicates personal information to other businesses and persons of trust acting on its behalf, in accordance with its instructions, in compliance with this confidentiality policy, with a level of data security at least equivalent to that of BC ASSUR, and in further compliance with other appropriate security and confidentiality measures.

It is possible that some of your personal information will be communicated outside Quebec, where certain providers of BC ASSUR do business. Please consult the section on the preservation of personal information for more information in this regard.

In no case, BC ASSUR sells nor leases collected personal information.

Quotes and transactions by telephone

Where BC ASSUR analyses the requirements of a client or prospect, or prepares a quote, service offer or an insurance policy contract by telephone:

  • It is understood that the concerned party grants his or her consent and represent and warrant that he or she has also obtained the consent of any interested parties, or persons mentioned in the relevant quote or in the relevant insurance policy. This consent includes the collection, keeping, use and communication of personal information for the aforementioned purposes;
  • Where the quote or the insurance policy concerns a third party other than the concerned party, BC ASSUR will at any time take measures to obtain the consent directly from the concerned party in accordance with the Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector.

For reasons of information integrity, training and quality control of the services offered to clients, telephone conversations may be recorded or monitored.

With respect to the use of email address, the BC ASSUR anti-spam policy provides that its employees must obtain prior the consent of clients before using their email addresses.

Online quotes

Where a client or prospect fills and sends a quote form via one of the BC ASSUR websites or Customer Centre for various products, the client understands, authorizes and consents that BC ASSUR may automatically:

  • Use its personal information in order to analyse protection requirements in order to prepare an insurance quote for the requested product;
  • Contact the client by telephone, email or other means in order to discuss his or her file, provide the requested insurance quote and promote BC ASSUR products and services;
  • Use Client’s email address in order to respond to it’s request;

In the event the client receives an unsolicited message or email of a commercial nature, the client may unsubscribe from the distribution list (directly by clicking on the notice in the message in or the email). It is also possible to contact BC ASSUR at the email address or telephone number indicated at the end of this policy.

Origin of information collected

1. Information provided by client 

Without limitation, and subject to your consent, personal information may be required during the process of the service offer.

Client Centre and BC ASSUR application

In order to access certain features of the site, you may have to create an account. If you create an account, you may be required to provide certain personal information in order to allow BC ASSUR to open and manage your account.

When you create an account via the site or the application, you agree to:
i) Provide complete and accurate personal information; and
ii) Once your account is created, update the information related to you as soon as it changes in order to ensure that it is complete and accurate.

You are the sole person responsible for the accuracy of the information that you provide to BC Assur, whether you are creating an account or visiting the site as a guest. If you do not provide or do not update such information, or if BC ASSUR has reasonable grounds to suspect that you have not provided or updated such information, BC ASSUR shall be entitled, in its sole and exclusive discretion, to prevent you from using the site, the Client Centre or the application. BC ASSUR is authorized in its complete and exclusive discretion, to follow up on directives received further to the use of your password, without such directives being called into question.

If you have created an account, you are the sole person responsible for ensuring the confidentiality and the security of the username, email, password and other information. In the event that your user name, email address, password or account is used without your consent or you discover another breach of security, you agree to immediately inform BC Assur at the following email address: protection_renseignements@bc-assur.com or by calling 1.866.482.0999. BC ASSUR assumes no liability for the non-compliance with this clause or any delay in closing the account after being informed of a security breach. You are the sole person responsible for any activity or operations in your account and the updating of your information.

2. Information obtained from third parties

Without limitation and subject to your consent, third parties include insurance agents and brokers, government agencies, consumer information agencies, claims adjusters, residential entrepreneurs, automobile repair garages, and other third parties. Such third parties may provide information about you that are required to respond to your request.

BC ASSUR may also collect personal information concerning you that are of a public nature, if applicable.

 

Email Communications / Online subscription and unsubscription

Following sending of your email address to BC ASSUR, BC ASSUR may forward information to you by email. At any time, you may confirm or withdraw your consent to use the email address via our online subscription and unsubscribtion page or by contacting a broker. In this manner, in accordance with the CASL, you can block any unsolicited email sent to you by BC ASSUR.

