Privacy Policy

McGovern Hurley LLP (“We”, “Us”, “Our”) believes that it is important for you to know how We treat your personal information. Our Privacy Policy will explain why We collect personal information (information about an identifiable individual) about Our clients and other individuals who interact with Us and how We handle that information on Our website and offline.

Types of Information We Collect:

As you are aware, We may gather personal information from you in person, at Our office, over the telephone, or by corresponding with you via mail or on the Internet through email and Our website. In general, you can visit Our website without telling Us who you are or revealing any personal information about yourself, unless you voluntarily choose to provide it.

The type of information We may collect about you depends on whether or not you are Our client (or prospective client), Our employee, Our contractor, or have another relationship with us. The information We may collect includes your name, contact information, correspondence with us, comments/questions about Our organization, and financial information relating to, or arising from, your relationship with Us. For current or prospective clients: We may collect additional information, such as your date of birth, gender, languages spoken, language preference, place of residence, social insurance number, marital status and dependants. For clients engaged as a proprietor, partner or shareholder of a duly authorized incorporated company; We may collect further information, such as your firm name, names of partners, preferred areas of business and corporate information pertaining to its business number.

How We Use Your Personal Information:

We may use your personal information collected by Us for purposes relating to or arising from your relationship and transactions with Us and as otherwise set out in this Privacy Policy or permitted by applicable law, including:

• to administer Our relationship with you, including to contact and correspond with you regarding the products and services We are providing to you and related matters;
• to facilitate Our interactions and transactions with you;
• to provide products and services to you;
• to communicate to the Canada Revenue Agency, and any other institution or individual that you authorize Us to contact;
• to process financial transactions including payment of Our fees and services;
• to process and respond to your inquiries, requests and other communications;
• to provide you with information (including by email and other electronic messages) regarding Our business, products and services and products and services offered by other businesses, to the extent permitted by applicable law;
• to maintain, protect and improve Our products and services and to develop new products and services;
• to protect and enforce Our legal rights, interests and remedies and to protect the business, operations and customers of Us or other persons; and

• to comply with legal and regulatory requirements.

We may also use your personal information to provide you with tailored information that We believe will be of interest to you or to conduct surveys on the quality of Our products and services. You may opt-in to such where an opt-in is offered or you can contact Our Privacy Officer at any time to provide or withdraw your consent to such use and disclosure.

We may use your personal information to create non-personal information, and We may then use, disclose, transfer and retain the non-personal information as set out below in this Privacy Policy.

Our websites may use cookies, web beacons and other tracking technologies to store on your browser information about your use of Our websites (including the Internet address of your computer) so that Our third party service providers (such as Facebook) may display advertisements likely to be of interest to you when you access other websites, social media sites or other online services.

You may opt out of receiving interest-based advertisements on a website, social media site or other online service by using their advertising preferences settings. If you do so, you may still see Our ads on the site, but the ads will not be based on tracking technologies.

Information about online interest-based advertising and how you can opt out of receiving those ads are available here: youradchoices.ca/choices, aboutads.info/choices and www.networkadvertising.org. Information about ads on LinkedIn is available here.

Sharing of Personal Information:

Generally, We will not share your information with any individual, organization, or government without your written approval, except as required by law. We may disclose your personal information to other persons in accordance with express or implied consents that you give during your interactions and transactions with Us.

We may disclose your personal information to Our suppliers and service providers (including cloud service providers and payment processors) to assist Us in the provision of information, products and services to you, to provide services to Us, to assist Us to use your personal information as set out in this Privacy Policy and as otherwise permitted by applicable law.

We may disclose your personal information as required or authorized by applicable law, including to comply with a subpoena, warrant or court or arbitral order or litigation disclosure obligation. We may disclose your personal information to law enforcement agencies or other independent organizations if We reasonably believe the disclosure is necessary or appropriate in connection with national security, law enforcement or other issues of public importance, or if We reasonably believe the disclosure is necessary or appropriate to protect and enforce Our legal rights, interests and remedies or to protect the rights, interests, business, operations or customers of Us or other persons (including to detect and prevent fraud and other illegal activities, or to enforce any of the terms of use, terms of service or other agreements that govern access to or use of any of Our products or services). We have no control over, or responsibility or liability for, the use, disclosure or retention of your personal information by the agencies, independent organizations or other persons to whom We disclose the information in the foregoing circumstances, and the collection, use, disclosure and retention of the disclosed information by those agencies, independent organizations or other persons is not subject to this Privacy Policy.

We may disclose your personal information in connection with a proposed or actual business transaction in which We are involved (e.g. a corporate amalgamation, reorganization, merger or acquisition, or the sale or transfer of some or all of Our business or assets), and in those circumstances We will require the information recipient to agree to protect the privacy of your personal information in accordance with applicable law.

Retention of Personal Information:

We will retain your personal information for the period reasonably necessary for the purposes set out or referenced in this Privacy Policy and to comply with Our legal obligations or enforce or protect Our legal rights, or a longer period required or permitted by applicable law.

