Privacy Policy
Our Commitment to Privacy
Protecting customer privacy and the confidentiality of the personal information of our customers has always been fundamental to the way we do business.
We manage and administer a variety of insurance products and non-insurance services for our clients in co-operation with insurers, financial institutions, service providers, and other partners in Canada. We safeguard the trust of our partners, clients, and customers by ensuring the personal information we collect, use, and disclose remains secure and is in accordance with this Privacy Policy. In addition, our partners and clients who are involved in the products and services we deliver are governed by their own Privacy Policies in their dealings with our shared customers.
Our Privacy Policy
Our Privacy Policy provides customers with information on our policy, and tells customers about the ways we help ensure that their information is protected. “Information” means any information, including, personal, financial, medical, and other details about a customer that the customer provides to us or that we obtain from others outside our organization, including through the products and services the customer uses. Our Privacy Policy consists of our Privacy Notice, five important principles, and a discussion of how we fulfill these principles.
1. Collecting and Using Information
We will tell customers how we intend to use information we collect about them, and will use it only for those purposes. We will only collect the information we need for those purposes. If we wish to use their information for any other purpose, we will obtain their consent before we use it.
Customers may refuse or withdraw consent for us to collect, use or release their information, and we will record and respect their choices. In some cases, withdrawal of consent may interfere with our ability to provide or continue to provide certain insurance products or services, and we will advise customers in advance if that would be the result.
Customer information is also used in order to satisfy valid information requests from regulators and other organizations or individuals who are legally entitled to make such requests.
2. Releasing Information
We may provide customer information to other persons in the following instances:
- with customers’ consent
- when providing customer’s with products and services through other parties including our insurers, clients, suppliers and agents
- when required or permitted by law
- where transfers of a business are involved
- for insurance industry databases for the purposes of facilitating claims assessments or detecting fraud
3. Protecting Information
We will protect customer information with appropriate safeguards and security measures. We will retain customer information only for the time it is required for the purposes we explain.
4. Providing Information Access and Accuracy
We will give customers access to the information we retain about them. We will make every reasonable effort to keep customer information accurate and up-to-date.
5. Respecting and Responding to Privacy Concerns
We will explain options available to customers for refusing or withdrawing consent to the collection, use and release of their information. We will investigate and respond to customer concerns about any aspect of our handling of customer information.
Why We Ask for Personal Information
We ask for personal information to establish and service our customers. The information we obtain depends on which products or services we are supplying and we only obtain that information which is relevant to administer the particular products or services that the customer is enrolled in or has requested. For example, we may obtain information about customers, with their consent, from the following sources:
- From customers directly on applications and other forms
- From our partners (such as the customer’s financial institution) on behalf of the customer
- From consumer reporting agencies, public records and data collection agencies
- From health care providers, such as doctors and hospitals
How We Obtain Consent
Depending on the situation, the sensitivity of the information, and the customer’s reasonable expectations in the circumstances, we may obtain customer consent in different ways. Express consent may be obtained verbally, online or in writing either directly by the customer or through an authorization the customer has provided to our partner (such as a financial institution) to share the information with us. Implied consent may be obtained through the customer’s use of a product, or when the customer approaches us to obtain products or services from us.
We will not make customer consent a condition of obtaining a product or service, unless it is reasonably or legally required, and we will not require customer consent for the collection, use or disclosure of information beyond that required for the purposes for which the information is being provided.
When We Release Or Share Information
Except with customers’ consent, we will not sell, license or rent customer lists or information to others. We may release or share customer information to third parties in the following instances:
- with customers’ consent
- for servicing purposes, when providing customers with products and services through other parties including our insurers, clients, suppliers and agents - we give limited information, only as needed, to those parties who participate in the delivery of products and services to our customers
- when required or permitted by law – we must provide information when required by law, such as a regulation, court order, subpoena or search warrant
- where transfers of a business are involved – where there is a sale of parts of our business (or our partners’ businesses), customer information may be one of the transferred business assets
- for insurance industry databases - we may provide information to other insurers or insurance industry databases for the purposes of facilitating claims assessments or detecting fraud
How We Protect Information
We use security techniques designed to protect our customer data, including physical, technical and administrative safeguards to protect information against loss or theft as well as unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use or modification.
