Privacy Policy
1. Purpose
This privacy policy pertains to the collection, use, and disclosure of Personal Information in the custody and control of Crowe MacKay LLP.
Personal Information shall include personal information as such term is defined in the Personal Information Protection Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA).
It is the policy of Crowe MacKay LLP to keep any information gathered through the use of our systems secure. As such, user information is not disclosed or shared to unauthorized third parties except as allowed by Canadian law and described herein. Our privacy commitment is an integral part of our commitment to our clients and our employees.
Crowe MacKay LLP reserves the right to review the covenants contained in this Privacy Policy and to make changes. Every time that a change to this policy is made, users will be notified and the revised version will be posted on our website.
2. Personal Information
Crowe MacKay LLP collects a wide variety of personal information in connection with our services. This information primarily relates to the financial, tax, and business affairs of our clients. Information may include the user’s name, address, mobile telephone number, e-mail addresses, tax history, and other information that the user provides to Crowe MacKay LLP. In connection with Crowe MacKay LLP's tax, accounting, audit, valuations, insolvency and bankruptcy, estate planning, and advisory work, Crowe MacKay LLP collects and analyzes information on matters such as: business information; personal assets; family relationships; retirement savings; lifestyle intentions; the financial affairs of family members and intended beneficiaries; intended charitable giving; insurance coverage; health status; and the tax status of those personal and organizations who may be impacted by the plan.
Personal information may be collected in a number of ways, including: in person, over the phone, by mail, over the internet, and from third parties who you have authorized to disclose Personal Information to us. When you provide us with an email address, we assume we are permitted to contact you via email with respect to our services and communications, unless stated otherwise in our engagement letter.
Occasionally, Crowe MacKay LLP is provided information, with consent of our client, directly from other advisers or representatives of our client. Examples include legal counsel, brokers, bankers, insurance agents, and predecessor accountants. In these circumstances, we infer that it is appropriate for us, in our best discretion, to disclose client information to these other advisers in the course of working directly with them on client projects, unless specific restrictions are imposed in the engagement letter.
We make every reasonable effort to keep your Personal Information as accurate, complete, and up-to-date as necessary. If desired, you may verify the accuracy and completeness of your Personal Information in our records.
An individual may withdraw consent at any time, subject to legal or contractual restrictions and reasonable notice. Depending on the circumstances, this may prevent us from continuing to provide services to a client.
3. Collection, Use, and Disclosure of Personal Information
Crowe MacKay LLP uses and discloses personal information about our individual clients for the purposes of providing professional advice and services to them. Usually, the scope of advice and service is set out in detail in a formal engagement letter with our client.
As part of Crowe MacKay LLP client services, these purposes include evaluating, monitoring, and assessing the tax, accounting, audit, valuations, insolvency and bankruptcy, estate planning, and advisory requirements of our clients; recommending changes to asset structures; recommending changes to liability provisions and risk management; recommending retainer of other consultants such as brokers, legal counsel, insurance agents, and cross-border advisors; strategy consultations for items such as tax disputes; and inter-jurisdictional arrangements.
To ensure Crowe MacKay LLP services meet client expectations we may send you a customer survey. Participation is voluntary. Crowe MacKay LLP will use responses received to assess and improve our services. Responses will not be shared with third parties without your consent.
When Crowe MacKay LLP partners with others on events, registrant information is shared with co-sponsors, organizers, and others in connection with the event. Please check event details for further explanation of how your information might be used.
Access to private, sensitive, and confidential information, including user’s Personal Information, is restricted to authorized employees with legitimate business reasons. We require all of our employees to abide by Crowe MacKay LLP’s privacy standards. Our employees understand the importance of keeping your information private. For this reason, our employees are required to agree to a confidentiality agreement that prohibits the disclosure of any user information to unauthorized parties.
Employees are strictly prohibited from accessing or disclosing Personal Information without authorization. All employees are expected to maintain the confidentiality of Personal Information at all times and failure to do so will result in appropriate disciplinary measures including dismissal.
Crowe MacKay LLP will never rent or sell the personal information it collects.
Crowe MacKay LLP will not disclose personal information to third parties except as contemplated in this privacy policy. Further, Crowe MacKay LLP will not disclose Personal Information to third parties, except as required by law or upon demonstrated lawful authority, or as set out in this Privacy Policy.
Crowe MacKay LLP uses third-party service providers to host our data in the cloud. Access of Personal Information to such third parties is strictly controlled in accordance with our terms and conditions stated within our engagement letters.
