We Care About Your Privacy
Farm Business Consultants Inc. ("FBC") values your privacy. The purpose of this privacy policy is to disclose to you the type of personal information we gather, how we gather it, what we use it for, and inform you of the choices that you have in our use of your personal information.
The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEA) is legislation enacted by the Canadian government. We fully adhere to that legislation at all times.
You have the right to control the way FBC uses your personal information and FBC has a Privacy Officer to ensure that FBC adheres to your requests in that regard. At the end of this Privacy Policy, the addresses are provided so that you may contact our Privacy Officer to inform FBC of your choices, and once our Privacy Officer is informed of your requests, FBC will fully honour those requests.
Personal Information We Collect
There are three types of personal information we collect, each of which is explained in detail immediately below:
- "Basic personal information"
We may collect "basic personal information" from you from time to time that includes:
- Your name
- Your address
- Your telephone number
- Your email address
- Your age and gender
We collect that basic personal information in a number of ways, for example:
- When you contact us to ask questions, either by telephone, by email or in person
- When you meet with an FBC representative
We may use this basic personal information in our various postal and email mailing lists to contact you from time to time to:
- Describe the services we provide
- To inform you of various offers and benefits we provide, and
- If you are not an FBC member, to invite you to become one (we do that through various methods including direct mail campaigns and email campaign, using the personal information you provide us to include you in our mailing lists for those direct mail campaigns)
Email communications for the foregoing marketing initiatives will always include an identification of the sender and an "Unsubscribe" option.
- "Substantive personal information"
If you become a member of FBC, we will perform for you one or more of the broad spectrum of services that FBC provides to its members (such as, for example, our bookkeeping services, our tax planning and advisory services, our estate planning and advisory services and our income tax preparation services).
To provide these services, we will collect from you "substantive financial information" that includes:
- If you are an individual, your social insurance number; if you are a business, the business numbers issued to you by the Federal and/or Provincial governments
- Your complete personal and/or business financial history including a list of all your financial assets
- All tax related information pertaining to you and/or your business including copies of all past tax returns that you or your business have submitted and/or that FBC will submit to the Canada Revenue Agency (this would also include any information included in an income tax return we prepare for you)
- Medical information about you (for example, should you ask us to provide estate planning services)
- Aggregated information
We also collect what can be called "anonymous/aggregated information". We collect such information via the following methods:
- Browser information (i.e., the URL of the web page you were just on, the IP address of the computer you are using, your domain type, and your browser version). Browser information is automatically recorded as part of transmitting information over the Internet. We may use it to help us display information in the best format for you.
- Cookies. Our website uses "cookies". A cookie is a small text file sent to your browser's files for our reference. No one else can read this file. Cookies allow our server computer to recognize you when you return to the site, so you don't have to re-register and so we can retain any preferences you may have given us. If you do not wish to receive cookies, most browsers allow you to be alerted when a cookie is sent to your computer, so you can decide whether to accept it.
- "Clickstream" Data. During your visit to our site, we may record choices you have made and use this to provide more customized content or advertising. The data does not identify you and is not retained after your visit. This is sometimes called "clickstream" data. If we do market research studies or polls in any area that will only be reported in aggregate, this will be indicated.
Consent to the Collection and Use of Your Personal Information
When you are not a member of FBC but contact FBC for any reason (either in person, by telephone, by regular mail, or by email), or if FBC contacts you without you having contacted FBC first and you provide "basic personal information" to the FBC representative, you will be deemed to provide your consent to FBC's collection of your "basic personal information" and to use that "basic personal information" for the purposes described above under the heading "basic personal information".
We obtain your consent to collect your "substantive financial information" (as that term is defined above) when you complete the FBC membership form to become a member of FBC and then sign that form. You may subsequently provide additional "substantive financial information" after becoming a member of FBC and your consent that you provide in your membership application to collect and use that "substantive financial information" will also apply to the subsequent "substantive financial information" you later provide FBC from time-to-time.
Control of Your Information
You always have the option to instruct us not to use your personal information. Please see the "Contact Us" section at the end of this Privacy Policy to learn the methods by which you can provide us with your current instructions as to what personal information we can use and cannot use.
If at any time you withdraw your consent to collect and/or use your personal information, FBC may not be able to provide you with any further services since we will require such information to provide you with accurate services.
If at any time you should tell FBC not to use your personal information, your personal information will still form part of FBC's internal records; FBC will simply not use it for any purpose other than maintaining it in FBC's archives for historical archival records only.
Visiting a Third Party Website via a Link From Our Own Website
Our site includes links to other websites whose privacy practices may differ from those FBC. If you choose to provide personal information when you visit those third party websites please remember that the privacy provisions that the third party has will govern your relationship with them and our privacy policy will not apply.
Our Policy Regarding Sharing of Information
Our policy regarding the selling or renting of your personal information is simple: we never sell or rent your personal information to any third parties under any circumstances.
We have businesses that are directly owned affiliates of FBC (for example, Oxford Financial Services Inc. sometimes doing business as FBC Financial & Estate Planning), and on occasion we will share your "basic personal information" (as that term is defined above) with them. By signing the FBC membership form, you will be giving FBC consent to share any such affiliated business with your "substantive financial information".
If you ask FBC to communicate on your behalf with the Federal or Provincial governments (including any of their Ministries, Agencies and/or Departments) for any reason (for example, to discuss benefits they can provide to you or your business) we may disclose personal information to that body but only if you have authorized us to do so in writing (those written authorizations will be valid until you revoke them in writing and deliver such revocation to us at the addresses provided below).
Amendments to this Privacy Policy
We reserve the right to change this privacy policy at any time and the then current policy (as posted on our Website) will govern.
This privacy policy is not intended to, nor does it create any contractual or other relationship, or provide or create any legal rights in or on behalf of any party or person (however, this privacy policy does not, and is not intended to, circumvent privacy legislation enacted by the Federal or Provincial legislatures).
Contact Us
You may contact the FBC Privacy Officer and/or FBC at any time in relation to any matter, as follows (if your query relates to a privacy matter, please state "Attention: Privacy Officer" in the heading of your correspondence):
FBC
Attention: Privacy Officer
#150, 3015 – 5th Avenue NE
Calgary, AB T2A 6T8
Phone: 1-800-265-1002
Fax: 403-735-5087
Email: privacy.officer@fbc.ca