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WebAssist Inc., a leading provider of web-based business solutions, is committed to the protection of its customers’ Personal Information (as defined below). As evidence of this commitment, we have implemented the following Privacy Policy (the “Policy”), which complies with or exceeds the requirements of the federal Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, also known as "PIPEDA". References is this Policy to “we”, “our” or “webAssist” are references to webAssist Inc. unless otherwise indicated.
This Policy is designed to assist our business partners, employees, and customers in understanding how we collect, store, use, disclose, protect and ensure the accuracy of information collected and controlled by webAssist. It also applies to all Personal Information held in the webAssist databases.
What is Personal Information?
The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act became enforceable in respect of the public sector on January 1, 2004, to ensure that information that individuals provide in commerce as any form of "record", including photographs, commentary, or factual information, is used in an appropriate manner, with their consent, and properly protected by those to whom the Personal Information is given. The legislation defines Personal Information as “information about an identifiable individual, but does not include the name, title or business address or telephone number of an employee of an organization”. In other words, it is information particular to an individual that would allow them to be identified. This would include your name, residential address, e-mail address(es), telephone number, credit card particulars, and your personal purchasing history.
Why We Collect Personal Information
WebAssist collects personal information in order to facilitate the services that are offered to you, the customer. This means that we may collect Personal Information in order to assist you with the completion of your project. It may be required, for example, to determine a customers' credit-worthiness, or to provide particular content necessary for the client's project. We may put Personal Information to a variety of uses, which may include invoicing customer accounts as appropriate; communicating information and offers to customers; to understand, analyze, and respond to our customers’ needs and preferences, and to subsequently develop, enhance, and/or provide products and services to meet those needs. We do not collect Personal Information for any other reason other than as described in this Policy, nor is it used in any way other than as described herein.
Consent
We try to ensure that you understand how we use your Personal Information. One of the ways this is done is by obtaining your consent. Consent may be either express or implied. Express consent is given when we specifically ask you if it acceptable to you that we gather certain information and you explicitly agree that it is. Implied consent occurs when you provide information that may be Personal Information without objection. As we obtain only the information necessary to assist you with the transaction undertaken by us on your behalf, we operate under the understanding that you have agreed to provide us with this Personal Information voluntarily and with knowledge of this Policy whenever you do so.
Use and Retention of Your Personal Information
We will retain your Personal Information for as long as we provide or may potentially provide services to you. It is important for you to know that we may, as a result of outsourcing of parts of your project to third-party service providers as may be required from time to time, provide Personal Information to such third-party service providers. We shall, at all times, only share Personal Information as may be minimally required to complete your work, and that such third-party service providers may or may not have privacy policies of their own. When your Personal Information is no longer necessary to webAssist for the purposes described in this Policy, we will destroy, erase, or de-personalize the Personal Information. The only exception to this will be where we may be required to keep or provide your Personal Information as a result of legislation, as required by law or government regulation, or due to a binding court order.
No Sharing, Selling, or Bartering of your Personal Information
Your Personal information is not given, rented, or sold to any third party for any reason. It may be combined with other Personal Information collected by webAssist to provide us with aggregate statistical information about our customers’ purchasing or usage preferences, but at no time will your Personal Information be shared with any other parties that might be involved in this aggregate collection of Information.
Accuracy
To ensure that the Personal Information you provide to us is accurate, complete, and up-to-date, we urge you to provide us with updates regarding such information and to inform us of any errors affecting the Personal Information we may hold.
Security
We employ ongoing security measures in an effort to protect Personal Information held by us from unauthorized use, access, disclosure, distribution, loss or alteration. Your Personal Information is protected by implementing the following kinds of safety precautions:
(a) physical, such as the locking of filing cabinets or restricting access to certain areas of our offices to appropriate personnel;
(b) administrative/organizational, such as the implementation of proper policies to be followed by all webAssist employees, agents, contractors and affiliates, and to ensure that they are trained to know their ongoing obligations to you. Employees, agents and third-party service providers are provided with only the Personal Information that is necessary for them to perform their duties properly, and the Information is provided only to such personnel as may require it; and
(c) technological, such as the utilization of passwords, encryption, and secure servers on all of our computers and/or electronic databases.
Personal Information is stored on-site at the webAssist head offices in London , Ontario , and is protected using some or all of the above safeguards, as appropriate.
Access
You are entitled to know what Personal Information about you that we have collected, as well as how it has or will be used. If you provide a written request for this information, we will provide it to you within 60 days of confirmation of your identity. We will inform you whether or not we hold Personal Information about you and, when possible, the source of the Information, its use, and any parties to which it may have been disclosed.
Satisfaction
We are committed to ensuring that you have full knowledge of how and why we collect your Personal Information, and what is done with it. If you wish to offer comments or challenge the compliance with federal or provincial legislation of the Policy, we invite you to send a letter addressed to webAssist Inc., Attention: Privacy Compliance Officer, 610 -111 Waterloo Street, London , ON N6B 2M4 .
We will respond as quickly as possible and inform you of the steps, if any, that have been or will be taken in order to address the concern or implement the suggestion, including, if necessary, amending the policies and procedures of webAssist.
Amendment to webAssist Privacy Policy and Procedures
This Privacy Policy is in effect as of January 1, 2004. webAssist recognizes that the legal interpretation of PIPEDA and future Provincial privacy legislation may impact its privacy policies and procedures. Our privacy officer will review and revise this Privacy Policy from time to time, and notification of any revisions will be posted on the webAssist Internet web site. Privacy Policy changes will apply to the Personal Information collected from the date of the posting of the revised Privacy Policy to the webAssist Internet web site.
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