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Privacy of personal information
is an important principle to The Brown Group of
Companies and Brown Management Services. We are
committed to collecting, using and disclosing personal
information responsibly and only to the extent necessary
for the premises, goods and services we provide.
We also try to be open and transparent as to how
we handle personal information. This document describes
our privacy policies.
What is Personal Information?
Personal information is information about an
identifiable individual. Personal information
includes information that relates to their personal
characteristics (e.g., gender, age, income, home
address or phone number, family status), their
health (e.g., disabilities) or their activities
and views (e.g., religion, politics, opinions
expressed by an individual, opinions about an
individual). Personal information is to be contrasted
with business information (e.g., an individual's
business address and telephone number), which
is not protected by privacy legislation.
Who We Are
Our organizations, The Brown Group of Companies,
and Brown Management Services, provide property
management services to landlords of residential,
office, commercial, and industrial units. We are
also involved in land development, and new home
and condominium construction. 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 building superintendents,
security, cleaning and maintenance organizations,
bookkeepers and accountants, computer consultants,
temporary workers to cover holidays, cleaners,
and lawyers. 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.
We Collect Personal Information: Primary Purposes
About Tenants
Like all property managers, we collect, use and
disclose personal information in order to serve
our clients and their tenants and to manage our
client's property. For our client's tenants, the
primary purpose for collecting personal information
is to ensure their safety, security and reasonable
enjoyment and that of the other tenants, to ensure
they have access to the premises, equipment and
services that our clients have agreed to provide,
to preserve our client's property and to collect
rents and other fees. Examples of the type of
information we collect for these purposes includes
the following:
- Names of all occupants of the unit
- Business and emergency contact information
- Use and intended uses of the property
- Compliance with the tenancy agreement and our client's rules and regulations
- Payment, banking and other financial information
- Any special needs of tenants (e.g., disability or health) and
- Social insurance number, but only for the purpose of issuing a tax receipt for interest on the rental deposit
As a service and convenience for tenants we, or
our clients may maintain public directories of
tenants (e.g., by the front door). If you do not
wish to be listed in any directories or wish to
be described in a particular way, please let us
know.
It would be rare for us to collect any personal
information without the tenant's expressed consent,
but this might occur in a case of urgency (e.g.,
the tenant is unavailable), where we believe the
tenant would consent if asked and it is impractical
to obtain consent (e.g., information provided
by a relative about an absent tenant), appropriate
public sources (e.g., government, court or tribunal
records) or to investigate a breach of the tenancy
agreement or contravention of the law.
We, or our client subscribe to a consumer reporting
service. This service provides information to
landlords about prospective tenants. In return,
we on behalf of our client provide information
to the service in order for the service to maintain
a databank on a tenant's history. We collect your
full legal name and date of birth to ensure the
accuracy of those records. Having a good tenant
history filed with the service will make it easier
for you to be accepted as a tenant at other properties
in the future. We, or our client obtain your consent
for using the consumer reporting service in the
rental application form and tenancy agreement.
The information described above and the information
set out below about prospective tenants can be
collected or updated if the tenant is in arrears
of rent or fees or wishes to renew a tenancy agreement.
About Prospective Tenants
Prospective tenants are requested to complete
a rental application form so that we, or our client
can assess their suitability as tenants and have
necessary basic information should they become
tenants. This would include the following types
of information:
- Past tenancy history
- Employment history
- References and conduct history
- Financial means and credit history
- Automobile information and
- Intended use of the premises
We, or our client will then confirm this information
and check references and the conduct history of
the prospective tenants. This might include following
up with other individuals identified during the
course of these inquiries as having relevant information
(e.g., a person identified by a reference you
provided to us). We, or our client may also contact
a credit agency and/or a consumer reporting service
for information about your suitability. We, or
our client might also check appropriate public
sources (e.g., government, court or tribunal records).
By completing a rental application form you agree
to us, or our client collecting this information
about your suitability to be a tenant.
About Members of the General Public
For members of the general public, our primary
purpose for collecting personal information is
to promote the safety of tenants and the security
of the property. For example we, or our client
may operate security cameras and monitor the presence,
vehicles and the conduct of visitors and non-tenants
on our property. We believe that the collection
of this information is implied by the private
and residential nature of our client's property.
