Privacy Policy for Personal Information

Last Updated: November 28, 2023

1. Preamble

This Privacy Policy for Personal Information (hereinafter “this Policy”) applies to the Turgeon, Sansoucy & Ouellet Notaires website and to all personal information collected by our study.

In this policy, the terms “we”, “our” and “our” refer to the Turgeon, Sansoucy & Ouellet Notaires study and its head office.

By this policy, Turgeon, Sansoucy & Ouellet notaires wanted to describe its practices regarding the treatment of personal information, including its collection, use, disclosure and retention, through our website or through various means of communication (telephone, Internet, fax or other).

Turgeon, Sansoucy & Ouellet notaires collect, use, disclose and retain personal information in accordance with the Civil Code of Québec, the Private Sector Privacy Act, as well as any other applicable law or regulation, as well as the Notariat Act and its regulations, including the Regulation respecting the keeping of records and studies of notaries, while having at heart the confidentiality of said information.

By visiting or using our website and contacting us, you consent to the collection, use, disclosure and retention of your personal information in accordance with this policy.

2. Our commitment

At Turgeon, Sansoucy & Ouellet notaires, our activities are based on a close relationship between notaries, support staff and clients, while we make it our duty to respect privacy.

Our study provides legal services, while our clients entrust us with highly confidential personal information.

It is essential for us to maintain this trust and to confirm our determination to preserve the security of personal information shared as part of our business relationship.

In this regard, the Turgeon, Sansoucy & Ouellet Notaires study is committed to taking all necessary measures to preserve the confidentiality of the information it has in its possession.

In particular, the Turgeon, Sansoucy & Ouellet Notaires study undertakes to:

  • Train staff on privacy;
  • Assessing privacy risks;
  • Put in place all the necessary means to protect personal information;
  • Obtain consent from individuals when required;
  • During a confidentiality incident, complete the Confidentiality Incident Log, advise, if necessary, the individuals involved, investigate the circumstances of the incident and take the necessary measures to avoid a similar incident;
  • Respond in a timely manner to questions, requests and complaints relating to personal information and its protection.

3. What is personal information?

Personal information is personal information about an individual that is identifiable and confidential, including but not limited to date of birth, social insurance number and driver’s licence number. Apart from exceptions, they may not be communicated without the consent of the data subject.

4. Personal Information Collected

The Turgeon, Sansoucy & Ouellet notaries study collects personal information in various contexts, such as case management, services, professional meetings, applications, visits to its premises, as well as when using its website.

Personal information comes from information you provide via forms and/or inquiries from the Turgeon, Sansoucy & Ouellet notaries study, or from information collected via documents, whether in electronic or paper form.

The Turgeon, Sansoucy & Ouellet notaries study collects only the information necessary for its activities and puts in place protective measures upon receipt of this information. Furthermore, it only collects relevant, appropriate and limited information for the purposes for which it is processed.

This information is regularly updated during meetings with our notaries or the study staff who provide us with the information to be updated, if necessary.

Personal information about specific individuals is confidential. In general, they cannot be shared without the consent of the data subject.

This information may include, but is not limited to:

  • First and last name
  • Date of birth/ date of death;
  • Gender;
  • Spoken language;
  • Social Insurance Number
  • Home address
  • Telephone and fax numbers;
  • Email addresses
  • Family and marital status;
  • Medical data.

You can also send us confidential information, including:

  • Information related to your professional activity: position and function;
  • Revenue/ Expenses
  • Name of counsel;
  • Name of banker
  • Name of financial advisor
  • Bank contact information
  • Credit card information.

In order to create, obtain and update records, our clients must sign a consent form which will then be added to their records.

5. Identity Verification

According to section 5 of the Regulation respecting the keeping of notaries’ records and studies, chapter N-3, r. 17, where the notary provides legal services that require the receipt of a notarial deed or receipt, the remittance or transfer of funds or that it gives instructions to that effect, it must first obtain the information and documents concerning the identity and proceed to the verification of the identity of the client and the agent.

Proof of identity is kept on file with the client.