The type of information we are legally required to disclose may relate to criminal investigations or government tax reporting requirements. In some instances, such as a legal proceeding or court order, we may also be required to disclose your Personal Information to authorities. Only the information specifically requested is disclosed and we take precautions to satisfy ourselves that the authorities that are making the disclosure request have legitimate grounds to do so.
Your Personal Information may be disclosed in situations where we are legally permitted to do so, such as in the course of employing reasonable and legal methods to enforce your rights or to investigate suspicion of unlawful activities. We may release certain Personal Information when we believe that such release is reasonably necessary to protect the rights, property, and safety of ourselves and others.
Should Crowe MacKay LLP conduct market or product research, it will never use Personal Information; rather, it would fully anonymize information, meaning that it would render it unlikely to be traced back to an individual.
4. Usage and Aggregate Data
Crowe MacKay LLP collects usage information from users to our services. The purpose of this collection is to understand how users access and use the services in order to enhance and optimize our services. Usage information and data could include but is not limited to the user’s device type, device identifier, IP address, browser type, operating system, duration of use, number of messages sent or received, and times at which the application was accessed and used. In addition, Crowe MacKay LLP will collect aggregate data about a group or category of services or users. This information, as well as the Personal Information collected, enables Crowe MacKay LLP to analyze trends, administer Crowe MacKay LLP’s services and products, troubleshoot, enhance, and improve Crowe MacKay LLP’s services.
Crowe MacKay LLP maintains the right to inform our users about any change that may affect information collected or stored. We may be required to comply with a court order or governmental regulatory requirement or disclose information in connection to legal proceedings. If required to do so, we will make every effort to notify the relevant parties about the proceedings.
Crowe MacKay LLP reserves the right to use the contact information of users for the purposes of communications regarding any aspect of a user’s account or corresponding services and products. Users will have the option to participate or opt out of optional communications (e.g. marketing, press, events) while mandatory communications (e.g. security updates, product announcements/revisions) will go out to all active users.
Crowe MacKay LLP is not anticipating any changes in corporate status; however, as we grow and develop that may change. You understand and agree that we may use your Personal Information and disclose your Personal Information to third parties in connection with the proposed or actual financing, insuring, sale, securitization, assignment, or other disposal of all or part of our business or assets (including accounts) for the purposes of evaluating and/or performing the proposed transaction. These purposes may include, as examples, permitting such parties to determine whether to proceed or continue with the transaction, fulfilling any reporting or audit requirements to such parties, and/or disclosing Personal Information as part of concluding a sale or transfer of assets. Our successors and assigns may collect, use, and disclose your Personal Information for substantially the same purposes as those set out in this Policy. In the event the transaction does not go through, we will require, by contract, the other party or parties to the transaction not to use or disclose your Personal Information in any manner whatsoever for any purpose, and to return or destroy such Personal Information. Personal Information that is collected online remains subject to applicable legislation and corporate policy.
5. Data Retention
Crowe Mackay LLP will keep personal information only as long as it remains necessary or relevant for the identified purposes, as required under normal business practices, as required by law, or as otherwise stated in retainer letters with our client.
Data will be stored indefinitely in a secure and private manner or deleted as per direction from the user as allowable by operational needs and relevant law. Information that is no longer necessary or relevant for the identified purposes or required by law to be retained we will destroy, erase, or make such information anonymous. Crowe MacKay LLP maintains security/privacy policies and procedures to ensure every step is taken to maintain the integrity of the data in our care.
Crowe MacKay LLP reserves the right to reject, suspend, alter, remove or delete data if it breaches our terms and conditions or it is necessary to protect us or others where we have reasonable grounds for believing that a criminal act has been committed, or if required to do so by law.
6. Control of User Data
Crowe MacKay LLP takes reasonable steps to protect information collected from users to prevent loss, misuse, and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction.
Crowe MacKay LLP has appointed a Designated Privacy Contact who acts as Chief Privacy Officer (CPO) responsible for information system monitoring and information security policy and procedure management. The CPO is responsible for compliance with Crowe MacKay LLP’s privacy program including,
- Undertaking privacy impact assessment and threat and risk assessments on a regular basis;
- Adopting policies and procedures on the basis of privacy impact assessment and threat and risk assessments to mitigate all identified risks, updated as necessary.
Crowe MacKay LLP users may access their Personal Information by contacting our CPO. Our CPO’s contact information can be found below.