Secondly, we, or our client might gather personal
information in the course of marketing our client's
property to prospective tenants. This information
is collected either from appropriate public sources
(e.g., telephone directories) or directly from
the individuals with their consent.
On our website, we only collect, with the exception
of cookies (electronic markers identifying computers
that have previously visited our website), the
personal information you provide and only use
that information for the purpose you gave it to
us (e.g., to respond to your email message, to
provide information about our services). Cookies
are only used to help you navigate our website
and are not used to monitor you.
Suppliers and Contractors
We often deal with suppliers and contractors who
provide goods and services to the properties we
manage. We monitor their performance, including
their promptness, reliability, quality and value
of services. Most of this information is business
information and would not be covered by privacy
legislation. However, occasionally, this information
relates to the conduct of an individual (e.g.,
skill of a particular employee of a supplier or
contractor, inappropriate behaviour or comments
by a particular representative). We reserve the
right to collect this information, use it in deciding
upon future services and to disclose it to the
landlord or others involved in related or similar
operations. We may also collect home contact information
to reach them in case of emergencies.
Sharing Information with Our Clients
We usually act as agents for our landlord clients.
Thus, we will share (or transfer) any personal
information we collect relevant to a particular
client with that client. We advise our clients
to have their own privacy policy consistent with
both our privacy policy and with the Personal
Information Protection and Electronic Documents
Act.
About Clients
We collect contact information about our landlord
clients for better communication or to reach them
in case of emergencies. We also collect information
about our client's instructions; wishes and preferences
in order to better serve them. Generally we collect
information about our clients directly from them
and with their consent.
About Contract Staff
For people who are contracted to do work for us
(e.g., temporary workers), our primary purpose
for collecting personal information is to ensure
we can contact them in the future (e.g., for new
assignments) and for necessary work-related communication
(e.g., sending out paycheques, year-end tax receipts,
tax filings). Examples of the type of personal
information we collect for those purposes include
home addresses and telephone numbers. It is rare
for us to collect such information without prior
consent, but it might happen in the case of an
emergency (e.g., an outbreak of a contagious disease)
or to investigate a possible breach of law (e.g.,
if a theft were to occur).
We Collect Personal Information: Related and
Secondary Purposes
Like most property managers, we also collect,
use and disclose information for purposes related
to or secondary to our primary purposes. The most
common examples of our related and secondary purposes
are as follows:
- To collect rents and other fees on behalf
of our clients.
- To collect fees and accounts from our clients.
- To advise clients and others of new developments
in the area of landlord and tenant relations
(e.g., a newsletter sent to a home address of
a client).
- To advise clients and others of our newsletters,
courses we provide, special offers and promotions
that we have available.
- We review tenant, client and other files for
the purpose of ensuring that we provide high
quality services, including assessing the performance
of our consultants, suppliers and staff. In
addition, external consultants (e.g., auditors,
lawyers, business consultants) may on our behalf
do audits and continuing quality improvement
reviews of our operations, including reviewing
tenant or client files and interviewing our
staff.
- Various government agencies (e.g., Canada
Customs and Revenue Agency, Information and
Privacy Commissioner, Human Rights Commission,
etc.) have the authority to review our files
and interview our staff as a part of their mandates.
Also, we believe that we should report information
suggesting serious illegal behaviour to the
authorities. These reports could include personal
information about a tenant or other individual
to support the concern (e.g., illegal drug activity),
although we try to keep this disclosure to a
minimum. In these circumstances, we may consult
with professionals (e.g., lawyers, a private
security service) who will investigate the matter
and report back to us.
- If a tenant's rent or fees are paid for by
a third party (e.g., employer, your trustee,
the government) we may be asked to provide them
with certain information. These third party
payers often have tenant consent or legislative
authority to direct us to collect and disclose
to them certain information in order to demonstrate
tenant entitlement to and responsible use of
this funding.
- Tenants, clients or other individuals we deal
with may have questions about the services they
received. We also provide ongoing services for
many tenants and clients over a period of months
or years for which previous records are helpful.
