Privacy

"Personal Information" is any information that is about an identifiable individual. This information may include, for example, your name, mailing address, telephone number and e-mail address. Personal Information, however, does not include your name, business title, business address, business telephone number, business e-mail address or business facsimile number in your capacity as an employee or official of an organization.

We generally use Personal Information for the following purposes (the "Purposes"):

• to investigate and resolve complaints about a participating firm;
• to respond to inquiries or complaints about OBSI;
• to garner opinions and comments in regard to OBSI's operations;
• to administer our business activities and website;
• to communicate with Individuals about OBSI's activities;
• for statistical research and demographic analysis;
• if the Individual attends at our offices, to administer the physical security of our offices;
• where appropriate, to recruit for positions in OBSI, and for planning and analysis relating to OBSI's recruitment efforts;
• to investigate and respond to legal claims;
• such purposes for which OBSI may obtain an Individual's consent from time to time; and
• such other uses as may be permitted or required by applicable law.

If you make a complaint to OBSI about banking and other financial services, the facts concerning your complaint and any resolution, with personal identifiers removed, may be used to compile statistical data or prepare case studies, which may be made public.

We generally obtain your consent to the collection, use and disclosure of Personal Information at or before the time that we collect it, except in limited circumstances as required or permitted by law. You may provide your consent to us either orally, electronically or in writing. The form of consent that we seek, including whether it is express or implied, will largely depend on the sensitivity of the personal information and the reasonable expectations you might have in the circumstances. At any time, you may withdraw your consent to the collection, use or disclosure of your Personal Information for any Purpose.

We will always collect your Personal Information by fair and lawful means. We may collect Personal Information from you directly and/or from third parties, such as from participating firms, where we have obtained your consent to do so or as otherwise required or permitted by law.

We have implemented physical, organizational, contractual and technological security measures to protect your Personal Information from loss or theft, unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use or modification.

We will keep the Personal Information that we collect either at the OBSI offices in Toronto, Ontario, at the home offices of our staff, or in our Canadian or U.S. data centres. While your personal information is in the U.S., it is subject to U.S. laws, and may be subject to disclosure to the governments, courts or law enforcement or regulatory agencies in the U.S., pursuant to applicable laws.

We identify to whom, and for what purposes, we disclose your Personal Information, at the time we collect such information from you and obtain your consent to such disclosure. We will only make disclosures of Personal Information to such persons for whom you provide your consent, unless the disclosure is otherwise permitted or required by law.

We may transfer your Personal Information to third party service providers with whom we have a contractual agreement that includes appropriate privacy standards, where such third parties are assisting us with the Purposes - such as service providers that provide data storage or processing.

For written information about our practices regarding service providers outside of Canada, contact our Privacy Officer (see question 16 below).

We ensure that all third parties with access to Personal Information, whether they are involved in a complaint, an investigation or otherwise, are contractually required to observe the intent of this Privacy Statement and our privacy practices.

We may keep a record of your Personal Information, correspondence or comments, in a file specific to you. We will utilize, disclose or retain your Personal Information only as long as necessary for the purposes for which that Personal Information was collected and as permitted or required by law. Where the Personal Information has been used to make a decision in respect of a complaint, we will retain the Personal Information for at least one year.

We will take reasonable steps to ensure that your Personal Information is kept as accurate, complete and up-to-date as possible. We require you to supply us with written updates to your Personal Information from time to time.

At any time, you can challenge the accuracy or completeness of your Personal Information in our records. If you successfully demonstrate that your Personal Information in our records is inaccurate or incomplete, we will amend the Personal Information as required. Where appropriate, we will transmit the amended information to third parties having access to your Personal Information.

If you make a written request for information about your Personal Information, we will respond (and grant access to it, if requested) to the extent required by law. We will make such Personal Information available to you in a form that is generally understandable, and will explain any abbreviations or codes.

We will generally respond to your written request in 30 days after receipt of such a request. We will advise you in writing if we cannot meet your requests within this time limit, and of any recourse for complaints in respect of this time limit.

Generally, we will respond to request for access to Personal Information or to information about our privacy practices at no cost. However, if the request will involve producing a significant volume of records, or require extensive search time by OBSI personnel, OBSI may charge a minimal reasonable fee to recover its costs (and OBSI will provide you with an estimate of any such fee for your consideration before proceeding).

We must take reasonable steps to confirm the identity of an individual making a request for Personal Information. This may require us to request additional Personal Information to validate your identity when you request access to your Personal Information. OBSI will only use and disclose any additional information you provide to us for the purpose of fulfilling your request.

All comments, questions, concerns or complaints regarding your Personal Information, this Privacy Statement or our privacy practices, should be forwarded to our Privacy Officer as follows.

Privacy Officer
20 Queen Street West, Suite 2400
P.O. Box 8
Toronto, ON M5H 3R3
Toll-free: 1-888-451-4519
TTY: 1-844-358-3442
Fax: 1-888-422-2865
Email: privacy@obsi.ca