PRIVACY POLICY
Apex Appraisal Inc. is committed to respecting the confidentiality and privacy of personal information provided to us by clients, customers, homeowners and others. We have adopted the privacy principles set out in the Canadian Standards Association “Model Code for the Protection of Personal Information” contained in the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). Our privacy policy outlines the measures we take to protect your privacy and incorporate these principles.
PERSONAL INFORMATION
Personal information is information that is specific to you. This includes your name, address and any other contact information. We also collect information (including photographs) pertaining to the properties we appraise. If you are a homeowner, and your property is tenanted, you must obtain consent from your tenants for us to collect personal information, including interior photographs of the tenanted areas. This consent must be obtained prior to our inspection of the property. If your tenants do not consent, you must notify us immediately. In the absence of such notification, it is deemed that you have indicated to us that this consent has been obtained.
WHY WE COLLECT YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
We collect and use personal information in relation to our operations and to facilitate the delivery of services and products that we provide you or our mutual business contacts. When you use our services and products, you agree that we may collect your information in order to identify you, to understand your needs, to inform you about services that may be of interest, to provide ongoing services and to comply with legal requirements.
We will not provide personal information to any marketing agency, mail house, data processing agency or any other promotional entity or third party without your express written consent. However, we may use your contact information to provide you with information we believe you need to know or may find useful, such as news about our services and products.
PROVIDING US WITH CONSENT
We make reasonable efforts to ensure you understand why we collect personal information and what we do with that information. You can provide consent verbally or in writing, by email, telephone or other means. By placing an appraisal order with us, it is deemed that you have provided us with consent to collect and use your personal information in the manner described in this policy.
You may have your name and information deleted if you do not wish to receive our services. You may also refuse to provide personal information or withdraw consent you have already given, provided this consent does not relate to services already in progress. You must give us reasonable notice of any withdrawal of consent and provide this request in writing. Withdrawal of consent may affect our ability to provide you with our services.
In limited circumstances, we can collect, use or disclose personal information without your knowledge or consent, when required to detect and prevent criminal activity, to comply with legal obligations, deliver appraisal reports, provide status updates or collect overdue accounts.
ORDERING AN APPRAISAL
When you order an appraisal service from us, we may use, give, obtain, verify, share and/or exchange your personal information with others who are involved with the process, or as may be required by law. This exchange may include lawyers, lenders, mortgage agents, real estate brokers, multiple listing services and associated representatives. When you make use of our services, you are deemed to have given consent for the exchange of such personal information as is necessary to facilitate the accuracy and integrity of the products and services we provide.
HOW WE USE, DISCLOSE AND RETAIN PERSONAL INFORMATION
We will use and disclose personal information only for the purpose it was collected. Disclosure is the provision of specific personal information to a third party related to the assignment for which we have been engaged. If any additional purpose arises, we will notify you and request your consent to use the personal information for any such purposes. We retain your personal information only for as long as is necessary. We will not keep personal information once it is no longer required to complete our services, except where needed to comply with legal or regulatory requirements.
KEEPING YOUR INFORMATION ACCURATE
We strive to maintain the accuracy, completeness and relevance of your personal information. You may challenge the accuracy and completeness of the information we hold, and we will make amendments as is appropriate. If you wish to correct any personal information, you may contact us via one of the methods provided below. It is your responsibility to notify us of any changes so that we may update your files. We will convey corrected information to third parties as necessary, and in accordance with the local laws and regulations that govern us.
KEEPING YOUR INFORMATION SECURE
We will take all reasonable precautions to protect your personal information from loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration or destruction. Physical access to areas where information is collected, stored or processed is restricted to authorized personnel only. We have control over our computer systems, appraisal reports and work files which exist to ensure compliance with our privacy policy and to comply with legal requirements.
We destroy, erase or make anonymous any personal information that is no longer needed to meet legal requirements or our stated purposes. For compliance purposes, our work files are generally retained for a period of seven years. When we no longer required, we dispose of information by having it shredded or destroyed (in the case of physical files and documents) and by erasing from our hard drives or other storage medium (in the case of electronic data).
YOUR ACCESS TO YOUR OWN PERSONAL INFORMATION
When you request it, we will tell you what personal information we have, what it is used for, from whom it was collected and to whom it has been disclosed. This is your right. We will provide this information to you in a timely manner, and for a reasonable cost. Upon request, we will provide access to your own personal information, except in certain limited situations. We will not provide information if it contains references to other persons, if it is subject to client-appraiser confidentiality, if it cannot be disclosed for legal reasons or if it is being used for the detection and prevention of criminal activity. In the event we cannot provide access to your personal information, we will explain the reason when you make your request.
OTHER INFORMATION WE MAY COLLECT
We may collect other information that cannot be readily used to identify you, such as IP addresses. We may use this information for technical administration of our website, research and development, customer and account administration, and to help focus marketing efforts.
USE OF COOKIES AND THIRD PARTY TECHNOLOGIES
Our website uses “cookies” and other similar technologies to store personal data on your computer. We may also link information stored on your computer in cookies with personal data about specific individuals stored on our servers. If you set your web browser so that cookies are not allowed, you may not be able to use some or all of the features of our website.
NOTICE TO EUROPEAN UNION USERS
Our operations are located primarily in Canada. If you provide information to us, the information will be transferred out of the European Union (EU). By providing personal information to us, you consent to its storage and use as described herein.
CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY
We reserve the right to change this privacy policy as we deem necessary or appropriate, because of legal compliance requirements or changes in our business practice. If you have provided us with an email address, we will endeavor to notify you, by email, of any material change to how we use your personal information.
QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS?
If you have questions or comments about our privacy policy, please contact us.
Apex Appraisal Inc.
910 Dundas St W, PO Box 10026
Whitby, ON L1P 1P0
Email: info@apexappraisal.ca
Tel: 905-233-2606