Identity verification is done by means of 2 documents between: driver’s license, birth certificate, health insurance card and/ or passport.

6. Purposes of Handling Personal Information

Personal information is collected for clear, explicit and legitimate purposes. Depending on the context, this information may be used for the following reasons:

  • Opening files
  • Communicate with the client
  • File processing
  • Respond to satisfaction surveys and perform statistical analyses to improve services and better understand clients;
  • Process applications for positions;
  • Meet legal or regulatory obligations;
  • Billing
  • Preparation of tax receipt;
  • Production of legal documents;
  • Communicate with other professionals
  • Communicate with government authorities;
  • Contacting the courts
  • Any other use relevant to our mandate.

7. Protection of Personal Information

Personal information is confidential and can only be accessed by members of the Turgeon, Sansoucy & Ouellet Notaries study team and by persons duly authorized by the latter. This information may be transmitted to supervisory or inspection bodies in accordance with applicable legislation or regulations, as well as to authorised third parties.

As notaries and employees of Turgeon, Sansoucy & Ouellet notaries, we are authorized to access personal information, and it is critical that we fully understand the importance of preserving and protecting the confidentiality of this information. Our training has made it clear that we need to use this information only for specific purposes. Moreover, employees who are not subject to solicitor-client privilege will have to sign a confidentiality agreement as soon as they enter into service.

The Turgeon, Sansoucy & Ouellet notaries study takes all necessary measures to protect and secure personal information, in order to preserve its confidentiality and avoid any alteration, destruction or unauthorized disclosure to third parties.

These measures shall be put in place for the period necessary for the purposes pursued in accordance with the applicable legislation or regulations. However, there is no completely secure transmission or storage of information. Therefore, an absolute guarantee of the security of the transmitted or stored information cannot be provided.

8. Collection of personal information through our website

a) Automatic collection

We may automatically receive certain information when you interact with our website, emails, social media or other online marketing tools.

For example, we might know:

  • The type of Internet browser or operating system you use;
  • Your IP address
  • The pages you visit;
  • The date and time you access these pages;
  • The domain name of the website you just left.

The majority of information automatically transmitted between computers does not identify you.

b) Use of cookies (cookies)

If your browser settings allow, we may also store certain data on your computer in the form of “cookies” or other tracking or tracing technologies.

Cookies are pieces of information stored on your computer that allow us to recognize this each time you visit our website. We may also use cookies to transmit content or store data (to prevent you from having to type in your password, for example).

If you wish, you can disable cookies by changing your Internet browser settings. However, this setting may prevent you from making full use of all or some of the features of our website.

These cookies do not collect personal information about you.

c) Information provided by the user

When you interact with Turgeon, Sansoucy & Ouellet notaires, you may transmit personal information to us, including, but not limited to, using an online form or other means, for example:

  • Your identity information (first or last name);
  • Your contact information (address, email, phone number, etc.);
  • Your information relating to your professional activity (position, position, etc.) that we may use to respond to your request, manage your study profile on our website or to process any other requests for information, if applicable.

You can also send us your information for recruitment purposes when you apply for a job with our study. In this case, we will only ask you for the information necessary to process your application, for example, your contact details and resume. We will then retain your information in accordance with the policies applicable to our employees. Only authorized individuals in our study have access to this information.

We do not collect personal or confidential information from individuals under the age of 14 without the express consent of a parent or guardian.

d) Social Media

Although we prefer to avoid this type of communication for computer security reasons, we may invite you to exchange with us through websites, Facebook, plug-ins and social networking applications operated by third parties. On these platforms, you can give us access to information related to your social media account. We may use this information to validate and personalize your profile on our website.

You may also fill out a form to attend one of our conferences by clicking on one of our advertisements, as we collect your first name, last name and email address.

9. External Links

The links on our website may redirect you to other external sites. Please note that this policy only applies to personal information collected and used on or through our website. We are not responsible for the content or activities of other websites accessed via the links we provide, nor for the privacy practices of third parties.

We strongly recommend that you read the privacy policy of these third parties before disclosing personal information to them. However, we attach great importance to the integrity of our website and are open to your comments on external sites linked to it.