We will delete or dispose of your personal information, or depersonalize the information, when We are no longer required or permitted by applicable law to retain the information for the purposes set out or referenced in this Privacy Policy.

If you ask Us to delete your information, we will do so within a reasonable period of time. Please note that We may need to retain some information about you in order to satisfy our legal and security obligations. For example, some of your information may remain in back-up storage even if you ask Us to delete it. You may contact Our Privacy Director if you wish Us to delete your personal information.

Security Safeguards:

We take precautions to protect your personal information against unauthorized access, disclosure, inappropriate alteration, and misuse. All safety and security measures are appropriate to the sensitivity level of your information. Access to your personal information is restricted to those persons whose job responsibilities require them to have access. In addition, We use technological safeguards such as passwords, firewalls, anti-virus software and encryption technologies widely used in the professional services industry. Given that electronically transmitted data is not 100% secure, We make no warranties as to the security of any such information that you submit, which you do at your own risk.

Location of Personal Information:

Generally, We store, access and use personal information in Canada. Some of Our service providers may process, store and use your personal information at facilities outside of your province, territory or Canada in the course of providing their services to Us. When We engage a service provider that operates outside of Canada, personal information may be stored, processed, accessed or used in any country in which the service provider operates. The personal information protection laws of those other countries might be different from the laws of the jurisdiction in which you reside, and might permit courts, government, law enforcement agencies, regulatory agencies and security authorities to access your personal information without notice. We use all reasonable safeguards, including contractual requirements with our service providers, to protect your personal information wherever it is located.

Employee Access:

Our employees who work with your personal and business data maintain strict confidentiality of all information. Furthermore, Our employees must sign a confidentiality agreement binding them to uphold Our privacy and confidentiality rules.

How You Can Protect Your Information:

There are a number of measures you can take to protect yourself against fraud and uninvited intrusion. For example, you should take precautions in handling your social insurance number. Your social insurance number is necessary for Us to identify you and authenticate your request to access your personal information. You should not share your social insurance number with others unless you clearly understand the purpose of their request and you know with whom you are dealing.

Access and Correction of Personal Information:

You have the right to access your personal information and to have it corrected by contacting us. We rely on you to ensure that the personal information that you provide to Us is as accurate, complete and up to date as necessary for the purposes for which We use the personal information. You will promptly notify Us of any changes to the personal information that you provide to Us using the procedures We make available for that purpose or by contacting Our Privacy Officer.

You may reasonably request access to your personal information collected by Us and information about Our use, disclosure and retention of that personal information. If you wish to request access to, or correction of, your personal information in Our records, please make your request in writing to Our Privacy Officer. Some information may not be accessed in certain circumstances, for example if it contains personal information of other persons or for other legal reasons.

Links to Other Sites:

Our website may contain links to other Internet sites owned and operated by third parties. While We try to link only to sites that share Our high standards and respect for privacy, We are not responsible for the content or the privacy practices employed by other sites. You should review the privacy policies applicable to the other sites before you provide any personal information on those sites.

Non-Personal Information:

We may use non-personal information (information that is not about an identifiable individual) for any purpose, unless it is combined with personal information. We may use your personal information to create and collect non-personal information (information that is not about an identifiable individual), including personal information that has been aggregated, anonymized or otherwise depersonalized so that the information no longer relates to an identifiable individual. We may use, disclose, transfer and retain non-personal information for any purpose and in any manner whatsoever. If non-personal information is combined with your personal information, then we will treat the combined non-personal information as personal information for the purposes of this Privacy Policy for as long as the non-personal information is combined with your personal information.

Disclaimers, Liability Exclusions and Limitations, and Disputes:

If you enter into agreements with Us, the agreements may contain disclaimers, liability exclusions and limitations and dispute resolution provisions that apply to matters arising in relation to this Privacy Policy, to the extent permitted by applicable law.

The agreements (including any website terms of use) that you accept when you apply or register for, or order or use, Our products and services contain important provisions, including provisions disclaiming, limiting or excluding the liability of Us and other persons (including service providers) and provisions determining the applicable law and jurisdiction for the resolution of disputes. To the extent permitted by applicable law, each of those provisions applies to any dispute that may arise in relation to this Privacy Policy or Our collection, use, disclosure and retention of your personal information, and are of the same force and effect as if they were reproduced directly in this Privacy Policy. Nothing in this Privacy Policy amends any of those other agreements.

Changes to This Privacy Policy:

We reserve the right to change Our Privacy Policy from time to time. If We make a material change, this Privacy Policy will be updated accordingly. We recommend that you review this Privacy Policy on Our website periodically so that you are aware of any changes. Your continued use of Our site following the posting of any changes to this Privacy Policy shall constitute your acceptance of these changes.

Inquiries, Questions or Complaints:

If you have any inquiries, requests or complaints regarding Our privacy practices, please contact Our Privacy Officer, Kelly Khalilieh, by phone at 416-496-1234 extension 226 or by e-mail at kkhalilieh@mcgovernhurley.com.

This Privacy Statement was last modified on February 16, 2023.