 

Internet

BC ASSUR places the highest priority on the security of your personal information and undertakes to process such information in accordance with industry norms and standards and solely for the purposes for which it has been collected, or purposes compatible therewith, as described in this policy or in a special notice to this effect, or in other cases permitted by law.

However, the Internet is not a secure means of communication and BC Assur cannot guarantee it’s confidentiality. Communications and documents sent over the Internet are vulnerable to being intercepted or illegally copied. BC Assur assumes no liability for damages that you or any third party suffer further to sending of the confidential information to BC Assur over the Internet or that you have implicitly authorized BC Assur to forward, or any other error or alteration involving such information sent over the Internet.

Electronic Communication

Just as in the case of cell phones and ordinary mail, communications via the Internet or unencrypted email cannot be completely secure or confidential. These communications are exposed to being modified, lost or intercepted and BC ASSUR can not guarantee it’s security. For these resaons, BC Assur assumes no liability for the loss, interception, hacking or any alterations of any mail or documents that is forwarded to it.

Preservation of your personal information

BC ASSUR keeps your personal information only for the time necessary to fulfil all the purposes set forth in this Policy, to comply with its legal obligations, settle disputes and enter into agreements with its agents, mandataries or partners. Thereafter, personal information is destroyed or depersonalized in a secure and confidential manner.

Personal information is primarily kept in the cities where BC ASSUR has offices and locations where its insurers carry on business, as well as to cities where Internet servers are located.

Personal information may be kept outside of Quebec and Canada where a third-party provider or other entity to whom BC ASSUR communicates personal information in accordance with this policy is located outside the country. In such cases, personal information may be subject to local legislation in the countries or territories where the information is collected, used, communicated or kept, and the government authorities and other authorities responsible for the application of the law in such countries or territories may be in a position to access such information. BC ASSUR has taken measures to ensure the personal information located outside Quebec and Canada will enjoy adequate protection.

During the period of preservation, BC ASSUR shall take physical and technical measures to ensure the security of data containing personal information: it shall be stored in a secure manner, encrypted during delivery to prevent any interception and protected against risks such as loss, abuse or unauthorized access. Solely employees for whom knowledge of such personal information collected is necessary in the exercise of their functions have access thereto.

Information on your client file

Clients may, at any time, verify the accuracy of information contained in his or her client file and bring changes to their information. In order to do so, it is sufficient to contact a BC ASSUR employee who will update any such information in your record.

Accuracy of information in your client file

At any time during our exchanges and thereafter, you may have access to your personal information collected by BC ASSUR, unless the law prohibits providing it to you and subject to verification of your identity to allow you access to such information.

If you notice that your personal information is inaccurate, you may contact BC ASSUR and ask that they rectify it.

You are also entitled, at all times, to withdraw your consent to the communication or use of any personal information that BC ASSUR holds with respect to you, and to any other consent requested during the course of our exchanges. In such an event, it is possible that BC ASSUR will no longer be in a position to offer you certain products or services in the absence of access to such information.

Amendments to this policy

BC ASSUR reserves the right to amend the Policy at any time, by posting a new policy on its Internet sites, without advance notice, or any obligation towards you or any other person. The collection, use or communication of your information by BC ASSUR shall be governed by the version of the Policy that is then posted and in force and effect.

Person in charge of the application of the confidentiality and protection of personal information policy of BC ASSUR

Mr Simon Bédard is the Person In charge of the protection of personal information for BC ASSUR. He ensures that BC ASSUR employees are informed and trained with respect to this policy in order to guarantee its proper application.

In accordance with applicable law, Mr. Bédard supervises the creation, maintenance and the updating of a register of confidentiality incidents. Upon request by the Commission d’accès à l’information, a statement of the register is forwarded to his attention.

Please contact BC ASSUR for any additional questions on confidentiality and the protection of personal information.

Simon Bédard,
Person in charge of the protection of personal in formation – BC ASSUR
269 RUE RACINE E
CHICOUTIMI, QUÉBEC
G7H 1S2
Toll-free number: 1(866) 482-0999
Email:  protection_renseignements@bc-assur.com
Or https://www.bc-assur.com/en/contact/