10. Retention and Destruction of Personal Information

We retain your personal information only for as long as necessary and in accordance with our legal obligations, as a result of which it is destroyed or anonymized, but only for serious and legitimate purposes.

Section 20 of the Regulation respecting the keeping of records and studies of notaries, chapter N-3, r. 17, states that the notary must keep each file for at least 10 years from the last professional service rendered.

11. Where do we store your personal information?

We store your personal information in paper and digital form, in accordance with our obligations under the Private Sector Privacy Act, as well as any other applicable law or regulation, the Notariat Act, chapter N-3, and its regulations, including the Regulation respecting the keeping of records and studies of notaries, chapter N-3, r. 17, whereas we have files for each civil transaction and a general corporate file for each company.

Personal information is retained as follows:

  • In paper form, at the study premises or its subsidiaries;
  • In digital form, stored on the study servers, present on our premises or at our infrastructure host;
  • In digital form on the servers of the Para-Maître software, which is supported by Avancie inc., used by our study as part of our professional activities related to the services you request.

But still, when we draft notarial deeds, we keep your file in our study, so notarial deeds in minute are kept in our vault.

Once the file is closed, your file is archived internally or externally.

Digital personal information is stored on our local physical servers in our offices or on a secure cloud server managed by a third party, in this case, Avancie Inc., which has a privacy policy, and policies on the governance of personal information.

In addition, the only technological product or service we offer to the public is our website. It ensures, by default, the highest possible level of confidentiality.

12. Privacy Opportunities

Customers may receive a copy of this policy at any time by accessing our website at www.tsonotaires.com.

By sending a written request to our study located at 101-1150 boulevard de la Grande-Allée, Boisbriand, Quebec J7G 2T4 or by sending an email to our Privacy Officer, Andréanne OUELLET, aouellet@tsonotaires.com, you can access your information.  We undertake to respond to your requests as soon as possible, and at the latest within 30 days of receipt of your request.

At any time, our customers have the opportunity to revoke their consent by contacting our Privacy Officer. However, it will be explained to them that failure to provide the necessary information may hinder our ability to perform the tasks for which our services are requested.

13. Changes to this Policy

We reserve the right to change this policy at any time. We will notify you of changes by indicating the date of the last update at the beginning of this policy. You are responsible for visiting our website to check for changes.

We strongly recommend that you read this policy to understand how your information will be used. Any changes to this policy will apply to personal information collected before the effective date of the amended version, as well as to information collected on or after that date.

14. Breach of Privacy

If we believe that personal information has been handled inappropriately, we will review this policy and make any necessary changes. If necessary, the person(s) affected and our insurer will be notified.

In the event that you wish to express concerns about our privacy procedures or report a violation of this policy, you have the opportunity to file a complaint in writing with our Privacy Officer. They will contact you to get all the relevant details.

Then, our Privacy Officer will analyze the circumstances that gave rise to the complaint and determine whether adjustments should be made to the current provisions of this policy.

15. Right of access or rectification

You have a right to access or correct your personal information.  If you would like to access or request that your personal information be corrected, you can contact us at info@tsonotaires.com for the attention of the Privacy Officer.

16. Questions or comments and complaints

If you have any questions or comments about this policy or its application, please contact us at info@tsonotaires.com for the attention of the Privacy Officer.

We undertake to respond to you as soon as possible and within 30 days of receiving your questions or comments, in order to inform you of the measures taken or planned in response to your questions or comments.

If you wish to file a complaint, you can contact the Commission d’accès à l’information du Québec by clicking on the following link: https://www.cai.gouv.qc.ca/a-However, we encourage you to first contact the Privacy Officer of our study.

17. Private Sector Privacy Act

The Private Sector Privacy Act applies in respect of personal information that a business collects, holds, uses or discloses to third parties, regardless of the medium or form in which personal information is held.

18. Privacy Officer

Name: Andréanne OUELLET
Function: notary and associate
Telephone: (450) 430-8502 ext 222
Adresse courriel : aouellet@tsonotaires.com

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