Abax Communications Group -
Privacy Policy
THIS
POLICY DESCRIBES HOW PERSONAL INFORMATION ABOUT YOU MAY BE COLLECTED, USED AND
DISCLOSED, AND HOW YOU CAN GET ACCESS TO, AND/OR CORRECT, THIS INFORMATION.
PLEASE REVIEW IT CAREFULLY.
I.
YOUR
PRIVACY RIGHTS
Abax
Communications Group recognizes the importance of privacy and the sensitivity
of personal information. We are committed to protecting any personal
information we hold. For these reasons we have created the following Privacy
Policy ("Privacy Policy"). This Privacy Policy outlines how we manage
your personal information and safeguard your privacy. This policy also applies
to Abax Communications Group's affiliate Canadian organizations, including Creative
Art Glass Inc. From
II.
WHAT
IS PERSONAL INFORMATION
Personal
Information or "PI" for short is defined as any information about an
identifiable individual, but does not include the name, title or business
address or telephone number of an employee of an organization. For example,
your PI includes information that relates to your physical or mental health,
race, origin, color, religion, age, marital status, education, medical,
criminal or employment history, information relating to financial transactions,
identifying number, an unlisted address or unlisted telephone number,
fingerprints, and blood type, among others. In addition, some information that
is otherwise publicly available is not protected by the Act.
III.
HOW
WE COLLECT, USE AND DISCLOSE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION.
We
collect, use and disclose personal information for many different reasons.
Below, we describe the different categories of our
uses and disclosure as well as give you some examples of each category.
A. Collection, Use, Disclosure, and Retention of Personal Information.
Principles of Personal Information:
1.
Abax Communications Group will not collect any
personal information about you unless it relates directly to activities our
organization performs. Abax Communications Group will obtain your consent
before or at the time the information about you is collected, with very few
exceptions. Normally, we ask for your consent in writing, but in some
circumstances, we may accept your oral consent. Sometimes, your consent may be
implied through your conduct with us or we may not ask for your specific
consent in a case of urgency or where we believe you would consent if asked and
it is impractical to obtain your consent. Any information previously collected
about you will not be re-collected. In order for us to continue to use the
previously collected information, we need your consent. You may also withdraw
your consent in writing, to stop any future uses or disclosure (to the extent
we have not taken any action relying on that consent). Your withdrawal will not
have an effect on the use or disclosure occurring prior to our receipt of your
withdrawal.
2.
Abax Communications Group will notify you about the
purpose for which information about you is requested
at or before the information about you is collected. This notification may be
provided orally or in writing. In the event Abax Communications Group wishes to
use your information for a new purpose, you will be notified, and have an
opportunity to provide or refuse your consent.
3.
After obtaining your consent, Abax Communications
Group may only use or disclose your PI for the purpose for which the
information was collected, or for a use consistent with that purpose. We will
use or disclose such information only for the purpose for which it was
collected, unless we have your consent, or unless the use or disclosure fits
into one of the exceptions listed below. When information is to be used or
disclosed for a purpose not previously identified to you, such new purpose will
be identified for you prior to use or disclosure, and your consent will be
requested.
4.
Whenever possible, Abax Communications Group will
collect PI directly from you, unless you have authorized otherwise. We collect
information only by lawful and fair means and not in an unreasonably intrusive
way.
5.
Abax Communications Group will take reasonable steps
to ensure that your PI is accurate, up-to-date, and as complete as possible. If
Abax Communications Group holds information about you and you can establish
that it is not accurate, up-to-date and complete, we will take reasonable steps
to correct it. If any of your information changes, please inform us so that we
can make any necessary changes.
6.
We retain personal information for only as long as we
need it to effectively provide our services and for a reasonable length of time
thereafter in case we need to meet any potential obligations or legal or
government requirements. We destroy paper files containing personal information
by shredding. We destroy electronic information by deleting it, and when the
hardware is discarded, we ensure that the hard drive is physically destroyed.
B. Exceptions to Consent.
Under certain circumstances we may use and/or disclose your PI without your consent or knowledge. For example:
1.
When disclosure is authorized, or required by law.
For example, we will disclose PI when a law, court order or a subpoena requires
that we disclose information. We will also make disclosures when the Attorney
General of Canada requires it for proceedings involving the Crown in right of
2.
For governmental investigation activities. For
example, we will provide information to assist the government when it conducts
an investigation, audit or inspection of an organization or other person based
upon breach of an agreement or a contravention of federal or provincial law, or
if the information relates to national security, the defense of Canada or the
conduct of international affairs.
3. In emergency
situations. We may disclose PI because of an emergency that threatens the life,
health or security of an individual. In this case, we will inform you in
writing of the disclosure.
4.
For legal activities. We may provide your PI to a
lawyer who is representing Abax Communications Group.