We restrict access to customer information to those employees and our agents who have a valid business purpose to have access to such information for providing products or services to the customer. We provide training and communications programs to educate our employees about the meaning and requirements of our strict standards for data security and confidentiality.
Our partners, including insurers, clients, suppliers and agents, are bound to maintain our customers’ confidentiality and may not use customer information for any unauthorized purpose.
When customer information is no longer needed for the purposes identified, we have secure procedures in place to destroy or delete it.
Use Of "Cookies" On Our Website
We may use small text files called “cookies” to improve the website experience for our customers. Cookies can track how and when the customer uses a site, which site the customer visited immediately before, and it can store that information about the customer. Cookies may be used to identify the customer’s computer, but will not be used to gather personal information about the customer or data residing on the customer’s computer. The use of cookies is now standard operating procedure for most websites and the customer may enable their browser to notify them when it is receiving a cookie.
Use Of Email Comments, Questions Or Responses
When a customer sends us an email or asks us to respond to them by email, we learn of the customer’s exact email address and any information included in the email. We use that email address to acknowledge the customer’s comments and/or reply to customer questions, and we will store customer communication and our reply in case we correspond further. We will not sell customer email addresses to anyone. We may use customer email addresses to send customers information about offers on products and services that either we or our partners provide that we believe may be of interest. If the customer does not want us to contact them by email with offers on products and services, the customer may tell us so at any time.
If the customer has asked us to put them on an email mailing list to provide them with certain information on a regular basis, or if we send the customer information about our offers on products and services by email, the customer may ask us to remove them from the list at any time.
Email sent over the Internet is generally unencrypted: We recommend that customers use caution when sending email messages to us and that they do not include confidential information (such as social insurance numbers and account numbers) in those messages, as they are not encrypted.
Responding to Contests or Surveys
When customers submit responses to a survey question or enter one of our contests, we learn of their answers or any opinions or information that they provide.
In a contest, we will use customer information for the purpose of awarding a prize. For a survey, we may use customer submissions to come up with the survey results, and we may publish those results in aggregate on our website. We may also use customer response to improve our products or services. Based on customer participation in either, we may forward information about our offers on products and services that we believe may be of interest to our customers.
Customers’ Right to Access Their Information
Customers requiring information should forward a written request to the address appearing at the end of this Privacy Policy. There will be no charge for the information requested, unless stated, and we will respond to such requests as promptly as possible.
We will not be able to provide information from our records if those records contain references to other persons, are subject to legal privilege, contain confidential information proprietary to us or cannot be disclosed for other legal reasons.
Keeping Information Accurate
We will make every reasonable effort to keep personal information in our files accurate and up-to-date.
Customers can help by keeping us informed of any changes in their information, such as a change in address or telephone number. We will correct any errors in the information we hold in a file upon notification to us of the error. For information that remains in dispute, we will note the dispute in the file.
Other Websites
Our website may contain links to other third party sites, including our partners’ websites, which are not governed by this Privacy Policy. Although we endeavor to only link to sites with high privacy standards, our Privacy Policy will no longer apply once the customer leaves the DMC website. Additionally, we are not responsible for the privacy practices employed by other third party websites. Therefore, we suggest that customers examine the privacy statements of those sites to learn how their information may be collected, used, shared and disclosed.
Update of this Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy may be modified from time to time and will be posted on this website with an effective date. The Privacy Policy posted on this website will be the Privacy Policy in effect as of that effective date.
Addressing customer concerns
Customers who wish to access their personal information, or have questions about our privacy practices, or want to issue a complaint, should contact us at:
DMC Solutions™
Privacy Officer
P.O. Box 4024 Stn. Industrial Park
Markham ON L3R 6A3
Tel: (905) 305-4241
Fax: (905) 305-4290
e-Mail: privacy@dmc.ca
*Email disclaimer: For your protection, do not send confidential or personal information (e.g. credit card or account numbers, etc.) via email, as it is NOT a secure method of communication. If your request is urgent or requires disclosure of confidential or personal information for resolution, please call us.
This Privacy Policy is effective as of May 1, 2009.