PSB BOISJOLI LLP (“PSB”, “we”, “us” or “our”) is committed to protecting the privacy and security of your information. This privacy policy (“Policy”) describes how we collect, use and disclose your personal information and how this personal information can be consulted and corrected when necessary. This Policy also explains how cookies are used on our Website.
By visiting < https://www.psbboisjoli.ca/ > (“Website”), contacting us or agreeing to receive emails from PSB, you accept the terms and conditions of this Policy.
This Policy does not extend to websites operated by third parties. PSB is therefore not liable for their privacy policies, procedures and practices.
Collection of Information
We collect your personal information in several ways, including when you enter information on our Website, contact us by telephone or by email, post on our social media accounts, etc. Depending on the circumstances, personal information may include your name and email address(es).
We also collect data relating to your visit to our Website. This information may include your IP address, geolocation, the date, time and duration of your visits as well as the web pages you consulted. Our Website, like most other commercial websites, also uses cookies. These are files that are installed on your computer hard drive or web browser in order to collect information such as your language of preference, browsing history and browser type and version, all for the purpose of optimizing your experience on our Website. Generally-speaking, we use first and third-party session and persistent cookies. The cookies set by us are called “first-party cookies” and the cookies set by our third-party partners and service providers are called “Third-party cookies.” Session cookies are temporary cookies that remain on your device until you close your web browser. Many session cookies are essential to make our Website work correctly, as they typically enable you to move around our Website and use our features. Persistent cookies remain on your device after you close your browser or until you manually delete it (for the former, how long the cookie remains on your device will depend on the duration or “lifetime” of the specific cookie and your browser settings). Persistent cookies help us recognize you as an existing user of our Website, so it is easier and convenient to return to our Website or interact with our Services without signing in again. In addition, persistent cookies also help us recognize you when you view a resource belonging to our Website from another website or app (such as an advertisement) and help us record information about your web browsing habits during the lifetime of the persistent cookie. We use cookies to compile aggregate data about site traffic and site interactions in order to offer better site experiences and tools in the future. We may also use trusted third-party services that track this information on our behalf. These cookies cannot be used to extract personal information. You can choose to have your computer warn you each time a cookie is being sent, or you can choose to disable all cookies. Disabling cookies on your browser could adversely affect your browsing experience on the Website.
If you become a client of PSB or use our services, we may collect different information, including on your financial situation, government filings of numerous kinds, personal information of directors or employees, documents pertaining to applications for Government assistance, SINs, personal addresses, marital status and other information for preparation of income tax returns (personal and if applicable corporate), in order for us to provide the service for which we are retained. It is your responsibility to ensure that the individuals to whom such personal information pertains have consented to the collection, use, communication and retention of their personal information as described herein.
The legal bases for our processing of personal information are primarily that the processing is necessary for providing the Website and that the processing is carried out in our legitimate interests, which are further explained in the “Use and Communication of Information” section. We may also process personal information upon your consent, asking for it as appropriate.
Use of Information
We take steps designed to instruct employees and suppliers to only access your personal information to fulfil their duties, as per our Employee Manual, our Quality Management Manual and/or applicable contractual agreements. We use and disclose your personal information mainly:
- to offer our services, including but not limited to strategic, tax, and estate planning, audit and assurance services, and corporate financing and restructuring;
- to operate, maintain, enhance and provide all features of the Website, to provide the services and information that you request, to respond to comments and questions and to provide support to users of the Website;
- to understand and analyze the usage trends and preferences of our users, to improve the Website, and to develop new products, services, feature, and functionality;
- to send you communications;
- for any other purposes authorized or required by law;
- to investigate legal claims or comply with our obligations.
We may use your personal information for other purposes for which we have obtained your consent, and for such other purposes as may be permitted or required by applicable law.
Communication of Information
Although we try to avoid sharing your personal information with third parties where possible, we have set out below the instances in which such sharing may occur.
We may use and disclose your information when we believe such use or disclosure is permitted, necessary or appropriate:
(a) under applicable law, including laws outside your country of residence;
(b) to comply with legal process;
(c) to respond to requests from public and government authorities, including public and government authorities outside your country of residence;
(d) to enforce the terms of the agreements for our Services and products;
(e) to protect our operations or those of any of our affiliates or subsidiaries;
(f) to protect our rights, privacy, safety or property, and/or those of our affiliates, you or others; and
(g) to allow us to pursue available remedies or limit the damages that we may sustain.