5.
For debt collection. We may disclose your PI for the
purpose of collecting a debt owed by you to Abax Communications Group, if any.
C.
Security Safeguards.
Abax
Communications Group takes all reasonable precautions to ensure that your
personal information is kept safe from loss, unauthorized access, modification
or disclosure.
Among the
steps taken to protect your information are:
· premises security
such as supervised or locked cabinet storage;
· restricted file access to personal
information;
· deploying technological safeguards like
passwords, security software and firewalls to prevent hacking or unauthorized
computer access;
· paper information
is transmitted through sealed, addressed envelopes or boxes by reputable
companies;
· electronic
information is transmitted either through a direct line or is anonymized or
encrypted;
· internal password
and security policies. We use a number of consultants and agencies that may, in
the course of their duties, have limited access to personal information we
hold. These include computer consultants, office security and maintenance,
bookkeepers and accountants, credit card companies, website managers and
landlord. We restrict their access to any personal information we hold as much
as is reasonably possible. We also have their assurance that they follow
appropriate privacy principles.
IV. YOUR RIGHTS ASSOCIATED WITH YOUR PI
You have
the following rights with respect to your PI:
A.
The Right to Access Your PI. In most cases, you have
the right to look at or get copies of your PI that we have, but you must make
the request in writing. However, we reserve the right to confirm the identity
of the person seeking access to personal information at or before complying
with any access requests. Summary information is available upon request. More
detailed requests, which require archive or other retrieval costs, may be
subject to a small fee. In certain situations, we may deny your request for
access. If we do, we shall explain why. Your rights to access your personal
information are not absolute. We may deny access when:
· denial of access is
required or authorized by law;
· we have disclosed
information to a government institution for law enforcement or national
security reasons;
· information relates
to existing or anticipated legal proceedings against you;
· when granting you access would have an unreasonable impact
on other people's privacy;
· when granting
access could harm an individual's life or security;
· to protect our
organization's rights and property; or where the request is frivolous or
vexatious.
Abax
Communications Group does not use your Social Insurance Number as a way of
identifying or organizing the information we hold upon you.
B.
The Right to Receive an Accounting of Uses and
Disclosures. You have a right to request and receive a list of instances in
which we have disclosed your PI to third parties. We will attempt to be as
specific as possible in identifying the organizations to which we have
disclosed your PI. At a minimum, we will provide you a list of organizations to
which we may have disclosed your PI.
C.
The Right to Correct or Update Your PI. If you
believe that there is an error or omission in your PI, you have the right to
request that we correct the error or omission. You must provide the request and
your reason for the request in writing. If you can establish that the
information we hold is inaccurate, we will take reasonable steps to correct it.
We will also take reasonable steps to advise any third parties to whom we have
disclosed your personal information of the correction. If we refuse your
request to correct information, we shall explain why.
V.
COMMUNICATING
WITH US
E-mail is
not a 100% secure medium, and you should be aware of this when contacting us to
send personal or confidential information.
VI. CHANGES TO PRIVACY POLICY
We reserve
the right to change the terms of this our Privacy Policy at any time. Any
changes to our Privacy Policy will apply to the PI we already have in our
possession, or information we may collect in the future. When we make an
important change to our Privacy Policy, we will publish the new policy.
VII.
REQUEST FOR ACCESS/CORRECTION
If you
have any questions about this Privacy Policy, or if you wish to correct or
access your personal information, please contact our Chief Privacy Officer at: Abax
Communications Group, 12 Hafis Road, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M6M 2V7 Attn:
Chief Privacy Officer Or you may contact our Chief Privacy Officer directly at
416-249-8922 or info@CreativeArtGlass.com.
If you are not satisfied with our response, the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
can be reached at: 112 Kent Street, Ottawa, OntarioK1A 1H3Tel: 1-800-282-1376
Web site: www.privcom.gc.ca
VIII.
EMPLOYMENT INQUIRIES
If you
apply to Abax Communications Group for a job, we need to consider your personal
information, as part of our review process. We normally retain information from
candidates after a decision has been made, unless you ask us not to retain the
information. If we offer you a job, which you accept, the information will be
retained in accordance with our privacy procedures for employee records.
IX.
WEB
SITE
Our web
site contains links to other web sites that are provided and maintained
exclusively by third parties. Web sites provided and maintained by third
parties are not subject to this Privacy Policy. Please review the privacy
policies on those web sites to determine their information handling practices.
On our web site, like most other commercial websites, we may monitor traffic
patterns, site usage and related site information in order to optimize our web
service. We may provide aggregated information to third parties, but these
statistics do not include any identifiable personal information.
X.
EFFECTIVE
DATE OF THIS POLICY
This
policy went into effect on January 1, 2004.