We retain tenant and client information for
a minimum of ten years after the last contact
to enable us to respond to those questions and
provide these services.
- If The Brown Group of Companies or Brown Management
Services or its assets were to be sold, the
purchaser would want to conduct a "due diligence"
review of the organization's records to ensure
that it is a viable business that has been honestly
portrayed to the purchaser. This due diligence
may involve some review of our accounting and
service files. The purchaser would not be able
to remove or record personal information. Before
being provided access to the files, the purchaser
must provide a written promise to keep all personal
information confidential. Only reputable purchasers
who have already agreed to buy the organization's
business or its assets would be provided access
to personal information, and only for the purpose
of completing their due diligence search prior
to closing the purchase.
You can choose not to be part of some of these
related or secondary purposes (e.g., declining
to receive our newsletter, by not having a third
party pay your rent). We do not, however, have
much choice about some of these related or secondary
purposes (e.g., external regulation).
Protecting Personal Information
We understand the importance of protecting personal
information. For that reason, we have taken the
following steps:
- Paper information is either under supervision or secured in a locked or restricted area.
- Electronic hardware is either under supervision or secured in a locked or restricted area at all times. In addition, passwords are used on computers. All of our cell phones are digital, which signals are more difficult to intercept (however, we still are careful on cell phones because sometimes they switch over to an analog service).
- 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.
- Staff are trained to collect, use and disclose personal information only as necessary to fulfill their duties and in accordance with our privacy policy.
- External consultants and agencies with access to personal information must provide us with appropriate privacy assurances.
Retention and Destruction of Personal Information
We need to retain personal information for some time to ensure that we can answer any questions you might have about the services provided and for our own accountability to external regulatory bodies. However, we do not want to keep personal information too long in order to protect your privacy.
We keep our client files for about ten years. Our client, tenant and contact directories are much more difficult to systematically destroy, so we remove such information when we can if it does not appear that we will be contacting you again. However, if you ask, we will remove such contact information right away. We keep any personal information relating to our general correspondence with people who are not tenants for about two years.
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
or completely reformatted.
You Can Look at Your Information
With some exceptions, you have the right to see what personal information we hold about you. Often all you have to do is ask. We can help you identify what records we might have about you. We will also try to help you understand any information you do not understand (e.g., short forms, technical language, etc.). We will need to confirm your identity, if we do not know you, before providing you with this access. We reserve the right to charge a nominal fee for such requests.
If there is a problem, we may ask you to put your request in writing. If we cannot give you access, we will tell you within 30 days if at all possible and tell you the reason, as best we can, as to why we cannot give you access.
If we collected personal information on behalf of a landlord client we may have conveyed that information directly to the landlord. If so, we may not have it as a part of our own files and you will have to go to the landlord to look at the information.
If you believe there is a mistake in the information,
you have the right to ask for it to be corrected.
We may ask you to provide documentation that our
files are wrong. Where we agree that we made a
mistake, we will make the correction and notify
anyone to whom we sent this information. If we
do not agree that we have made a mistake, we will
still agree to include in our file a brief statement
from you on the point and we will forward that
statement to anyone else who received the earlier
information.
Do You Have a Question?
Our Information Officer, Jay Brown, can be reached
at:
38 Berwick Ave. | Toronto, ON
| M5P 1H1
PHONE (416) 487-5122
He will attempt to answer any questions or concerns you might have.
If you wish to make a formal complaint about our privacy practices, you may make it in writing to our Information Officer. He will acknowledge receipt of your complaint, ensure that it is investigated promptly and that you are provided with a formal decision and reasons in writing.
This policy is made under the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act. It is a complex Act and provides some additional exceptions to the privacy principles that are too detailed to set out here. There are some rare exceptions to the commitments set out above.
For more general inquiries, the Information and
Privacy Commissioner of Canada oversees the administration
of the privacy legislation in the private sector.
The Commissioner also acts as a kind of ombudsman
for privacy disputes. The Information and Privacy
Commissioner can be reached at:
112 Kent Street
Ottawa, ON K1A 1H3
Phone: (613) 995-8210
Toll-free: 1-800-282-1376
Fax: (613) 947-6850
TTY: (613) 992-9190
www.privcom.gc.ca
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