CONSENT PRACTICES

Consent is voluntary agreement with what is being done or proposed. Consent can be either express or implied. Express consent is given explicitly, either orally or in writing. Express consent is unequivocal and does not require any inference on the part of the organization seeking consent. Implied consent arises where the consent may reasonably be inferred from the action or inaction of the individual.

EXPRESS CONSENT

You indicated that your organization does not collect any sensitive or potentially sensitive information. In the future, if your organization decides to collect sensitive or potentially sensitive information you should always make sure you get express consent from your customer. In other words, you must ask the customer directly if they consent to you collecting the information and/or disclosing the information to another organization. For example, if you collect financial information for a credit check, have the customer sign an application form that states that you will disclose the information to a credit reporting agency and that the customer consents to this.Express consent should be used whenever possible and in all cases when the personal information is considered sensitive.

IMPLIED CONSENT

You indicated your organization does not collect any information to complete a sale or other transaction, verify a customer’s credit, place a special order for a customer, arrange for a delivery, or process a return. If in the future your organization decides to collect this information, remember that so long as the information collected is necessary to complete one of the actions listed above, you can assume the customer has consented when he or she provides you with the information. (This is called « implied consent »).

Remember:

You can’t refuse to complete a transaction if the customer refuses to consent to the collection of information that isn’t necessary to complete the transaction.
If you decide later to use this information for another purpose, you have to go back and get the customer’s consent.

OPT-OUT CONSENT

You collect the following information for secondary purposes, such as marketing, administering a customer loyalty program, or customer relationship management:

In these circumstances, you have to give the customer an opportunity to tell you they don’t want you to use their information for that purpose. This is called an « opt-out ».

Opt-outs must be clear, easy to understand and easy for the customer to do. You can have an opt-out box on a paper-based or web application form, for example, that tells customers that if they don’t want to receive promotional material in the mail, just check here. You may want to let the customer know what they’ll be missing – special deals and new product information, for example – but don’t minimize, hide or obscure the opt-out. And don’t make it complicated, like requiring the customer to call a special phone number between certain hours. The point is to let the customer decide.

SECURITY PLAN

EMPLOYEE ACCESS TO CUSTOMER INFORMATION

You indicated that there are no employees in your organization who see or process information unnecessarily. This is a good practice. By limiting the number of people who view or process information you reduce the risk of inappropriate use or disclosure.

STORAGE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION: PAPER FILES

You indicated your organization does not keep any information in paper files.
In the future, if you do plan to store personal information in paper files, it is extremely important to take all measure possible in order to safely store your customer’s personal information. You should protect those files by moving them to:

A locked cabinet
A restricted area
An area with an alarm system
STORAGE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION: ELECTRONIC FILES
The following includes the types of information you may store in electronic files:

Name
It is extremely important to take all measures possible in order to safely store your customer’s personal information. Try the following methods to protect those files by using:

Computer passwords
Firewalls
Encrypted data files
Encrypted personal information that is sent or received over the Internet (by email or through web forms, for eg.)
Electronic audit trails that identify who has access information
Keeping backup files in a locked cabinet
Be especially careful with laptops, USB keys and electronic wireless devices. These types of devices can potentially store a large quantity of your customer’s personal information. All of these devices should be password protected and have the strongest form of protection possible.

COLLECTION OF SENSITIVE INFORMATION

You indicated that your organization does not collect any information that is sensitive or potentially sensitive. In the future if your organization decides to collect sensitive or potentially sensitive information consider using more than one method to ensure that it is kept confidential.

Finally, go through your old files and destroy any personal information that you no longer need in order to fulfill the purpose that you collected it for.

THIRD PARTIES LIST

You share personal information with the following third party suppliers or agents:

With No Other Parties
You’ll have to review the privacy practices of these firms to make sure they meet the same standards that you apply to your business. You should also talk to your lawyer about adding special clauses to any contracts that involve you sharing information with a third party to:

require the third party to protect your customer information
give you the power to audit the third party to make sure they’re complying with fair information practices
make sure the third party only uses the information for the purposes set out in the contract
require the third party to pass on to you any requests from customers to see their customer records