7. Access to Personal Information
Upon written request, Crowe MacKay LLP will give an individual or his or her authorized representative access to his or her personal information that is in our custody or under our control. Crowe MacKay LLP will also let the applicant know what the information is being used for and how and under what situations the information is being or has been disclosed by us. If Crowe MacKay LLP does not have an actual record of the persons or organizations that the applicant’s personal information has been disclosed to, we will tell them who or what organizations their information may have been disclosed to.
Clients and employees may seek access to their personal information by contacting the Partner in charge at the relevant local office of the firm.
Crowe MacKay LLP may refuse access to all or part of an applicant’s personal information in a number of situations, including:
- The information is protected by any legal privilege;
- The disclosure of the information would reveal confidential business information and it is not unreasonable to withhold the information;
- The information was collected for an investigation or legal proceeding; or
- The information was collected by a mediator or arbitrator.
If Crowe MacKay LLP is reasonably able to sever the information contained in the above exceptions from a requested record, we will give access to the remainder of the information in the record.
Crowe MacKay LLP is required by law to refuse access to all or part of an applicant’s personal information in certain situations, including:
- The disclosure of the information could reasonably be expected to threaten the life or security of another individual;
- The information would reveal personal information about another individual; or
- The information would identify the individual who gave an opinion about another individual and the individual giving the opinion does not consent to the disclosure of his or her identity.
Crowe MacKay LLP will inform the applicant if he or she will be given access to all or part of his or her personal information. If access is to be given, Crowe MacKay LLP will inform the applicant of when access will be given. If access to all or part of the applicant’s personal information is refused, Crowe MacKay LLP will inform the applicant of the reasons for refusal and the specific exception(s) to the right of access on which the refusal is based. Crowe MacKay LLP will also inform the applicant of the name of the person in our organization who can answer questions regarding the refusal, and of the applicant’s right to ask a Privacy Commissioner having jurisdiction for a review of our decision to refuse access.
8. Governing Law
This privacy policy shall in all respects be governed by and interpreted, construed and enforced in accordance with the laws of the Province of British Columbia and the laws of Canada applicable therein.
9. Handling Complaints
An individual who believes that our organization has not complied with this Policy has the right to make a written complaint about the matter to our organization. Crowe MacKay LLP will use our internal complaint handling procedure to investigate and attempt to resolve the matter. Our internal complaint handling procedure is as follows:
A complaint in writing is made to the CPO; The CPO conducts an internal review, consulting with the engagement partner and other representative as appropriate. The CPO will provide a written response to the individual.
Crowe MacKay LLP will make the firm's complaint handling procedure readily accessible to individuals. We will provide information on our website about how to lodge a complaint, the time within which a complaint will normally be handled, and the fact that complaints will be handled by an officer of our organization with appropriate authority to deal with the complaints.
Crowe MacKay LLP may decide not to investigate a complaint if:
- The complaint relates to an act or practice that is not a possible breach of the privacy requirements;
- The complaint relates to an act or practice that is no longer reasonably able to be investigated because of the length of time since it occurred;
- The act or practice relates to an event which occurred prior to the organization being subject to this Policy;
- The complaint is trivial, frivolous or vexatious; or
- The complaint relates to an act or practice that is the subject of court proceedings that have commenced or are intended to be commenced.
With the exception of complaints that Crowe MacKay LLP decides not to investigate we will investigate and respond to all complaints within a reasonable period of time (usually, within 30 days). If the complaint is found to be justified, we will take appropriate steps to resolve the complaint including, if necessary, amending our policies and procedures (or this Policy).
A complainant will be expected to provide sufficient details of how the complaint arose, including the identification of the parties involved, if known, copies of any relevant documentation and reasons why the complainant believes his or her privacy may have been breached.
10. Cookies
Our website may use "cookies" to enhance the user experience. Web cookies are very small text files that are stored on the user’s computer from a webpage to keep track of information about the user’s browsing on that site. The use of cookies allows us to capture standard web traffic information, such as the time and date the user visited our website, their IP address, and their browser information. In no circumstances do the cookies capture any information that can personally identify the user. The user may choose to set their web browser to refuse cookies, or to alert the user when cookies are being sent. If the user sets their web browser to disable cookies, some parts of the website may not be accessible to the user.
Cookie List
11. Contacting Crowe MacKay LLP
Individuals may contact our CPO to make enquiries on our privacy practices or to the accuracy of their personally identifiable information and to request the update, correction or deletion of such information or account should they wish to do so. Any query, comments or concerns can be sent to us by email at [email protected] or by mail at the following address:
PO Box 1610
200 - 5710 Teredo Street
Sechelt, British Columbia
V0N 3A0 Canada
1 (604) 697 9271