Farm Business Consultants Inc. (FBC) is committed to protecting the privacy of customer (Member) personal information. We take our responsibility to respect and protect the confidentiality and security of your personal information very seriously.
While information is the cornerstone of our ability to provide superior service and products, our most important assets is our Members’ trust. Keeping customer information secure, and using it only as our Members would want us to, is a top priority for all of us at FBC. Here then, is our promise to our individual Members.
- We will safeguard, according to strict standards of security and confidentiality, any information our Members share with us.
- We will inform Members who contract for a service or product the purpose for which personal information will be used either before or when they consent to its collection.
- We will limit the collection and use of Member information to the minimum required to deliver superior service and products, which includes advising Members about our services, products, and other opportunities included inter-related financial services and products of our affiliate Oxford Financial Services Inc. (Harvest Estate Planning) who may be acting for us as an integrated Member financial service provider, and to administer our business. We will retain personal information only as long as is necessary for the authorized purposes.
- In the course of our business activities, we will avail ourselves of the services of third-party service providers, which, from time to time, are given access to limited personal information held by us to allow them to render their specialized services to us and our Members. This may include, depending on the circumstances, engaging a service provider located in a foreign country such as India for the information processing and preparation of federal and provincial corporate income tax returns for Members with corporate accounts. In this event, your personal information will continue to be stored and processed in Canada. Furthermore, FBC remains responsible for the work provided by such third-party service providers. Whenever we contract with other specialized service organizations to provide support services, we will require them to conform to our privacy standards and allow us to audit them for compliance. These organizations must sign a confidentiality agreement requiring them to ensure the protection of personal information relating to our Members.
- Excepting paragraphs 3. and 4. above, we will not reveal Member information to any external organization unless we have previously informed the Member in disclosures or agreements, have been expressly authorized by the Member, or are required by law.
- We will provide to Canadian governments and agencies for example, the Canada Revenue Agency, only that Member information as is strictly needed to comply with legal and regulatory requirements and nothing else, while ensuring the maximum benefit to the Member.
- Each and every one of our employees is responsible for maintaining the confidentiality and security of all Member personal information to which they have access. As a condition of employment, our employees are required to sign a confidentiality agreement in which they undertake to ensure the protection of personal information relating to our Members.
- We will always maintain control over the confidentiality of our Member information.
- We will tell our Members initially and at least once annually how they may remove their names from marketing lists that may be supplied to our affiliate Oxford Financial Services Inc. (Harvest Estate Planning). The sharing of such information is done in order to help our affiliate to offer mutually compatible financial services and products that are most likely to be of interest and benefit to our Members. At any time, Members can contact our Privacy Officer to remove their names from such lists or otherwise withdraw consent by writing, calling, faxing or e-mailing using the contact information contained below.
- We will attempt to keep Member files complete, up-to-date, and accurate. Your file will be kept by us in electronic or paper format at the FBC branch office of service and will be accessible to you, through written request. Your Member file may also be kept in electronic format in secure offsite storage for disaster recovery purposes. Only our employees and agents who need access to your file in the course of their duties shall have access to your file. You have the right to access your file and request rectification of any personal information in the file that may be obsolete, incomplete or incorrect.
We will continually assess ourselves to ensure that Member privacy is respected. We will conduct our business in a manner that fulfills our Promise in the many jurisdictions in which we do business.
Complaint process
Members who are not completely satisfied with or who wish to submit comments concerning this policy or its application by FBC may convey their concerns or suggestions to the FBC Privacy Officer. The Privacy Officer will reply to the Member as soon as possible and inform him or her of the steps, if any, that have been or will be taken in order to address his or her concern. The FBC Privacy Officer may be contacted at:
FBC
PO Box 7130
London, Ontario
N5Y 5S3
c/o Privacy Officer
Phone: 1-800-265-1002
Fax: (519) 453-4506
Email: privacy.officer@fbc.ca
Rev. 27.01.2011