We also rely on third party service providers to perform a variety of services on our behalf. Please find below a list of our third-party service providers which may access your personal information:
- Citrix ShareFile for encrypted file sharing, encrypted storage/portals and electronic signatures;
- Microsoft 365, a productivity cloud that brings together Office apps with powerful cloud services such as email, collaboration and cloud storage;
- UKG and Dayforce, human resources management system;
- STAR, an ERP system;
- Assurance Prep, an outsourcing and offshoring consulting firm;
- Datto, a cloud backup service;
- Barracuda, a cloud backup service.
We take reasonable measures to ensure that the rules set forth in this Policy are complied with and these third parties provide sufficient guarantees to implement appropriate technical and organizational measures in order to safeguard and protect your information. We also require that they only use your personal information for the limited purposes for which it is provided. When our service providers no longer need your personal information for those limited purposes, we require that they dispose of the personal information. We do not authorize the service providers to disclose your personal information to unauthorized parties or to use your personal information for their direct marketing purposes. If you would like more information about our service providers, please contact us using the contact information in the “Contact Us” section below.
In the event of a change of ownership, sale, merger, liquidation, reorganization or acquisition of PSB, in whole or in part, your personal information may be transferred as part of the due diligence process or the transaction.
If we otherwise intend to disclose your personal information to a third party, we will identify that third party and the purpose for the disclosure and obtain your consent.
We may finally make certain automatically-collected, aggregated, or otherwise non-personally-identifiable information available to third parties for various purposes, including (i) compliance with various reporting obligations; (ii) for business or marketing purposes; or (iii) to assist such parties in understanding your interests, habits, and usage patterns for certain programs, content, services, and/or functionality available through the Website.
Retention of Information
Your personal information will only be stored and processed by third party service providers in Canada (Calgary and Toronto for Microsoft Cloud and Datto, Toronto for UKG and Citrix ShareFile, Vancouver and Toronto for Barracuda).
Your personal information may also be accessed by our service providers located in England, United States and India.
PSB has implemented various physical, administrative and technical safeguards designed to protect the confidentiality and security of personal information under our control. However, no security measures are absolute or wholly guaranteed.
PSB will maintain your personal information for as long as a business need exists (via cloud backups, laptops computers, desktop computers, mobile devices and offsite tape backups), or as required by applicable laws, regulations, or government orders. If you would like further information regarding the periods for which your personal information will be retained, please contact us as set forth in the “Contact Us” section below.
Right Regarding your Personal Information
On written request and subject to proof of identity, you may access the personal information that we hold, and ask that any necessary corrections be made, where applicable, as authorized or required by law. However, to make sure that the personal information we maintain about you is accurate and up to date, please inform us immediately of any change in your personal information. In addition, you have the right to withdraw your consent for your personal information to be used and communicated and if applicable, you may have the right to request information about the use of any automated decision system and the impact they may have on you.
If you are a citizen of a European country, you may be entitled to additional rights under the GDPR, including: (i) the right to withdraw consent to processing where consent is the basis of processing; (ii) the right to access your personal information and certain other supplementary information, under certain conditions; (iii) the right to object to unlawful data processing, under certain conditions; (iv) the right to erasure of personal information about you, under certain conditions; (v) the right to demand that we restrict processing of your personal information, under certain conditions, if you believe we have exceeded the legitimate basis for processing, processing is no longer necessary, or believe your personal information is inaccurate; (vi) the right to data portability of personal data concerning you that you provided us in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format, under certain conditions; (vii) the right object to decisions being taken by automated means which produce legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affect you, under certain conditions; (viii) the right to lodge a complaint with data protection authorities. If you want to learn more about your rights under the GDPR, you can visit the European Commission’s page on Data Protection at: < http://ec.europa.eu/justice/data-protection/index_en.htm >.
Update
Please revisit this page periodically to stay aware of any changes to this Policy, which we may update from time to time. If we modify the Policy, we will make it available through the Website, and indicate the date of the latest revision, and will comply with applicable law. Your continued use of the Website or our services after the revised Policy has become effective indicates that you have read, understood and agreed to the current version of the Policy. This Policy has been updated with requirements that Bill 25 (the Act to modernize privacy legislation) has mandated.
Contact
If you have any questions or comments about this Policy or your personal information, to make an access or correction request, to exercise any applicable rights, to make a complaint, or to obtain information about our policies and practices with respect to any service providers outside Canada, our Privacy Officer (or Data Protection Officer) can be reached by mail or email using the following contact information:
PSB BOISJOLI, LLP
Privacy Officer
Dino Forgione, CPA
3333, boulevard Graham Bureau 400
Montréal (Québec) H3R 3L5
privacy@psbboisjoli.ca
Last Update: December 2023